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More thinking
about Shabbat.
In our Western secular
calendar, this time of year is often a time of transitions and
anticipation. On some level, either for ourselves or for our children or
grandchildren, we often are reflecting on the ending of an academic year
or program or making preparations for vacations or summer camp. In the
Jewish calendar, however, we are in one of those rare relatively
inactive periods, where there are no holidays per se besides our weekly
observance of Shabbat. We have just celebrated Shavuot, which concludes
the spring cycle of holidays that begins either with Purim or Tu b’Shvat,
and it will be another couple of months before we initiate the fall
holiday cycle with Rosh Hodesh Elul. Even if we think of Tisha b’Av and
its preparatory period as the initial point in this cycle, that still
leaves a calendar gap of nearly six weeks with nothing out of the
ordinary taking place.
For this reason, it seemed like a good time to use this column to update
everyone on the progress of our communal discussion around the
development of guidelines for our Havurah Shabbat practice. By the time
you receive this newsletter it will nearly be time for the fifth of our
five-session adult education series on the history of Shabbat. During
the first three sessions, we looked at Shabbat in the Bible and the ways
in which the Rabbinic tradition transformed the meaning and practice of
this central Jewish ritual observance. In the fourth session, which took
place on Shavuot, we examined the thinking of several modern Jewish
interpreters regarding their sense of what makes Shabbat special.
Finally, in the fifth session we’ll look at some of what has been
written about the meaning of Shabbat across the modern denominational
spectrum.
These sessions form the second phase of our communal process, the goal
of which is to formulate a set of Shabbat guidelines for ourselves in
the same way that we have Kashrut guidelines for food at all Havurah
events. The first phase was our three-session study of Values Based
Decision Making (VBDM) that took place last fall following the holidays.
The purpose of these sessions was to begin to familiarize ourselves with
this process (VBDM), which has been used with great success in the
Reconstructionist movement and in many other organizations around the
world. The intent is to arrive at decisions involving important and
challenging questions facing a group or an individual and to know that
these decisions are grounded in the core values of those who engage in
the deciding.
Our goal in this second phase was to mine the tradition for the core
values that have shaped the Shabbat experience for Jews throughout
history. In phase three, we will turn to the contemporary
Reconstructionist movement and our Havurah itself in order to add to the
list of values generated in phase two. Once we have a handle on this
group of values, we will begin discussions in which we apply these
values to our community’s Shabbat experience and begin to look at the
ways in which our practice is congruent and also at things we might want
to change. Obviously, there will be no decisions made without extensive
conversations with members of the community. This process so far has
been quite interesting and challenging (in a good way) and I expect that
the next phases will only be more so.
There is one dimension
of this process that I have heard has come across in somewhat ambiguous
terms, reinforced perhaps by the panel discussion at the Mel Scult
Shabbaton. So I would like to clarify things in an unambiguous way.
| The purpose of this process is
exclusively to assess our communal Shabbat practice — that is, how
we do Shabbat as a collective when we get together. |
This is in no way
intended to imply anything about what individual members do or don’t do
within the context of their own particular observance. I do believe that
the conversations that take place about our community may well lead to
individual members reflecting on their own practice, but to the extent
that happens, it will be an indirect and secondary outcome of the
process.
May we all find moments
for rest, relaxation and renewal over the course of this summer and may
we gather insight and commitment for the continuation of our
conversation about Shabbat as we head into the new Jewish year. Kaitz
Tov (A good summer to everyone)!
Rabbi
Steve
To learn
more about the study sessions on Shabbat,
click here.
To
read Rabbi Steve's November 2003 message on Shabbat,
click here. |