In our biggest turnout ever, 250 folks came to our Tikkun Leil Shavuot, an all-night holiday event celebrating the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Our program was an extention of the Charles River Beit Midrash, our joint learning program with a few other minyan (prayer groups) in town. Instead of just having traditional text study the whole time - which we did have, we also had a hip hop and creative movement workshop, singing as a spiritual practice, meditation, Torah Improv, and a bunch of other cool programs.
Why did we include these in a night celebrating Torah study? Because the rabbis teach that the Torah was revealed to the Israelites in many different ways, each person hearing in the way that spoke personally to him or her. In our community, we know that people connect with Torah, Judaism, and God in different ways too. Some people are moved through music, some through movement, some through reading texts, some want different entry-points at different times. Instead of valuing one approach over another, we worked to have them all available and make everyone feel included, whatever their belief or practice.
The coolest part was, our volunteers did it all by themselves. The four of us weren't even there. I definitely went to my fair share of planning meetings, but really, this event was a testament to the power of leadership development and trust in volunteers. Go team!
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