Introduction:

Jewish Journeys

Tonight, we hope to show that it is not only possible, but vital.

As a group of Orthodox, Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist rabbis, we have had to work hard at building a consensus for tonight's program. We argued about what topic to focus on, what texts to include, and how the evening would be run. Through this process, we have come to understand one another more fully - both in the ways we challenge each other and the ways in which we support one another.

We are grateful to Fordham University and the Archbishop Hughes Institute on Religion and Culture for opening its doors to tonight’s program.

We've heard that a Jew shouldn't have to say "Nice to meet you" to another Jew. Rather we should say "Nice to see you again!" --meaning: "Weren't you one of the 600,000 souls on the journey to Sinai? Didn't I see you in the crowd when all that thunder started to rumble?"

At some level, all of us were there at Sinai. But since we say "I was a slave in Egypt" during Passover, then why don't we say "I was free at the foot of Sinai" on Shavuot?

Passover has an immediate power of reenactment. The seder's symbolic foods, storytelling, and ritual transform us to another place and time. Though Shavuot does not have a seder (what would we eat anyway, a mountain of Jello?), it does have another experience with equally transformative power. On Shavuot, we celebrate by opening the books that comprise the intellectual soul of our people.

During that night of learning, we try to understand on both communal and personal levels the experience at the foot of the mountain. And we ask ourselves the questions of that time -- "What has brought us here?" "Where have we come from?" "Where are we going?"

On Shavuot, we return to the ultimate questions that characterize our journey. Gathering with others, we begin to answer questions that we can't answer alone. Gathering with representatives of the entire Jewish people, recalling the diverse crowd who gathered at Sinai, we challenge each other to see Torah anew.

This sourcebook is a collection of texts that are guideposts on that journey. Reflecting on the ancient stories and contemporary insights, we will begin our conversation.