Friday, December 14, 2012

Why the Focused Rest of Shabbat is Important

Why the Focused Rest of Shabbat is Important :

Rest and action are two poles of existence. Whatever one is doing, one is either resting or exerting oneself. Exertion complements rest and rest complements exertion as day complements night and night complements day. The reader knows from universal experience, that exercise leads to a deeper sleep and that without resting, one cannot have the energy to act. Therefore, the question of primary importance, as with all pairs of opposites, is the question of balance.
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Friday, December 7, 2012

Hanukkah matters -- whether you’re Jewish or not!

Hanukkah matters -- whether you’re Jewish or not | Fox News: "By Rabbi Brad HirschfieldPublished December 08, 2012"

Hannukah celebrates the fact that there is more possibility and potential – in us, in and in our world --than we almost ever allow ourselves to imagine. If we really knew and trusted that single principle, we could overcome many of the challenges we face, and even make some wonderful things happen, for ourselves and for others as well.  It’s a 2,000 year old premise – one which lies at the heart of the successes which Hanukkah celebrates, and one which can guide us to new successes again and again.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/12/08/hanukkah-matters-whether-youre-jewish-or-not/#ixzz2EPWDAB8C


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Friday, November 23, 2012

Remember the Sabbath, says Kentucky doctor-author Matthew Sleeth | Faith & Works


More and more holidays are becoming days of shopping and other business, and Sundays long ago ceased to be quiet days of rest and worship.  A Kentucky doctor and author is part of a growing movement in the opposite direction.  The doctor’s prescription: Keep a Sabbath.

Remember the Sabbath, says Kentucky doctor-author Matthew Sleeth | Faith & Works:

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Thanksgiving Leftovers Get a Shabbat Makeover – Jew and the Carrot – Forward.com

Thanksgiving Leftovers Get a Shabbat Makeover – Jew and the Carrot – Forward.com:

With all the cooking that leads up to Thanksgiving — there turkey to prepare, cranberry sauce, all those pies and don’t forget the gravy — no one, not even the most dedicated cooks, wants to exert that energy all over again for Shabbat the following day. But plain leftovers, in the form of a turkey sandwich doesn’t quite seem fitting for Shabbat dinner either. Fortunately, Thanksgiving leftovers can be turned into a flavorful and special Shabbat meal.

Friday, November 16, 2012

REDISCOVERING WISDOM OF SABBATH

http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/christians-rediscovering-wisdom-of-sabbath

WASHINGTON – One of the least noticed and overlooked megatrends in the church today is the renewed interest and practice of the biblical Sabbath.  A new book and video companion by a medical doctor makes the practical case for observing the 4th Commandment – the same way Christians attempt to follow the other nine.  It’s called “24/6: A Prescription for a Healthier, Happier Life,” by Dr. Matthew Sleeth.http://superstore.wnd.com/books/24-6-A-Prescription-for-a-Healthier-Happier-Life-Paperback


Saturday, July 28, 2012

Shabbat Meals: Our College Table – By Blair Thornburgh

Shabbat Meals: Our College Table – Jew and the Carrot – Forward.com:

It all became a ritual: walking over at seven, arriving half an hour later, grateful for either a warm respite from the cold or a cool breeze in the heat of late spring, then eating, drinking, laughing and just being together. After dinner, as we lolled on the couch, playing Jenga or Scrabble or channel surfing on mute, we’d sometimes pause, just briefly, and reflect on the moment in time as if we were our older selves, writing each other’s wedding toasts or meeting each other’s kids. We called it future nostalgia, a preemptive look back to these humble moments made with food and friends.
Our last Shabbat together was May 25th, a week before finals and two weeks before we would all don our caps and gowns. We feasted on hearty lentils with tender, sweet onions; cucumbers and tomatoes in a classic Israeli salad; spicy chicken thighs crowned with creamy dollops of labneh, and — since it was always a favorite — roasted Brussels sprouts with balsamic vinegar. Of course we drank lots of wine. Of course we listened to Vitamin C’s “Graduation.” Of course we knew we would miss not just each other but this meal, this wonderful, reliable succession of once-a-week moments that was suddenly over, ready to be wrapped up like all of our mismatched flatware and packed away into the past.


Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/the-jew-and-the-carrot/159844/shabbat-meals-our-college-table/#ixzz21wwYxePd

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Friday, July 13, 2012

The Magic of Shabbat Dinner

Linda Novick O'Keefe: The Magic of Shabbat Dinner:

Food has that magic.  There is much serenity to be found in predictability. Perhaps if we take the religion out of Shabbat dinner, what we have left is a very, very special weekly dinner ritual in which you can include friends and family -- anyone whom you love, for all are welcome. Friday nights can become more than the end of the week. They can be transformed into evenings dedicated to bringing people together, sharing meals and gratitudes, creating memories and community, savoring every bite, every minute together, around the table.

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Friday, June 15, 2012

Shabbat for all of God’s creatures


Posted: Wednesday, June 13, 2012 11:59 am - SARAH REYMOND 

Don’t be surprised if you hear a little barking at B’nai Jeshurun Congregation in Pepper Pike and Temple Emanu El in Orange this weekend. Both congregations are inviting the community to bring their furry family members for special Shabbat celebrations.
Temple Emanu El Cantor Diane Yomtov began hosting a Simchat Chayot (celebration of the animals), or more simply, pet Shabbat, with her former congregation in Buffalo Grove, Illinois.

http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/features/community/article_d372423c-b570-11e1-9bd0-0019bb2963f4.html

Friday, June 8, 2012

More than the Jews kept Shabbat...


06/07/2012 10:28   By DEBORAH S. DANAN

Remembering the Day of Rest should have much less to do with whether or not public buses run on Saturdays and much more to do with how we connect with one another.


http://www.jpost.com/Metro/Features/Article.aspx?id=273017

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Why should we observe Shabbat?

By RABBI KENNY COHEN
The observance of Shabbat with all of its details was given to us at Mount Sinai. Last week we celebrated the Shavuot holiday commemorating the giving of the Ten Commandments. Commandment number four speaks of the observance of Shabbat and " to keep it holy". Today, people observe Shabbat in many different ways but it seems that it still remains essential to observe Shabbat in accordance with our tradition with all of its intricate details.

There is a well-known quote of the rabbis that says, "More than the Jews kept the Sabbath, but the Sabbath kept the Jews."  During our long and bitter exile, it was Shabbat that was the binding force that kept Jews united and even today, it has the same effect.

http://www.jpost.com/VideoArticles/Video/Article.aspx?id=270985

Friday, May 11, 2012

Torah: To stay connected, join the Shabbat counterculture

Torah: To stay connected, join the Shabbat counterculture | j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California:


No matter how many directions the people in your lives seem to be spinning in, Shabbat comes around once a week to give us the opportunity to pause and reconnect with each other. What is also important is that it encourages us to be affectionate with each other. On Shabbat parents literally place their hands on the heads of their children and bless them, perhaps adding their own special words to the priestly benediction. And partners take a moment to invoke words of our tradition for each other, adding a few loving words to make the particular moment special as they embrace. These affectionate rituals bring us together, and they just might keep us together.
I resonate to the words of Ruth Brin in the poem “Sabbath Prayer”: “God, help us now to make this new Shabbat. After noise, we seek quiet; after crowds of indifferent strangers, we seek to touch those we love … We break open the gates of the reservoirs of goodness and kindness in ourselves and others; we reach toward one holy perfect moment of Shabbat.”
May the traditions and spirit of the Sabbath add holiness and meaning to our existence, as we add depth and meaning to our week. And may the call to live according to the inherent holiness in time bring us a sense of shlaimut, of wholeness.

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Friday, May 4, 2012

A message for Shabbat: Love and mercy from the same God

http://www.syracuse.com/kirst/index.ssf/2012/05/post_269.html

A quiet friendship breaks down walls: Imam Yaser Alkhooly (right), of the Islamic Society of Central New York, Rabbi Daniel Fellman of Temple Concord in Syracuse and Mohamed Khater (left), president of the Islamic Society. They're pictured here at the Islamic Society; Alkhooly and Khater will speak tonight at Temple Concord.


2012-05-03-dn-bond.JPG

Friday, April 20, 2012

Opening Our Lives to the Holy

Rabbi Michael M. Cohen: Opening Our Lives to the Holy:

While the 39 categories tell us what not to do on Shabbat, they also inform us what we should do the other six days of the week. And what is that? Build a mishkan, a dwelling place for God in the world.
This is our charge: to understand that no matter what work we do in our lives from teaching to working in a restaurant to being a garbage collector, we must see the purpose of that work as creating a place for God to dwell among us. We must see whatever work we do as contributing importantly to the tapestry of our world. That work becomes holy when we act with truth, compassion, love and humility. We must release the sparks of holiness contained in what we do not just during the counting of the Omer, but everyday as well.

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Friday, April 6, 2012

Shabbat Lunch is a Country Song. Who Knew?

Yesterday, I listened to a country song on the radio, a lyrical lament of a time gone by, as country songs often are. But one line made me laugh: “sittin’ around the table don’t happen much anymore.” It doesn’t, at least not at my house Sunday through Thursday. Though my kids are still small, we are already scheduled within an inch of our lives, my husband and I are attached to our oh-so-smartphones, and dinner is usually in shifts of macaroni and cheese.
And then comes Friday night, the beginning of Shabbat. The wind up to observing the Sabbath is at times chaotic, because while that sun sets Friday night, no matter what, Shabbat doesn’t make itself. In Hebrew, to observe Shabbat is to be shomer Shabbat, a “guardian” of the Sabbath. I always thought it sounded like Shabbat was prone to attack, or would wander off alone if not for your protective skills. Not so far from the reality.


Shabbat Lunch is a Country Song. Who Knew? – Jew and the Carrot – Forward.com:
By Kirby Oren-Zucker


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It's Passover! Break Out the Easter Eggs!

Dan Zevin: It's Passover! Break Out the Easter Eggs! by Dan Zevin

Here in the Zevin household, April ushers in both Passover and Easter, reminding us that another year has gone by without my wife and I getting our act together and deciding what religion our children are.
I am a non-practicing Jew and she is a non-practicing shiksa. It wasn't an issue before we had kids, since both of us were fans of any activity that didn't require practicing. This doesn't mean I don't feel culturally Jewish, or that she doesn't feel culturally gentile. On second thought, she doesn't feel culturally gentile. I'd describe her as a culturally Jewish girl trapped in a culturally gentile woman's body. Especially the nose. It's no wonder she loves teaching our kids Yiddish words, yet tends to teach them the wrong ones. "It's so hot in here," she'll tell the kids. "I'm fapitzing!"

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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Shabbat: life’s work

By Barry Kislowicz - Posted: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 12:43 pm | Updated: 4:41 pm, Wed Mar 14, 2012. 
On Shabbat we stop working precisely so that we can start living. Shabbat is not a time to lock ourselves away in our rooms, to focus primarily on personal rest and relaxation, but rather to actively live with those in our homes – spouses, parents and children – learning, singing, talking or simply being together. By providing us with a protected, spiritual retreat once every week, Shabbat affords us the opportunity to deepen our too often unnoticed life-bonds with our loved ones and with God Himself.

http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/features/religious_life/torah/article_e021ced0-6df4-11e1-9bcb-0019bb2963f4.html

Monday, March 5, 2012

A Frugal Feast Shabbat in our nation's capital


by Sasha Lyutse - Posted March 5, 2012 in Living Sustainably
Last week, I took Frugal Feasts on the road and co-hosted a hybrid Frugal Feast-Shabbat dinner with a dear friend in Washington, D.C. Now I have to be honest: food is more my religion than religion is my religion, but the marriage of the two was so seamless, with so many common and resonant themes, that it’s worth some reflection.
To date, all our Frugal Feasts have been held on Fridays, the evening that marks the beginning of Shabbat, or the Sabbath, in Judaism. Above all else, Shabbat emphasizes the holiness of time versus space. There is nowhere in particular you have to be to experience this day. There is no special occasion to wait for. Each and every week, wherever you are, there are 24 hours set aside for you during which you are reminded to slow down and dedicate yourself to rest, appreciation, and community, giving thanks for what is already created, instead of what remains on your list of things to create.

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/slyutse/a_frugal_feast_shabbat_in_our.html

Friday, March 2, 2012

Foods of Shabbat: Come for the Kugel

What is there to love about Shabbat? It's a day to rest? It's a day to sleep? Or perhaps, like thousands of of men and women profess after their first full Shabbat experience, it's the food! Challah and fish, chicken and kugel, perhaps chocolate cake for dessert. What's not to like! Some Shabbat food is so delicious, one might even forget to check one's Blackberry! Here's a verbal taste of a Friday night feast, and a sampling of the deeper meaning of these traditional foods.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sr-hewitt/shabbat-food-come-for-the-kugel_b_1303161.html

Sunday, February 19, 2012

GuelphMercury - Shabbat a time to recharge, enjoy life’s gifts

GuelphMercury - Shabbat a time to recharge, enjoy life’s gifts:

Shabbat a time to recharge, enjoy life’s gifts

“And the skies and the earth and all their array were finished. And in the seventh day God finished His work that He had done and ceased in the seventh day from His work that He had done. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because He ceased in it from doing all His work, which God had created.” — Genesis 2:1-3

Shabbat is a day to restore body and soul to pray, learn and get your bearings.

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Friday, January 20, 2012

Shabbat.com gets people together for Sabbath meals

Shabbat.com, a Facebook-styled site where collecting ‘invites’ is key - NY Daily News:

Shabbat.com is an online global community with 25,000 members swapping requests to join each other’s Sabbath meals — a Jewish tradition honoring a break from the work week over wine, challah bread and at a four-course meal.

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Friday, January 6, 2012

An Interview with Shabbat - Fiction

An Interview with Shabbat - Fiction:
Leonard: My next guest is known throughout the world as the Holy Sabbath. He’s written a new book called Shabbat: Make My Day, and I’m very pleased that it brings Shabbat back to our show. Hello.
Shabbat: It’s great to be here, Leonard.
Leonard: Your first book was a memoir, My Days of Rest. This book is also about Shabbat. How is it different?
Shabbat: My new book tells you what you can do to maximize your enjoyment of Shabbat, the meaning behind some of the more popular Shabbat customs, and I give my recipe for gefilte fish.