Becoming ourselves is a process. We learn what our family or friends find funny or valuable, and shape our identities accordingly, either to conform to, or in opposition to those norms and expectations. Teachers help us acquire skills, the basics of contemporary education, text analysis and interpretation. If we are lucky, our teachers don’t just teach at us, but learn with us, validating our instincts toward personal interpretation and endorsing multiple possible readings instead of just one definitive one.
But for many who might never have felt free, or qualified, to interpret holy texts, Torah study remains daunting, incompatible with our hectic daily pace, or inconsistent with the personal convictions that guide our actions. Some of us have been lucky enough to find Limmud events, in Los Angeles and around the world, which position diversity of voices as a primary value. But the contemporary celebration of Shavuot is the one that most brings us the chance to see the text through our own eyes, and to share those visions with the community, as I saw last month, at Temple Beth Am’s all-night study program, or Tikkun Leil Shavuot, which featured a “Sermon Slam.”
The night included eight different perspectives (including one from this writer) on two short texts. Each of us wrote and delivered an original 3-5 minute “sermon” in the “story slam” style known to those who frequent “The Moth,” or other storytelling and performance nights.
The night wasn’t just about the eight voices – it was about providing the entire assembly with access to the texts that were under our microscope. Outgoing Ziegeler School Dean Rabbi Aaron Alexander (only two weeks before he and his family relocated to Washington D.C. for a position at Adas Israel) taught the texts to the entire audience, giving them the background to understand the performers.
So what happens when eight Jews stop being polite about text study and start being real? They interpret from their own education, influences, politics, passions and sensitivities, taking something uniform and transforming it entirely.
WATCH: Esther Kustanowitz: “Brokenness” a Shavuot sermon slam
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