Saturday, December 5, 2009

Aaaaah, Shabbat ... : )

Rabbis work a LOT during Shabbat ... yet there are times when I NEED Shabbat.  I do get jazzed to see people I don't get to see during the week.  I definitely "get high" on hearing people sing our beautiful Shabbat melodies ... and I love the sound of voices bouncing back and forth off the walls in the Sanctuary as we come together to celebrate the gift we received ... to me, this is definitely the gift of Shabbat.

How do we set time aside from the ordinary week?  Certainly, there are all the traditional rules regarding how to celebrate Shabbat.  But non-traditional ways of setting aside time to be special each week sometimes mean even more.  These can be things I can't, or won't, do during the rest of the week ... sometimes very simple things.  I remember hearing about someone who turned the car radio off on Shabbat as a way to separate his week ... and I used to love going out to dinner with friends before services and then staying until I was one of the last people at the Oneg ... in my hectic lawyer-life, I never left room for me to just "hang out," so this was special time for me, just on Shabbat.

And now?  Shabbat most often consists of leading services and preaching, leading Torah study, and Havdallah, sprinkled with a hearty amount of B'nai Mitzvah celebrations.  Nowadays, my biggest Shabbat thrill is a nap.  I wonder if I will get my Shabbat nap tomorrow?   : )

No comments:

Post a Comment