SHAVUOT 5786

Lifelong Learning Moreh Derech Adam Lowy & Community Educators
Eva Gunther Plaza

The Ten Commandments have a few Jewish values at their core. Come learn and engage with the commandments, the values and your family as we celebrate Shavuot and strive to be the best people we can be! Pizza,* salad and make your own ice-cream-in-a-bag, too 😋

*Registration and payment required for pizza
$8 per adult and $8 per child

Rabbi Dr. Joshua Ladon
Shalom Hartman Institute
Koret Hall

Why do Jews quote so much? What’s at stake when we speak in the name of another? In Jewish tradition, quoting isn’t just a scholarly habit—it’s a theological act. To cite Torah, to speak in the voice of the sages, to repeat words passed down across generations is, in some deep way, to participate in the original moment of revelation at Sinai. This class explores the religious, philosophical, and cultural meanings behind the Jewish practice of quoting. Drawing on rabbinic texts, modern thinkers, and our own habits of study and speech, we’ll consider how repetition becomes a vehicle for revelation—and how the act of quoting can be both an expression of reverence and a creative re-engagement with sacred tradition.Start the evening together with communal singing and break into a Beit Midrash style opening session with Rabbi Josh Ladon

*Childcare available (age 5+) in the LabPlaySpace during this session

Rabbi Batshir Torchio
JCCSF
Chapel

Looking at revelation (Exodus chapters 19 and 20) we come to find that the biblical description appears to be addressed to men only. In response, Tamar Biala (a teacher in several batei midrash in the U.S. and Israel) asks: “Did women not take part in the precious, foundational experience of the revelation at Sinai?” Biala’s midrash serves as a historical corrective as it depicts a private revelation between a young woman and God.

Cantor Sharon Bernstein
Sha’ar Zahav
Sanctuary

What is a nign? It is a wordless melody, one which which expresses the ineffable, the inexpressable. It's a melody, a joy, a yearning that sends our souls soaring to the heights and depths and beyond. In this session, we will study a little about the history of Hassidic Niggunim, and learn to sing traditional niggunim from Vilna, Galicia, and more.

Rabbi Genevieve Greinetz
San Francisco Brandeis School
Main Meeting Room

Hasidic masters teach that the patriarchs and matriarchs kept all of the commandments and knew the whole Torah before it was received. We’ll take a look at some texts that claim how this was so and contemplate their meaning in chevrutah and group discussion. Our session will end with a meditation on finding our own, inner Torah before receiving the written Torah anew.

Rabbi Noah Westreich
Emanu-El
Koret Hall

For Young Adults:
Is it more important to study a Jewish life or to live one? The rabbis debated this in the Talmud and left the question wide open. Come argue it out with us in this Talmud Debate Club!

Rabbis Jessica Graf & George Altshuler
Sherith Israel
Sanctuary

The Torah tells us that the covenant at Sinai was made not only with those who stood there, but with all who were not yet born. What does that mean for us? Drawing on Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s essay “The Moment At Sinai,” Congregation Sherith Israel’s Rabbis Jessica Graf and George Altshuler will explore Heschel’s view that even generations after Sinai, we can still define that pivotal event by fulfilling our purpose in the world.

Rabbi Shana Chandler Leon
Ner Tamid
Main Meeting Room

The beautiful Book of Ruth, the selected megillah for Shavuot, portrays numerous instances of chesed — loving-kindness, and several places where its absence is notable. Let's take a deeper look at how this transformative principle applies to Shavuot, to the cycle of the Jewish year, to our own lives, and to our world.

Rabbis Ryan Bauer & Amanda Russell
Emanu-El & Beth Sholom
Chapel

As antisemitism rises and many communities turn inward, this class asks a provocative question: what would it look like for Jews to actively invite others in rather than waiting for them to come to us? Through rabbinic texts and contemporary questions, we’ll explore competing Jewish visions of belonging, boundaries, and covenant.

Rabbi Dr. Joshua Ladon
Shalom Hartman Institute
Chapel

Reading Exodus 19, revelation appears not first as a text but as a full sensory event — thunder, voice, presence, and collective encounter. This class explores what the textual tradition preserves and what it cannot, and asks how attending to the oral, aural, and embodied dimensions of Sinai might reshape our understanding of revelation and its place in our lives today.