One of the interesting bi-products of Jess going to school to be a Rabbi is the religious exploration that I get to go on. Whether or not I like it is irrelevant, because I’m surrounded by it. Last night was a good example of the journey.

This week for Shabbat (Friday night), HUC hosted all of the students plus some select guests for services and dinner. Services were a bit more alternative then your normal run of the mill services, and you could tell when you walked in the door that it’d be different as the seats were set-up to be facing each other in a more circle like pattern. The HUC fourth year interns lead services with a guitar and a lot of singing.

After a delicious dinner, a couple of the more musically inclined song leaders of the group lead us in a very enjoyable song session.

Afterwards, the philosophical part of the evening began. A few of us met up at our apartment to just hang out and talk. One of the guys talked about his exploration of what Shabbat meant to him, and was curious about other people’s journeys and what Shabbat meant to them in the past and where they would like Shabbat to fit in the future. Now, I’ll admit that is a pretty deep and loaded question, but it definitely brought up interesting discussions and was very interesting to see where the different students were coming from.

As for me, Shabbos lately has been more of a Friday night thing. Saturday is the day that I take care of all of the logistics like bills, cleaning the house, etc. That being said, the idea of a day of rest is really appealing. Day of Rest isn’t really accurate, how about a day of elevation. A day where instead of getting bogged down with the logistics of life, we slow down just a little and truly enjoy the people and the land around us. A day to stop and smell the roses (if you can…).

It’s a pretty powerful idea…and people have been doing it in some form or another for thousands of years. It has always been easier to do this when you’re in a close knit community. In New York, we’d go out to the park and just hang out with a pot-luck lunch or even just to throw around a frisbee and enjoy a nice day. Back at Teva, it was incredibly easy to enjoy a Shabbat because everyone was doing it. Nobody talked about work, and everyone was just finding there special way to ‘elevate’ the day.

Lately, it has become harder and harder for me to separate a day. Even after having this great exploratory discussion till late into the night, the first thing I did this morning was wake up, pick-up my computer, check my email, surf the internet, and even check my work email. D’oh!

One thing that has always been very clear to me is that having a spiritual religious experience indoors doesn’t necessarily work for me. I’ve always felt much more connected with myself and where I stand in the world, and where I want to stand in the world when I’m out in nature on a hike. Maybe it’s just because all of the mundane distractions are gone. There’s no email, internet, Wii, bills, or dirty dishes that get in the way on a hike. There is just you, the people you are with, and the nature around you (and since I’m out of shape, the pain of exercise). Of course, living in Jerusalem, it’s a lot harder to get out of the city on Shabbos because the entire city shuts down, well not entirely, but it’s significantly harder to get around and find stores that are open.

So as the year progresses and Jess progresses towards one day being a Rabbi, it will be interesting to see where my journey goes.

Since Jess likes to finish her entries with questions, feel free to think about, and post your thoughts in the comments section below. What does Shabbat or the Sabbath mean to you? Do you do anything to differentiate this day compared to the rest of the week? What would you like to do differently that you don’t already do?

I