Shavuoooooooot

The elongated set of ooooo's in the header indicates me clutching my stomach and groaning after two days of continuous eating....we have just finished celebrating the chag (holiday) of Shavuot - which, among other things, marks the time when the children of Israel were given the Torah on Sinai. This is a holiday that hasn't featured prominently for me in the past - mainly I associated it with eating cheesecakes (it's customary to eat dairy foods on Shavout) - so I really enjoyed the way we celebrated it here at WUJS. For one thing, I ever knew
(or more likely, I once I knew but forgot) that it's also customary to stay up and learn during the night - because the naughty Israelites FELL ASLEEP when they were supposed to be waiting with bated breath to receive the Torah on Sinai. We had a really interesting set of seminars, including one with a reconstructionist Rabbinical student looking at some excerpts from the Talmud regarding the mitzvot (commandments), and a session with Alon (our director) discussing Israel's Law of Return vs Law of Citizenship(very thought provoking and not a little controversial), and finally we read Megillat Rut, (The Scroll of Ruth, who is thought of as the first person to convert to Judaism). We only stayed up til 2 am. but it was fun to learn so late at night. Luckily I had drunk coffee in the afternoon ....

Apart from the learning, we have eaten almost non-stop since Tuesday night. I'm happy to be eating again (after my brush with illness) but one of these days I am going to have to learn to stop when my stomach starts to actually hurt!!