Shavuot Unbound

Even though I'd been counting the Omer, Shavuot still seemed to spring out of nowhere and suddenly on the weekend I was kicking myself that I hadn't planned what I was going to do for the festival this year.

I didn't really grow up with Shavuot being a big deal - perhaps to do with the fact it was in the summer term so unlikely to take the day off school because of exams, or perhaps because it's not got the tangible all encompassing rituals of Pesach or Yom Kippur, it has only been as an adult that I have really engaged with Shavuot meaningfully - enjoying the challenge of studying throughout the night, and recreating a sense of the receiving of Torah on Mount Sinai.

In the early noughties, when living in London, there was an all night study event in a synagogue in central London culminating in davening shacharit on the roof overlooking the iconic scenery. That was pretty cool.

And a couple of years ago, blessed with the fact it was an extra bank holiday weekend for the Queen's Jubilee (so it must have been three years ago), we went camping with other Jewish Yorkshire families and we studied Torah by the campfire and danced our way around the field in the morning for shacharit in the sunshine.

Since moving to Leeds over twenty years ago, there have been variations on a theme of Torah study / cheesecake / mountain climbing dependent on who I had in tow, what the weather was like and what else was going on in the calendar, but this year I just hadn't thought about it. At all. And suddenly it was Sunday and Erev Shavuot was fast approaching.

I suddenly remembered that I had done something - ages ago I had registered for a 24-hour Torah-a-thon online study with the infinitely creative Judaism Unbound. Every hour, on the hour, a different teacher was offering a study session, on themes ranging from DIY Jewish pregnancy to Albert Einstein's Zionism.

Being USA-based I had no idea when it had started or was finishing in local time, but I checked my emails and was absolutely delighted that not only had I not missed it, but two of my favourite teachers, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, were yet to teach. I logged in and enjoyed sessions immensely; I was in Shavuot mode and it felt great.

Then a wonderful Jewish local friend sent a message - "Early- sunrise daven and walk/talk?" she asked. And before I knew it we'd arranged that I'd pick her up and head to a local beauty spot - Almscliffe Crag, at 4.30am. Crazy, but fatastic.

With coffee flasks at the ready, we watched the sun peak out from the clouds to the sounds of the birds, and we chatted Torah, we sang morning prayers, we sat quietly together in harmony with nature. It was fantastic. Fantastic, and crazy.

On the way home, my friend asked if I was going to shul later. I don't really feel like any of the shuls are my spiritual home, unfortunately, but, since starting post-denominational rabbi school, and working for the Leeds Jewish community, I have definitely felt more comfortable rocking up somewhere and trying it out with curiosity and an open mind. So when my friend said that she was going to one of the local orthodox shuls, cos her daughter's friend's mum was going, and the two girls had had a sleepover and so were going to that shul together, I felt drawn to replying, "I'll see you there!" and sometimes that's all that it takes - just one person making a decision and three of us were sat there together, in the women's section, enjoying the jovial atmosphere and feeling very Shavuot-y indeed. I was energised, and inspired and felt connected to our Jewish people and our Torah and creation.

I learned recently that the Hebrew Moed - as in Moadim L'simcha, and Ohel Mo'ed which you may be familiar with from Torah - comes from the root meaning 'appointment'' as in having an appointment with God (festival times that are appointed each year) or the Ohel (the temporary tent of meeting while the Israelites were wandering in the desert) was the place to go to commune with, to have an appointment with, God.

So these festivals are appointed times, carved out, gifts to us to have these spiritual connecting moments with the Divine through our rituals and traditions. And since discovering this, I am keenly on the look out for ways to connect with the Divine and the Oneness of creation, because that is, literally what it's all about.

So Shavuot this year was fantastic; God had kept the appointment with me, and maybe none of this is so crazy after all.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, aged 91, still imparting wisdom and creating a sense of the Holy and the beauty of Judaism. It was an honour to be in the same real-time space as him

Our Shavuot shacharit sunrise view from Almscliffe Crag, 6.20am