Nine Days of Breath: A Poem to Bring Life to Your Shabbat by Henry Rasof

Nishmat beriyah, breath of a creation.
Nishmat rakia, breath of firmament.
Nishmat eretz vamayim, breath of earth and oceans.
Nishmat aisev, breath of plant life.
Nishmat meorot, breath of sun and moon.
Nishmat haya, breath of animal kingdom.
Nishmat adam, breath of human.
Nishmat ochlah, breath of nourishment.
Nishmat shabbat, breath of rest.

© 2015 Henry Rasof

Take a deep breath on shabbat morning and read or recite or sing this poem.

Unlike some of the other nishmatim (liturgical poems that go with the prayer about the breath) I have posted to Boulder Jewish News, which precede the nishmat prayer, this one traditionally goes after the prayer and before “Ilu Filu” [“Could song fill our mouth as water fills the sea…” (Siddur Sim Shalom)].

http://boulderjewishnews.org/2015/nine-days-of-breath-a-poem-to-bring-life-to-your-shabbat/

Dalet: Turning Shabbat back into Shabbat · Jewschool

Dalet: Turning Shabbat back into Shabbat · Jewschool

There is a tension between preparing logistically and preparing spiritually, the same tension between doing and being we try to deal with on Friday night and on Havdallah. The week is for doing, and Shabbat is for being.

But life is not always so neat! Sometimes we find ourselves having a Shabbat moment during a Thursday evening yoga class, and sometimes we end up rushing to Shabbat services despite our best and most grounded intentions. 

Shabbat Shalom - Finding Home

http://dailynexus.com/2015-05-15/shabbat-shalom-finding-home/

Taking Pause: Shabbat at Harvard

Growing up, observing Shabbat “wasn’t really a thing” in Klein’s family. But since arriving on campus he has become more observant, he explains. It’s a transformation he attributes to spending more and more time among other adherents to the Jewish faith. According to Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, co-founder of the Chabad House at Harvard, this is common. Shabbat has been “the vehicle through which many young Jews have entered or connected with the Jewish community,” he explains.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/4/2/taking-pause-shabbat-at-harvard/

The Shabbat ordinance

The Shabbat ordinance | JPost | Israel News:

There is a fascinating parallel to the alternative approaches to Shabbat within our biblical tradition. In one version of the Ten Commandments we find the “religious” reason for cessation of work on the Sabbath: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.” In Exodus we find a “social” reason: “So that your male and female servants may rest, as you do,” basing the commandment on our people’s formative experience as an enslaved nation. This is, after all, the great innovation of Judaism: incorporating faith with a commitment to social justice, or – as Mordecai Kaplan aptly labeled it, promoting a religion of ethical nationhood.

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Shabbat and Shabbox, Persian Style | 30 Years After | Jewish Journal

Shabbat and Shabbox, Persian Style | 30 Years After | Jewish Journal:

This group, however, was different.  They were not family members, they chose to be together for dinner, and they were all students and young professionals. No mothers were there to cook, no fathers were there to recite the blessings over wine and bread. There was no need for the TV to be on, and guests weren't moved to looked thru their phones out of boredom or force of habit.

And there was one non-Iranian Jew in attendance.

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The Power of Shabbat and Tradition

The Power of Shabbat and Tradition 

The broader idea of having a day that is different than the others is so wise and obviously beneficial. But the only way to achieve it and take it seriously is if there is a system to support and enforce the idea and give it structure.

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