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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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.

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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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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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

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