Dawn – A Cosmic Reunion

This is a Reboot event. Register here!

DAWN is Reboot’s all-night culture and arts festival celebrating the Jewish calendar’s best-kept secret - Shavuot. Reboot is producing this year’s “choose-your-own” experiential adventure in partnership with the Jewish Emergent Network and LABA’s Into the Night Tikkun Layle Shavuot. On the heels of its digital debut in 2020, DAWN will provide something for everyone throughout the 12 hours of music, film, comedy, dance, food and teaching across multiple channels. While the world still longs for the opportunity to gather in person, Dawn provides the opportunity to gather apart for a tradition that Reboot began years ago in San Francisco irl and that will live beyond this pandemic.

A Cosmic Reunion

Shavuot is the biblical Burning Man, the moment people gathered in the desert, spent the evening in anticipatory celebration for the dawn. At sunrise they would receive the Ten Commandments and, with these tablets, a new perspective on the future. According to the mystics, this was an all-access event. The soul of every single Jew that ever and would ever live was in fact there. The past, present and future converged. This year’s DAWN comes at a turning point in our civilization with many uncertainties ahead. But, if time collapses like this, then somewhere in our midst are the signals to see where we are going now. We are once again in anticipation, but if the mystics are right we’ve got what we need right here. It’s up to us to gather the voices and ask the right questions. DAWN is inviting the soothsayers of our day -- the artists, musicians, comedians, inventors, theologians and writers -- to center the signals and codes that are hiding in plain sight to help guide our way. What should we be listening to? What woke us up at Sinai? What do we need to wake up today?

Why All Night? 

The story goes: The night before Shavuot, we stay up all night because back in the day, the Jewish people were supposed to arise with the Dawn and accept the Torah from the heavens. True to form, though, they overslept and missed the cosmic messenger. The over-sleepers stayed up the entire next evening, studying - discussing - preparing to receive the greatest of gifts the following morning. The ritual of Shavuot revolves around this fine aspect of staying up, studying texts, debating and learning from one another, and preparing for the Dawn - with just as much awe and determination as our ancestors had so many eons ago.