By dcc
Saturday afternoon until early Sunday morning I was at our friends' house for what was an extended and wonderful dinner and night of talking and relaxing when, after our friend suggested that we write a new blog together, I realized I have not written for RJ.org in some time now. This relaxing and delicious evening was after a lovely Friday night service where two of our other mutual friends were blessed by the rabbi for their auf ruf.

So I got to thinking that I had had what could only be described as the perfect Shabbat. I prayed a bit. I celebrated with my friends who are soon to be married. I ate a lot of very good food. I had interesting and thoughtful conversations. But, I must say that this was not the plan. This week, it seems, that Shabbat kind of happened to me.

Lately I have been working a lot. Weeks just roll one into the next and on most Fridays and Saturdays I sleep as opposed to going out late or taking-in a nice afternoon of friends and food. But this weekend I did force myself to go out and take in some of the things that I could not do during the crazy workweek.

The friend experience is imperative to human existence. I mean that without being snooty or pretentious (all while being a bit redundant). You feel better when you can share something with someone; be it learning some Talmud or just a nice cold beer on a Saturday night on the roof of your friends' apartment, having someone to share that with is pretty snazzy.

This Shabbat was lovely, less than "traditional" and perfect for me. In addition to the Z Pack kicking in and my sinus infection finally going away, this Shabbat was very relaxing and invigorating (and somewhat less redundant than the last double adjective explanation). I place much of the success of this Shabbat on the shoulders of my wife and our friends because now I am feeling ready for the week ahead, a feeling I have not had in quite some time.

I guess what I am getting at is that the Jews were really on to something with this weekend-slowdown-and-reflect-thing that we call Shabbat. It is a useful respite from our crazy lives. Whether your perfect Shabbat is a chicken dinner with the family, a full day of prayers and tradition, or more like mine starting with musical services followed by a gourmet meal prepared by a chef friend in his apartment and a long lazy Saturday with friends, I urge you all to use the next Friday to Saturday to take Shabbat and make it yours.

After you do it, send in your thoughts on the Shabbat. I would love to read what you did. Therefore, I am declaring next Shabbat the international "Let Shabbat Happen to You Shabbat." I know I will start it off with the second to last Shabbat Unplugged service of the year at my congregation, but after that it is up in the air. I want to hear from you, because as the story goes, if everyone in the world celebrates and honors Shabbat the Mochiach (messiah) will come. I don't believe that is true at all but I can tell you this, we will all be happier and healthier people.

So Let Shabbat Happen to You next week, and send in you story to rjblog at urj dot org to tell the world (or the readers of this blog) what happened!

Print

Email

Comment

Comments

Post a comment