Shavuot 5785
Regarding Shavuot — when Jews from around the world celebrate the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai — Rabbi Chayim Vital wrote on behalf of his master Rabbi Isaac Luria (“the Arizal”), “Know that one who does not sleep at all on this night, even for one moment, but immerses himself in the Torah the entire night, can be assured that he will live out his year. No injury will befall him during this year.”
That level of protection is certainly a draw, but those who have experienced all-night Shavuot learning in Israel will testify that the experience brings with it other, less tangible rewards.
Less than a week after immigrating to Ma’ale Adumim, Tanya Gusovsky was handed a list of the local all-night Shavuot learning “ops” by her new landlady, who also offered to act as her guide for the night.
Gusovsky says she will never forget the sight she beheld when, coming around the corner from her home, she spied “a river of people flowing in every direction, traveling from one lecture (shiur) to another.”
Despite the late hour, she can still recall the take-away messages of many of the teachers she heard that night.
In a way, the tradition of all-night Torah study on Shavuot is designed to make up for some of our sleepy ancestors.
The Midrash says that our Israelite forebears slept in that morning when they were to receive the Torah at Mount Sinai. By staying up all night studying Torah, we are trying to demonstrate our excitement about — and gratitude for — the gift of Torah.
More to the point, the custom of all-night Torah study goes back to 1533, when Rabbi Joseph Caro, author of the Shulchan Aruch, Code of Jewish Law), invited many of his kabbalist colleagues to study with him all night on Shavuot.
Besides Torah, Talmud or Mdrash, many also also take the occasion to study the Tikkun Leil Shavuot with its excerpts from the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible.
Legend has it that Rabbi Caro and others living in the Ottoman Empire at the time were able to keep awake thanks to the region’s fine — and potent — Turkish coffee.
Shavuot has made another mark on the Jewish psyche far more recently than the 16th century. In 1948, one month after the birth of the State of Israel, Jews were still banned from visiting the Kotel by the Jordanians who controlled it. For 19 years, Jews could gaze across barbed wire fences at the Old City and Temple Mount, but could not approach. Then, suddenly, on Shavuot of 1967 — six days after Israel’s suprise victory in the Six Day War, when Israel took control of the Old City of Jerusalem — the Kotel was officially opened to the Israeli public.
For the first time in nearly 2,000 years, Jews could visit the Western Wall without fear or restraint.
Some 200,000 of Jews poured in that day: religious and secular, Ashkenazi and Sephardi, all celebrating their newfound freedom to worship by those ancient stones.
These days, tens of thousands of Jews re-enact that return when they make their way to the Kotel in time for morning prayers, feet barely touching the ground after a full night of study and no REM sleep.
Among them will be the students and teachers in yeshivas located just up the steps from the Kotel.
One recalled of the 50,000 or more Jews who gather there for the morning prayers:
“The intensity of Jewish unity as Jews of all shapes and sizes put aside their differences and come together is simply one of the most beautiful moments of the year.”
They may not have the Kotel, but other communities all over Israel also share in the tradition of all-night Torah study. One resident of Ra’anana recalled;
“There is an aura here around that night that’s unlike any other night of the year.
“Women and men, teens and older people, religious and secular, everyone out all night learning in groups and chevrutas (pairs), in synagogues and in homes, like all Israel is learning Torah together.
“You know you are part of something bigger than yourself, and something in the air that night tells you that it’s time to take your own spiritual growth up a notch.”
