Tikkun leyl 2025

As VPJ’s launch event, we held a tikkun leyl Shavuot (late-night education) on the evening of Sunday 1 June. You can re-watch the sessions below:

Scrolls of Love: poetic and musical midrash on the Book of Ruth (Cantor Rachel Weston will also leyn the first chapter of the Book of Ruth)

Brawny blacksmiths with sledgehammers: prophetic preachers of the 19th century (Rabbi Gabriel Kanter-Webber)
Sermons have a long history of getting under the skin of the powerful. This session will explore a number of 19th-century preachers – Jewish and Christian – who put their prophetic duties above their career prospects. (Rabbi Gabriel is rabbi of Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue.)

What is ‘prophetic’ Judaism? Poetic prophetic Jewish feminist voices (Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah)
We will reflect on the nature of ‘prophetic Judaism’ by reading poems by three American Jewish feminists and four Israeli women writing in the context of a country that is continually at war. We will conclude with Rabbi Elli’s poem for this Shavuot. (Rabbi Elli is rabbi emeritus of Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue.)

Justice and the Jewish contribution to the world according to Levinas (Rabbi Margaret Jacobi)
What should the Jewish contribution to the world be? The influential French Jewish philosopher Emanuel Levinas explores this question through the Talmud’s discussion (Sanhedrin chapter 4) about how to administer justice fairly. His conclusions have profound implications for us today. (Rabbi Margaret is rabbi emeritus of Birmingham Progressive Synagogue.)

What do we truly know? The story of Hanokh of Alexander (Rabbi Jeffrey Newman)
On this evening of Revelation, we shall explore Hanokh’s story together. We will attempt to speak and listen from our hearts and discover what we can learn with one another. (Rabbi Jeffrey is rabbi emeritus of Finchley Reform Synagogue.)

A ‘prophetic’ reflection on Franz Kafka’s short story ‘Give It Up!’ (Rabbi Judith Rosen-Berry)
This session will be a brief exploration of Kafka’s question: who do we turn to lead us? – and a discussion about living in a world that is currently led by people and ideologies that tell us to simply ‘give up’. (Rabbi Judith teaches Modern Jewish Theology at Leo Baeck College.)