Shavuot All-Nighter

ARTS&LIFE

DIGITAL PROGRAM

Shavuot All-Nighter

Twelve-hour online international celebration to include e orts of local artists.

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Asinger-songwriter, a playwright-author and a producer — all DAWN: A Cosmic Reunion spotlights singer-songwriter Ethan Davidson performraised in Metro Detroit — will be part of an international digital program celebrating the holiday of Shavuot.

They will be helping to navigate an all-night event remembering what occurred before the sunrise presentation of the Ten Commandments. ing two songs with his wife, Gretchen. Also featured will be playwright-author Brooke Berman, who will recite a narrative she created just for the holiday event. Francine Hermelin Levite participates behind the scenes as executive producer of 12 hours of music, film, comedy, dance and instruction that run 9 p.m.-9 a.m., Sunday night to Monday morning, May 16-17. It is sponsored by Reboot, a New York-based arts and culture nonprofit that reimagines and reinforces Jewish thought and traditions. “I love this idea for Shavuot recalling the anticipation of the Torah being received,” said Hermelin Levite, a New Yorker who went to Hillel Day School and the University of Michigan while being active in Congregation Shaarey Zedek. “Spending a night in contemplation mixed with the anticipation of newness is an exciting concept.”

The Davidsons will present two songs: Davidson’s “Till the Light Comes Shining In” and John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery.”

“The first song is like waiting for the sunrise at the foot of Sinai,” said Davidson, who is a director and Grants Committee chair of the Birmingham-based William Davidson Foundation and board chairman of the Michigan Opera Theatre. “Also, we’re waiting for the sun

Francine Hermelin Levite Ethan Davidson

Davidson’s New Book

Soon after Ethan Davidson appears with DAWN: A Cosmic Reunion to celebrate Shavuot, he will appear at two events to introduce his new book, These are the Developments of the Human, which also references Shavuot, among many topics. The book, a compilation from notes taken over many years, expresses thoughts in a stream-of-consciousness style as Davidson combines excerpts from religious teachings, study explorations with Jewish scholars and personal experiences unrelated directly to Judaism. Because of the depth of subject matter, the book cannot be labeled a fast read. Passages are not declarations or answers; rather, they are starting points for contemplation. Readers can decide whether they want to read from cover to cover or pick out topics that have personal impact. The book will be discussed digitally from 7:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 26, during a conversation hosted by the Jewish Theological Seminary, and in person starting at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 27, with a reading and book signing at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield. “The first word of the Ten Commandments is ‘Anochi,’ which means ‘I am,’” said Davidson, channeling scholarly thought on Shavuot. “I wrote a little bit about the Chasidic masters and the [significance of that] first letter — hearing the aleph with the vowel under it and maybe [hearing] the stillness that exists at the core of being.” The diversity of thought can be sensed by reading through the table of contents and introductory remarks by Rabbis Asher Lopatin and Benny Lau. Just four examples from about 35 topics include “Don Quixote Tells Us How to Read Torah,” “Yukon River,” “The Mind is a Burning Bush” and “Your Evil Inclination.” “I wanted to organize all my notes, and then COVID-19 hit,” Davidson said. “We were all locked in our homes, and there was no excuse but to organize.” Because of the stream-of-consciousness approach, dominant English is mixed with Hebrew and Hebrew transliterations without grammatical conventions.

“WE WERE ALL THERE AT THE FOOT OF SINAI WAITING TO HAVE OUR COLLECTIVE ENCOUNTER WITH THE DIVINE.”

— ETHAN DAVIDSON

Brooke Berman

to rise after this pandemic, and we hope that will be soon.”

Davidson is performing the second song because Prine was a hero of his, one of his favorite singer-songwriters. Prine died of COVID-19 fairly early on in the pandemic, but lyrics he left behind relate to the purpose of Shavuot: “Just give me one thing that I can hold on to” is repeated throughout the song.

SOUL OF SHAVUOT

“Shavuot is [thought to be] when all of us were alive at the time or were Jewish souls waiting to be born,” Davidson said about ideas associated with the holiday. “We were all there at the foot of Sinai waiting to have our collective encounter with the Divine.

“It’s something that’s always accessible to us whether it’s through Torah study or acts of chesed [giving of oneself with compassion]. We can always hear an echo of that voice from Sinai. We carry it with us through our lives as Jews.

“In another sense, it’s kind of fun to stay up all night with friends, study and wait until the sun comes up.”

Berman, now a New Yorker who joined her family at Temple Beth El while growing up in Michigan, is thinking about all the metaphors that can be used in this presentation.

“I haven’t unpacked the metaphors yet,” said Berman, whose personal experiences are recalled in her book No Place Like Home: A Memoir in 39 Apartments published by Harmony Books and whose play 1300 Lafayette East was premiered at the Jewish Ensemble Theatre.

Berman is thinking about who we need to be when the sun rises.

“The older I get, the more I become interested in time,” said Berman, who has two plays and two films in development and teaches playwriting at New York University and Bard College.

Reboot is producing DAWN in partnership with the Jewish Emergent Network, which promotes collaboration among seven communities across the United States, and LABA, a global laboratory for Jewish culture, as participants mark the breaking of the holiday dawn in each of the distant locales offered the festival.

“Shavuot is a huge, incredible holiday and so intrinsic to the Jewish experience … [with] so many ways to interpret it and inspire,” said David Katznelson, Reboot CEO. “By reimagining the all-night study and presenting it in this new and magical way, we provide a portal of entry to this mighty holiday.”

Details

To get a link to the program, with an entertainment schedule, go to DAWNFestival.org.

“When I was an undergraduate [at the University of Michigan], I was a literature major interested in 20th-century American literature,” Davidson said. “You find a lot of stream-of-consciousness literature among the Beats and even before the Beat writers, and I was trying to tap into a Beatnik version of Torah study.” As he put together the book, which he is distributing with only the cost of postage and the suggestion of a charitable contribution to a Jewish organization, Davidson wants readers to bring their own individuality to religious content. He relates that to his own life, establishing identity as the son of the late William Davidson, a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist defined by his son as “the world’s best father.”

WRESTLE WITH ISSUES

“We’re supposed to continually examine our lives and wrestle with these issues and be more fully actualized as people,” Davidson explained about what he has gleaned from religious studies. “I think it’s true of all people, not just for Jews. I think it’s particularly true for Jews because we call ourselves Israel, the people who wrestle with God, which means we’re supposed to be the people who wrestle with these questions. “We might not find the answers, and maybe that’s not the point. Maybe the point is to continue to ask ourselves these questions and check in on ourselves to find out what the tradition has to teach us about how to be more fully actualized.”

— Suzanne Chessler

Details

Ethan Davidson’s book will be discussed digitally from 7:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 26. Registration is available at jtsa.edu/ developments-of-the-human. He will appear in person starting at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 27, at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield. Registration is available at temple-israel.org/ethandavidson. To order the book, go to ethandavidson.com.