Shabbat Celebration – Friday, October 23, 2020
The Sabbath (Shabbat) is a day of peace, rest and reflection spent with family and friends. JSDD has developed a new tradition this year to warmly reach out to our community and observe the welcoming of Shabbat together via Zoom. Effortlessly, this is directed by Hagit Oren, Judaica Coordinator who, each week, conveys her resourcefulness with the lessons she teaches.
The rituals include reciting the prayers for lighting the candles, Kiddush (wine/grape juice), and HaMotzi (challah).
This week’s lesson emerged from the Torah portion, Parashat Bereishit. This is the story of how G-d created the heavens and earth in six days and on the 7th day stopped working and rested. It was Shabbat! During the group’s time together this week, they saw a video about Bereishit which literally means “in the beginning”.
The participants all expressed how they feel fortunate to live in such a beautiful world. They also are looking forward to when the virus is gone and they can go back to life as it was and have the ability to observe the Sabbath and much more in person again.
The group ended, as they always do, in joyful songs in Hebrew and English and everyone wished each other Shabbat Shalom!