Shavuot

As usual, we began our Shavuot with all-night learning. This year this practice was also the end of our holiday, as there was only one day of chag, and we slept away the entire day to make up for the lost night. Anyways... We began the night at the Conservative Yeshiva, where we heard Joel Roth speak about the greatest challenges to the Conservative movement. Aside from self-aggrandizement and a push for us to read his book and articles, the Rabbi's talk focused on Conservative leaders' beginning to effect changes in halacha based on their moral desires as opposed to within the framework of legal halachic change. More simply, Rabbis are changing Jewish law because they want to, and care little about making these changes in a way that continues the traditions of our ancestors.

We spent the rest of the night with a friend at Beit Avi Chai, "a cultural and social center located in the heart of Jerusalem that seeks to express and refine the voices heard in Israeli Jewish cultural discourse." There we found hordes of people divided into different rooms, each with a different lecturer. Every hour there was a short break for the crowds to reshuffle and new lecturers to find their classrooms. The first teacher we sat in on was Rachel Elior, a professor from Hebrew U who taught us about the ancient Jewish calendar (which was far better than the current one), and how it was demolished, and Shavuot given a lesser status as a holiday and in the Mishnah, in order for the Rabbis to promote themselves and their agenda over that of the Priests. The second speaker, Micha Goodman, told us the complete opposite of Rabbi Roth, that as the readers of the Bible it is we who hold the power to interpret the words therein, and that it is impossible to understand or even approach understanding of the author's original intent. At 2 a.m. the three of us went to the cafe downstairs and learned together from on of the many pre-made lessons lying around the room, and at 3 a.m. went back upstairs to hear Yisrael Campbell, the comedian Jon saw with Melton, perform excerpts from his monologue about Jewish identity.

One of the nicest elements of the learning at Beit Avi Chai was that, because of the evening's academic nature, many of the attendees came solely to learn, and were completely disinterested in any religious aspects to the night. There were people wearing black hats, others wearing crocheted kippot, and still others sending text messages during class. It was really nice to see Jews of such varied backgrounds coming together to spend the night learning.

For early-morning davenning, Rina and our friend headed home to Katamon, while Jon walked with a classmate from Melton and a visiting friend from Australia to the Old City. The comment made by Jon's classmate best summarizes their approach to the Kotel - it was like thousands of black ants streaming into an anthill. From all over the city Jews were coming to the Kotel to pray at sunrise. Like Sukkot, the mobs were a unruly and pushy near the wall, but Jon stayed farther back and prayed with a Sephardi minyan, which was both culturally interesting and far more calm. Much of the experience was soured, however, when the thousands of attendees both arrived and departed via the Muslim Quarter; teenagers sang, danced, and shouted through the narrow alleys, not caring that the residents were still sleeping.

The balance of the holiday, as expected, was spent sleeping, hanging out, and eating a variety of dairy products including lasagna, home-made blintzes, and a range of cheeses we are pretty sure were kosher.