Shabbat Dinner

As it happened coincidentally, we were all scattered for Friday night dinner and the Jews ended up gravitating together. Z smiled and said “this” I could do every Friday night. It was a gentle and sweet moment and I could feel the need for a little more time for Shabbat to sink in was necessary and since a Shabbas dinner is a central part of the connection and the practice, we were continuing our Shabbat experience. We began to share with each other our Shabbat practices, Betsy spoke of light Shabbat candles every Friday except when she was an usher at her one monthly service at Temple Sinai. Her grand niece said aren’t you lonely lighting Shabbat candles by yourself. She laughed and said, “Of course, not.” She then said some Fridays when she doesn’t feel like braving the dark or the traffic, she will go on line and fine Temple Sinai streaming their services and it allows her a connection. As one of the Hebrew school teachers, the streamed services allow her to watch all of her students even when she cannot be there since they are stored.

I laughed and explained to her that at my first suggestion of streaming services had been quickly shot down at CBH. She said that the debate at Temple Sinai was mostly whether it would encourage people to stay home, but it has not. We began to discuss the various ways streaming was making connections for people in hospitals, the homebound, people around the world . It sounds like all up sides—even the fear that it profanes Shabbat feels diminished by the importance of connections. But as we all knew just by being with each other, nothing replaces being with other people face to face