Page 27 - Harlem Shavuot Companion 2020

Longing for Sefarad in the Velada, The ‘Watch’ of Shavuot
By Rabbi Mira Rivera, Rabbi at Harlem Havruta

More than on any other Jewish holiday, when Shavuot approaches, I
hear ancestral sighs from places so distant where dreams have stalled
and pushed through the cracks. Where longing for Sepharad was passed
on from one to the other, generally from woman to woman. Where there
are remembrances of pungent oils released from herbs crushed between
fingers. Where recollection wafts delicious from kitchens or a cork
popped. Where ancestral covenants, promises, and agreements, still
woven one with the other, continue to stir up imagination and
yearning.

All the more so as we approach Shavuot. From the moment when three
stars of the night herald Erev Shavuot, clusters gather to study Torah
and Zohar into the wee hours of the morning in a practice known as
Tikkun Leil Shavuot, a night for both “correction” and “adornment.” “Correction” comes from
learning Oral Torah. Some say that this was an effort to repair the error of the Israelites noted in
the Midrash, that despite declarations of “Naaseh V’nishma”, “We will do and will hear”, the
Israelites overslept through the giving of the Torah and had to be awakened.

For those who trace lineage, language, stories of the kishkes, and ancestral call to the Iberian
peninsula, it is of interest to unravel Tikkun Leil Shavuot through the prism of the Sefardi Shavuot
known as the Velada (from the Ladino word “to guard, watch”). The night Velada flows into the
next afternoon, when Megillat Ruth is read, the archetype narrative for the individual who chooses
to stay, join with the people Israel, and accept Torah. In the Ladino translation, Naomi says:

“For wherever you go, I will go; where you sleep, I will sleep,
Your people shall be my people and your God my God”

Azharot, the rhyming enumeration of the 613 mitzvot or commandments, is read after the Musaf
service of the morning, or just before the Mincha service. As it begins, “You gave your people a
preliminary warning or admonition, Azharah reshit l’amekha natata, so is this liturgical poem
named Azharot. According to tradition, Torah lists 613 mitzvot: 248 positive commandments and
365 negative commandments. In Sephardic custom, these commandments have been enumerated
in verse form by different poets. The Western Sefardi custom is to read the version of Azharot
written by Solomon ibn Gabirol (1020-1069) with an introduction by David Eleazar ibn Paquda, a
Spanish Hebrew poet from the first half of the 12th century. Over the course of the two days of
Shavuot, the first half, the 248 positive commandments, is read on Day 1 while the second half,
the 365 negative commandments, is read on the second day. Although there is disagreement over
Ibn Gabirol’s rendering of the mitzvot because they did not hew to the Rambam’s, nevertheless, it
is the Ibn Gabirol version that the Sefardi Jews chant. The people chose the rhythms and
embellishments made by the paytanim, the liturgicals poets, over the rationale of halakhists!
Azharot are not just read or chanted. They are taught and re-taught, with each reader breathing new
life into the mitzvot. How can we deepen our understanding of the mitzvot through this poetic
form? Take the readings into your homes as has been done in the past! Chew them and chew them
again. Turn and turn them over.

-25-