Shavuos

YU offers Shavuot-To-Go:

o A packet designed for adults
o A packet for high-school age individuals
o A packet for younger children

Also, here are 2 Shavuos posts: one from Jonathan Rosenblum and the other from Heichal HaNegina.

In Celebrating Shavuos Alone, Jonathan Rosenblum writes:

Matan Torah is the most important event in human history. Had our ancestors not accepted the Torah, all of Creation would have returned to its original formlessness.

Yet most Jews Shavuos have barely heard of Shavuos, the celebration of Matan Torah. In Eretz Yisrael, the contrast between Shavuos and the other yomim tovim could not be more stark. Most Jews celebrate Pesach and Sukkot in one form or another. Almost all families sit down to a Seder. And even in non-religious neighborhoods, many families build sukkahs. On Yom Kippur, the streets fall largely silent, and a large majority of the population fast. In short, the rhythms of the Jewish calendar are felt.

Shavuos is the glaring exception. It lacks any special customs in which all can join. Eating cheesecake will not bring a secular Jew any closer to the essence of the day. Staying up all night learning Torah and the long Shavuos morning davening offer few attractions to those for whom these activities are not already part of their lives.

Nor can secular Israelis attach some universal message (however distorted) to Shavuos. It is not a celebration of human freedom, like Pesach; nor of the courage required to battle external tyrants, like Chanukah; nor a call to repentance and self-examination, like Yom Kippur.

Shavuos is only about the acceptance of Torah. For those Israeli Jews for whom Torah has long since ceased to be relevant, the holiday offers nothing.

The tragedy of Shavuos in Israel of 5766 is that we – the religious community – will once again be celebrating alone. Yet the receipt of Torah required the entirety of Klal Yisrael – k’ish echad b’lev echad. And today something is lacking in the kabbolos HaTorah of each and every one of us, as long as the study and observance of Torah is the province of only a small percentage of Jews.

Read the rest to see his solution.

Heichal HaNegina has a Shavuos post From AKDAMUS to...MODZITZ!, covering the meaning of Akdamus and the Modzitz 'operas.'

Technorati Tag: Shavuos and Shavuot and Modzitz.