Shabbat
How to have a Kick-Ass shabbat
Don’t worry about the “right” way to have Shabbat dinner. It doesn’t matter whether you cooked a chicken or ordered pizza. It’s about the feeling you get when taking the time to pause and breathe. An added bonus to Shabbat is that it comes 52 times a year. At my house, the way we celebrate Shabbat depends a lot on who’s at home. If it’s just my husband and daughters, we generally just do the traditional blessings over the candles, wine, kids and challah in about ten minutes. When we have friends over, whether they are Jewish or not, we use more of the Shabbat Playbook. I never do every reading in one evening but will often do the traditional prayers and then about five additional readings.
A few tips:
1. TAKE TURNS: Similar to a Passover Hagaddah, when you use the Shabbat Playbook, go around the table and have everyone read one section or paragraph out loud.
2. BE PREPARED: If you’re the leader, look at the readings ahead of time and have an idea of which ones you’ll be doing.
3. KEEP IT USER-FRIENDLY: There is very little Hebrew in the Playbook. I designed it that way because I don’t understand Hebrew and find it intimidating. But Hebrew is a key Jewish tradition, so if you want to add more, go right ahead.
Shabbat Shalom!