Jewish Holidays
Shavuot

When does Shavuot occur?  View the Calendar of Jewish Holidays

Torah ScrollTIKKUN LEIL SHAVUOT
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 an accompanying video.

Additional Shavuot information and resources can be found on the Jewish Holidays page.


Of Special Interest  
From the Religious Action Center
  Standing Together: A Social Justice Guide for Shavuot

Tikkun Index  
Tikkun Leil Shavuot Programs For Congregations  
Downloadable Program Books  

These three program booklets are available as downloads. Surplus hard copies of the first two (Journeying Toward Sinai and Together at Sinai) are also available and can be requested from the Department of Worship, Music and Religious Living by e-mail at worship@urj.org, or by phone at 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 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.

Available By Request  

Hard copies of these three programs can be requested from the Department of Worship, Music and Religious Living by e-mail at worship@urj.org or by phone at 212.650.4193.

  • 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.
  • Honoring Our Past, Envisioning Our Future: Reform Judaism in the 21st Century This Tikkun focuses on the meaning and challenge of being a Reform Jew at the beginning of the 21st century. It has an accompanying video, L'dor Vador: Continuity and Change.

  • The Voice Still Speaks The Voice Still Speaks
    In this program, which includes a companion video, five leading Jewish scholars discuss revelation from a traditional and personal perspective.

    		•