Stay Up All Night with Tablet’s Podcasts

No one writes songs about 4 p.m. There are no popular folk tales that take place at a quarter to seven. And not a single person out there believes that there’s something mystical and magical about 3:27 in the afternoon or 8:43 in the evening. But midnight? Now we’re talking: There’s the Midnight Rider and the Midnight Flyer and the Midnight Sky; Eric Clapton wondered what happened After Midnight, and Patsy Cline knew all about Walkin’ After Midnight. The hour is full of wonders, and the Torah teaches us that the Exodus from Egypt, the event that turned us from a gaggle of disparate souls into a nation, began at midnight on the dot.

If you haven’t heard of the Tikkun Leil Shavuot—literally meaning “Shavuot Night-time Correction”—you’re about to have one more reason to feel the late-night love. According to one famous bit of midrash, or rabbinic interpretation of the Bible, the Israelites slept late on the morning they were supposed to receive the Torah, so God, part miffed and part amused, blew a loud shofar to wake our drowsy ancestors up. To offer a correction for this sad bit of slumbering, a tradition emerged that Jews would observe Shavuot, the holiday commemorating receiving the Torah, by staying up and studying Torah—all night long if possible, but until midnight at the very least.

What you choose to learn, of course, is up to you. There is a special text you can read, which is sort of the Bible’s greatest hits, but these days most Jews pick and choose, indulging in everything from classical Jewish texts to talks about contemporary Jewish issues.

For those of you who are new to the tikkun—and those of you who are much more inclined to unwind with a good podcast than a big leather-bound volume—we have a one-stop-shop of binge-listening and binge-learning for you:

You can learn a little bit about why Shavuot is the holiday of Jews by choice, why it was a convert to Judaism who gave us King David, and how stories of joining the Jewish people continue to inspire us still.

Listen to all of our Conversion Episodes here.

You can go more old school, and treat yourself to a crash course in Talmud with our daily Take One podcast, which explains what this rich and strange book is and why it continues to deliver wisdom and surprisingly contemporary insights.

The thing about Jewish tradition is that we’re all students. Even when school ends, we’re supposed to continue to ask questions, revisit texts, argue, and repeat. That’s why we call it practicing Judaism—because no one is ever perfect. So this Shavuot, indulge in some fun family learning with Hebrew School, our game show podcast that teaches you everything from biblical wisdom to modern Hebrew:

Shavuot is all about eating dairy, symbolizing that bit in the Torah about the Promised Land dripping with milk and honey. While you’re enjoying your cheesecake and blintzes, listen to some of our food-themed episodes of Unorthodox, including interviews with a few of America’s most famous chefs and visits to a couple of world-class Jewish eateries:

It’s sometimes hard to remember, but Judaism isn’t just a bunch of lofty, abstract ideas. Nor is it strictly a plan to keeping together as a people, or a history lesson, or a dietary plan. At its core, it’s a way of living, rooted in tradition and in faith and delivering profound insights on our emotional and spiritual well-being. So why not treat yourself to some self-care with these soulful podcasts:

So set up that alarm clock, and let’s spend the night together.