This is a difficult posting, not only because of the emotions it raises but also because there is so much that I long to write re my most unfavorite personality, but for my sake, for my sanity, I must take a break. However, I will do my best to post another piece later this afternoon.
Today is Friday. It is a day that often brings with it both frantic activity and peaceful moments, thoughts of what must be done in a short time, and thoughts of yesteryear, often a day to touch base with old friends.
For most of my life Friday was seen as a day of frantic activity on the part of my mother. My Pop would run around Thursday afternoon and if we were lucky, got to go with him. If we were doubly lucky, we got to stay out of my mother's way on Friday!! It was a day we were glad to go to school.
The house was jammed with bundles, with food to be put away and food to be cooked and cleaning utensils - brooms, mops, supplies, rags, vacuums - all were all over the place. I swear I could see them propagating in front of my eyes!
But what a magic moment at the end of it all. Somehow, 30 seconds before The Sabbath began, everything disappeared, the activities stopped and we were all dressed. An aura of peace and serenity reigned with my dad and brothers off to prayers and me and my sister watching my mother wave in the light and the blessings of Shabbat as she lit the candles, lighting the way for the visit of the Sabbath Queen to our home. For 24 hours we had a day of family, of laughter and jokes, of stories, of visits with friends and family, of reading in a favorite chair and playing games - before they deteriorated into disagreements, shall we say?
Until fifth grade, though, I did not truly appreciate the gift of the no work policy. But that year I had a wonderful teacher, the first teacher I actually came to know as a person as we walked home together in the same direction, as she pushed us all to work. From her I learned how to study for a test, how to push myself and not take the easy way out. When in sixth grade I moved and changed schools, I encountered many teachers who demanded work and achievement and wow, did I appreciate the Sabbath. It was a day when I put aside my books and spent the day with family, with G-d, and walking all over the place with my friends, from one house to the other, staying until we could practically see the plea in the eyes of the parents of that home, pleading for a little time for quiet, for a blessed Shabbat nap. It was okay, for like locusts, our crowd just grew and we consumed all that was available.
From that time on I have relished the coming of the Sabbath. No work. No phone calls from parents of students or board members. Just peace. Time to reconnect with the kids, talk of the week behind and the week ahead, what was learned in school (mostly nothing according to them!), laugh and tell stories. But it was not until I was that adult that I realized that this day was a gift from G-d. No work so no worry for why waste time on what could not be done, although often by the end of Shabbat I found that problems had solved themselves inside my own head. Thank the Lord for back burners of the mind!
Shabbat has been a lifesaver for me and for the Jewish people throughout history. It gave every father a chance to be king, to enjoy his children, and for every mother to be Queen, to look at her family with pride, and for all of us to appreciate our history, our luck and our love.
So Shabbat, or its anticipation, has given me a much needed respite from writing about that man and his lies and the danger he poses to us all. Time enough for that later on today. Right now I am taking a pre Shabbat anticipatory break, anticipating the peace, the laughter, the books, the friends. And as I light the candles I see my mom doing the same and my Bubby doing the same and all the women doing the same down the generations. And I see my mother doing the same, having magically dispersed the cleaning tools of Heaven, ushered my Pop and G-d to shul, (synagogue) set the table and lighting the candles, quieting down the noisy Heavens confounded by what man below is doing, has done and is proposing to do. Time for that later. Time for peace and family now. So I have my weekly chat with my parents as my hands cover my eyes as I say the blessing and I inform them of the doings of the family, the cute great grandchildren of theirs, of the needs and problems and I end my chat reassured that I am still loved as a child by parents and help and guidance is always there.
So Shabbat Shalom to all, Jew and non Jew alike, for we can all use a day of peace and reflection, a day off from the tension of the times. Would that we could extend the peace and quiet, the serenity of the Shabbat to the rest of the week. What a better place the world would be.
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