Renewing Shabbat/Running Shabbat

We split up for Shabbat. Half the group went to a modern Orthodox synagogue with a twist: Shira Hadasha has a mechitza but sometimes the leader is a woman and she leads on her side and sometimes it is a man and he leads on his side. Usually, the service is split so both sides have some direct experience with the person leading services. I have been there before (usually I don’t go to places with a mechitza) and it is a quite lovely service.

However, this time I went with the UCC minister from Concord NH, Leanne and Joseph the progressive Pentecostal minister from Harlem to a place called the Kagin’s. The Kagin’s it turns out is a personal home where Ruth Kagin lives. She is a Jewish renewal rabbi who leads a Shabbat service in her home and generally Christians and Muslims join. She led in Hebrew and English and had a guitar accompany her. It was a ruach/spirit filled service and Joseph was really surprised at how Pentecostal it felt.

People brought their own tambourines and drums and it was a very moving service. I was excited to welcome in the Jewish Sabbath after walking the Villa Delorosa. It was comforting and familiar. The themes of the service were softness and humility. At a time where I am being mindful of opening my heart and listening to the other, witnessing the challenge of a country at war and listening to people who advocate for peace and those who seek to wipe out Hezbollah—humility is a good quality to cultivate.

I just came back from a Shabbat run in a nearby park. It was such a nice afternoon. When I returned, the hotel was packed with kids running around. In the lobby there was a large Druze community that has been relocated from the North. Also, many other Jews from Haifa are here in the hotel alongside and inordinate number of French Jews. I cannot tell you the disdainful looks I received entering the hotel in running shorts and a sleeveless shirt. Though I wasn’t breaking Shabbat, I might have just as well been flinging bacon across the room. After waiting for the Shabbat elevator which runs continually, enduring the harsh looks, I went to my room. There I discovered my key no longer worked! I had to go back down and endure looks from adults and children alike who were camped out throughout the stairwells the entire way down. If it wasn’t so funny, I would have been really annoyed.