Dear Congregation Beth Israel members and friends,

There’s a song we learned in the choir earlier this spring – written for the festival of Shavuot when we celebrate the revelation of Torah at Sinai – that’s been in my head in recent weeks. It’s called Ki Mitziyon, by Jessi Roemer, and you can listen to it for free on Bandcamp here. One couplet in Hebrew; two couplets in English; one line of yai-de-dai. It’s beautiful, and catchy!

“Won’t you meet me on the mountain, carve our love right in the stone?
Won’t you teach me on the mountain, and lift my soul, and lift my soul?”

At Shavuot, every Jewish soul that ever was or ever will be was mystically present at Mount Sinai to receive the gift of Torah. One midrash holds that when God spoke the words of Torah, everyone heard them in a language they could understand. Another teaches that God only “said” the silent aleph at the start of the first commandment and all the rest was hidden therein.

At SoulSpa on Shabbat mornings, we talk a lot about how Torah is still unfolding. The received text of the Five Books doesn’t change, but new midrash is always arising: new interpretations and understandings for a new age. When we explore and explain Torah, we are completing the Torah: Torah herself isn’t “complete” without our stories, our wrestles, our new understandings.

(By the way, every SoulSpa class is recorded and archived online, so if you want to view a class before diving in, you can do that – or if you miss a class, you can watch it after the fact. All are welcome, whether or not you come regularly, whether or not “Torah study” is the kind of thing you usually do. We’ll continue meeting weekly until Tisha b’Av in late July. I hope you’ll join us.)

I love Shavuot because I love the idea of a holiday dedicated to Torah: the stories, the mitzvot, the commandments at our tradition’s heart. And I love the idea that, in the words of my teacher Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi of blessed memory, the divine broadcast of Torah continues and we each hear it in the ways to which our souls are attuned.

This year Shavuot lands at the cusp of Memorial Day weekend. Join us at 8pm on Friday, May 22 for a Shabbat Shavuot celebration. With the support of our choir, we’ll welcome the festival in song, offer a special Akdamut prayer for standing together again at Sinai, and sing the praise-psalms of Hallel. Then we’ll do a little bit of learning together in celebration.

Shavuot is also a festival of First Fruits when once upon a time we drew near to God with offerings at the Temple, so we’ll enjoy some fresh fruit and cheesecake as we learn. (Cheesecake because Torah is compared to “milk and honey.”) I hope you’ll plan to join us as we ring in the start of the summer season with learning, sweetness, Torah, and song!

Blessings to all,

— Rabbi Rachel