stillsmallvoice
The Narn rule!
- May 8, 2002
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Hi all!
The day before yesterday was Shabbat (http://www.jewfaq.org/shabbat.htm), i.e. our Sabbath. During the course of Shabbat (which began Friday at sunset & ended at nightfall Saturday), I went to synagogue 4 times (Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon & Saturday evening), ate 2 festive Shabbat meals, etc. In so doing, I fulfilled numerous precepts (http://www.jewfaq.org/613.htm). But without a doubt, the most important thing I did Saturday was to go to one of the neighborhood synagogues in the afternoon (just before the short afternoon prayer service) with Da Boyz (Naor, 3.5 & Yohanan, 7.5) and learn/study the Bible with them. This synagogue has a special parents-and-children-learning-together program every Saturday afternoon. At the end, the kids all get some kind of treat. So I first sat with Naor. We looked at a big picture book of all the various acts/things that we may do, or not, on Shabbat (see the aforementioned Shabbat link, scroll down to the section "To Observe"); why we do or do not do the various acts/things will come later, when Naor is older. But now it is good for him (and his Daddy!) to sit and look at the pictures and just get acquainted with the idea of not using the car or the computer, or writing, etc. on Shabbat. Then Yohanan & a friend came in. I'm currently studying the Book of Daniel (I've just started) so I regaled Yohanan & his friend with the accounts of Daniel & his friends refusing to eat non-kosher food, of Daniel being thrown into the lions' den & of his friends being cast into the fiery furnace. They listened, rapt (I may have dramatized things just a bit!
). This learning with Da Boyz was head-and-shoulders more important than anything else I did over the course of the Shabbat because it was the essence of Judaism: a parent telling his children and teaching them, transmitting our beliefs to them (no amount of book-learning can substitute for the intensely personal & intimate action of sitting there and actually talking with them), forging two more links in an over 3,000+-year-old chain that goes back to one very brave elderly couple (i.e. Abraham and Sarah; see Isaiah 51:2). It is what Moses our Teacher commanded us in Exodus 13:8, "And you shall tell your son on that day..." A father telling his sons, a mother telling her daughters, this is the essence of Judaism! I thanked God for affording me the opportunity to do such holy work!
So, howz everybody doing?
Be well!
ssv
The day before yesterday was Shabbat (http://www.jewfaq.org/shabbat.htm), i.e. our Sabbath. During the course of Shabbat (which began Friday at sunset & ended at nightfall Saturday), I went to synagogue 4 times (Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon & Saturday evening), ate 2 festive Shabbat meals, etc. In so doing, I fulfilled numerous precepts (http://www.jewfaq.org/613.htm). But without a doubt, the most important thing I did Saturday was to go to one of the neighborhood synagogues in the afternoon (just before the short afternoon prayer service) with Da Boyz (Naor, 3.5 & Yohanan, 7.5) and learn/study the Bible with them. This synagogue has a special parents-and-children-learning-together program every Saturday afternoon. At the end, the kids all get some kind of treat. So I first sat with Naor. We looked at a big picture book of all the various acts/things that we may do, or not, on Shabbat (see the aforementioned Shabbat link, scroll down to the section "To Observe"); why we do or do not do the various acts/things will come later, when Naor is older. But now it is good for him (and his Daddy!) to sit and look at the pictures and just get acquainted with the idea of not using the car or the computer, or writing, etc. on Shabbat. Then Yohanan & a friend came in. I'm currently studying the Book of Daniel (I've just started) so I regaled Yohanan & his friend with the accounts of Daniel & his friends refusing to eat non-kosher food, of Daniel being thrown into the lions' den & of his friends being cast into the fiery furnace. They listened, rapt (I may have dramatized things just a bit!
). This learning with Da Boyz was head-and-shoulders more important than anything else I did over the course of the Shabbat because it was the essence of Judaism: a parent telling his children and teaching them, transmitting our beliefs to them (no amount of book-learning can substitute for the intensely personal & intimate action of sitting there and actually talking with them), forging two more links in an over 3,000+-year-old chain that goes back to one very brave elderly couple (i.e. Abraham and Sarah; see Isaiah 51:2). It is what Moses our Teacher commanded us in Exodus 13:8, "And you shall tell your son on that day..." A father telling his sons, a mother telling her daughters, this is the essence of Judaism! I thanked God for affording me the opportunity to do such holy work!So, howz everybody doing?
Be well!
ssv
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