Shavuot bit

[magid]

I learned from the most recent edition of the JOFA journal about a fascinating Sefardi minhag of reading a ketubah before kriat ha-Torah Shavuot morning. Not just any ketubah; it marks the marriage of Torah and Israel, or in some versions G@d and Israel. I like how direct and clear this is, getting to the essence (well, one essence; the agricultural component, the offering of the first fruits, is obviously not involved) of the holiday directly. The Ashkenazi minhag of having an all-night learning session (tikkun leil Shavuot) can be intense, but it feels less direct unless one takes a step back to consider the reason for the custom. (It is also difficult for those of us accustomed to sleep on a nightly basis!)

For comparison, this is a translation of a typical Orthodox ketubah (which would not include the Lieberman clause at the bottom, though there may be a pre-nup that addresses the same issues), and this article has one version of a Shavuot one (towards the bottom; the rest of the article is interesting too).