(Courtesy of Kumah.org)The Chassidic Rebbes teach that you should not forsake your davening to stay up learning all night on Shavuos. Davening on Shavuos is equally important as the all night learning and if you are not able to pay attention or enjoy the davening it is almost in vain.
I took a nap Sunday afternoon with much excitement and anticipation. I woke up and went to the Mikvah and I was so jazzed that I would have the energy to enjoy Shavuos properly. And believed me its not often I can use the word "Jazzed" pertaining to my life as much as I do in this blog. It was truly a blessing to have my Rav & his family up in my parents community for the Chag and my wife and I had big plans to be with him away from Long Beach. After dinner it was just before mightnight as we made it over to the home where he was giving a shuir. He was teaching Sefer HaChinuch which is a must read for anyone into understanding the mitzvos. Most seforim break the mitzvos into 248 positive and 365 negative. Sefer HaChinuch is unique, because it brings each mitzvot as it first appears in the Torah. Thus beginning with the mitzvah of being fruitful and multiply in Bereshis. It is straight and to the point. This is the mitzvah and this is what it entails and if you want to learn more go here and here usually sourcing a tractate of Gemara. We learned this for a couple hours and it was amazing to see all walks of Yidden sit in on the shuir and soak up his teaching of the sefer.
After that we went over to Beth Jacob and he taught some high school students about respecting the opposite sex so my friend Yehoshua and I learned Bava Bathra to compliment last weeks longest parsha of 176 pereks. Unfortunately I didnt get to read Tehillim 119 to complete it but it was still amazing. Now its about 2:30am so we head over to Happy Minyan which is the Carlebach Minyan in Los Angeles. We learned more Sefer HaChinuch and discussed Chassidus and waited till 5am.
This is the highlight. We have been learning for hours and now most people will speed through davening and finish around 7:15 7:30ish. Not us, Not the Happy Minyan. We dance, we sung, we davened for almost 4 hours. I started to dwindle right around the Priestly Blessing but now that I look back it was so worth it. There was such energy in the davening making it more alive than anything I have ever felt. The Baal Teffilah was the Yehuda of Moshav Band and we sung our prayers with Carlebach tunes straight to heaven! I haven't been jazzed up about davening in a long time. I enjoy davening and I feel good, but there is something about singing clapping and dancing that just gets you going. We danced with eachother, we danced with the Torah. For a second I thought it was Simchas Torah!
Once we finished my wife and I made the walk home which was surreal. We were the only Jews on the street. Everyone had either finished davening at 7:30 or werent even awake for 10am. People looked at us weird as we walked. Myself in my bekeshe and fedora. It was Monday and I felt people wanted to tell me it wasnt Shabbos. This is where the highlights end. The rest of davening was business as usual. It was nice but its what I experience everday and not by choice. The only thing that raised my soul after that Happy Minyan was the cheesecake, ice cream, and lasagna!
