Articles in Shabbos
Emor: Shabbos Rest AND Exhilaration
A Curious Phrase
The lyrics to a popular Jewish children’s song proclaim, “If I would have the might I would run into the night and I would cry SHABBOS, SHABBOS, SHABBOS, SHABBOS.” Shabbos means to rest, but running around and screaming Shabbos doesn’t sound overly restful to me. What is the …
Vayetze: Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk
Is Talking Enough?
We live in a world of action. If you want something to be real, you can’t just talk about it, you have to do something about it. Talking about love is not enough. Even if you truly love your words aren’t real until you do something to show …
Mishpatim: Whom do You Serve?
One and Others
Have you ever noticed that the classic proclamation of Jewish faith, the call Hashem Echad – G-d is one, can be easily mispronounced as hashem Acher – another G-d? Rather than proclaiming our faith in a single – one and only – G-d we can inadvertently slide into …
B’har: The Nature of Shabbos
Shabbos – The Crown of the Week
“When you come into your land… the earth shall rest a Shabbos for Hashem. For six years you shall sow your land but the seventh year shall be…a Shabbos for Hashem.” (Our Parsha, Leviticus 25, 2-4) This verse begins with a discussion of Shabbos, …
Shabbos: The Theology
A Testimony to G-d
The raw elements of the
universe that G-d created are for the most part non-utilitarian. G-d
created man and charged him with the responsibility of reshaping this
nature so that it would better provide for man’s needs.. From the
beginning of time men have struggled to manipulate the forces of
nature.
We …
Shabbos: The Experience
The Highlight of the Jewish Week
“Six Days a week you shall
work and on the seventh day you rest”. Shabbos is a symbol of the
covenant between G-d and the Jewish nation. The covenant is enacted
through observing twenty-four hours of Shabbos rest (See section three)
For the Jew, Shabbos is a
day of complete …
Shabbos: The Rituals
Preparations
We often refer to the day of Shabbos as “Shabbos the queen” or “Shabbos the
bride”. The underlying message is that Shabbos is a distinguished guest whom we
are honored to welcome into our homes.
The preparations for this honored guest are very extensive. Shopping and
cooking usually begins two or three days before …
Shabbos: Thirty-Nine Catagories
Shabbos Prohibitions
It would be far beyond the scope of this essay to do justice to the intricate details of the Shabbos prohibitions. However, we will attempt provide a general overview of the categories of Melacha (work) that is prohibited on Shabbos.
The written Torah does not clearly delineate the individual types …
