Shabbat Book

As we keep or break the Sabbath day, we nobly save or meanly lose the last and best hope by which man arises.

— PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN, NOVEMBER 13, 1862

All life should be a pilgrimage to the seventh day.

— RABBI ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL

Checking One’s Time Piece by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim (Germany, c. 1866)

Pleasurable Preparations Clearing Off Our Desk Before the Shabbat Vacation Celebrating Shabbat begins not with sundown feed your children or your whole family a but with the hours — and even days — pre- pre-Shabbat snack so that they will not Before leaving on a vacation people ceding it, transformed into the pleasures of be ravenous and impatient during the usually are consumed with myriad minor preparing for a beloved and honored guest and Friday night ceremonies before dinner. tasks, all the little accumulated chores friend. Here is a brief checklist for honoring The Children of Israel’s first experience that now clutter the desktop. this royal guest and getting your home, with Shabbat began on Erev Shabbat . . . Each uncompleted task has its yourself and your household members into — the “eve” of Shabbat which means not own claim on our freedom. And finishing the right mood. Do some, not necessarily all Friday evening but Friday morning. Recall them liberates us to begin our vacation. — and certainly, do them in the proper spirit: that Jewish days begin in the evening so Indeed, finishing the last one may mark your calendar and plan for Shabbat the “eve of Shabbat” is the morning and actually commence the vacation whether bake or buy a special treat — and at afternoon before sunset of the incoming or not we ever leave home. least two Hallahs and a good wine Shabbat. The first commandment was not . . . Now obviously no one can ever straighten up — put aside mentally and to refrain from work but to do double work complete all the little tasks. Sooner or clear away physically the workday items — to collect a double portion of manna later, as the vacation departure clock (muktzeh)from the table and out of the from Heaven which fell in double the usual ticks down, we decree arbitrarily that dining room amount on the day before Shabbat. The whether or not they are done, we are take a hot bath or shower two Hallahs on the Shabbat table signify done . . . We renounce their claims on us. put out and wear special clothing the double portion of Divine generosity as To do so requires great spiritual self- set the table with your most beautiful well as the extra work put in every Friday to control. service items enable us to eat well (while still refraining from further gathering and baking of bread Well, it is like that with the Day of arrange lighting and fragrance — flowers, on Shabbat). Even in the desert era of Being too. Every seventh day we clear perfume or incense, and Shabbat candles miraculous manna, Shabbat meals required off our desks. Of course we are not enjoy music — sung or played human effort and pre-planning. The Rabbis finished. And from the looks of our world, relax , take a deep breath, meditate applied the motto — “Whoever does not hopefully God isn’t finished either. — take in the sanctity of the moment prepare on the eve of Shabbat will not eat — LAWRENCE KUSHNER, contact those far away whom you love and on Shabbat” (ECCLESIATES RABBAH 1:36) — as THE BOOK OF WORDS: TALKING SPIRITUAL LIFE, hug, kiss and bless those close to you in LIVING SPIRITUAL TALK, JEWISH LIGHTS general advice for all aspects of life. your household

(evening) | Hallah | Talking Torah | Songs/Zemirot | Birkat HaMazon | Oneg/Pleasures | Kiddush (day) | Havdalah 13 Home-made Judaism ‘This is for Shabbat’ On every day of his life Shammai ate In getting ready for Shabbat, the physical God to dwell, also, within that space and in honor of Shabbat. How? When he activities prepare our soul for the time. That is why Maimonides requires chanced upon a nice piece of meat temporal passage from the weekday into everyone to participate in the physical [in the market, he would purchase it sacred time. It may be compared to the preparations for Shabbat even when there is and] declare, “This is for Shabbat.” spatial pilgrimage, the climbing of a holy nothing to prepare: If, on the following day, he found an mountain, in which getting to the top “Even if one is a person of high rank and even more desirable piece of meat, he involves a spiritual transition: the more does not as a rule attend to the shopping would set the second piece side [for effort, the harder the climb, the higher the or other household chores, one should Shabbat] and eat the first [during level of sanctity is reached. The Rabbis’ nevertheless perform one of these tasks the week] . . . From the first day of motto was lfum tzara agra, “the reward in preparation (Kibbud) — for Shabbat, the week direct your efforts towards is equal to the effort expended.” Or, in for that is the way to honor it. There were Shabbat. (TALMUD BEITZA 16A) mundane terms, the harder one works at great Talmudic scholars who used to split an achievement, the more it means. This is firewood for cooking, cook or salt meat, the key principle of “home-made Judaism”: plait wicks, light lamps or go to the market human meaning is derived not necessarily to buy food and drink for Shabbat. In fact, “An Extra Effort” from an external aura, a Divine emanation, none of them customarily performed such Wendy Mogel, consultant on raising but rather from our sanctification of time tasks on weekdays. However the more one children, comments that we need to put and space. The investment of the self in does in the way of preparation for Shabbat, extra effort into the Shabbat meal beyond something makes it sacred, and it invites the more commendable.” (MAIMONIDES, MISH- what is minimally necessary. “Even a trifle NE TORAH, SHABBAT LAWS 30:5) prepared in honor of Shabbat is called The farther in advance we Oneg Shabbat, a Shabbat delight.” (TALMUD prepare, the more the whole SHABBAT 118A) week is unified into a project “Jewish mysticism teaches us that food aimed toward its culmination starts out full of holy sparks and that we in Shabbat. have the opportunity to transform it and In a sense we can look elevate it further. How? By applying our upon the whole of Creation by humanness to it — by preparing it with God as six days of preparation care and arranging it attractively. for Shabbat. God’s six days “When you work hard at something of labor are analogous to it means more to you. Convenience “someone who sets about foods, although useful and practical, may to build a palace. First that undermine your family’s efforts to make person beautifies it and your table an altar. Children learn best then lays it out, hangs its from hands-on activities that involve many walls with embroideries and senses, so cooking and setting the table are afterwards sweeps the house excellent ways to transmit values. Since we and adorns it with tapestries have to eat anyway, cooking together, even Polishing Silver Candle Sticks for Shabbat. By Faige Beer, 1980. and woodcarvings.” (GENESIS infrequently, covers two bases: quality time (Beit Hatefutsot Archive) RABBAH ON GENESIS 1) and getting a necessary job done.

14 “Judaism commands us to perform hiddur miztvot, to beautify the com- Welcoming mandments, to go the extra mile. By Shabbat preparing special foods and setting the table with special care for Shabbat dinner, the mystics say that we get a taste of the world to come. “At our house, everybody gets involved in the Shabbat dinner preparations. My husband does the cooking. I cut the flowers from the garden and the children arrange them and set the table with the ritual objects: kiddush cup, candles, and Hallah. We don’t have exciting deserts during the week but for Shabbat dinner I take down an etched glass cake stand with a pedestal and put on a paper doily. It’s my younger daughter’s job to arrange the bakery cookies or rugalach or fruit tart on the stand. Shabbat dinner is a big production that I would never consider doing on a daily basis. But it caps our week, slows us down, and draws us together in a powerful way.” (WENDY MOGEL, THE BLESSING OF A SKINNED KNEE)

The Next Generation’s Matza Ball Soup (Dorfman kitchen, Long Beach, Mississippi). Photo by Bill Aron.

The Spiritual Hot Tub Preparing one’s home and one’s table to greet the Divine pres- our world, we must prepare and perfect the body, for the body is ence is inadequate without preparing one’s own body and mind. the throne for the spiritual . . . Like the house, the body must be restored.” (MOSHE CORDOVERO, TEFILLA LE-MOSHE 10:2) “Every eve of Shabbat, Rabbi Judah ben Ilai asked that a tub filled with warm water be brought to him. In it he would wash After the body is refreshed, it is time for a weekly meditative his face, his hands and his feet. Then as he sat wrapped in his moment using the the special mood, melodies and lyrics of linen robes with the tzizit fringes, he seemed like an angel of Kabbalat Shabbat. At home, that can be achieved with the proper God’s heavenly armies.” (TALMUD NEDARIM 49B) music (perhaps played or hummed or sung) and various kavanot — inspirational words that focus our attention. This moment “The Kabbalists — Jewish mystics — viewed the hot bath as a is the turning point of Shabbat as we move sharply from the mikveh for spiritual purification and rebirth. activity of “making Shabbes” to the receptivity of welcoming the “In order to receive the holiness [of Shabbat] that flows into sacred Shekhina.

15 Holiness in the kitchen — spirituality and hallah baking

Taking Hallah

After kneading, recite this blessing and remove some dough to be baked separately. ,Ba-rukh ata Adonai בָּרוּ אַתָּה יְיָ BLESSED ARE YOU, Adonai ,Elo-hei-nu me-lekh ha-olam אֱהֵינוּ מֶלֶ הָעוֹלָם, ,our God, Ruler of the Universe asher ki-d’shanu b’mitz-votav אֲשֶׁר דְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו who has sanctified us with mitzvot v’tzi-vanu, l’haf-rish וְצִוָּנוּ, לְהַפְישׁ and commanded us to separate out .Hallah min ha-isa חַלָה מִן הָעִסָּה. .[a portion of dough [in your honor And then the baker sets aside that dough and declares: !Harei zu Hallah הַי זוּ חַלָה! !THIS IS THE HALLAH

Tekhina/Meditation In Praise of Not So Simple Hallah The Original Baker’s Gift

of Hallah Lord of all the worlds, all blessing is in Listen to this beautiful meditation on human your hands. I come now to honor your interdependence and the human chain of food Some scholars suggest that the word holiness, and pray you to give your production: “Hallah” derives from the ancient blessing on what I bake. Send an angel to Babylonian (Akkadian) for “pure.” “When Ben Zoma would survey with his guard the baking, so that everything will Technically, the word Hallah does not refer eyes a massive crowd gathered on the Temple be well baked, will rise nicely, and will to the “egg twist bread” that was typical Mount, he would bless them: Baruch Hakham not burn. May this baking, over which among Eastern European Jewry, but rather Razim/Blessed is the Possessor of the Wisdom we make the holy blessing, honor your to a sacred gift to God (NUMBERS 15:18-20): of the Secrets (referring to the fact that none holy Shabbat, which you have chosen that “When you enter the land to which I am of the people there had identical minds, faces your people Israel may rest thereon. God, taking you and you eat of the bread of the or talents). Thank God that you created all listen to my voice, for you are the one land, you shall set aside the first yield of your who hears those who call upon you with of them to serve my needs. Think how many baking as a gift [terumah] to God.” This is the whole heart. May you be praised to exertions Adam had to invest before he could one of 24 gifts that the Cohen received for eternity. produce bread to eat. He had to plow, plant, his labors as our representative to God in — SEYDER TKHINES, 1650, 1752 harvest, sheave, trample, winnow, sort, grind, the Temple. sift, knead, bake and only then finally eat. “Hallah” is the portion of every bread But I, by contrast, wake up early and find baked by a Jew that was once given to the God everything already prepared and set forth Temple and today is removed from the for me . . . In fact, all the nations of the world Recipe to You dough and burned. Although originally energetically come to my door to provide me Two Parts Challenge, One Part Awe the Hallah offering was made only in the Slowly Rising Dough. these goods and I just wake up and find them land of Israel in special appreciation of all before me.” the fertility of the land that God granted — JENI FRIEDMAN — TALMUD BERACHOT 58A to us, the Rabbis extended its obligation to

16 include everywhere in the world. When Benta and Marcelle’s baking bread (made from wheat, barley, Jerusalem Hallah Recipe Welcoming spelt, rye or oat flour) the dough is subject Take a wide bowl: Shabbat to the laws of Hallah (MISHNAH HALLAH 1: 1) for any volume over 21⁄2 lbs. or 1250 2/3 cup (150 ml) vegetable oil grams). One takes a symbolic amount 1 cup regular sugar (or less, according to (generally an ounce or about 25 grams) your family’s taste) while saying the blessing and declaring 3 teaspoons salt this piece of dough to be dedicated: “This 2 cups (500 ml) warm water is the Hallah!” The dough that is set aside Then stir once and add 3 tablespoons (50 is baked but not eaten. Some people place grams) dry yeast, stirring briefly. it on a windowsill for the birds. Let this mixture settle for about 5-8 Because on Shabbat one is particularly minutes until the yeast starts to bubble. careful to remove the “Hallah,” the offering, the loaves themselves also came Add 2 lb. (1 kilo) flour (You may substitute to be known as Hallah, literally, bread whole wheat, but use less than 2 lb.) You from which an offering has been removed. can add seeds or raisins to the dough. On Shabbat, the two Hallahs are eaten Mix well using a wooden spoon or by hand. whole and unsliced, recalling the Divine While kneading, add more flour until the abundance, reflected in the gift of the mixture becomes smooth and elastic. Baking Hallah in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Detail from photo by Bill Aron. double portion of manna from heaven Place the mixture in a large bowl, cover that the people of Israel received while in it with towel. In my home I place the At this point you take off a small portion the desert (EXODUS 16:22). bowl on top of a hot water bottle under a from the dough, say the bracha/blessing Since it was usually the woman who blanket, so it stays warm and the yeast can over the separation of Hallah (SEE PAGE 16). baked in the home, the laws of Hallah do its job. Other bakers place the mixture Prepare baking pans with baking paper. have fallen particularly upon her and near a source of heat (low oven, outside in Pour some flour on a smooth surface and women have written and recited beautiful the sun). After about an hour the mixture braid the Hallah. This amount of dough tekhinot, personal prayers to accompany should have doubled in size and you can yields 4 big Hallahs or 6 medium size or their breadbaking for the household. proceed. about 16 small rolls. Before putting the Hallah into the oven, beat an egg into a small bowl and baste the Hallah. Then you Recipe for Liberation may add sesame seeds on top.

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C), bake for 15- First make the vision and allow it to simmer until all the right relationships are 18 minutes for regular size Hallah, less for made. Gently combine outspokenness and righteousness with care and joy. Stirring rolls. constantly, add decisive leadership. Knead love and closeness until smooth. Roll out support on a foundation of trust. Cut the drama and bring the rough edges For special events (b’nai mitzvah, birthdays, together in a well-organized plan with a heaping tablespoon of boldness. A pinch of weddings) my family shapes the dough chutzpah will ensure a tight seal, but leave a small gap of flexibility in the center to to form letters of a name or numbers of a allow steam to escape. Brush with a topping of humanity and bake until firm. birthday.

— BETH GROSSMAN, AMERICAN ARTIST Make sure to take a photograph of your letter-Hallah decoration!

17 temptation by the Other Side.” The danger, Last minute: preparations, pressures is that Satan — by inciting quarrels during that hour — will undermine peace in the home and defile Shabbat’s holiness. In the hours — and then the last minutes — before the candles are lit and Shabbat begins, the Jewish home sees a flurry of activity. The transition when coming home “The afternoon before Shabbat is a time of from work and school, preparing details for a sit-down meal, urging everyone to be danger that generates marital conflicts. The ready on time, anticipating the arrival of guests — all this may create stress. The diabolical “Other Side”/Sitra Akhra — Satan — last-minute bustle of activity is essential to help make Shabbat more beautiful, but exerts himself to incite fights. So a cautious this time period may also be laced with emotional dangers: family conflict, dueling person will control the inclination to get priorities, and parents nudging children. Yet by the time the candles are lit, an angry and to start a fight. Instead one should atmosphere of tranquil sanctity can illuminate the home. The following traditional pursue peace. Of course people who argue customs and reminders may help create that atmosphere. with their spouse and children certainly think themselves to be in the right. But the truth is, for anyone with a brain in his head, put pressure on spouses and children that whatever went wrong [for which they A Mystical Warning: Beware! trying to work effectively under time are blaming their spouse] is really no one’s A Time of Marital Conflict constraints. Kabbalistic masters fault. It is a provocation created by Satan to As Shabbat draws closer and understood these pressures and referred promote strife. So anyone who is intelligent closer, household preparations sometimes to the pre-Shabbat hour as the “time of . . . will not argue with or berate the other members of the household for things that have gone wrong.” (BEN ISH CHAI, IRAQ, 19TH

CENTURY)

PreShabbat Coffee and Cake:

The Bo’i Kallah/ “Come, My Bride” Reception Some families taste all their Shabbat cooking on late Friday afternoon to make sure it is all ready. That creates a flavorful anticipation. In Morocco and Tunisia it was customary for Jews to set a table of sweets and to drink coffee or alcoholic beverages in order to relax after all the Shabbat preparations had been made. That pre-Shabbat “coffee break” was called the meal of Bo’i Kallah — the “Come, my Bride” reception. If we reinstitute this custom, then it may calm the nerves as well as whet the palates of children and adults alike. It also makes it easier to sing and to do all the blessings on Friday night prior to dinner, when one has already eaten something earlier. Alphonse Levy (France, 19th century) 18 Teaching Our Children Welcoming Weekly Shabbat giving at candle lighting works Shabbat most effectively when the teaching and practice צְדָה Tzedakah of giving money or possessions away to those who need them is consistent. As an influential sixteenth-century work of Jewish ethics teaches, “A person who gives a thousand gold pieces to 1. Before lighting the Shabbat candles, COLLECT ALL YOUR LOOSE a worthy person is not as generous as one who CHANGE (with the help of your children) and put it in a Tzedakah gives a thousand gold pieces on a thousand box which has a special place near the Shabbat candelabrum. different occasions, each to a worthy cause.” 2. You may wish to recite this MEDITATION: Here I am ready to (ORCHOT TZADDIKIM) give some Tzedakah to fulfill the mitzvah of “Love your neighbor One technique, used by some parents to train their children to give, is to keep a Tzedakah as you love yourself, I am God.” (LEVITICUS 19:18) (charity) box — known in Yiddish as a pushke in the house, and insert coins in it just before — וְאָהַבְתָּ לְעֲ כָּמוֹ, אֲנִי יהוה. lighting the Shabbat candles. Since Jewish tradition prohibits the use of money on the Sabbath, it is a powerful lesson to children that one’s last use of funds before the holy day is for Even the poor who are supported by Tzedakah must give from charity. (JOSEPH TELUSHKIN) what they receive. — RABBI YOSEF KARO, SHULCHAN ARUCH, YOREH DEAH 248:1 J.N.F Blue and White Box: Pulling

Ourselves Up by Our Bootstraps As you or your parents may remember, the blue Hillel used to say: and white box for contributions to the Jewish If I am not for myself, who is for me? National Fund, Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael, were in every Hebrew school and on many mantles If I care only for myself, what am I? next to the Shabbat candles. Herzl envisioned If not now, when? a national effort to redeem the Jewish people that — PIRKEI AVOT 1:14 would not rely on the rich philanthropists but on simple Jews of very modest means contributing The main point of God’s instructing us to give Tzedakah is so a coin at a time to creating the capital for reclaiming our homeland. While people refer to that brothers will help one another and so that all of us those contributions as Tzedakah or as charitable know that we are children of the same human being, born of gifts, they are in fact something very different one spark, one limb with a connection to the heavens above. in intent. They were meant not to relieve the So if one is suffering and depressed in pain of poverty, immediate needs of the poor but to help a poor nation, small, persecuted, and exiled, to regain its others must support him/her with Tzedakah. So too God own dignity and redeem its endangered life and must support us for we are part of the heavenly God. establish its political and economic independence.

— RABBI BINYAMIN BEN MATTAYA, THE KABBALIST On the earliest boxes which displayed a map

19 of Israel they also had the verse: “You shall redeem the land” which the early Zionists took as a mitzvah to pull themselves up by the bootstraps by investing in our own Reflections you should understand that God has sent empowerment, rather than on Tzedakah you to help the needy, not to refer the complaining about being poor back to God.” victimized and demanding that others give us our rights. “Magic Money” — The True Believer That “fund” was used for The First Rule of Tzedakah buying land from absentee Money — miraculous, wondrous, awesome. Belief in Judaism is related to self- landlords and giving it to I know $100 that bought a deaf woman a transcendence. It involves not only dogma workers, reclaiming malaria- weekend at a convention of fellow Jews that and doctrine but also the psychological infested swamps, and brought her warmth, friends and the end of ability to acknowledge and respond to resettling refugees. Now the loneliness. I know $3 that bought a tree that that which is other than oneself. A person JNF works on reforesting the comforted parents on the death of a child who is imprisoned within his private ecologically ravaged “land and another $3 that bought another tree that needs and interests may be characterized of milk and honey,” and elated other parents on the birth of a child. as a non-believer insofar as his life lacks managing our limited water the dimension of self-transcendence. A The first rule of Tzedakah work is never resources. person may utter the words “I believe,” to lose our sense of wonder and of awe yet if he is unresponsive to others and Clearly this is not an act of . . . then money becomes magic. It goes generally unmoved by the world beyond Christian charity but the highest through metamorphosis, becoming now his private domain, he fails to demonstrate form of Tzedakah, for it transforms food packages for Passover, a hat that brings belief in a transcendent God. dependence into independence by dignity to one who needs just that — a new giving a people employment and hat. It buys gasoline to transport the old — DAVID HARTMAN AND TZVI MARX the dignity accompanying it. Israel when they have become too old to drive. It — the people and the land — still buys sewing machines for retraining mental The Mystical and the Practical needs those investments in our own patients. It buys spoons for those who must Love of One’s Neighbor “venture capital” fund, for it grants us be spoon-fed . . . and pays salaries for spoon- The Kabbalist master, HaAri of Safed, the opportunity to survive, to flourish, feeders to do the work. used to begin each day of prayer “by and to continue the Jewish collective By a regular and recurring awareness accepting upon himself the mitzvah: ‘love adventure. of the power and possibilities of Tzedakah, your neighbor as yourself’” (LEVITICUS 19: each Jew can become more aggressive and 18). In reciting a prayer of request, if your Do You Have Sick Relative? creative in his or her own giving. friend is in trouble, then everyone must

A Friend in Need of — DANIEL SIEGEL partake in the friend’s pain and add his/ a Good Word? her prayers to your own.” Just before Shabbat do a mental check You Are God’s Hands Some rabbis extend this love and the — any sick or sad relatives or friends? prohibition to saying anything negative Perhaps give them a call and wish them a The Leover Hassidic Rebbe taught: about a fellow human and even about an tranquil Shabbat. Do you still have time “If people come to you for assistance and animal. HaAri recommended that each to drop off cake or Shabbat candles at you tell them, ‘God will surely help you,’ day end by proclaiming forgiveness to their home? then you are acting disloyally to God. For anyone who has insulted him that day.

Investing Securely Look Through the Glass

Tales of giving in One’s Future Welcoming Once a Hassidic rebbe went to collect Shabbat During years of scarcity King Monobaz Tzedakah to the house of an infamously A Story: Fundraising spent all of his own treasures and the wealthy but selfish and lonely person. “Will

as Consciousness Raising treasures of his ancestors on Tzedakah. you give something for the poor?” asked the His brothers and the other members of rebbe. “For the poor? Why doesn’t anyone During the freezing Lithuanian winters, his family joined together in reproaching ever think of me? All anyone wants is my Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, head of the Mussar him: “Your ancestors stored away money! But I worked hard for it and I am Movement for increasing ethical senstivity treasures adding to the treasures of their keeping it for myself.” in the Orthodox world, needed to collect ancestors, and you squander them!” He The rebbe said: “Go to the glass window contributons to buy fuel for the yeshivah replied, “My ancestors stored away in and tell me what you see.” The rich person where his students studied in the a place where the hand of others can desribed the people in the street. Then the numbing cold. prevail, while I have stored away in rebbe picked up a looking glass and held it up Early one morning dressed in a warm a place where the hand of others cannot to his face. “Now what do you see?” The man fur coat, Reb Yisrael went to the home prevail. My ancestors stored away answered: “Why, I see only myself.” of a wealthy, but not very philanthropic something that produces no fruit, while man. The wealthy man, still dressed in his I have stored away something that does The rebbe replied: “That is your lesson for nightgown, opened the door and invited produce fruit. My ancestors stored away today. Look at the silver [which is used to the rabbi in. But Reb Yisrael remained in treasures of money, while I have stored seal the back of a mirror] and you see only the doorway and began a long presentation away treasures of souls. My ancestors yourself. Take away the silver and you can see seemingly unaware that his host was stored away for others, while through the glass to the rest of the community. shivering with cold. The host’s teeth were I have stored away for myself. My Perhaps then they will see you and care about chattering and before long his lips turned ancestors stored away for this world, you as well.” blue, but the rabbi continued. while I have stored away for the world- to-come.” (TALMUD BABA BATRA 11B) Thinking he was about to faint, the host finally interrupted the rabbi and persuaded him, with difficulty, to come in. As they warmed themselves by the fire, Reb Yisrael explained, “I am sure you are wondering about my strange conduct. ‘G’ Is for Giving — Tzedaka Box, by Beth Why didn’t I accept your first invitation to Grossman, www.bethgrossman.com come in from the cold? Well, my students While teaching my two year old son, Avi, to are freezing and we need money for fuel. share his toys, I was surprised to find that being If I had asked you to help while you were generous doesn’t come naturally. Generosity, the capacity for giving unreservedly and without warm and comfortable, you would not expectation of reward, is one of the defining have begun to understand what it means qualities of Judaism. One of the challenges in to study in an unheated room in subzero creating a Jewish home for my family is making abstract ideas concrete in our rituals and weather. Now that you feel what they practice. As a Jewish mother, it is my privilege feel, I am sure that you will help me.” to teach my son the skills he will need to help his Indeed, the wealthy man provided the generation continue the work of healing the world. This tzedakah box of children’s wooden blocks fuel for the house of study as long as he is about building the foundation for giving and lived. sharing abundance.

21 Logo at left: Ten Fingers by Dan Reisinger (Folk Art Gallery, 1974) The Deep Breaths of All of You

To put ourselves in a proper mood for optimistic thought, we need a new evaluation. Take a deep breath, please, and כַּוָּנוֹת Meditations hold tight, for I am taking you on a tour of Setting a mood of sanctity the universe, on a quick trip to the corners of the world, on an exploration of unusual Menucha Shlemah/ Kavanah perspectives — all in the interest of a

A Perfect Rest discussion of the one world of humankind. I love to change the world, We shall talk of simple things starting True rest doesn’t affect us only when we are but I rarely appreciate things as they are. with that deep breath, which you may now resting. It spills over into our weeks, our I know how to give, distribute into surrounding space. years, our very lives. The days preceding but I don’t always know how to receive. That breath, which you found so the day of rest become days of excitement I know how to keep busy, necessary and natural, unites you quietly and expectation. Even the most harried but I don’t know how to be still. with the rest of us all over the earth. It workdays become tolerable when you know I talk, but I don’t often listen. was a volume of the moving air of your a day of holy peace is shortly arriving. The I look, but I don’t often see. immediate locality, and most of it has now days succeeding the day of rest become I yearn to succeed, gone forth to join again the winds of the days of light, too. They shimmer with the but I often forget what is truly planet, to join the international stock of afterglow of a revived spirit. important. terrestrial atmosphere. True rest gives us a completely different Teach me, God, to slow down. A year from now I shall breathe in and perspective on all of life’s difficulties. It May my resting revive me. out a good many thousands of the nitrogen allows us to heal, to reflect, to give thanks, May it lead me to wisdom, to holiness, molecules which a minute ago were in the and to face whatever lies ahead with a to peace and to You. Deep Breaths of all of you. Wherever you renewed sense of calm. — NAOMI LEVY, FROM TO BEGIN AGAIN — NAOMI LEVY are, you too, will be re-breathing some of the Deep Breath of a minute ago. I shall Breathing Meditation unknowingly have intimate association with you and, of course, you with me.

Breathe slowly and deeply, in and out. — HARLOW SHAPELY, ASTRONOMER Let the clouds of your breath carry your daily thoughts away, Breathing is God’s Name Until your mind begins to calm. Breathe slowly and deeply, “God passed [by Elijah’s cave at Mount in and out, in and out. Sinai] and there was a great and mighty Be here. See here. Feel here. wind, splitting mountains and shattering Smell here. Be now. rocks, before Adonai. But Adonai was not Be here. See here. Feel here. in the wind. Smell here. Be now. “After the wind, came an earthquake. Let Shalom be your core. But Adonai was not in the earthquake.

— RON ROSENBLATT

22 “After the earthquake, came the fire. If God’s Name is the Name of Being, But Adonai was not in the fire. then perhaps breathing itself is the sound Welcoming “Then after the fire, there was a voice — of the unpronounceable Name. Find a place Shabbat a still small voice, [the softly barely and a time that are quiet enough to hear the audible sound of almost breathing].” sound of your own breathing. Simply listen (I KINGS 19:11-12) to that barely audible noise and intend that with each inhalation and exhalation you The letters of the name of God in sound the Name of Being. It may be no Hebrew are yod, hay, vav, and hay. They accident that this exercise is universally are frequently mispronounced Yahveh. But acknowledged as an easy and effective in truth they are unutterable. Not because method for focusing and relaxation. of the holiness they evoke, but because they are all vowels and you cannot pronounce — LAWRENCE KUSHNER all the vowels at once without risking respiratory injury. The word is the sound of breathing. The The “Shabbos Box” to Store Away holiest Name in the world, the Name of the Creator, is the sound of your own breathing. Workaday Tools and Worries That these letters are unpronounceable is Just before Shabbat some traditional Jews take care to empty their pockets of no accident. Just as it is no accident that anything work-related. That is called muktzeh. Wayne Muller, a Protestant they are also the root letters of the Hebrew minister fascinated by the practice of Shabbat, reports his visit to the rabbi, verb “to be.” Scholars have suggested that Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and his wife: a reasonable translation of the four-letter “They told me that in some families it is customary to make a Shabbos box to Name of God might be: The One Who hold all the equipment you do not need on the Sabbath: pens, car keys, wallets, Brings Into Being All That Is. So God’s etc. On Friday someone stands at the door with the Shabbos box and as people Name is the Name of Being itself. And, enter the house for the evening meal, they put in anything they know should since God is holy, then so is all creation. not be taken into sacred space. Then, stripped of all our tools and machines, we At the burning bush Moses asks God truly pray, God, there is nothing I can do about these concerns, so I know it is in for God’s Name, but God only replies with your hands . . . .” Ehyeh-asher-ehyeh, often Then Wayne Muller suggests to his Christian audience that they adopt this incorrectly rendered by custom as well. the static English, “I am who I am.” But in truth “Make a Sabbath box. When you set aside time for Sabbath, whether it is one the Hebrew future is hour, a morning, or a day put in the box those things you do not want to use unequivocal: “I will [such as a palm pilot or, to symbolize the computer, a diskette]. be who I will be.” “You can also use the Shabbos box to hold all the things you feel you have left Here is a Name undone. Perhaps write down on a small piece of paper a word or phrase that (and a God) signifies a particular worry or concern you would like to leave behind for the who is neither time being . . . For whatever remains to be done, for now, let it be. It will not get completed nor done tonight . . . Let it be. Then at the end of your Sabbath time, be aware of how finished. This you open the box, and how you respond to what you receive back into your life.” God is literally — WAYNE MULLER, SABBATH: RESTORING THE SACRED RHYTHM OF REST not yet.