Shavuot at Adas Israel
Sunday, June 1 - Tuesday, June 3
Tikkun Leil Shavuot | Full Schedule | Sefirat Haomer
Join us Sunday, June 1st for our annual Tikkun Leil Shavuot, an evening of deep learning, reflection, and connection. This year, we explore the layered nature of relationships—between people, between communities, and between ourselves and the Divine. Our night begins with a panel featuring voices from technology, diplomacy, counseling, and the arts: Kate Berman, Mickie Simon, Rachel Farbiarz and Dan Shapiro.
Following Maariv and refreshments, choose from a range of breakout sessions exploring the sacred in selfhood, parenting, LGBTQ+ history, Torah, and theology—running late into the night, as tradition invites.
Tikkun Leil Shavuot Learning
An AI Engineer, A Diplomat, An Artist & A Therapist: Musings on Relationships
7:00–8:15pm, Gewirz Beit Am
The Talmud calls Shavuot the wedding day between God and the Jewish people - it is our opportunity to celebrate our deep, committed and enduring relationship with our texts, traditions and practices. It invites us to ask:
What does it take for a relationship to last?
What does partnership really entail?
How do we form and maintain connection across distance, difference, time or space?
What obligations do we have to those to whom we are committed?
Listen to our esteemed panelists: Daniel Shapiro, Rachel Farbiarz, Kate Berman and Mickie Simon discuss the questions as your rabbis facilitate a wide ranging conversation. Moderated by Rabbi Holtzblatt and Rabbi Krinsky.
Maariv, 8:15pm, Gewirz Beit Am
Snacks & Libations, 8:30pm, Gewirz Beit Am
Breakout Learning & Experiential Groups
9:00pm, Breakout I
Learning with Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt
Gewirz Beit Am
An evocative, relationship-centered text study from Rabbi Holtzblatt’s signature lens of spiritual insight and deep inquiry.
Yoga with Tobie Whitman (RYT-200), Wasserman Hall
Grounding in Commitment, Opening to Connection is a slow yoga practice that explores the balance between steadiness and softness, strength and vulnerability—what it takes to stay rooted in relationship while remaining open to the sacred unknown. Through grounding poses, heart openers, balance work, and moments of challenge and stillness, we’ll embody the dance of sthira-sukha and reflect on what it means to receive, carry, and honor deep commitment.
Tobie Whitman (RYT-200) teaches mindfulness to individuals and organizations in the DC area, including at National Geographic, N Street Village, government agencies and more. She has been a dedicated vipassana meditation practitioner since 2010 and has practiced yoga for nearly 25 years. A former Gan parent and longtime Adas member, Tobie teaches yoga and meditation regularly through the Wellness Center.
LGBT Jews in the Federal City: An Inside Look
Presented by Jonathan Edelman, Capital Jewish Museum, Biran Beit Midrash
Hear about the museum’s new exhibit on LGBTQ+ Jewish life in D.C., and consider what it means to build identity and community across lines of faith, gender, and history.
Jonathan Edelman (He/Him) is the Collections Curator at the Lillian & Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum. He was part of the curatorial team the created the core exhibitions for the new museum. For the past five years, he has been working as co-curator on the museum's new landmark exhibition, LGBTJews in the Federal City which will run through January 2026.
Edelman was born and raised in Kansas City, moving to D.C. in 2016 to work with the curatorial team at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He has a Masters in Museum Studies from The George Washington University and a Bachelors degree in Cultural Studies & Communications from Clark University. He also serves on the board of the Edlavitch DC JCC and is a member of Adas Israel Congregation.
10:00pm, Breakout II
“What’s in a Name?”: Divine Names and Pluralism
Billy Liss-Levinson, Biran Beit Midrash
Through the names Ehiyeh Asher Ehiyeh and HaMakom, we'll explore how different conceptions of God open pathways to understanding pluralism and relationship in Jewish thought.
Parenting and Punch Bowls: Cocktail Making and the Torah of Partnership Parenting
With Rabbis Krinsky and Yolkut, Gewirz Beit Am
Punches are cocktails' hardest process requiring a delicate dance of flavors and even textures, much like parenting it requires trial and error, patience and lots of creativity. Of course love doesn’t hurt either! Join us as we explore the intersection of parenting and torah.
Cooking: Make Blintzes with Adas’ very own Dan Traster and Bonnie Benwick, Kay Kitchen
Join us for a fun and delicious session in the Kay Kitchen. Learn to make this classic dairy dish, a beloved holiday staple.
11:00pm, Breakout III
Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz: Rethinking What Makes a Family
Rabbi Avigayil Halpern, Biran Beit Midrash
Inheritance Law and The Palm Pilot: Antiquity and Modern Relevance
Rabbi Loren Sykes, Wasserman Hall
Leil Shavuot, Sunday, June 1
• 6:00pm Mincha Service
In Person or Click Here to Join Live.
Siddur Lev Shalem Pages: Click Here
• 7:00pm Panel Discussion
Gewirz Beit Am
• 8:15pm Maariv
Siddur Lev Shalem Pages: Click Here
• 8:30pm Food and Drinks Open
Gewirz Beit Am
• 9:00pm Breakout Learning Groups #1
• 10:00pm Breakout Learning Groups #2
• 11:00pm Breakout Learning Groups #3
Shavuot Day 1, Monday, June 2
• 9:15am Combined Service in the Gewirz Beit Am
In Person or Click Here to Join Live.
Siddur Shabbat & Festival Morning Pages: Download Here
Akdamut and Megillat Ruth: Download
Torah and Haftarah Pages: Download Here
• 6:00pm Kabbalat Chag
In Person
Siddur Lev Shalem Mincha Pages: Download
Siddur Lev Shalem Maariv Pages: Download
Shavuot Day 2, Tuesday, June 3
• 9:15am Clergy-Led service and Yizkor (10:45am) in the Charles E. Smith Sanctuary. All are welcome. Mincha following kiddush- in person only.
In Person or Click Here to Join Live.
Siddur Shabbat & Festival Morning Pages: Download Here
Akdamut and Megillat Ruth: Download
Yizkor Service Pages: Download Here
Torah and Haftarah Pages: Download Here
Sefirat HaOmer
Beginning on the second night of Passover we begin to count 49 days, 7 weeks until we reach the wheat harvest and Revelation at Mount Sinai on Shavuot. We call this time the Sefirat HaOmer or “Counting of the Omer.” The Omer is counted each night after the sun goes down- if one forgets, you can say the blessing all day until nightfall the next evening.
BA-RUCHA-TAH ADO-NAIE-LO-HE-NU ME-LECH HA-OLAM ASHER
KID-E-SHA-NUBE-MITZ-VO-TAV VETZI-VA-NUAL SEFI-RAT HA-OMER.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with
His commandments, and commanded us concerning the counting of the Omer.
A Reflection on Sefirat HaOmer by Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt:
There is a different space of the journey of everyday, of marking time not through major accomplishments or milestones, but through the sun rising and setting of marking the passage of time, of hammering at something slowly, patiently over a contemplative period of time. This is the Omer.
We begin counting the Omer on the second night of Passover and we count every night until we get to 49 and arrive at the holiday of Shavuot- matan Torah (the giving of the Torah). In ancient times the counting was a marking of the agricultural calendar- one would plant their wheat at Pesach and harvest it 7 weeks later. Shavuot is one of the shelosh regalim, one of the 3 times of year people would make pilgrimage to the Temple (the others being Sukkot and Passover). On Shavuot first fruits were brought to the Temple as a way of giving thanks for the abundance that God had provided.
We have become disconnected with the counting of the Omer because we are urban- we do not rely on the small plantings we make in our city gardens to eat, we do not watch an entire harvest spring from the ground and we do not have a Temple where we can offer our first fruits.
So the ritual of counting the Omer needs a reset. A way of connection in the modern world to link the time between our liberation (Passover) to our revelation and receiving of Torah (Shavuot). The most remarkable days are those of the quiet rhythm of our lives. Waking up without the rush- the steady movement forward- gentle and calm. The time to dig our hands into our relationships, our work- the planting. The time for reflection, noticing, and being- awaiting the harvest. And finally the joy of our first fruits- which we can only gather after we have had the discipline of sowing, planting, and waiting. Something will always emerge out of the ground.
There is a reason we don’t recite shehecheyanueach night of the counting of the Omer. Rabbi Levi Yitzhak, the Kedushat Levi writes, “during the counting of the Omer, people are in anticipation of when the counting will be completed. They want the completion to arrive soon so they can experience closeness to the divine. Were they to have the capacity to complete the counting in an instant and be immediately able to enter into the closeness, how good and how pleasant it would be. This is why we do not recite shehecheyanu upon counting the Omer.”
The shehecheyanu would imply that we have arrived to a particular moment. But this time is about the steady, continuous journey, not the arrival. We’ll know when we have arrived and we’ll be ready then to offer our first fruits. This year we will again mark the Omer at Adas with a display in the Quebec street entrance where we will add a jar and a wheat stalk every day. With each jar we get closer. Let’s use this time to linger, to notice, to plant, and to allow the Torah of our deepest selves to emerge. I look forward to seeing you at Sinai.
