Barbara: Hi, everyone. Welcome to 40 minutes of faith. My name is Barbara Cox and I host this weekly podcast to explore God's word and our relationship with God. Today's guest is Linda Greenberg and our topic is Sabbath. I met Linda when we were both attending Simmons university in Boston for our undergraduate degrees.
Linda is Jewish and describes herself as reconformadox, which means not belonging to any one branch, but following the meaningful interpretations of many different rabbis. Linda is from Ohio, lived in Nebraska and Massachusetts and currently lives in the Philadelphia suburbs where she works in the pediatric field.
Linda dreams of world peace with acceptance of all by all. Welcome Linda, how are things in Pennsylvania?
Linda: Things are beautiful blossoming, and the world is coming back to life.
Barbara: Wonderful. I love creation at this time of year.
So our scripture verse today is from Exodus chapter 20 verse 11. “For in six days, the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them. And he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.”
יאכִּ֣י שֵֽׁשֶׁת־יָמִים֩ עָשָׂ֨ה יְהֹוָ֜ה אֶת־הַשָּׁמַ֣יִם וְאֶת־הָאָ֗רֶץ אֶת־הַיָּם֙ וְאֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר־בָּ֔ם וַיָּ֖נַח בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֑י עַל־כֵּ֗ן בֵּרַ֧ךְ יְהֹוָ֛ה אֶת־י֥וֹם הַשַּׁבָּ֖ת וַֽיְקַדְּשֵֽׁהוּ:
It seems obvious to me, Linda, why you recommended this particular passage for today. And several previous podcast episodes have touched briefly on the subject of spending time with God on our faith journeys. What are some different ways of saying Sabbath and how is it different from vacation?
Linda: Okay, great question. Well, the Hebrew word Shabbat means to rest or to stop. And that's really where I think your question focuses. Are we just stopping work or is there more to it? One of my favorite rabbis, rabbi Heschel. Wrote a book called Shabbat and in it, he stressed the importance of Sabbath in a modern life for him.
He saw it as a retreat temporarily from our workday routine and creating within time, he calls the Shabbat a palace in time. And I really love that description because it's supposed to be not just stopping work, but it is supposed to be a day of holiness. A time of family and communing with God.
It's interesting. You read from Exodus 20, but really the first time it's mentioned is that the very, very beginning at Genesis two. Verses one to three, “Heaven and earth and all their components were completed with the seventh day. God finished all the work that he had done. He ceased on the seventh day from all the work that he had been doing.”
And here's the key, the crux: God blessed the seventh day and declared it to be Holy for it was on this day that God ceased from all the work. That he had been creating to function. And I think that is really the key, the whole idea that it's a day of holiness a day where you're building your relationship with God.
And I think that's at least in the Jewish tradition, the main emphasis.
Barbara: Great. And that makes sense, because we might think, well, I stopped work when I'm on vacation, but typically on vacation, the focus isn't drawing closer to God. I mean, unless you can do that maybe in nature or something, but if you're on a cruise or at Disney or at the beach or something like that typically most folks aren't devoting that to be a day of holiness, like you were describing,
Linda: right.
Barbara: I was curious about the weekly routine that you practice, and I imagine that when you set aside a specific time period on a regular basis for this Holy day, does it get a little busy right before you stop working?
Linda: Judaism has its traditional ways of celebrating Shabbat. And there are many different interpretations, just like there are many different interpretations in the Christian faith of the same passages. And the key thing with getting ready for Shabbat is that you're not working. You might say, Oh, I go to school. So I'm not going to type up my essay ,or I am a teacher, I'm not going to grade reports or whatever your job is. I'm in construction, I won't pick up a hammer. It's much, much more defined than that. And that's really key in preparation. In the Jewish tradition, words are really analyzed from the Hebrew. And the word used for work in the Genesis passage is not used that many times. There are other words for work. And so what the rabbis did was they said, okay, where else is the word “work” that we can find it in the exact same Hebrew? And it's interesting because what the rabbis noted was you have in Genesis, you have again in Exodus 31, where there are a couple of things happening.
The instructions are being given to build a tabernacle when the Jews are wandering from Egypt. And then the other thing, all of a sudden in the middle of explaining how to build this tabernacle, there's a reminder that you have to remember this Shabbat. And so the rabbis took this and they said, huh, there are 39 forbidden areas of work based on the 39 descriptions of work to build the tabernacle. So simple things such as cutting, such as dying wool, weaving, cutting, kindling, fire, hitting things with a hammer. And so in preparation for Shabbat, you have to say, okay, I am not permitted in traditional Judaism to do these things, which means basically everything needs to be cooked ahead.
You're not going to suddenly Saturday morning, get up and say, Oh, you know, I think for lunch after synagogue, I want to have a giant roast and I want to have potatoes and blah, blah, blah. Nope. By Friday sunset, all the cooking has to be done. Okay. So as it gets closer to Friday, sunset, hopefully you are prepared.
I can tell you a friend of mine always says the Sabbath waits for no one. So when it's time to light those candles, your work has to be done. And if you didn't bake your cake, well, you're not going to have cake on Shabbat. You know, life will continue. So personally we don't follow every law at my house, but what we do is the spirit of it.
I try to have prepared everything as much as I can. If you were to come into my house, you'll see the table is covered with a really pretty white tablecloth. We have our candle sticks ready. The electronic devices are plugged in because they're not supposed to be used on Shabbat. And so there's a lot of getting everything ready in a more traditional household than mine.
People won't turn on and off electricity, because it's been interpreted as kindling fire. There are different reasonings. Or, you won't drive a car, so you better have your car parked. There are definitely stories. I know of people driving gang stuck on 95. Because life happens, and literally pulling off in the first community they can, calling a rabbi and saying, I'm stuck here for Shabbat and being housed.
Barbara: Talk about hospitality. That's wonderful.
Linda: You thought it'd be a two hour trip and it's now four hours and you're in trouble. So basically, preparation is getting ready so that you don't work and it's a lot more effort ahead, it makes the day that much more enjoyable.
Barbara: And that's exactly why I asked, because I've talked with a number of folks who are Christian and said, yeah, yeah, someday, wouldn't it be nice if we could have more Sabbath time sort of conceptually, but the invitation is how can we create space? And I can't stay home for vacation because I think, well, I've got laundry piling up. I might as well cook while I'm here. I'm not going to eat in a restaurant every day when I'm home, but this is exactly what we're saying. You can be home and have this time, to me, that's precious, set aside. I'm guessing no laundry. And you already talked about cooking and no electronic devices.
Linda: If you're very traditional, you won't do laundry at all. If I have a kid who becomes ill in the middle of the night, I will do the sheets, but normally we don't do laundry.
Barbara: And then instead of only talking about the don't do's, I bet there's a wonderful amount of what you can do and how you spend your time together as a family, or maybe even some personal time during this period.
Linda: Oh, a hundred percent. You know, during the week, especially now during COVID dinners are eating together at my house as a family.
Dinner is very different on Friday night, there's discussion of the week's Torah. We traditionally divide the five books of Moses. So that each week you just read a little bit. So by the end of the year, you just restart. So there's discussion of that. We'll sing traditional songs. Saturday afternoon is our game day. After synagogue and lunch, we play lots of games. I have a whole shelf full of different games. I personally am part of a women's group that reads Psalms and I've gotten my girls involved in that.
So we make sure we get those read on Shabbat as part of a community effort. We know somebody reading one of the 150, so that the entire book is read. Throughout the community and keeping in mind, people who need strength for healing as well. So some of it's a little fun. Some of it's a little spiritual.
Barbara: Do you have any other comments in terms of making this day Holy and set aside and special?
Linda: how we usher in Shabbat is really special. We have on our refrigerator magnet with every Friday listed for the year and what time we have to light candles. That sunset time is when we usher in Shabbat. And it's actually a 25 hour period from beginning to end. And I love that we bring shabbat in with lighting candles because when you light a candle, it illuminates our world. You're adding light into the world that may be dark and negative.
And it's one of the things that we're taught as Jews is our mission on this world is to bring light into the world, bring God's holiness into the world. And there are different ways of doing that, but it just sort of reinforces that idea, that bonding of bringing light, bringing God into the world. And there's some mystics who say on Shabbat, you get the special, additional soul.
And when you light the candles, you're ushering in that soul. There's a song that’s sung literally all over the world. As you bring in Shabbat, Shalom, which means peace be with you and it's basically four stanzas and it's just so beautiful to usher in. This piece, but what you're doing in addition as you're welcoming angels into your house, and you're welcoming the words, I'm not going to tell you every word. But it's basically welcoming them. And asking for blessings of peace, wishing them a peaceful departure when it ends and it's really a beautiful custom.
Barbara: And in addition to the spiritual aspects of all of this, it comes across to me that there's really some practical stuff. You probably have a list that you're running through your head. You gave the example of the table and the candles and making sure you have your food preparation. And then you can just have this time of peace because you worked ahead of time.
Linda: Oh, a hundred percent. My kids know about five minutes before the time, I'm “calmly, quietly.” There may be a little scramble at the end, especially in the winter when it starts so early. That's always a scramble, but this time of year when it's later, then it's much easier. And our house as well as many Jewish households is when you sit down for dinner, it's not just diving into dinner.
You've lit your candles. And then what goes on next? And this varies in house to house. Traditionally, the parents will bless the children. At my house, we actually do it at bedtime Friday night because I have four kids. So this way we can really make it special for each one as they're about to go to bed.
But the tradition is to do it at the Sabbath table and the blessing. Depending if you're doing girls or boys the opening is slightly different for boys. It's may God make you like Ephraim and Menasha; for girls, May God make you like Sarah, Rifka and Rochel and Aleia, and then you continue to the three-part blessing.
May God bless you and keep you my God shine light on you and be gracious to you. May God turn toward you and grant you peace. And so basically what you're doing is you're saying to your children, if they're boys Ephraim and Menasha, who were Jacob's grandchildren, who he blessed right before his death, they were Joseph's children who were born in exile, but yet kept up the tradition.
So you're saying to the boys, we want you to keep your traditions. For the girls, you're saying- we call them the mamas- Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah. We want you to use these people as role models, and then you continue with the priestly blessing, which is from Numbers: may God shine the light on you bringing in this idea of light.
From there, the next thing that happens at our table, as well as most around the world is you say kiddish, which is a blessing over the wine. And within that text, you're remembering the Exodus from Egypt. You're remembering what God has provided.
And then from there, everyone goes and washes their hands, but it's not because they're dirty or we're worried about COVID. It's a spiritual washing to sort of commemorate what happened in the temple when the temple existed you had the show breads, you had all these different things, but you wash your hands and then you don't speak.
It's quiet and you're not allowed to speak again until after you say the blessing for the bread. And then you have to have some bread. People think traditionally of the braided Challah, however, it can be any two loaves of your favorite bread. So I know someone who uses pita bread, but that's not the common customs.
And then you tear off some bread that you actually dip into a little bowl of salt to remember that at the time of the temple when there were sacrifices salt was used. And the nice thing is you have two loaves. We usually, do use Challah. And the reason you have two loves is when the Israelites left Egypt, they had to collect manna, but on Fridays they were instructed to collect two of these loaves, because on Shabbat, you don't collect manna. So once again, it's looking at the history, what is work, which we talked about and going out and harvesting or collecting Manna.
I don't know how difficult it actually was. But you take two loaves for that reason. And the story goes that if you took two during the week, one would become rotten, but not on Shabbat. So and then you have a meal, usually if people aren't big meat eaters, It's the meat meal for the week. Or you can do vegetarian too. As my older daughter is becoming more vegetarian.
And then after dinner, after any meal, actually, there’s a special prayer said thanking God for food. Looking for peace. And then at my house, I sing off key. My children bear with me. We sit around and we sing Shabbat songs and it's really nice.
It's just really a beautiful time. And if you're more traditional, you'll actually just take your dishes. Put them in your sink, which is filled with soapy water and not even touch them till after Shabbat.
Barbara: I imagine that you feel refreshed and maybe ready to get back to the world, but I don't know if that's true. So I thought I would ask, does it, does it feel like the separation is more of a challenge sometimes? And do you kind of feel energized and ready at the end of it?
Linda: I think so. I mean, it depends on the week. I personally go to bed as soon as dinner is over. My children may tuck me in and it's the one night of the week I am not up past 11, which makes me very happy. So what happens the entire 25 hour period, really a separation from your mundane activities. I think it can be very rewarding in a spiritual sense as well.
Barbara: I had found myself taking some intentional Sabbath time during a very busy period when I had lots of emails coming my way and I was at home. I wasn't at a paid job at that time. And I just told people I'm not going to be checking my email for these hours. And it was such a relief. I look forward to it.
And then towards the end of it, I started feeling like, okay, I think I can deal with it now. I felt a little bit more refreshed. Not that that is a magic formula or anything like that, but just taking that time away. How can people who don't practice this regularly, how can people support each other?
And hopefully nobody's given you a hard time or other people in your family for kind of setting this limit, this parameter around your time.
Linda: No, it's fine. My one son flips off his cell phone and his friends all just have learned to accept we don't text him Saturday because he won't answer. So I think people respect it for the most part.
And you know, in communities where there are a lot of traditional Jews I think the non-Jewish community sort of just learns and it's an acceptance and I think that's really a good thing.
Barbara: And then you told me that there's a process of sanctifying the new week after the Sabbath concludes. What does that look like?
Linda: once it is 25 hours after candle lighting you have a small, I wouldn't really call it service, but you say some prayers. The primary symbol is a braided candle that you are permitted at this point to light. And the really beautiful we have one at the moment has red and white and yellows and blues. And it has to have two or more wicks. And like at the beginning of Sabbath, you are lighting a candle once again, bringing in that light into the world that goodness, but the braids, I've been told in their different traditions obviously, is that it represents all of the different types of people in the world and trying to unify it as one.
And I really liked that idea that you're going into the work week, looking at humanity as one. And so you liked the different wicks. You say a blessing over the wine, which is a symbol of joy. And you have a spice box. With some type of pleasant aroma, we have, I think in it at the moment some nutmeg and some cinnamon, but different spices.
And as you're smelling this, it's supposed to remind you of that sweetness of Shabbat as you're going into the work week. And you're curious with all of your senses, you see the light, you smell the spices, you take a small sip of wine. It's not like drinking a lot of wine at all.
And you are saying goodbye to Shabbat and you make a special blessing at the end, which it talks about distinctions between the Holy and the mundane. So we're saying at this point we are separating, but yet we were keeping this holiness in the back of our minds as we go into our work week.
And then you take the candle and you dip it into the wine. Our big thing at my house and most little kids is can you make it sizzle enough? It's like that sizzle sound serve as the arrival of the new week. So you're once again, wrapping up shabbat by reminding of holiness as you the same way that you ushered it in, but now those restrictions are lifted and you have to be able to carry on and do what you need to for the week.
Barbara: I have another practical question for you in case you can think of anything, because I just attended a workshop this past week that was sponsored by the national association of social workers in New York state for our Muslim siblings who are celebrating and practicing Ramadan this month about, there are some things that people can do to show respect and to be kind and to not necessarily walk with people, but to just support or not to sabotage or criticized or not to make things harder for someone who's really carving out time. So that's the reason why I'm interested in knowing if there's anything that someone who may not be as familiar with this practice that you've just described for us.
How can someone just be supportive or show kindness or create an atmosphere of acceptance for this practice? Especially Friday afternoon, people leaving work. You mentioned getting stuck on the highway.
Linda: I think the biggest thing, and this is true for anyone who practices any tradition is really communication. So if people are going to be following all the traditions, as someone who's Jewish, I shouldn't suddenly at 3:45, say to my boss, I'm leaving now. Right? But have that conversation. And then likewise, the boss will respond. Okay. That's fine. You can have off.
I know someone who works every Sunday because he won't work on Shabbat. And for me that hasn't been an issue because I'm working part time at this point, but his colleagues are like, okay, he has off Saturday, but he works Sunday. So, it's a trade balance and respecting people and communicating, and then figuring out a way so that you can help each other.
A friend of mine in college, a radio was left blaring in her dorm room. And she would not flip it off because she would not use electricity. And so she went out in the hall and said, Oh, I don't know how to flip this off, because she didn't want to blatantly ask someone who wasn't Jewish because you're not supposed to ask somebody blatantly cause it's just not the way it's done.
I have a friend of mine who's not Jewish who was telling me she was driving in Lakewood, New Jersey, which certain areas of it have a very large traditional Jewish area. She's like, Oh my gosh, they were all just walking across the street. And she was like, I just waited. Because they're not going to push the button to get the walk symbol. And obviously, you're not going to walk in front of a moving car. But people will wait if it looks like the traffic's clear and you're walking home from synagogue, you go across the street.
So it's little things like that. And I think it's just really, no matter what your faith tradition is, it's giving that respect.
Barbara: we noticed when we were in Israel that just this silence descended and it felt really peaceful. I wasn't paying attention to the time, which probably everybody else was paying very careful attention to what time it was. But the traffic stopped. It felt to me like the silence was peaceful and most of the restaurants were closed and maybe somebody had to work in the hotel and maybe they traded off like this other description that you said. And then just as you described, 25 hours later, things just pick back up. The traffic came and the horns were beeping. Just this very intentional time set aside for this practice. Do you have any other thoughts or maybe resources for someone who's interested in learning more or maybe incorporating some practices into their own life around setting time aside?
Linda: Ooh, that's a tough question, Barbara. I think what you have to do is go within your own faith practice and see what's there. I think there are different ways for different people to set aside time. I mentioned earlier rabbi Heschel book called Shabbat.
The tradition in Judaism is if you're not Jewish, you don't have to follow Shabbat. So there are seven laws, which are basically don't kill, don't steal that everybody's supposed to follow, but there's nothing.
Barbara: I read a phrase that someone wrote called Holy envy and some people say like, Oh, the Sufis danced beautifully. Or five times a day, there's a call to prayer. But we're all different as well as all being united. So I'm not saying that people need to just appropriate this and carry it over, that's not the message, but just the topic in general, because it seems like people do expect that answer to their email and people don't even use all their vacation time.
Linda: I don't understand that.
Barbara: Yep. So your homework assignment is take your vacation time if you have it. And I also know some people say, well, your idea of vacation might be to get on an airplane and go to somewhere beautiful, but your vacation doesn't have to be getting on an airplane and going somewhere beautiful. In terms of time and budget and things like that, too.
Linda: I agree.
Barbara: And you had mentioned the blessing of the children, Linda. And that's something that I had also witnessed. I worked for many years with families from a Latin X heritage and they bless their children every time they went out their door.
And I just thought that was so precious. So I was wondering this blessing that you had mentioned is that a particular practice for the Friday evening?
Linda: You bless your kids Friday night. One thing, Benjamin will call in tonight for his blessing and Ken already blessed Hannah because with the time change, that's right there being in Jerusalem. So it's not just for little kids.
Barbara: love that. So even long-distance people will call in.
Linda: Yeah, and it's a nice way to catch up on the week as well.
Barbara: You would need to do that then, hypothetically, before you would stop using electronic devices and phones
Linda: and it's usually around 6:30 AM, 7:00 AM. And so it's then seven hours ahead. I think. So that's at 1400, which is like two o'clock there.
Barbara: I am so appreciative of your time today. Do you have any other words of wisdom on any other topic of your choice to share today?
Linda: I sent you two different things with music, a song without words. And if you think about the movie Fiddler on the roof. What does Tevya do? You know? He goes, dah, dah, dah, it's like you're communing with God. I think they're just beautiful.
Barbara: I clicked through to those when you gave them to me. And even if I can't play them now on the podcast as a copyright respect, I can put links to them on the website and anyone can listen to them. Because they were very beautiful. Is that something that you would typically listen to on a Friday evening or Saturday?
Linda: We don't play music.
Barbara: Okay. Thank you for correcting me. I apologize.
Linda: Oh, but that's okay. But some people do. Like we're not Uber religious that way, but we're traditional. We flip on lights.
And the interesting thing is with COVID our synagogue live streams, the services, and some people will just leave their computers on some will totally not do that. Like my brother, he would not.
His community, they were meeting in backyards in small groups. And like Jewish broadcast network. Which is on Verizon and Comcast and they have their own link. They have services both Friday night and Saturday morning. So you could theoretically use timers to have it come on.
Barbara: great. I'm so glad you mentioned that. Cause you don't want to put someone in a moral or ethical dilemma where they feel like they're disobeying their faith practices, but you still want it to be accessible if you can't gather in person.
Linda: Which is sort of an interesting issue. If you're really much more traditional than we are, you're not going to do it at all period, but in the community I'm active and it's acceptable.
Barbara: thank you for sharing that, because this is the reality of our days. How do we meet our spiritual needs in different ways while still doing the best?
Linda: there's a woman who works at the synagogue all the time. Norma, she's a lovely woman. And she's not Jewish. So she learned how to operate the zoom in case there was a problem. If for some reason it were to go off, she'll click it on without being asked. The decision was made for Saturday morning, Friday night services. People are muted. You can be singing at home because it was such a cacophony. But weekday morning services, not everyone's muted and Ezra goes, when he's not at school, he's like, ah, you just get used to it, mom.
Barbara: Yes. For some people that's a really powerful way of worshiping and communicating with them. Thank you for letting us know about that. Do you have any final thoughts for us today on this topic?
Linda: first, let me thank you for having me come today. I really appreciate your time and your audiences. I hope that by sharing cultures, we can all grow in our understanding of each other, but my big take home message about Shabbat is basically what I said at the beginning. That the way it's sort of thought of in Judaism as a cathedral in time, while God is always with us, it's a time when a person can really focus on his, her relationship with God versus the rest of the week. When we work on our relationships with the rest of humanity and the people that we come in contact with.
And it's a tradition- I don't know what day of the week people will be listening to this, but if it's Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, it's okay to say an early good Shabbat. And if not, I hope you'll take that message to heart and have a good day.
Barbara: You too. Thank you again, Linda,
Linda: take care, Barbara.
Resources:
Exodus 20:11
Genesis 2:1-3
Shabbat by Rabbi Heschel
https://www.hadar.org/tefillah-music/albums
