By Richard Skeen

Shavuot is among my (and Alef’s) favorite holidays with its unique appeal of late night learning, cheese cake and Jewish networking that rivals when we all gathered at the base of Mt. Sinai. But what makes Shavuot special is the enthusiasm young Jewish adults have in taking part. Last night JCC’s, synagogues, havarot and Hillel’s across North America were bursting with young Jews eager to learn, sing, ponder or just be a part of the all night offerings.

The three gatherings in the New York area I visited hinted at this enthusiasm for Shavuot learning. The 14th Street Y offered learning with Limmud and Storah-telling, while the JCC’s menu was a Jewish Bonnaroo-like collection of teachers, artists and musicians: painter Sonia Benjamin’s Indian-inspired Blue Angels, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin’s look at Hillel’s relevance today, a musical tribute to Debbie Friedman, Jay Michaelson’s discussion of the problematic use of the terms “abomination” and “sodomy” and Rabbi Amy Kalmonofsky on The Book of Ruth. Something for everyone is an understatement. Even outside the city communities offered “name” speakers and a surprisingly robust menu of learning (early in the evening I heard Rabbi Rachel Cowan of the Jewish Spirituality Institute speak in Montlcair, NJ).

The Jewish world is undergoing dramatic change, led by many amazing and inspiring Rabbinic voices that bring a very different sensibility to their work. While Shavuot puts much of these voices on display, much of their inspiration and message of meaning and purpose can be found easily on Facebook or YouTube. It seems odd to look for inspiration or learning in the same place I keep track of Jack White and Gilt City, but there are a handful of Rabbi’s that offer really rich content on their Facebook pages. Not surprisingly two of the best are LA based Rabbi David Wolpe, and Ikar’s Rabbi Sharon Brous.

Here are a few of the others worth checking out:

• Rabbi Simcha Weinstein’s Art School Rabbi wall
• Rabbi Yonah (with 13,000+ friends he’s doing something right) Why I Drink Beer On Shavuot | Rabbi Yonah | Jewish Journal
• Rabbi Zalman – Reb Zalman in NYC! Joined by Rabbi David Ingber, Joseph & Devorah Telushkin
• G-dcast’s facebook videos

My post-Shavuot point – keep exploring, learning and seeking. There is some really good stuff out there.

Image by smemon87, licensed under Creative Commons.

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When we originally wracked our brains about what to call Issue #7 we came up with a strategy that was sure to knock the socks off our readers: call Issue #7 “Sexless Love” and then follow it up with Issue #8, “Loveless Sex.” What could be more interesting for the two weeks leading up to Valentines Day, we thought, than to take the two qualities generally considered in modern society to comprise a healthy relationship, and pull them apart? But as our writers turned to their desks and we to our drawing tables, we all discovered that separating Love from Sex and finding stories with one, but not the other, wasn’t as simple as we had thought.

We decided our best course of action was to simplify it all, which is why Issue #7 is now “The Love Issue.” Love and relationships, we’ve found, figure quite prominently in Judaism. In fact, there’s even a love song, known as “Eishet Chayil” (translated as “Woman of Valor”) that many Jewish husbands sing to their wives during Shabbat. Describing the ideal woman and perfect wife in biblical Judaism, the verses dictate that she be industrious, faithful, strong, and virtuous.

These days, all it takes is a click of a remote or a mouse to see what Love has become for much of our generation. From reality shows like The Bachelor to social-networking sites like Facebook to dating portals like OKCupid and JDate, mainstream notions of Love and how to find it have taken on an entirely new set of characteristics. But as much as we say that love and relationships have changed, perhaps they haven’t changed as much as we imagine. Is finding dates on Match.com really so different from the age-old concept of matchmaking?

Suffice it to say, for the next two weeks we’re going to tackle questions about this most mystical and timeless of concepts: what is love? where do we find it? how it is shaped and guided by our Jewish identities? Take this opportunity to snoop into the diaries of our writers, and join in the conversation yourselves.

-Alef

Photo by jmscottIMD, licensed under Creative Commons.

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The Love Issue Posts:
What Comes First?
Matchmaker of Jewish New York
I’ve Got a Crush on Regina Spektor
Israeli Slang for V-Day
Reverse Celebrity Crush
The Journey, On Tape
Dating Jewish Men
The Interfaith Question
The Best Relationship