And on the seventh day, G-d rested.
On the sixth day the Israelites received a double portion of food when they were wandering in the wilderness so they wouldn’t have to collect manna on Shabbat. Manna is seen as a gift from G-d. In fact the word manna means gift.
Shabbat is also a gift. A gift of time. A chance to catch our breath. To rest up. To set a different pace.
As a rabbi, Shabbat for me is a work day. I jokingly asked Simon if he thought anyone would notice if I didn’t show up. He reminded me that this was a three Torah morning. So I went.
As I prepared yet another breakfast and raced out the door, I thought again about all those single parents sometimes working more than one job just to make ends meet who do not have the luxury of Shabbat. While it is luxury at some levels, much has been written about why having a day off a week (two days are even better), actually helps people be more productive. Yet, despite the efforts of many groups, especially unions, this is still considered a privilege, not a right. If you are juggling more than one job, it is even less likely that you will have a real day off. You might be off from one job and not the other.
Every week we sing at services we sing “V’shamru”, joyfully proclaiming the words from Exodus 31, “The people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath for all generations. It is a sign of the covenant between Me and the people of Israel for is six days Adonai made heaven and earth and on the seventh day G-d rested.”
Ahad Ha’am, the early Zionist said that “Just as Israel has kept the Sabbath, so has the Sabbath kept Israel.”
There is another prayer that says, “Those who keep the Sabbath and call it a delight shall rejoice in Your kingdom. The people that hallow the Sabbath will delight in Your goodness. For being pleased with the seventh day, You hallowed it and made it the most precious, special of days, to remember the work of Creation.
That sense of Oneg Shabbat—the delight, the joy of the Sabbath—I definitely experienced this week. We loved having our potluck dinner and opening our home. The food was good—and the conversation even better. We all left full, delighting in each other’s company.
Oneg Shabbat has also come to be the term for the food following the Friday evening service. It too was a delight. Plentiful and varied. And something for which to give thanks. The Sisterhood who sponsors it each week. The shoppers who make sure the food appears. And Susan who artfully arranges it, serves it and cleans up after us.
On Saturday morning following services there is more food. Kiddush. Which is really the term for the blessing over the wine, which sanctifies time and space. (More on that later since that is exactly what I talked about this week!). This week we had a sponsored Kiddush in honor of someone’s 80th birthday. Those are almost a luncheon with bagels, lox, cream cheese and all the fixings, egg salad, two kinds of herring, veggies and dip, and lots of sweets. It is fun to celebrate happy events in community this way. And more to be thankful for.
Shabbat afternoon there is actually a third meal. Seudah shlisheet. We were able to join with Ruth Messinger again for a discussion of the book “In the Shadows of the Banyan” about Cambodia and her most recent trip to Cambodia. When we walked in, she asked how our food challenge was going. We said that we were doing fine and in fact had saved $10 for precisely this event. However, we wound up not spending any of it, enjoying instead, just the good conversation and people’s reflections on Cambodia. We did not feel deprived since there was pastries and coffee available. I just didn’t feel like I needed more carbs or more coffee at 4PM. Nonetheless, like every day this week, I had my 4PM headache.
Places like synagogues, coffee houses, libraries, provide low cost or no cost entertainment and good intellectual stimulation. There must be other options too but we didn’t have time to find them this week. My mother swore by playgrounds. All of these are other ways to stretch budgets.
And all too soon, Shabbat was over and it was back to the real work world. Prepping for Hebrew School, readying flyers for a program at Costco called Matzah in the Aisle and sadly counseling a family that had just lost a loved one. A very late dinner of lentil stew, the stuff Jacob and Esau fought over. Ours was only 100 calories and $.55 a serving. And again, luckily for me and my schedule Simon made it. Healthy, hearty, warm on a cold spring night. Time for bed.