Shavuot

Heather Borshof, Emma Gottlieb & Ariana Silverman
Project for course on Eco-Judaism
Hebrew Union College, NYC, June 2008
(Rabbi Arthur Waskow)

SHAVUOT: RECONNECTING TO THE LAND AND ITS PRODUCE:
A CONFIRMATION CURRICULUM

DESCRIPTION OF OVERALL CURRICULUM:
This is a Confirmation/Shavuot curriculum consisting of five parts:

1) A text study on the Book of Ruth (see Appendix A)
2) Planning a dish to prepare for Erev Shavuot following Confirmation/Shavuot services
3) A site visit to trace one ingredient of that dish to its source (See Appendix B)
4) Further research and a 10 minute presentation to the class (See Appendix C)

Rabbi Arthur Waskow *

Seven weeks of walking from the Narrows into the open space that is the Land of No One – and then we enter the heart of the heart of the wilderness -- Sinai itself, and the Torah.

"Wilderness" is "midbar." It could be understood as "midaber," -- "wording, speaking," -- or "m'devar/ m'dibbur," "away from word, without a word, beyond words."

Or both:

A speaking beyond words.

Several years ago, Phyllis (Rabbi Phyllis Berman, my life-partner) and I spent a few days in "Midbar sinai," and with hundreds of pilgrims from many religions and from all around the world spent all night climbing the mountain that either is or isn't the mountain where we all assembled to get the Teaching that was beyond words.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 6/9/2005

In the biblical story, Ruth was welcomed onto the fields of Boaz, where she gleaned what the regular harvesters had left behind. Boaz made sure that even this despised foreigner had a decent job at decent pay. When she

A Jewish Voice for Peace, 6/3/2003
Dear Friends,

I am forwarding you (below) a program of "A Jewish Voice for Peace" in San Francisco. Their program draws — I think quite creatively — on the festival of Shavuot and the Revelation of th

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 6/1/2003

This passage is from Rabbi Waskow's book Godwrestling - Round 2 (Jewish Lights). It may be useful in observing Shavuot, perhaps as part of the night-time study that is traditional for the festival.