Shavuot resources on neohasid

[David Seidenberg]

If you are looking for some last minute material for classes on Shavuot, there are four text study sheets on neohasid.org: 1) on Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah and Kabbalah; 2) on the Torah being hefker and available to everyone like the Shmita year produce; 3) on loving the neighbor and loving the stranger; 4) on 2 millennia of texts on tikkun olam.

neohasid.org/zman/shavuot

Tonight on Omer Counter:

===>> Tkhine for Shavuos Candlelighting (Tkhine = women's prayer in Yiddish)

"On account of our merit, that we have received your holy Toyreh (Torah), which was given with a shofar’s blast, may you grant us the merit to hear the call of the Moshiaḥ’s (Messiah's) shofar, speedily and soon. May you bless, dear God, the fruits of the trees which face your judgment today with goodness and blessing, that the trees may bear many fruits. And may you shield us, merciful God, from holding onto pride and arrogance, and may we thus follow in your example—for you selected Mount Sinai from among all the other mountains, because it is low in stature. May we avoid any hatred of other people, may we only treat one another with love, just as Jews did during the giving of the Toyreh."

full prayer plus Yiddish: https://opensiddur.org/prayers/lunisolar/pilgrimage/shavuot/tkhine-candlelighting-night-shavuot/

From Martin Buber:

"The demanding silence of the [angelic] forms, the loving speech of human beings, the eloquent muteness of creatures, all of these are gateways into the presence of the word.  But when the perfect encounter occurs, the gates are unified into one gate of actual life, and you no longer know through which one you have entered." ~ Martin Buber, I and Thou

We have passed through the 49 gates of the Omer, we have collected and numbered the days, explored the qualities and vessels of the Sefirot, connected those meanings with our lives and with the world. As we enter Shavuot, we have the opportunity to unify all of this experience into one encounter, which we call revelation. Though we tend to focus on the revelation of Torah, in Israel's agricultural cycle, this is also the revelation of the first fruits on the trees. May this revelation be a revelation of life and hope, may there be a revelation of peace and possibility, may we enter with hope and not despair, love and not hate. This is the essence of the Torah that commands us to "Choose life!" May we choose life for all of us, for all being, for all species, for the whole planet. If not now, when?

Here is a link to R' Shefa Gold's chant for the week of Malkhut: http://www.rabbishefagold.com/the-majesty-of-nurture/

A prayer for the completion of the whole Omer period: "Look out from Your holy habitation from the heavens" הַשְׁקִיפָה מִמְּעוֹן קָדְשְׁךָ מִן הַשָּׁמַיִם (Deut 26:15), and bless for us this season and this year, for good, for healing, and for blessing. May the rainbow, symbol of life, appear rejoicing and beautified with its colors, and may the whole of Creation be returned to its original strength. May it be Your will that all the sparks return, whether they were scattered by our hands, or by the hands of our ancestors, or by the sin of the first human against the fruit of the tree, so that they may sustain in majestic might the Tree of Life.  

~ from P'ri Eitz Hadar, reflecting on the cycle that begins on Tu Bishvat and comes to fruition (pun intended) on Shavuot, adapted and interpreted by R' David

May we find healing, along with all the world. May we enter the gate of Life, the gate of unity, of loving words and demanding silence, as we come to the foot of Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah.