from sundown to sundown
It's Friday. Friday in our neck of the woods of Jerusalem means busy! I often do my shopping on Thursdays as to avoid the craziness of (Sabbath) Shabbat-prep-fridays but today I'm out in the midst of the long lines & hurried customers (think Thanksgiving shopping in America but every friday). I've missed the good chicken. Yep, they've sold every piece of decent looking chicken and it's only 11am.
The girl ringing up my items couldn't care less there's a line 10 feet long & she's chatting away on her cell phone, scanning each item slowly. I'm fidgety. I really just want to get my groceries and head home. Something in me has changed a slight bit in the 12 weeks we've been here and it has to do with rest.
I pick up Jack from school (required early pick-up at 12:00 instead of 2 so mom's can get home & begin preparing for Shabbat) & he's munching away on the Shabbat cake they made together as a class & chatting about his morning. As I'm in the cross walk I hear "Boker Tov (Good Morning)!" Shabbat Shalom!!" and it's my Shabbat flower guy greeting me from across the street! I pick up a small bunch of flowers (the home is supposed to be beautiful on Shabbat) and I comment how beautiful the rain has made everything. I've made good friends with the older guy who sells the flowers & his buddies who hang out with him all morning. They claim their friend gives me a cheaper price & they heckle me about being pretty...ha! It's all about the relationship - taking a moment to stop, chat about the weather, comment about the t-shirt he's wearing (Israeli Opera at Masada...oooh, sounds cool!) & let them ooh & ahh over the kids waiting impatiently in the stroller.
I get home, lay the kids down for a much needed nap, place my flowers in a vase & unload the groceries. I have meals planned out for the next dinner, breakfast, lunch & dinner (25 hours of Shabbat). I pick up the mess from the day, do a couple loads of laundry, clean all the floors, think about dinner & then wait for John to get home from class. If I forgot something at the store I'm out of luck - John's last class goes until 3pm & by then all the stores will be closed. Yes, the stores will be closed! By 2pm (in our neighborhood) there isn't a single store open. The large shopping mall will become a ghost town, the supermarkets will all be locked up & even the falafel & schwarma shops will have their large metals doors rolled down over them...until sundown on Saturday evening, when Shabbat ends.
From sundown on Friday evening until sundown on Saturday evening Jewish people observe Shabbat or Sabbath. Taken from Genesis 2:2-3 at the end of the creation story:
"By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done."
Jewish people are still under the law as they don't believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah (who fulfilled the law). They are still waiting for the Messiah to come and until He does the old law is still in place. Part of observing the law is to "keep the Sabbath holy". It it one of the most repeated laws in the Old Testament. So, they rest. Not just rest but there are 39 rules for observing of the Sabbath. A basic list of things you are not allowed to do are: start or stop a fire, drive a car, turn on or off incandescent lights, cook, write, carry things in the street, ride a bicycle, use machines like a computer, TV or elevator, buy or sell things or take a picture.
Once 2 or 3pm hits there is really nothing to do for the next 25 hours (in most of the neighborhoods of Jerusalem). The entire bus system stops, there are a few taxis (Shabbat rate is 25% more expensive), restaurants are closed, shopping is an hours walk away and without a car we are forced (in a good way) to observe the Sabbath. We would never be inclined to observe it like a Jew because there is no need to but what we are learning to do as a family is to rest. Saturday is a special day because meals have been planned out, the house is all clean, laundry is all done & the parks are full of families & everyone seems in a content mood. People are inviting guests over for Shabbat lunch or dinner, going to synagogue (3x), spending time with family & overall just living simple for an entire day. All their meals have been prepared are are being warmed on plattas (i.e electric hot plate).
A family we met in the park invited us over for a Shabbat lunch last Saturday and it was lovely! They did the traditional blessing of the challah bread, kiddush (literally, "sanctification") which is a blessing recited over the wine to sanctify the Shabbat and we had a kosher meal of course - this one was meat (so no dairy products) & lots of authentic Israeli & Shabbat-specific dishes. We had a lovely conversation where it was asked if we are making "aliyah" (immigration to Israel). That's where we make it clear we are not Jewish & that opens the door to a much bigger conversation and "what are you doing here?" is usually the beginning of it! We are asked if we are making aliyah in most conversations we have so we have lots of opportunities to share why we're here.
Anyhow, Shabbat is a special time. I have found myself busily preparing on Friday in anticipation that things will stop on Saturday. It's a time set aside just for spending time with friends & family, for resting, for thinking about spiritual things, for ceasing from work & not feeling guilty about it...for resting and not feeling guilty about it.
Maybe you don't feel guilty when you rest, but I do. No one makes me feel this way there's just something in me that thinks I should be busy all the time - writing an email, making a meal, cleaning, organizing...whatever it may be there's this mental list in my head of things I should be checking off. For one day a week I'm learning to block out that mental list and instead enjoy my family, enjoy my friends, enjoy hospitality, enjoy good food, enjoy walks to the park, enjoy spending time in God's Word, enjoy the beautiful creation around me, enjoy talks with John about what he's learning at JUC, enjoy my kids and enjoy just being instead of doing. I can see that even Jack & Violet enjoy taking a day to rest-no agenda, no school, no running here or there, just hanging out as a family! I'm thankful that living here is allowing me to understand rest - whatever day of the week it might be, mine just happens to be Saturdays.
*Note: not everyone who lives in Israel experiences these same things. There is a wide range of religious observances, our neighborhood just happens to be quite religious.
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