Shavuot is considered to be the anniversary of the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Tikkun Leil Shavuot is the custom of staying up the entire night (leil) of Shavuot studying with the community in order to reexperience standing at Sinai.
The programs offered by the Union for Reform Judaism are designed to enable your congregation to develop a meaningful night of study. Each program booklet includes numerous lesson plans for workshops. Three of the programs (Honoring Our Past, Envisioning Our Future: Reform Judaism in the 21st Century; Megillat Ruth: Journeying Toward the Sacred; and The Voice Still Speaks) have accompanying videos.
These six program booklets are available as PDFs. They are large files; please allow a few extra moments for downloading. Surplus hard copies of some are also available and can be requested from the Department of Worship, Music and Religious Living by email or by phone, 212.650.4193.
Journeying Toward Sinai This study guide contains ten workshops and was designed to enable you and your congregation to explore the meaning of Shavuot for yourselves through the mitzvah of study. New to this year?s study guide are two workshops that can be used as preparatory sessions during the Omer period, which leads up to the holiday of Shavuot. The eight workshops for Tikkun Leil Shavuot itself vary in content and mode. These separate components allow each congregation to create an evening of study appropriate for its members.
Together at Sinai With this study guide you and your community can explore a wide variety of themes related to the holiday of Shavuot. The workshops include preparing a Shavuot seder, studying the theme of revelation through a feminist lens, the Book of Ruth through a social justice lens, or the role of commandments in liberal Judaism.
Aseret Hadibrot: Illuminating the Ten Commandments A study guide that is designed to enable you and your congregation to explore the meaning of the Ten Commandments for yourselves through the mitzvah of study.
Megillat Ruth: Journeying Toward the Sacred This program is a combination video and study booklet. Its biblical story, so ancient and yet so modern, is a timeless message of the risks one takes on the journey from loss and emptiness to renewal and rebirth.
The Voice Still Speaks In this program, which includes a companion video, five leading Jewish scholars discuss revelation from a traditional and personal perspective.