We only have time for one post today, as it’s less than an hour ’til Shabbos and the organic chicken we’re roasting for dinner remains pink and goose-pimpled, the vegetables unchopped. So instead of trying to report to you what happened in the Jewish world (you can always find out on your own anyway, but you love us) we can only once again try to express the relief and gratitude we feel when Friday night rolls around.
We, as you do, have a particular and personal relationship (or non-relationship) to Judaism, and while we’ve never come close to observing the halachic code, we make an effort (or really, a non-effort) to devote our Saturdays to nature, friends and family. We don’t carry money, if possible; then there are those mornings when the day cannot proceed without a professionally-prepared cappuccino. We rarely attend synagogue (but definitely if a bar or bat mitzvah we know is leading the service) because getting dressed up and driving forty minutes feels less holy than taking a meditative walk through the redwoods. We sleep a lot, watch dishes pile up in the sink, read. We don’t “observe” Shabbat as much as we immerse ourselves in it.
This week’s Torah portion is known as Vayakhel (Exodus 35:1-38:20) and emphasizes how Moses gathered the Sinai dwellers together and explained the day of rest as the center of Jewish life (“vayakhel” means “gathered together.”) The rest of the parsha deals with the specific details of building the tabernacle to house the holy tablets handed down to Moses, a physical creation to mirror the space in time that is Shabbat.
Rabbi Shraga Simmons writes:
Because Shabbos and the Tabernacle are one and the same. They are both links to a transcendent dimension. During the Jewish people’s 2,000 years of exile from the land following the destruction of our Holy Temple, Shabbos served as our sanctuary, the place to restore and refresh our perspective in a world often hostile to Torah values. As it is said: As much as the Jews have kept Shabbos, Shabbos has kept the Jews.
It’s also been said (The Talmud, Shabbat 118b) that if all Jews were to observe just two Shabbos’ properly, the final redemption would occur.
Considering our penchant for doing most everything improperly, humankind’s redemptio might take forever. But we’re doing our best. At the very least we’ll be back Monday rested and refreshed, as we hope you will, too.
Painting by SarahLeah.
Shabbat Shalom!