Dear Lakewood,
I am very excited for the upcoming Yom Tov of Shavuos. 2 days spent with family celebrating that we are the Am Ha’nivchar. How special we are!
I believe if we address the following point, we can make this Yom Tov even more special. My 8th grade son keeps talking about how excited he is to stay up Shavuos night and learn with his friends. He even has a whole schedule of the different Chavrusos he’ll be learning with over the course of the night. (He has 5 different chavrusos set up throughout the night!). My little tzaddikle wilI definitely start off the night shteiging, but I’m pretty sure the second half of the night he’ll be spending at the table of refreshments and coffee that’s put out for those who are learning. Him along with many of his friends end up shmoozing, hocking, debating about everything under the sun, except the Torah.
I tried telling him to arrange chavrusos until 2:30am (very late for a 13 year old) and then call it a night. But he wouldn’t hear of it. He says that he’s not a baby and there’s no reason why he can’t stay up the entire night like all his friends. (Besides for the fact that the next day he’ll be tired and cranky and very unpleasant to be around).
Why can’t the Rabbeim tell their talmidim that staying up a whole night is not a mitzvah Deoraysah and it’s ok to only learn half the night. This will help get rid of all the peer pressure and social anxiety.
- Hoping for a pleasant Yom Tov
732-608-3941
Dear Fed up and Lakewood Learning, you totally misunderstood the entire discussion. No one here has anything against LEARNING Shavuos night for MOST people.
Learning all night is not for everyone. Some people take a long time to recover. So long that they lose out in any learning that they possibly gained while being up all night. So long that their family members around them get affected. Staying up all night can awaken dormant emotional disorders (like depression and the like). Yes I am saying this from experience. Please know yourself/ your child and make a wise decision whether this is the right thing to do. Gut yom tov!
So is 13 bar mitzvah anymore or are we changing it so we can baby kids even more.
Waking up for shachris at 730 is way to early for a little baby 13 year old.
So is going to mariv it's too late probably past his bed time.
Your kids are not made out of sugar they can do things that are hard for them they will persist and will overcome but only if you let them.
This person is ridiculous. Let the boys take part in this holy minhag that we've been doing for hundreds (thousands?) of year's.