Friday, September 29, 2017

Taking Back the Sabbath

Taking Back the Sabbath

The world tells us more, more, more when what we really need is less, less, less. Take a step back from what the world is saying and you will find renewal, I promise you, I’ve experienced it. When I made the concerted effort to slow down, starting with taking back the Sabbath, I felt a deeper faith connection, refreshed and rejuvenated spiritually, mentally, and physically.
Now, if I am completely honest with you—this overwhelming sense of contentment and joy probably won’t happen after observing your first Sabbath. Nor will it happen after a few attempts at slowing down. But it does happen, with time, patience, and a determination to make the change to your lifestyle.
After several years of choosing less over more, I can confidently say that I am in a different mindset than I once was, that my default is now a much slower pace. But I won’t lie; there are times I still struggle with shutting off and removing stress. There are so many things I thoroughly love about being able to work from home, but it has been an adjustment to create boundaries that keep my work/home balance in check.
Taking back the Sabbath is one of those boundaries.

Thursday, September 28, 2017

When Yom Kippur Is On Shabbat

By Raphael Grunfeld 9 Tishri 5778 – September 28, 2017
The deeper reason for requiring us to fast on Shabbat/Yom Kippur may lie in the essential difference between Shabbat and Yom Kippur. Shabbat is God’s day of rest. Yom Kippur is our day of rest. On Shabbat we remain in this world and enjoy the earthly pleasures God created. That is how we acknowledge Him as Creator. Shabbat in this sense is a day of physical rest.
On Yom Kippur, we leave the physical world. We take a day off from the inherent tension caused by the fusion of body and soul. We become pure souls. Yom Kippur is the dress rehearsal of our own yahrzeit. We wear the shrouds in which we will ultimately face Him, and we discard the shoes we will no longer need. By neither eating nor drinking, we celebrate the day like the angels we become. If Shabbat is God’s day off and Yom Kippur is ours, on Shabbat/Yom Kippur God and His people celebrate a day off together.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

How Morley Safer’s Jewish Upbringing Inspired His Quest for Decency and Justice

By Benjamin Ivry - May 19th, 2016

The Canadian Jewish broadcast journalist Morley Safer, who died at age 84 on May 19th, 2016, was as much preoccupied with ethics and the arts as reporting during his more than a half-century with CBS News, 46 of them with the program “60 Minutes.” He told Abigail Pogrebin, author of “Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish,”: “I think that a Jewish background does give you a very, very strong sense of doing the right thing.”


When I Stopped Being Religious About Shabbat