For the past six Saturdays, Ari Sonneberg has held the hands of his two preschoolers as they walked a mile to their synagogue west of Boynton Beach.
His wife, Erin, stayed home with their 1-year-old, since the little one can't walk and Jewish law prevents her from carrying him on the Sabbath.
But today, the Sonnebergs feel a freedom they had almost forgotten: They can push all three kids in their strollers as they walk to temple because the Jewish community's new, expanded eruv, or symbolic wall, is up and running.
"We were impacted enormously by the closing," said Ari Sonneberg, 34, who moved west of Boynton Beach with the family almost three years ago from Boston. "My wife was stuck at home, and she loves to go to synagogue to pray and see friends. I almost had to bribe my two older children to walk with me."
The Boynton Beach-area eruv -- a series of boundaries that allow observant Jews to push strollers or carry objects on the Sabbath -- is functional after almost six weeks of disrepair. Jewish law prohibits the carrying of objects outside the home on the Sabbath.
The prohibition against carrying comes from the Torah and is also mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah: "Beware for your souls and carry no burden on the Sabbath day." Talmudic scholars explained the law to mean objects may not be carried between thoroughfares.
The eruv is considered an extension of each congregant's home, where families are permitted to carry things during their day of rest.
When the boundaries of the old eruv, which measured about 10 square miles, began to break on a regular basis a few months ago, Rabbi Sholom Ciment of Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Boynton said he consulted with fellow rabbis to create expanded boundaries that would allow even more Jews to walk unimpeded. They surveyed the area and examined every inch of the proposed perimeter to make sure they could maintain an unbroken boundary.
The perimeter must be inviolate for the length of the eruv; natural barriers such as canals and security walls make up most of it, with strings put up by the rabbis filling in the gaps. These strings often break during rainstorms or construction and are inspected each week to make sure they are undisturbed.
The new eruv measures 84 square miles, extending from Florida's Turnpike on the west to Interstate 95 on the east, and the Boynton Canal on the north to the L-30 Canal to the south.
Ciment said he is thrilled that the new eruv is larger, symbolizing, he believes, the expansion of the Boynton Beach area's Jewish community. A 2005 study showed the number of Jewish households in the area grew 63 percent from 1999 to 2005, to about 60,000, although Ciment says the number has since grown to more than 80,000.
About 175 families walk to the Boynton Chabad each weekend, Ciment said.
"It's like we have made one large home or one large tent that will ingather the whole Boynton area," Ciment said.
Showing posts with label shabbos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shabbos. Show all posts
Monday, August 03, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
i-visit-chabadorg-on-shabbos
No, I don’t, but you’ll see what I mean in a few paragraphs.)
“Thou shalt not study Torah,” beginning at midday today, erev Tisha b’Av, as part of our mourning for the Beit haMikdash.
As the gemara (Taanit 30a) explains, “One may not learn Torah, Neviim or Ketuvim, or study mishnah or talmud, midrash, halachot or aggadot.” There are permitted exceptions, principally for sad topics and study related to mourning, but the overall theme is that Torah learning is a joyous experience, so we don’t engage in it on Tisha b’Av.
[I wonder if this law is not also related to the aftermath of the Golden Calf. Per the midrash, when the Jews received the Torah they also received special crowns. After the Golden Calf, HaShem instructed them, “Remove your crown” (Shemot 32:5-6), apparently a reference those crowns. “You have sinned; you don’t deserve to don the glory of Torah.”]
Many of us take this law lightly; how could Gd punish a Jew for studying Torah?
And we have other such limitations on Torah study. We are not to think about Torah in the bathroom, or when inappropriately dressed. We are taught that it is sinful to study Torah without first reciting birchot hatorah, the special blessings for Torah study. And for all of them, there are those who ignore them; how could Gd punish a Jew for studying Torah?
It reminds me of the Jew who studies the parshah every Shabbat by reading divrei torah on torah.org, or ou.org, or chabad.org.
Were this Jew not reading divrei torah on-line, he would likely be engaged in some other activity that I consider desecration of Shabbat – shopping at the mall, driving to a park, talking on the phone, flipping channels on TV. In that sense, it’s better that he read divrei torah, I suppose.
Again: How could Gd punish a Jew for studying Torah?
I suppose it comes down to our sense of ownership of Torah, our feeling that we have a certain right to evaluate and set priorities among its various imperatives. A mitzvah is only a mitzvah when the Torah defines it as a mitzvah.
Perhaps a good Tisha b’Av example of this is in the Kamtza/Bar Kamtza story (Gittin 55b-56a, and see also the version in Eichah Rabbah), when the sages are seated at a feast and Bar Kamtza is embarrassed by the host.
The sages don’t protest, because they think it’s better to be humble (see the Eichah Rabbah version, especially). But the Torah’s priority is to protect Bar Kamtza, who is being attacked.
And perhaps the same thing happened with the rabbis in the Brooklyn/New Jersey scandal of this past week. Maybe they thought they were helping generate tzedakah money, maybe they had some other justification for committing these financial crimes. [I am NOT justifying it; my point is that people who set their own priorities get into trouble.]
When we set our own priorities, we get skewed results and rationalizations. Better to hold off on Torah (other than the permitted parts) during Tisha b’Av, remove the crown, absorb the intense reality of exile, and get started on rebuilding the Beit haMikdash.
[Of course, the big problem is when skewed-view human beings try to define the Torah’s objective priorities… implementation is harder than theory…]
“Thou shalt not study Torah,” beginning at midday today, erev Tisha b’Av, as part of our mourning for the Beit haMikdash.
As the gemara (Taanit 30a) explains, “One may not learn Torah, Neviim or Ketuvim, or study mishnah or talmud, midrash, halachot or aggadot.” There are permitted exceptions, principally for sad topics and study related to mourning, but the overall theme is that Torah learning is a joyous experience, so we don’t engage in it on Tisha b’Av.
[I wonder if this law is not also related to the aftermath of the Golden Calf. Per the midrash, when the Jews received the Torah they also received special crowns. After the Golden Calf, HaShem instructed them, “Remove your crown” (Shemot 32:5-6), apparently a reference those crowns. “You have sinned; you don’t deserve to don the glory of Torah.”]
Many of us take this law lightly; how could Gd punish a Jew for studying Torah?
And we have other such limitations on Torah study. We are not to think about Torah in the bathroom, or when inappropriately dressed. We are taught that it is sinful to study Torah without first reciting birchot hatorah, the special blessings for Torah study. And for all of them, there are those who ignore them; how could Gd punish a Jew for studying Torah?
It reminds me of the Jew who studies the parshah every Shabbat by reading divrei torah on torah.org, or ou.org, or chabad.org.
Were this Jew not reading divrei torah on-line, he would likely be engaged in some other activity that I consider desecration of Shabbat – shopping at the mall, driving to a park, talking on the phone, flipping channels on TV. In that sense, it’s better that he read divrei torah, I suppose.
Again: How could Gd punish a Jew for studying Torah?
I suppose it comes down to our sense of ownership of Torah, our feeling that we have a certain right to evaluate and set priorities among its various imperatives. A mitzvah is only a mitzvah when the Torah defines it as a mitzvah.
Perhaps a good Tisha b’Av example of this is in the Kamtza/Bar Kamtza story (Gittin 55b-56a, and see also the version in Eichah Rabbah), when the sages are seated at a feast and Bar Kamtza is embarrassed by the host.
The sages don’t protest, because they think it’s better to be humble (see the Eichah Rabbah version, especially). But the Torah’s priority is to protect Bar Kamtza, who is being attacked.
And perhaps the same thing happened with the rabbis in the Brooklyn/New Jersey scandal of this past week. Maybe they thought they were helping generate tzedakah money, maybe they had some other justification for committing these financial crimes. [I am NOT justifying it; my point is that people who set their own priorities get into trouble.]
When we set our own priorities, we get skewed results and rationalizations. Better to hold off on Torah (other than the permitted parts) during Tisha b’Av, remove the crown, absorb the intense reality of exile, and get started on rebuilding the Beit haMikdash.
[Of course, the big problem is when skewed-view human beings try to define the Torah’s objective priorities… implementation is harder than theory…]
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Dead Sea Chabad: 'Tefillin to Protect Us in Battle'
A team of Chabad activists led by Rabbi Shimon Elharar has begun a new initiative to protect Israel from her enemies: encouraging Jews to use tefillin (phylacteries). Jews are responsible for each other, Rabbi Elharar explains, according to the verse, “The entire people of Israel are guarantors for each other.”
A mitzvah (good deed) performed by one Jew can provide spiritual protection not only for the one performing it, but for all Jews, Rabbi Elharar says. “In our current situation, we must help our soldiers on the front of mitzvot and good deeds.”
Tefillin in particular is known for providing Divine protection and casting fear on Israel's enemies, Rabbi Elharar's team reminds the men they encounter as they work the crowds in the shopping malls at the Dead Sea hotel strip. The rabbis quote a verse from Devarim (Deuteronomy): “And the people of the land shall see that G-d's name is upon you, and they shall fear you.”
Activists tell a story from the Yom Kippur War that illustrates this principle. Following the war, an Israeli soldier wrote to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the head of the Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidic movement, describing an incident involving Egyptian soldiers.
In the middle of the war, Israeli soldiers saw a group of Egyptian soldiers approaching their position. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the Egyptians dropped their weapons and began a hasty retreat. The IDF commander was so surprised that he chased the Egyptian soldiers to see what had happened. The Egyptian commander said he had seen the Israeli soldiers wearing their “secret weapon”--a black box centered in the middle of their foreheads.
The Egyptians had mistaken the soldiers' tefillin for a secret weapon, the soldier told the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Tefillin is the soldiers' secret weapon, the Rebbe replied.
Rabbi Elharar is calling on all Jewish men to put on tefillin in order to provide Divine protection for the IDF soldiers and all Jews, and to cause Israel's enemies to flee in fear. He adds that Jewish women, who traditionally do not use tefillin, should light Sabbath candles and perform other mitzvot (good deeds) on behalf of the IDF and the Jewish people
A mitzvah (good deed) performed by one Jew can provide spiritual protection not only for the one performing it, but for all Jews, Rabbi Elharar says. “In our current situation, we must help our soldiers on the front of mitzvot and good deeds.”
Tefillin in particular is known for providing Divine protection and casting fear on Israel's enemies, Rabbi Elharar's team reminds the men they encounter as they work the crowds in the shopping malls at the Dead Sea hotel strip. The rabbis quote a verse from Devarim (Deuteronomy): “And the people of the land shall see that G-d's name is upon you, and they shall fear you.”
Activists tell a story from the Yom Kippur War that illustrates this principle. Following the war, an Israeli soldier wrote to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the head of the Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidic movement, describing an incident involving Egyptian soldiers.
In the middle of the war, Israeli soldiers saw a group of Egyptian soldiers approaching their position. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the Egyptians dropped their weapons and began a hasty retreat. The IDF commander was so surprised that he chased the Egyptian soldiers to see what had happened. The Egyptian commander said he had seen the Israeli soldiers wearing their “secret weapon”--a black box centered in the middle of their foreheads.
The Egyptians had mistaken the soldiers' tefillin for a secret weapon, the soldier told the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Tefillin is the soldiers' secret weapon, the Rebbe replied.
Rabbi Elharar is calling on all Jewish men to put on tefillin in order to provide Divine protection for the IDF soldiers and all Jews, and to cause Israel's enemies to flee in fear. He adds that Jewish women, who traditionally do not use tefillin, should light Sabbath candles and perform other mitzvot (good deeds) on behalf of the IDF and the Jewish people
Monday, December 08, 2008
The Human Spirit: Call-up for candle lighters
Dec. 4, 2008
Barbara Sofer , THE JERUSALEM POST
This Hebrew month of Kislev, the season of Hanukka, began with a call-up for candlelighters. Last Friday, the first day of Kislev, the words of Hallel in my Jerusalem synagogue sounded like a cry of anguish: Please, God, save now! But then our worst fears were confirmed: Terrorists had murdered Rivka and Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, directors of the Chabad House in Mumbai, and their house guests.
In the Diaspora, where the sun had not yet set, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of the educational and social services arm of Chabad-Lubavitch, turned to Jewish women through the media, which for a moment were focused on the world family of Lubavitch. Light Shabbat candles, he urged, not for the death of the Holtzbergs, but as a fulfillment of their lives' mission: bringing light.
Thank you, Chabad. Thank you to the thousands of emissaries who brave Herculean challenges to bring Yiddishkeit to the world. Thank you to their parents, who part from tender young couples who will relocate, not for a semester, but for a lifetime.
THE LUBAVITCH shluchim whom Rabbi Menahem Schneerson charged with ministering to the Jewish people everywhere in the world are known as Tzivot Hashem, God's army. The military terminology isn't metaphorical. Only those with a soldier's strength and stoicism can take on the harsh conditions, the constant discomfort of blazing trails of Judaism through rugged terrain. They head for the wilderness at the difficult period of life when they're bringing up small children. They set up shop in lands with archaic medical infrastructure, far from supportive family and friends, not to mention kosher stores, Jewish schools and synagogues. They bring into the intimacy of their home local and visiting Jews, masses of back-packers, and the ragged and soul-weary.
It's a lifetime service - what we call in Israel tzva keva, the standing army. In Laos and Cambodia, in frozen Siberia, there's nothing watered-down about their Yiddishkeit, but they have a talent for sharing Jewish tradition without eliciting antagonism - an antidote for many who associate religion with coerciveness and politics.
It's not all cheerful dinners. On TV this week, a now-reformed Israeli told how when he sat in an Indian prison for drugs, Rabbi Holtzberg visited him and brought him books and hope. And there's the chronic need for fund-raising. Each Chabad House is independent, and the directors need to raise their own operating budget. That includes the festive meals that all of us Jewish travelers enjoy when we're touring or working abroad. The comforts of Shabbat on the road are also made possible by the sacrifices of these young people.
And the most amazing part of all is that they do all this and make us feel welcome almost as if we're doing them a favor and not the other way around.
This national service is the mission of both men and women. In Mumbai, the Holtzbergs hosted thousands of guests, young and old, provided classes and religious services. Despite media descriptions of Rivky as "the rabbi's wife," she served as co-director of the center. Over the past two decades, in the memory of the late Rabbanit Chaya Mushka Schneerson, Chabad women have taken on more formal roles of teaching, organizing outreach activities and counseling visitors. Terror victim Norma Shvarzblat-Rabinovich was reportedly getting help from Rivky on paperwork to move to Israel.
JEWISH TRAVELERS like to swap personal Chabad travel stories. One repeating theme is the wonder at the mix of people sitting side by side at Shabbat tables, breaking halla together. You might meet an acquaintance from Petah Tikva or Poughkeepsie, backpackers from Haifa and Halifax, and an itinerant rabbi or two. Two of the slain this week, Benzion Chroman, a Bobov hassid, and Leibish Teitelbaum, a Volover hassid, were kashrut supervisors. At the gracious Chabad table in Beijing, my husband and I once sat across from three road-weary kashrut inspectors representing three different kosher certifications. They'd spent the weekdays traveling over broken roads to the backwaters of China to inspect food production plants. (If I'd ever thought that certain canned fruit and vegetable products didn't really require kosher certification, I changed my mind after hearing their reports.)
In Jerusalem those men might never have eaten at each other's tables or at the home of a Lubavitch hassid, for that matter, but on the road, Jews of all persuasions join together. That spirit of unity pervaded the unamenable arena of Israeli media coverage this week. As we followed every detail of the horrific tragedy in Mumbai, no one spoke of the victims being secular, religious or haredi. They were simply "Israelis."
HOW DID this attack on a Chabad House fit into the plans of the Mumbai terrorists? According to The New York Times, the Chabad House was an "unlikely target" of the terrorist gunmen who unleashed their series of bloody coordinated attacks at locations in and around Mumbai's commercial centers - "It is not known if the Jewish center was strategically chosen, or if it was an accidental hostage scene."
Let's look at the other targets: two famous hotels, a tourist cafe, a hospital, movie theater, police barracks. To those of us who live with terrorism, these are all familiar choices of those who want to destabilize the Western world. In addition are the Jewish targets: bar or bat mitzva gatherings, synagogue services, a Passover Seder. Let's not pretend otherwise: At the heart of international jihad lies odium for Israel and Jews.
Much about the terror attack in India remains hazy, but from the beginning Indian officials reported the meticulous preparation and professional execution of the terrorists' strategy. Who can imagine that those who knew the floor plan of the giant Taj Mahal Palace Hotel better than the hotel's security agents would stumble by accident on a hassidic center in a metropolis of nearly 20 million people? It's about as likely as a truck accidentally running into a Djerba synagogue in April 2002 or it being by chance that that wheelchair-bound terror victim tossed into the sea on the Achille Lauro in 1985 was a Jew.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni affirmed that the Chabad House was indeed attacked as a symbol of the Jewish people.
Chabad Houses go way beyond symbolism; they're outposts of the Jewish people living and reclaiming our heritage. Thank you, Chabad. We owe it to your emissaries, who sacrifice so much for the Jewish people, to carry out their mission after their deaths. Lighting candles is a good place to start. But then we must go further to make our homes reflect the values of their Chabad House. The Chabad army fights with bowls of chicken soup, tefillin and the light of candlesticks, with loving-kindness and openness to the other, even when it's not convenient.
Conscription time is right now. Kislev 5769.
Barbara Sofer , THE JERUSALEM POST
This Hebrew month of Kislev, the season of Hanukka, began with a call-up for candlelighters. Last Friday, the first day of Kislev, the words of Hallel in my Jerusalem synagogue sounded like a cry of anguish: Please, God, save now! But then our worst fears were confirmed: Terrorists had murdered Rivka and Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, directors of the Chabad House in Mumbai, and their house guests.
In the Diaspora, where the sun had not yet set, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of the educational and social services arm of Chabad-Lubavitch, turned to Jewish women through the media, which for a moment were focused on the world family of Lubavitch. Light Shabbat candles, he urged, not for the death of the Holtzbergs, but as a fulfillment of their lives' mission: bringing light.
Thank you, Chabad. Thank you to the thousands of emissaries who brave Herculean challenges to bring Yiddishkeit to the world. Thank you to their parents, who part from tender young couples who will relocate, not for a semester, but for a lifetime.
THE LUBAVITCH shluchim whom Rabbi Menahem Schneerson charged with ministering to the Jewish people everywhere in the world are known as Tzivot Hashem, God's army. The military terminology isn't metaphorical. Only those with a soldier's strength and stoicism can take on the harsh conditions, the constant discomfort of blazing trails of Judaism through rugged terrain. They head for the wilderness at the difficult period of life when they're bringing up small children. They set up shop in lands with archaic medical infrastructure, far from supportive family and friends, not to mention kosher stores, Jewish schools and synagogues. They bring into the intimacy of their home local and visiting Jews, masses of back-packers, and the ragged and soul-weary.
It's a lifetime service - what we call in Israel tzva keva, the standing army. In Laos and Cambodia, in frozen Siberia, there's nothing watered-down about their Yiddishkeit, but they have a talent for sharing Jewish tradition without eliciting antagonism - an antidote for many who associate religion with coerciveness and politics.
It's not all cheerful dinners. On TV this week, a now-reformed Israeli told how when he sat in an Indian prison for drugs, Rabbi Holtzberg visited him and brought him books and hope. And there's the chronic need for fund-raising. Each Chabad House is independent, and the directors need to raise their own operating budget. That includes the festive meals that all of us Jewish travelers enjoy when we're touring or working abroad. The comforts of Shabbat on the road are also made possible by the sacrifices of these young people.
And the most amazing part of all is that they do all this and make us feel welcome almost as if we're doing them a favor and not the other way around.
This national service is the mission of both men and women. In Mumbai, the Holtzbergs hosted thousands of guests, young and old, provided classes and religious services. Despite media descriptions of Rivky as "the rabbi's wife," she served as co-director of the center. Over the past two decades, in the memory of the late Rabbanit Chaya Mushka Schneerson, Chabad women have taken on more formal roles of teaching, organizing outreach activities and counseling visitors. Terror victim Norma Shvarzblat-Rabinovich was reportedly getting help from Rivky on paperwork to move to Israel.
JEWISH TRAVELERS like to swap personal Chabad travel stories. One repeating theme is the wonder at the mix of people sitting side by side at Shabbat tables, breaking halla together. You might meet an acquaintance from Petah Tikva or Poughkeepsie, backpackers from Haifa and Halifax, and an itinerant rabbi or two. Two of the slain this week, Benzion Chroman, a Bobov hassid, and Leibish Teitelbaum, a Volover hassid, were kashrut supervisors. At the gracious Chabad table in Beijing, my husband and I once sat across from three road-weary kashrut inspectors representing three different kosher certifications. They'd spent the weekdays traveling over broken roads to the backwaters of China to inspect food production plants. (If I'd ever thought that certain canned fruit and vegetable products didn't really require kosher certification, I changed my mind after hearing their reports.)
In Jerusalem those men might never have eaten at each other's tables or at the home of a Lubavitch hassid, for that matter, but on the road, Jews of all persuasions join together. That spirit of unity pervaded the unamenable arena of Israeli media coverage this week. As we followed every detail of the horrific tragedy in Mumbai, no one spoke of the victims being secular, religious or haredi. They were simply "Israelis."
HOW DID this attack on a Chabad House fit into the plans of the Mumbai terrorists? According to The New York Times, the Chabad House was an "unlikely target" of the terrorist gunmen who unleashed their series of bloody coordinated attacks at locations in and around Mumbai's commercial centers - "It is not known if the Jewish center was strategically chosen, or if it was an accidental hostage scene."
Let's look at the other targets: two famous hotels, a tourist cafe, a hospital, movie theater, police barracks. To those of us who live with terrorism, these are all familiar choices of those who want to destabilize the Western world. In addition are the Jewish targets: bar or bat mitzva gatherings, synagogue services, a Passover Seder. Let's not pretend otherwise: At the heart of international jihad lies odium for Israel and Jews.
Much about the terror attack in India remains hazy, but from the beginning Indian officials reported the meticulous preparation and professional execution of the terrorists' strategy. Who can imagine that those who knew the floor plan of the giant Taj Mahal Palace Hotel better than the hotel's security agents would stumble by accident on a hassidic center in a metropolis of nearly 20 million people? It's about as likely as a truck accidentally running into a Djerba synagogue in April 2002 or it being by chance that that wheelchair-bound terror victim tossed into the sea on the Achille Lauro in 1985 was a Jew.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni affirmed that the Chabad House was indeed attacked as a symbol of the Jewish people.
Chabad Houses go way beyond symbolism; they're outposts of the Jewish people living and reclaiming our heritage. Thank you, Chabad. We owe it to your emissaries, who sacrifice so much for the Jewish people, to carry out their mission after their deaths. Lighting candles is a good place to start. But then we must go further to make our homes reflect the values of their Chabad House. The Chabad army fights with bowls of chicken soup, tefillin and the light of candlesticks, with loving-kindness and openness to the other, even when it's not convenient.
Conscription time is right now. Kislev 5769.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Alaska - Part XIV
Saturday - Shabbat
Vay'hi erev vay'hi boker - Yom hashishi. Vay'chulu hashamayim v'haaretz....
Okay, maybe it wasn't that dramatic, but we did at least see a good part of the land and sky that was totally new to us.
On the Sabbath we ceased from our "labors" of driving around, kayaking, hiking and cooking, and instead visitied somewhere somewhat familiar and somewhat foreign - Chabad Anchorage.
(Please follow link for the full entry)
Vay'hi erev vay'hi boker - Yom hashishi. Vay'chulu hashamayim v'haaretz....
Okay, maybe it wasn't that dramatic, but we did at least see a good part of the land and sky that was totally new to us.
On the Sabbath we ceased from our "labors" of driving around, kayaking, hiking and cooking, and instead visitied somewhere somewhat familiar and somewhat foreign - Chabad Anchorage.
(Please follow link for the full entry)
Monday, February 05, 2007
Shabbat 1000
The smell of traditional Jewish foods will fill Carnegie Mellon’s Wiegand Gymnasium in the University Center on Friday as students, faculty, and other members of the Pittsburgh community gather for Shabbat 1000, an annual campus event held to celebrate the traditional Jewish day of rest. The program will provide a filling three-course meal for, organizers hope, 1000 participants. Attendees will be served traditional Shabbat foods such as gefilte fish, a variety of kugels, challah rolls, salads, desserts, and several vegetarian options.
“The atmosphere will be one of celebration, joy, and unity,” said Chani Weinstein, Pittsburgh’s Shabbat 1000 administrator. Several student groups from Carnegie Mellon, including Alpha Epsilon Pi, Zeta Beta Tau, Israel on Campus, and Tartans for Israel, have joined other groups in the Pittsburgh area to help in the planning, promotion, and implementation of the event.
Shabbat 1000 is a national event started 12 years ago by Rivka Slonim, co-director of the Chabad House at the State University of New York at Binghamton. Cornell University, Harvard University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Texas are just a few of the universities that have brought the Shabbat 1000 tradition to their own campuses.
“This unique campus event offers students an opportunity to meet and connect with others and to share in the traditional celebration of Shabbat — something special beyond their weekly routine,” Weinstein said. “The actual event is very inspiring to see so many students celebrating Shabbat and eating a delicious meal all together.”
Pittsburgh’s Shabbat 1000 is coordinated by Chabad House on Campus and the Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh. This year’s event is dedicated to the memory of the late mayor of Pittsburgh, Bob O’Connor.
Dinner is free and open to everyone, Jewish and non-Jewish alike.
Today is the last day for students to sign up on the event’s website, (www.shabbat1000.net). Participants can either sign up to host a table of 10 people, or sign up as an individual to be placed at a table of 10 by the event’s organizers.
Shabbat 1000 will take place Friday, February 9 at 5 p.m. in the Wiegand Gymnasium.
“The atmosphere will be one of celebration, joy, and unity,” said Chani Weinstein, Pittsburgh’s Shabbat 1000 administrator. Several student groups from Carnegie Mellon, including Alpha Epsilon Pi, Zeta Beta Tau, Israel on Campus, and Tartans for Israel, have joined other groups in the Pittsburgh area to help in the planning, promotion, and implementation of the event.
Shabbat 1000 is a national event started 12 years ago by Rivka Slonim, co-director of the Chabad House at the State University of New York at Binghamton. Cornell University, Harvard University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Texas are just a few of the universities that have brought the Shabbat 1000 tradition to their own campuses.
“This unique campus event offers students an opportunity to meet and connect with others and to share in the traditional celebration of Shabbat — something special beyond their weekly routine,” Weinstein said. “The actual event is very inspiring to see so many students celebrating Shabbat and eating a delicious meal all together.”
Pittsburgh’s Shabbat 1000 is coordinated by Chabad House on Campus and the Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh. This year’s event is dedicated to the memory of the late mayor of Pittsburgh, Bob O’Connor.
Dinner is free and open to everyone, Jewish and non-Jewish alike.
Today is the last day for students to sign up on the event’s website, (www.shabbat1000.net). Participants can either sign up to host a table of 10 people, or sign up as an individual to be placed at a table of 10 by the event’s organizers.
Shabbat 1000 will take place Friday, February 9 at 5 p.m. in the Wiegand Gymnasium.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Chabad wants all Jews to rest this Shabbat
Chabad hopes to bring the world one step closer to the age of the messiah by encouraging the entire Jewish people to rest this Shabbat. "By uniting the Jewish people, and hence the world, we hope to bring Moshiach," said Aaron Hurwitz, a Jerusalem-based Chabad rabbi who is helping organize the fifth annual One Shabbat, One World project.
According Jewish sources, Hurwitz said, if the Jewish people rests for two Shabbatot, Moshiach will come.
Chabad organizes the One Shabbat, One World project to coincide with the weekly portion that recounts the first Shabbat kept by the Jews after the Exodus from Egypt.
This year, the international endeavor also coincides with Tu Bishvat. The Torah (Deuteronomy 20:19) likens man to "a tree of the field," Hurwitz said. "Just as a tree grows and produces more and more fruit, so too should a man strive constantly to grow spiritually and do more and more good deeds."
On its oneshabbat.com Web site, Chabad says worldwide events like One Shabbat, One World "were foretold by our prophets and sages. They are part of the tumultuous and historic developments that precede the Messianic era. It is up to us to do what we can to hasten the process by increasing in goodness and kindness, and by adding more light."
According Jewish sources, Hurwitz said, if the Jewish people rests for two Shabbatot, Moshiach will come.
Chabad organizes the One Shabbat, One World project to coincide with the weekly portion that recounts the first Shabbat kept by the Jews after the Exodus from Egypt.
This year, the international endeavor also coincides with Tu Bishvat. The Torah (Deuteronomy 20:19) likens man to "a tree of the field," Hurwitz said. "Just as a tree grows and produces more and more fruit, so too should a man strive constantly to grow spiritually and do more and more good deeds."
On its oneshabbat.com Web site, Chabad says worldwide events like One Shabbat, One World "were foretold by our prophets and sages. They are part of the tumultuous and historic developments that precede the Messianic era. It is up to us to do what we can to hasten the process by increasing in goodness and kindness, and by adding more light."
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