Ready to pull an Erev Shavuot all nighter?

May 27, 5:00 PMNY Jewish Culture ExaminerDavid Cooper

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Shavuot, which starts tomorrow evening (Thursday May 28, 2009) commemorates The Revelation at Sinai when according to tradition we received the Ten Commandments. One of the ways we mark the event is to stay up all night and study scripture; many congregations, independent minyanim, and JCCs hold Tikkunei Leil Shavuot (late night study sessions). Check with your local shuls to see what late night programming they are offering, or try the one co-sponsored by Alma NY, Dor Chadash, and The Manhattan JCC; doors open at the latter's Upper West Side location (76th St and Amsterdam Ave in Manhattan) at 9:30 PM and the programming (music, film, dance, traditional--and not-so-traditional--study) and socializing will continue until sunrise the next morning.

In Brooklyn the independent minyan Altshul and its host congregation Beth Elohim (B.E.) will co-sponsor a Tikkun Leil Shavuot that will include study seesions led by Rabbi Andy Bachman (Moses and Leadership), Rabbi Dan Bronstein (The Sages Define Torah), Lani Santo (Songs and Niggunim), Rebecca Guber (Consuming the land of milk and honey: a cooking class), Rabbi Melissa Weintraub (Dis-closure of the Face: Revelations of Torah, Self and Other in Jewish-Palestinian Peace-building and in Life), and Sarra Alpert. These various talks and classes will occur concurrantly, and participants will be able to chose which to attend. In November I attended and enjoyed a talk Rabbi Bronstein gave on the raven in the Noah narrative. Rabbi Weintraub's topic is not listed, but her area of expertise includes the halacha of human rights; I attended a talk she gave last year at Park Slope Jewish Center on our rabbinic sages' views of torture and was impressed. B.E. evening services begin at 7:30 PM, and Altshul's evening service starts at 9:00 PM; the study sessions described above will start at 9:45 PM and continue until at least 11:00 PM  midnight. Beth Elohim is located at Garfield Place and Eighth Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

If you're looking for something to do in Manhattan before attending a Tikkun Artlog is holding a a reception at The Jewish Museum at which attendees will be served drinks and hors d'oeuvres while viewing The Danube Exodus: The Rippling Currents of the River—by Péter Forgács and The Labyrinth Project, an interactive exhibit  based on the film of the same name on Thursday, May 28, from 6:00 – 8:00 pm. The Jewish Museum, which is on Fifth Ave at 92nd Street in Manhattan, has both fine art and Judaica collections that are at least the equal of those I described in my previous article.