Page 29 - Jewish News _August 2021_

JEWISH INTEREST August 2021 29A

Aging Jewishly – What our traditions teach us about growing old

Reclaiming Shabbat

By Rabbi Barbara Aiello
or Harvey, it was the sweet smell congregations are closing and merging. week has a day of rest.” most thinkers, Rabbi Abraham Joshua
of the challah. “I’d come in the The Reform movement has downsized Carl chimed in. “What we’ve been Heschel, who cautioned Jews to recall
Fdoor and, oh, that smell! When by 180, and the Conservative by over through lately, with Covid and all, I that “Shabbat guarantees our ‘inner
I think of Shabbat, it’s my mother’s 350. In addition, the study found that needed something to hang on to. So I liberty,’ and that a society without a
challah that always comes to mind.” just 14% of U.S. Jews are members of started lighting candles on Friday night Sabbath could easily descend into tyr-
“It might sound silly, but it was Reform congregations while a scant and saying the blessings. My candle- anny and barbarism.”
the newspaper on the floor. It meant 11% maintain membership in a Con- sticks were mismatched. They came Heschel went on to characterize
that Mama had washed the floor for servative shul. from the dollar store. I didn’t have Shabbat with these words: “It is one
Shabbat,” said Clare, while Carl re- Couple these statistics with the challah but I had my rice crackers, so of life’s highest rewards, a source of
membered, “The white shirts. Ironed words of cultural Zionist Ahad Ha’am, I said HaMotzi with the crackers. I or- strength and inspiration to endure trib-
and hanging on who said, “More than Jews have kept dered pizza and watched a Jewish film. ulation, to live nobly... The Sabbath
the door. For Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews,” I shut off the computer and all the cra- is the inspirer, the other days the in-
my brothers and and we wonder, could this be true? ziness on the news and took a walk. At spired.” (A.J. Heschel, The Sabbath,
me those fresh Incredibly, following the destruc- first it felt awkward and strange. But 22)
pressed white tion of the second Temple, when ani- now I look forward to Friday nights. Could it be that Carl is on to
shirts said, “Gut mal sacrifices ended, it took some time Sometimes I invite my kids or ask a something? As a wise rabbi once said,
Shabbos!” but we Jews brought the “light of the friend over. I turn off the world and get “When it comes to Shabbat, it is better
The sweet fire” into our homes. At the family ta- back to basics. It makes me feel good.” to do something rather than nothing.”
memory of Shab- ble we continued to renew and refresh In a recent article by Iranian-Amer- Notwithstanding mismatched can-
bat has become, ourselves as we observed an at-home ican columnist Sohrab Ahmari (“What dlesticks, rice crackers and pizza,
Rabbi Barbara Aiello for many Jews, family Shabbat. We’ve Lost in Rejecting the Sabbath,” Shabbat is God’s gift just waiting for
their only connection to what our tradi- That was then. Today, when it The Wall Street Journal, May 7, 2021), us to embrace it, enjoy it and grow.
tion tells us is the most important of all comes to Shabbat, where do we Jews he writes that “Setting aside one day a Rabbi Barbara Aiello served Aviva
the Jewish holidays and celebrations. stand? Harvey, Clare and Carl, who week for rest and prayer used to be an Senior Living in Sarasota as resident
And a recent Pew report documents shared Shabbat memories, described American tradition. In an age of con- rabbi for 10 years. She now lives and
what most of us already know. The their connections to Shabbat today. stant activity, we need it more than works in Italy where she is rabbi of
Pew study found that U.S. Jews are Harvey said, “I don’t know. Shab- ever.” Italy’s first Reconstructionist syna-
less likely than the overall U.S. pub- bat got away from me. My wife passed Mr. Ahmari also reminds us of gogue. You may reach her at Rabbi@
lic to say religion is “very important” on and I put the candlesticks away. And the words of one of Judaism’s fore- RabbiBarbara.com.
to them (21% vs. 41%), while slightly nowadays there’s always something
more than half of Jews say religion is else to do on Friday night.” Rabbi Barbara Aiello’s most popular
“not too important” or “not at all im- Clare agreed. “There was a time columns are now published in her new
portant” in their lives.” when we had the Blue Laws. Stores
In the intervening 20 years since were closed on Sundays for the Chris- book, Aging Jewishly, available on
the last U.S. Synagogue Survey, re- tian Sabbath. Sunday wasn’t our day Amazon. It makes a great gift!
searchers found that “non-Orthodox but we Jews were reminded that every

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