Shabbat Readings

The creation of rest . . . Sarah’s miraculous Shabbat lamp . . . Bread from heaven . . . “Work” defined . . . The invention of cholent . . . Sacrifice and martyrdom . . . Candle-lighting campaign . . . The World to Come . . .

Discover the transformative power of Shabbat as it invites you to peel back the layers of identity, unmasking your true self and essence.

As the sun slides down the sky and the air fills with a golden haze, a small crowd gathers in front of a gray house just south of the University of Oregon campus. It’s Friday night, and they are here to celebrate Shabbat

Song of Songs on Friday evening in the little Moroccan shul on Shimshon Street in Jerusalem is a string of multiple solo performances.

With a theater enterprise, tottering is its normal gait. Sometimes it does totter to ruin, and sometimes it totters to great prosperity. But I cannot honestly ascribe either result to my observing the Shabbat.

In the endless conflict between earth and spirit, sheer weight often wins out. Shabbat is a reunion with our inner selves, a return to the primal oneness of our souls

Shabbat is the pause between, the no-man's land, the dark of light, the in of out, the light of dark, the in-between

On Shabbat morning I would sit beside my grandmother in synagogue, and the exhaustion of the week would melt as we prayed. But as soon as Shabbat ended I would go back to my struggle to create a picture perfect life instead of a real one...

She makes a motion with her hands, drawing the heat of the candles to her face. Then her hands are over her face, as she performs the silent prayer

I love the Shabbat experience, but why so many restrictions? All that "don't do this" and "don't do that" -- sounds more like a prison than a day of rest!

How does a seven-day cycle manifest itself in nature? Or does it?

Does man belong to nature, or does nature belong to man?

A person invites guests for dinner. He introduces the guests to his family, sits down at the table—and then not three minutes later, before the first morsel of food is served, the guests are shown the door...

Without really even noticing, Shabbat settled in and the vibe of our whole house shifted. It was a quietude that was defined by the fact that we knew it would last, even for only a day. All the pressure was gone...

A challenge was recently issued to me by a Jew who describes himself as “positively oriented.” The G-d of Torah, he maintains, is one of wrath, vengeance and prohibitions, whereas his G-d is filled with love...

Rest. Awareness. Jewish identity. Pleasure. Spirituality. The World to Come. The Experience of a Lifetime, Every Week.

We know that Shabbat is the most delicious day of the week, and the midrash tells us, in fact, that Shabbat is precisely that: a taste of a perfect, heavenly world.

Imagine that you are living your life on the rim of a spinning wheel. Round and round it turns, faster and faster

G-d is the prototype modern artist; the universe is His gallery, and on Shabbat it is open to the public...

Why did the Creator have to speak in order to create? Wouldn’t it be so much more wonderful if we were all just a thought?

If G‑d is the source of all blessings, why work to earn a livelihood?

Prior to the birth of my oldest child, I actually found myself looking forward to this rite of parenthood, waiting to be introduced to diaper changing. At first it was not bad, not much of a challenge. More recently, however, as my son approaches his second birthday, the stench emanating from his diaper is unreal.

"Differentiation" is a double paradox -- and the essence of holiness

The manna is to Jewish history what Shabbat is to the workday week: a precedent

What is “work”? If life is synonymous with creativity, is Shabbat a time outside life? What is the deeper significance of the curious Talmudic phrase, “forty labors minus one”?

To observe the Shabbat is to make a statement about G-d's world; and making a statement about the world is a greater feat than making the world

Contrary to common perception, time does not stop when we rest: it flows inward

What is that smell I love . . . the smell that cries out to my soul? It’s the smell of Shabbat cooking, whether it’s matzah-ball soup or Moroccan fish, cholent, t’fina or kibbe hamda. It’s that smell of something special and familiar. The smell of Shabbat. The smell of home.

Find out which tasks - that we may not do on Shabbat - may we request a gentile to perform on our behalf?