All-Nighter Expected for Shavuot Holiday

c. 2005 Religion News Service MONTCLAIR, N.J. _ Midnight was three hours gone, but 16 Jews sat around a rectangular table early Monday (June 13) morning, deep in discussion about saying the Kaddish, the prayer recited by mourners that praises God and draws on deep emotion yet never actually mentions death. They had been up […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

MONTCLAIR, N.J. _ Midnight was three hours gone, but 16 Jews sat around a rectangular table early Monday (June 13) morning, deep in discussion about saying the Kaddish, the prayer recited by mourners that praises God and draws on deep emotion yet never actually mentions death.

They had been up all night and would keep going until morning.


“I saw a commentary that said no prayer has more power to connect heaven and earth,” said David Sanders of B’Nai Keshet in Montclair. “And I found that when my mom passed away there was incredible comfort in the idea that something you can (say) can affect a person that is no longer on this earth.”

Personal stories, scholarly readings and religious lectures combined with generous amounts of sugar and caffeine _ not to mention a touch of scotch _ kept the group alert and happy through sunrise on the first day of Shavuot, the two-day holiday celebrating the biblical story of the Israelites receiving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai.

It is a Jewish tradition to honor that bedrock of religious law by studying through the first night of Shavuot. B’Nai Keshet hosted a gathering for five synagogues that began with almost 100 people Sunday evening before realities of weekday jobs, parenting and math tests would reduce the group to 16.

The program, which brought together Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist congregations, included lectures on the Book of Ruth, competing views on the source of religious law and a discussion of the silence of the Israelites when, according to the Bible, they collectively heard God’s law about 3,200 years ago.

Around the sanctuary, eyelids drooped and palms covered yawning mouths as the clock neared midnight. But the people who stayed seemed to catch a second wind that kept the successive 50-minute sessions _ each followed by 10-minute breaks with chanting or praying _ lively.

“I have stayed up all night for Shavuot (before),” said Larry Schwartz of Temple Shomrei Emunah in Montclair. “It’s a wonderful thing. There are things that happen late at night. There’s a transcendent experience that occurs when you’re exhausted. It’s not hallucinating, but it does allow for a different perception than when you’re fully awake and lucid.”

Indeed, while the group closely studied handouts on the Kaddish, Torah and the origin of Shavuot, those interviewed said learning interesting things mattered less to them than just being there, studying, with other Jews, long enough to see the night sky lighten just before 5 a.m., in a small, improvised community.

“It’s not about nuggets. It’s not about facts. It’s not about specific insights. It’s about having a real clean memory of the experience,” said Rob Rosenberg of Montclair, a 39-year-old venture capitalist. “It’s so different from my day job. It’s an opportunity to operate on a different mode, on different things that get short shrift 364 days a year.”


At around 4 a.m., the group went outside for about five minutes, in deference to a mystical tradition that says the heavens open at midnight on the holiday and look favorably on those who are awake honoring the Israelites’ reception of the Commandments.

Rabbis and others who led sessions tried to connect centuries-old Jewish commentary with current behavior. Rabbi Steven Kushner, of Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, tried that tack while speaking of the critical biblical moment associated with the holiday.

Kushner told his students he wanted to correct a common misperception _ that God’s booming voice, relaying the law, had silenced the Israelites 3,200 years ago. Rather, he said, citing Jewish commentary, it was the silence of humans, animals and nature that allowed for God’s voice to be heard.

“The silence of the universe … was a prerequisite for the giving of the Torah,” he said. “The day the earth stood still, it was the earth standing still that allowed the Torah to happen. It is that stillness that opens us up to the awe.”

MO/PH END RNS

(Jeff Diamant covers religion for The Star Ledger in Newark, N.J.)

Editors: Search the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for a photo of Shavuot preparations.

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