Everyone who observes Shabbat has had a moment when he or she really understood why Shabbat has been so vital to their lives. I certainly did. Though I grew up in a Shabbat-observant household, it was not until I was at university in England that I connected in a profoundly personal way with the peace and serenity that Shabbat observance brings.
At Cambridge, which is run on a trimester system, students have exams only once at the end of each year. The results of those exams determine one’s grades for the year, and the results of the third (and final) year are decisive for a student’s graduating grade and honors. This grading system engenders a lot of tension in undergraduates, and I certainly felt the strain. I worked all the time, reviewing material, studying for hours and hours – memorizing verbal forms, names, dates, literary movements, and biblical loanwords. I did not take many work breaks during the day because any time that I was not working was worrisome. It was in this intense atmosphere that I truly discovered Shabbat. Only Shabbat could stop me from working, release me from my worries, absolve me from guilt that I should be doing more. I was thankful for the commandment to rest, because without it, I would not have.
After graduation, as a young adult, one of the most powerful aspects of Shabbat observance for me was the private time it provided. While I enjoyed family time with my husband and socializing at meals with friends, an important joy of Shabbat came from recharging psychologically with quiet time for reading and thinking. Synagogue services were not as profoundly restful and meaningful as time alone to learn Torah or for tefilla. Sometimes, after Shaharit and Torah reading, I would finish the prayers privately and leave synagogue early to have quiet time on Shabbat morning. I loved the time Shabbat afforded me to read, look out the window, and just be quiet, unrushed, and peaceful.
When I came to work at Shearith Israel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, my Shabbat experience changed. Shabbat became much more about community for me: connecting with people, catching up, hearing what was happening. Shabbat is a great time to connect with my congregation, from the students in our Hebrew school and Junior Congregation, to adults with whom I learn Torah or discuss halakhic or communal matters, to the dedicated individuals who work to enhance hesed in the community, to members I am just beginning to know. Although the kiddush does not really allow deep and lengthy conversations, it is a chance to see people I may not see during the week and to make connections that I can develop further.
My teaching responsibilities on Shabbat – giving sermons after morning services, occasionally teaching the Shabbat afternoon class, and supervising Junior Congregation and the periodic women’s services – have also changed the rhythm and emphasis of Shabbat. Shabbat is now a day for communal engagement and concentrated teaching opportunities as well as collective prayer.
Prayer services have become a more central part of my Shabbat since I took the position. Happily, the service at Shearith Israel, with its hauntingly beautiful choral pieces, provides a meditative setting within which to greet Shabbat on Friday night. Through the Kabbalat Shabbat service, I am able to gain a sense of peace and greater appreciation of the transition from hol to kodesh, from the mundane to the sacred. I have a favorite choral piece, the 23rd psalm, which I anticipate each Friday, and with my eyes closed I follow its musical transitions with special attention, trying to imprint those beautiful harmonies into my mind to take home with me.
Afternoon and evening services at Shearith Israel have a quiet calm, and I enjoy the melodic chanting of psalms and the camaraderie in the women’s section, which is so well populated on Shabbat afternoons that last year we extended its seating capacity! We conclude services with habdalah, and I return home after Shabbat.
When I was a child, Shabbat was about community and family, Shabbat meals, and friends to see. My Shabbat experience changed during my years at college and as a young married woman. My communal position at Shearith Israel has helped me rediscover the public aspect of Shabbat that I knew as a child. One of the key texts about Shabbat in the Torah (Exodus 31:16-17) that is incorporated into the services in both Sephardic and Ashkenazic communities is “Veshameru – And the children of Israel will keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath for their generations, an eternal covenant. Between Me and them it is a sign forever that in six days God made the heaven and the earth and on the seventh day He stopped and was refreshed.” It is significant that the Torah phrases the commandment to observe Shabbat in the plural, because it is through groups coming together to make Shabbat that we spread awareness of God and of God’s involvement in the world, both within our community and beyond. Central to the significance of Shabbat is participating in a congregation of people who observe it together, constituting the “sign forever,” bearing witness each week to God’s creation of the world and to God’s involvement in its order. Benefiting from the peace and rest of Shabbat as an individual is undoubtedly important, but I feel that I have recovered the profound appreciation of Shabbat within the rhythms of a congregation through my role as a religious leader.