Mirabai Starr: Keeping the Sabbath.. Radical

Mirabai Starr: Keeping the Sabbath.. Radical:
Today is Saturday. The sun has just dipped below the western mesa and the face of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains is about to be washed with the scarlet glow from which the range derives its poetic name. Shabbat is over and, in the tradition of my ancestors, I mourn a little. The Sabbath, they say, is a taste of "the world to come" -- a day so sweet that the Holy One, in His infinite mercy, gives us 25 hours instead of the standard 24 so that we can have a little more time to dwell in tranquility and delight.
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'The Spirit of Shabbat' is also an Aggieland tradition - The Eagle: Faith And Values

'The Spirit of Shabbat' is also an Aggieland tradition - The Eagle: Faith And Values

One Aggieland-only tradition is "The Spirit of Shabbat." The Hebrew word Shabbat provides us with the English word, Sabbath. In the Jewish world Shabbat, the seventh day after creation, begins at sundown on Friday night and lasts until Sundown, on Saturday night. The practice of beginning a day with sundown is a long Biblical tradition. For example, Genesis reads: Vayehi erev, vayehi boker, yom echad/It was evening and then morning, the first day."

The idea of Sabbath is unique to Judaism and Christianity. These are the only two major religions that demand a cessation of work on God's holy day. Due to the Ten Commandments, Shabbat is perhaps the best-known Jewish holy day. Yet ironically, the Jewish marking of the seventh day is perhaps the least understood part of Judaism.

Shabbat Across America Unites, Inspires

Baltimore Jewish Times - Local News | Shabbat Across America Unites, Inspires:

What if you could enjoy a meaningful evening with your brothers and sisters, putting the challenges and chaos of the week aside, with a delicious meal, spirited singing and good conversation? And what if that evening was free of charge?

That is exactly what can happen on Friday evening, March 1, at this year’s Shabbat Across America. The night starts with candle lighting at 5:20 at Suburban Orthodox Congregation Toras Chaim.

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Italian b’nei anousim celebrate Shabbat with a unique candelabra

For thousands of Italians who live in the southern Italian region of Calabria, the island of Sicily and the Aeolian Islands, connecting family traditions with an ancient Jewish heritage can be little more than a lucky guess. But as B’nei Anousim (those who were forced into Christian conversion during Inquisition times) continue to search for their lost and hidden Jewish roots, one ritual item, the Shabbat candelabra offers an important clue.

For years I believed that the triple candelabra that was one of our family heirlooms was little more than a lovely artifact. Later on as I began a search of our family’s anousim roots, I discovered that this three-branched candelabra was a special part of the family Shabbat table.

- by Rabbi Barbara Aiello: the first woman and first non-orthodox rabbi in Italy. She opened the first active synagogue in Calabria since Inquisition times and is the founder of the B'nei Anousim movement in Calabria and Sicily that helps Italians discover and embrace their Jewish roots.

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/italian-bnei-anousim-celebrate-shabbat-with-a-unique-candelabra/

A Candle of My Own - By Joannie (Henya) Tansky

“Shhh, my children. Make sure the blinds are closed tightly. Come to the table, light the candles.” That is how many Jewish children grew up in communist Russia in the 1960s and ’70s. No explanations about their heritage—not about Chanukah, Purim,Passover, or even Shabbat. If they knew nothing, they could not repeat anything that would put their families in peril…

A Candle of My Own

Birthright Shabbat, Part 2

Birthright Shabbat, Part 2 | David Suissa | Jewish Journal:

I don’t often write about the same subject in consecutive weeks, but because my “Birthright Shabbat” column last week elicited an unusual amount of feedback, I thought I’d share some of it with you, as well as build on the idea.

Last week, I wrote about the special magic of the Friday-night Shabbat meal to attract all kinds of Jews who are disconnected from their Judaism, and I suggested a national initiative that would do for Judaism what Birthright Israel did for Israel.

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Birthright Shabbat

The Shabbat meal takes an idea everyone loves — Thanksgiving — and makes it a meaningful weekly experience.

The beauty of this meal is that it can be tailored to attract any taste: a poetry Shabbat, a spiritual Shabbat, a literary Shabbat, a culinary Shabbat, a storytelling Shabbat, a Zionist Shabbat, a singles Shabbat, a green Shabbat, a social justice Shabbat and so on.

Birthright Shabbat