Avodah Lesson 8 Shabbat: A Time To Connect to God

Avodah Lesson 8 Shabbat: A Time To Connect to God INTRODUCTION Over the last three lessons we have examined a number of ways to take time from our busy schedules and connect with God through prayer. Now, we turn to the one day during the week when our focus is not supposed to be busy-ness, but holy-ness. According to Rabbi Mark Washofsky, Shabbat is an island of holy time in a secular sea, but unlike a real island created by nature, the Shabbat experience has to be created by our own efforts. 1 Shabbat is first and foremost a day of rest and spiritual uplift. We are told that Shabbat is a glimpse of the world-to-come, a taste of what paradise on earth could be. The word Shabbat in Hebrew is formed by the root-letters shin (J), bet (C), and tav (,), which together form the Hebrew word for rest. According to Washofsky, the observance of Shabbat involves four biblical commandments: to remember through our liturgy, to observe by refraining from work, and to honor and delight in Shabbat through special foods, clothes, etc. (The last two commandments are often linked.) By following these commandments, we help create the island that is Shabbat. 2 These commandments help us to connect to God in particularly Jewish ways that include prayers (conversations with God) and actions. Liberal Jews who celebrate Shabbat do so in a variety of ways. The way Reform Jews have observed Shabbat has changed through the generations and will probably continue to change. However, today, there is increased interest within the Reform Movement on reclaiming some level of Shabbat observance. 3 At its 2007 Biennial the URJ announced a Shabbat initiative called Embracing Shabbat to help families learn more about how to bring the Sabbath into their homes on a weekly basis. 4 This Shabbat lesson can help our students and their families begin or increase Shabbat observance. During class we will help our students explore the four mitzvot of Shabbat by participating in a series of three different stations: remembering through our liturgy will focus on the Shabbat candle blessing with which Shabbat begins; observing by refraining from work will focus on the kinds of work our family does during the week and in what ways we might refrain from that work; honor and delighting in Shabbat through special foods, clothes, etc., will focus on special foods for Shabbat. 1 Mark Washofsky, Jewish Living: A Guide to Contemporary Reform Practice (New York: UAHC Press, 2001), p. 73. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid., p. 74. 4 For more information see www.urj.org/shabbat. 133

134 Avodah Lesson 8 CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life For more information on Shabbat and to see how these concepts are dealt with elsewhere in the CHAI curriculum, please see CHAI Level 4 Avodah Strand, Lesson 6. ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS Avodah is the work we do to find sacred connections to God, community, and self. Engaging in the work of avodah can bring order, beauty, meaning, and insight to our lives. Jewish stories, celebrations, and rituals help me understand and express my relationship with God. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS 1. How can I experience moments of connection to God? 2. How is striving for a connection to God, avodah, like work? 3. How do prayer, ceremonies, and celebrations affect my world? QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED 1. What can I do to observe Shabbat? 2. How can Shabbat observance benefit me and my family? EVIDENCE OF UNDERSTANDING Students will identify four mitzvot related to Shabbat. Students will identify specific things they can do to make Shabbat special. LESSON OVERVIEW Set Induction (5 10 minutes) Mitzvot Round-Robin (45 minutes; approximately 15 minutes per station) Conclusion: Ways I Can Celebrate Shabbat (5 10 minutes) MATERIALS NEEDED Station Posters (enlarged, if possible) (pages 140 42) Shabbat candlestick holders and candles Blessing for the Candles, track 17 (read) and track 18 (sung) on the CHAI Level 2 CD

CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life Shabbat: A Time to Connect to God 135 HaMotzi, track 21 (read) and track 22 (sung) on the CHAI Level 2 CD Kiddush, track 19 (read) and track 20 (sung) on the CHAI Level 2 CD Flowers Challah (cut into small pieces on plates) Grape juice (in small cups) Shabbat: Yes or No cards (page 143) Shabbat Ideas and Resources for Your Family handout (page 144) READING RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS Perelson, Ruth. Invitation to Shabbat. New York: UAHC Press, 1997. Syme, Daniel B. The Jewish Home: A Guide for Jewish Living. New York: URJ Press, 2004. Washofsky, Mark. Jewish Living: A Guide to Contemporary Reform Practice. New York: UAHC Press, 2001. LESSON VOCABULARY, C J Shabbat a«isë kadosh v²u m n(pl.,iu m n) mitzvah (pl. mitzvot) A Jewish observance that occurs every week, beginning at sundown on Friday night and continuing through Saturday night. It is a time when we refrain from secular work and focus on our relationship with God and with one another. Hebrew for holy. A commandment. Lesson Plan SET INDUCTION (5 10 MINUTES) 1. Divide your class in half. Have one group sit together in a group on the floor. Have the second group stand up and form a circle around the sitting students. Walk around the circle of standing students and whisper a different short phrase in each student s ear (for example, Sarah went to school today. Did you do your homework, yet? A big brown dog slept in the doorway. )

136 Avodah Lesson 8 CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life 2. On a cue from you, have all the standing students repeat several times and all at once their different phrases. 3. Ask the group of students sitting on the floor the following questions: Could you hear and understand the individual phrases? What were some of the phrases? Was it easy or hard to hear the different phrases? 4. Tell the students, Sometimes our world is like this exercise. We have many things to do and many things trying to get our attention. There are all kinds of noises. Shabbat gives us the opportunity to slow down, to listen to one another, and to feel closer to God and to one another. 5. Ask the students to turn to page 23 in their workbooks, Shabbat: A Time to Connect to God, and read the text aloud to the class. LEARNING ACTIVITIES Mitzvot Round-Robin (45 minutes) Prior to class, copy the station posters (pages 140 42) on large paper (if possible) and hang them in different places around the room. See the description of the Round-Robin activities for descriptions of the station setups. If you plan to divide your class into small groups for this activity, you may want to invite parent volunteers or madrichim to come to class and lead each group. You can provide copies of the activities to the parents or madrichim ahead of time so they know what they will be doing. 1. Go over page 23 in the workbook with your students, explaining that there are four different mitzvot or commandments that help us make Shabbat a special day and focus on our relationship with God. Tell the students that today we are going to learn more about these four mitzvot. 2. If appropriate, divide your class into three groups and assign a parent volunteer to each group. Send each group to a different station to begin. If you have a smaller class, you may do each of the stations together. You should allow each group to spend about 15 minutes at each station. The instructions for each station follow: Remember Shabbat (approximately 15 minutes) Set up a desk or table with a set of Shabbat candlestick holders and candles. Place chairs around this table. 1. Explain that we are supposed to remember Shabbat and that one way we can do this is by saying special prayers and blessings that we don t say during the week. These prayers and blessings are one of the ways we connect to God during Shabbat. 2. Ask, Do you light candles before eating dinner every day of the week? (Possible answer: No, only on special occasions.) 3. Explain that we traditionally light candles at sundown on Friday night before dinner. These are special Shabbat candles so we have a special prayer to say when we light them. Lighting the candles and

CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life Shabbat: A Time to Connect to God 137 saying the blessing help us remember Shabbat. Once the candles are lit and the special blessing is said, our Shabbat observance begins. 4. Have the students open up their workbooks to page 24. Review the candle blessing with them in Hebrew and English. /, C J k J r b eh k s v k Ub ²U m±u,i m n C uh Ub J S e r J t kig v 'o Q k n Ubh vo t '²h±h v T t QUr C Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haolam, asher kid shanu b mitzvotav v tzivanu l hadlik ner shel Shabbat. Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the universe, who hallows us with mitzvot, commanding us to kindle the light of Shabbat. Have them repeat the words after you. The blessing also appears as track xxx on the CHAI Level 2 CD. If anyone knows the blessing, give him or her a chance to lead it. If there s time, teach the candle blessing melody, which is track xxx on the CHAI Level 2 CD. (You may want to use this prior to class to prepare for the lesson and/or in class with your students.) 5. Show the students how we light the Shabbat candles. You may only want to mime lighting the candles. Explain to them that typically we make a blessing and then perform the action (like eating challah or blowing the shofar), but it is the opposite with Shabbat candle-lighting (i.e., we light and then bless the candles). When lighting Shabbat candles, once we make the blessing, Shabbat officially begins and it is too late to light the candles because making a fire is prohibited on Shabbat. So in this case, we light first, but cover our eyes until after the blessing. In this way, we re-create the action the lighting after the blessing. 6. Have the students practice reciting the prayer with their hands over their eyes. Observe Shabbat (approximately 15 minutes) This station does not require a table or desk. You may want to set up an appropriate number of chairs or let your students sit on the floor. Make sure this station is far enough away from the other two stations that your students will have space in which to move around. 1. Ask your students, Why do we observe Shabbat? Some may relate Shabbat to the Creation story, but some may not have heard the Creation story from the Torah. Some might say simply because it is a Jewish holiday or special day. 2. Explain to the students that our Torah tells us, For in six days the Eternal made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them and then rested on the seventh day; therefore the Eternal blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it (Exodus 20:11). By resting we follow God s example. Shabbat is an opportunity to have a special day. 3. Ask your students, What kind of work do you do every day during the week? (Possible answers: go to school; help with chores around the house; our parents go to their jobs.) 4. Explain that one way to observe Shabbat is not to work. Tell the students, The Hebrew word Shabbat means to rest. When we rest, we have a chance to be like God, who rested after creating the world. Ask your students, Do you go to school on Shabbat? (Students will most likely say no.)

138 Avodah Lesson 8 CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life 5. Point out that many of us already get to rest from our jobs on Shabbat, but maybe there are other ways we can rest on Shabbat. Ask your students to think about the following question: If you could choose one job you have at home or if your parent could choose one job he or she has at home not to do on Shabbat, what do you think it would be? Ask the students to keep their answers to themselves. 6. Give each student an opportunity to act out the job at home that he or she would like to give up on Shabbat or that he or she thinks his or her parent would like to give up on Shabbat. The rest of the group should try to guess what the job is. 7. Remind the class that one way some people observe Shabbat is to give up the hard work they do every day and have a special day of rest. Honor and Delight in Shabbat (approximately 15 minutes) Each child will need a chair and space at a table or desk for this station. Set the table in a special way with flowers, juice glasses, and plates for challah. 1. Explain that on Shabbat we are supposed to have great joy. We re supposed to be happy. One way to be happy is to eat special foods. These might be foods that we don t get to eat all the time. Some people are happy when they sing special Shabbat songs. 2. Ask the students, What are some special foods that we eat on Shabbat? (Possible answers: challah, grape juice.) 3. Offer challah and small cups of grape juice at this station for the students to eat and drink. Have the students turn to page 25 of their workbooks. Say the blessings before drinking and eating and have the students respond Amen. The blessings appear as tracks xxx and xxx on the CHAI Level 2 CD. Kiddush /i p ²D v h r P t ric kig v 'o Q k n Ubh vo t '²h±h v T t QUr C Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haolam, borei p ri hagafen. Praise to You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine. HaMotzi /. r ẗ v i n o j k th mi N v kig v 'o Q k n Ubh vo t '²h±h v T t QUr C Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haolam, hamotzi lechem min haaretz. Praise to You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth. 4. Let the students enjoy their Shabbat snack with quiet conversation. You may choose to play some Shabbat music in the background while the students are visiting.

CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life Shabbat: A Time to Connect to God 139 CONCLUSION: WAYS I CAN CELEBRATE SHABBAT (5 10 MINUTES) Prior to class, photocopy the Shabbat: Yes or No cards on page 143 and cut them out. 1. When all of your students have completed the Mitzvot Round-Robin have them come back together as a group. 2. Show the students the Shabbat: Yes or No cards. Go through them one by one, asking the students if what they see in the picture is special for Shabbat. 3. Suggest to your students that they might want to talk to their parents about some of the things they learned today in class, and maybe together their family could choose one new way to follow a Shabbat mitzvah. 4. Hand out the letter to parents (page 145) and the Shabbat Ideas and Resources for Your Family handout (page 144).

CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life Shabbat Ideas and Resources for Your Family Listed below are some suggestions of Shabbat rituals based on the four mitzvot of Shabbat that you might want to try. Which of these does your family already do? Which might you like to try? What other Shabbat rituals could you add to the list? Remember Shabbat in our prayers. Light Shabbat candles and say the blessing. Say Kiddush over the Shabbat wine. Say HaMotzi over the challah. Go to family Shabbat services at our temple. Observe Shabbat by resting. Don t go to your regular job. Don t go to school. Make Shabbat morning (Saturday) one morning when no one in the house has to set an alarm clock. Let everyone choose one job around the house that they don t have to do on Shabbat. Arrange schedules so that homework doesn t have to be done on Shabbat. Honor and delight in Shabbat with special things. Spend time on Shabbat (Friday night or Saturday) doing something as a family. Each week a different member of the family gets to choose the activity. Make a special Shabbat meal (could be dinner Friday night or lunch on Saturday). Each week a different member of the family gets to help choose the menu. Involve as many members of the family as possible in preparations. Have a family discussion of the week s Torah portion or a Jewish value over Shabbat dinner. Copyright 2009 URJ Press

CHAI: Learning for Jewish Life Dear Parents, Over the last three lessons, we have examined a number of ways to take time from our busy schedules and connect with God through prayer. Now, we turn to the one day during the week when our focus is not supposed to be busy-ness, but holy-ness. According to Rabbi Mark Washofsky, Shabbat is an island of holy time in a secular sea, but unlike a real island created by nature, Shabbat has to be created by our own efforts. 1 During our class today, your child had the opportunity to explore four mitzvot (commandments) related to Shabbat. They learned how they might include some of these mitzvot at home. The four mitzvot include remembering Shabbat through prayers, observing Shabbat by resting, and honoring and delighting in Shabbat through special foods. We hope that you will take some time during the coming week to discuss what your child has learned about Shabbat. Whatever your current Shabbat practice includes, we encourage you and your child to take some time this week and choose one thing you could add to your current practice. See the resources listed below and the Shabbat Ideas and Resources handout for more information and ideas. Sincerely, Perelson, Ruth. Invitation to Shabbat. New York: UAHC Press, 1997. Everything you ever wanted to know about Shabbat in an accessible volume that assumes no prior knowledge. Rauchwerger, Lisa. Chocolate Chip Challah and Other Twists on the Jewish Holdiay Table. New York: UAHC Press, 1999. This interactive cookbook for families is filled with a variety of delicious holiday treats, as well as information about the various holidays. It is designed for parents and children to use together. Syme, Daniel B. The Jewish Home: A Guide for Jewish Living. New York: URJ Press, 2004. Information on how to celebrate Shabbat presented in a question-and-answer format. Zwerin, Raymond A., and Marcus Audrey Friedman. Shabbat Can Be. New York: UAHC Press, 1979. A wonderful, warm story about exactly what Shabbat can be in your family. http://urj.org/shabbat/intro Shabbat Family Table Talk. Family discussion suggestions for the weekly Torah portion. 1 Mark Washofsky, Jewish Living: A Guide to Contemporary Reform Practice (New York: UAHC Press, 2001), p. 73. Copyright 2009 URJ Press