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June 7, 2022
Shabbat with Rabbi Shmuel Bowman (Going Deeper Series)
What a joy it was recently to sit with Rabbi Shmuel Bowman in a lovely garden in Jerusalem and discuss Shabbat. Rabbi Bowman shared how much he loves Shabbat and described it as a sanctuary of time set apart for fellowship with the Creator. He explained that Shabbat is not about stopping certain activities but is about doing things like prayer, singing, blessings ones family and eating delicious food. Listen in this week and hear what is his most favorite part of the weekly tradition.
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Transcript
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Welcome to Out of Zion with Susan Michael, an exploration of the Bible and the land of
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Israel.
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From ancient biblical sites to the story behind the stories, join Susan on a journey through
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the most exciting book on the planet.
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Hit the subscribe button for future episodes, which will deepen your faith and bring the
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Bible to life.
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And now, here's our host, Susan Michael.
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Well, welcome to this week's Going Deeper series, where we have a very dear friend with
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us, Rabbi Shmuel Bohman.
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And as you can tell from the background, we are sitting here live in Jerusalem with a
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gorgeous olive tree behind us, which is really quite appropriate, don't you think?
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So we want to welcome everyone.
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Rabbi Bohman is here with me today to discuss Shabbat.
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And I know many of you are listening to my Shabbat Shalom devotionals each Friday.
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So I wanted to have this opportunity just to talk a little bit deeper about the meaning
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of Shabbat and how the Jewish people observe it.
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So with me is Rabbi Shmuel Bohman.
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He is not just a rabbi.
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He's also a Torah scribe, and he's executive director of Operation Life Shield.
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And we partner with him placing bomb shelters here in vulnerable communities in Israel.
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He's a very dear friend of the International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem, and I count
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him as a friend too.
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So thank you for being with us.
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My first question for you is just take a few minutes and explain to us the biblical meaning
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of Shabbat.
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What does the Bible say about it?
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Why do we have a Shabbat?
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Thank you, Susan.
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It is beautiful to be here in Jerusalem in your Shalime on this gorgeous, gorgeous day
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of the flowers are blooming and it's wonderful.
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Shabbat first and foremost is a biblical commandment.
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I mean, it's sitting there in the Ten Commandments as our fourth commandment.
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And it's telling us some very powerful information even in the Ten Commandments itself.
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We look at it, we talk about Shemur Yom Shabbat L'Kochot.
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Guard the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
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Sheshitimimasad naite shemaim vat'ar.
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It's Yom Shvi Shabbat Vainafash.
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God created in six days and on the seventh day God arrested.
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So it's packing a lot of information in this seemingly simple commandment that discusses
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what is creation?
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What does it mean for God to create?
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And it's very, very interesting that even Shabbat is an act of creation.
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Even Shabbat is not outside of creation, it's within the framework of creation.
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So this is all God's doing.
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So just as God is creating the sky and the water and the flowers and the animals and
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us, God's also creating Shabbat.
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So it becomes this fact.
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It's not even a question of, oh, should I celebrate Shabbat or not?
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Shabbat is happening.
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The question is, am I happening with it?
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So whether or not you're sleeping through it or working through it or ignoring it, it's
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going on because God created Shabbat just as God created everything around us.
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The question is, what is our relationship to it?
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That's the big question.
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And then the commandment continues because it's not just one line as we see from the
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movie The Ten Commandments of Trout and Heston, which is a great movie.
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And we know we both love this movie.
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It continues.
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Lotasekoma lacha, ta'ovincha vetecha.
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Do not do any acts of creating yourself, any acts of work.
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Atta'ovincha, you and your children.
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Uvagerecha besharecha, and the stranger within your gates.
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In other words, you have an opportunity to participate in this gift called Shabbat and
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really do something different.
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So what does that do something different?
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It's very, very interesting because we talk about the idea that more than Jews have kept
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Shabbat for thousands of years, really it's Shabbat that have kept the Jewish people.
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Which means that here is this institutionalized day in the middle of our lives in which we
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have to think differently, do differently, act differently with our families and with
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our communities.
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And this has kept Jewish communities all over the world for thousands of years.
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So I would begin by just saying that that's what Shabbat is for me.
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It's this piece of creation with an invitation for me to participate in it.
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And what a gift that is.
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And then the question is how do we actually do that?
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But that's the basics.
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The Torah, the Bible, goes on and discusses the parameters.
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But it's really important to understand that when the Torah is given at Mount Sinai.
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And it's not that I believe that the Torah was given at Mount Sinai.
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I know the Torah was given at Mount Sinai.
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When that happens, there are two things happening at the same time.
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And the Hebrew is really, really important here.
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Shemor.
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At Yom HaShabbat, Bakut Shol.
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And Zahor.
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And Shemor means to guard.
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In other words, to restrict entrance, if you will.
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That's what it means to guard.
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There is a guard at the hotel entrance here.
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He's restricting the people from coming in to guard what happens on Shabbat.
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The Zahor.
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Zahor means to remember.
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That's an active commandment.
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That's a doing.
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So Shabbat has its do's and its don'ts.
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And it's replete with all sorts of examples in the Torah of what to do and what not to
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do on the Shabbat.
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And that's just beginning to kind of wet our appetite for the conversation.
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So tell me how your family typically observes the Shabbat when it begins.
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What's the first thing you do?
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Walk us through a Shabbat with your family.
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Okay.
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Well, first of all, Shabbat begins the moment the previous Shabbat ends.
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So we're talking about getting ready for Shabbat.
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It's like Shabbat is over at, you know, when it's nighttime on Saturday evening, right?
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As soon as the three stars are out, which is in the indication that it's now the next
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day because, right, the biblical calendar begins at the evening, right?
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Just like the Bible says, and it was evening and it was morning, day two, day three and
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so on.
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So that's how we, that's how we do our days.
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So soon as the day, soon as Shabbat is over, when the three stars come out at night time,
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we're already getting ready for Shabbat.
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We're already, our mind is already ready for the following week.
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What does that mean?
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That means that my wife, Leah, is already filling up the oil candles.
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We light with oil.
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You can use wax.
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You can use whatever you want.
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We like to use actually colored oil.
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And so she likes to change out the colors.
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And so she's already changing and putting in the new wicks.
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That's already happening minutes, minutes after Shabbat ends.
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We're already washing any of the utensils and dishes that may be needed for the following
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Shabbat and placing it back in a respected, beautiful place, okay, where we're ready to
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have it for the fall.
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Everything is getting ready.
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Our books are all set and ready to go so that you can pull them out ready when you need
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them.
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We don't get ready for Shabbat minutes before Shabbat starts.
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It's already happening throughout the entire week.
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We're going to have a special day for shopping for Shabbat or ordering, ordering food for
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Shabbat.
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We're already planning who our guests are, okay, which of our kids and if our granddaughter
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is coming, that's all starting to happen.
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What it's going to look like.
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So we're already thinking we're getting into a Shabbat mode.
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I would say honestly that by Wednesday of the middle of the week, we're already in Shabbat
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Drive.
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Okay.
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By Thursday, forget about it.
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That's as far as we're concerned, Shabbat is already in Thursday.
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Are you kidding me?
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Friday's Shabbat.
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But really, of course, of course, we know that Shabbat really begins on Friday, early
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evening before nightfall.
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And this is where everything in our home and the Bowman household moves from a frenzied
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panic to making sure that we get everything done on time because Shabbat has to begin
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at a certain time.
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Okay.
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And then as I mentioned before, there's all sorts of regulations in the Torah in terms
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of what you can and cannot do.
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So we don't want to, of course, break those commandments, those laws.
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And so there's a certain frenzied panic making sure everything can happen on time.
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And it does.
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It always seems to happen.
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We also happen to have a synagogue in our house or I should say on our house.
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It's on our outdoor upper patio.
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So get our little synagogue ready.
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So there's a lot of things that goes on, making sure that we have a shower schedule, make
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sure that everyone is showering with all this is going on.
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You make sure your clothes are already set and ready.
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Everything is ready to go.
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It's like, it's like getting ready to go to a wedding.
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It's like getting ready to go to a great wedding.
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It's like getting ready to go to a great appearance before, before the queen or the king.
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And so you got to look nice.
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You got to be ready.
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You got to get ready to go.
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And then Shabbat comes in and Shabbat comes in and there's this, there's a piece and that
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piece is a certain sense of there's nothing else that can do.
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Even if I wanted to do it, the phones turned off.
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The iPhones are turned off.
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The computers are shut down.
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In the old days, we used to talk about turning off the fax machine.
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Remember the fax machine?
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All that kind of stuff.
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The car stopped.
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All that kind of, we've stopped.
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We've just stopped.
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But really we haven't stopped.
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We've started.
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Shabbat is not about necessarily just kind of like turning off and now, okay, no, it's
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not about taking time off.
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It's about taking time on.
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And now we get into our Shabbat attitude.
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It's a time for prayer.
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It's a time for song.
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This is when we really, ah, we got great voices right here in our throats and in our lungs.
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We use them.
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We don't use instruments.
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And so it's a time for singing.
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There are special songs that we sing as a family and as a community around the Shabbat
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table.
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This is also in a sense like a wedding.
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Our table itself and our home becomes what's called, a miniature version of the Holy Temple.
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You're literally in the throne room.
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The table itself has all the different symbols that are going to be happening.
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The halah, the wine, the wine, okay, the salt, the fact that you're using your best dishes.
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We've entered into a replica, a miniature replica of the Holy Temple.
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It's an amazing feeling.
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People come to the table.
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Okay, the discussion is different.
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You're not talking about the usual, I mean, every family in politics and sports.
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No.
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This is a time for discussing Bible.
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This is a time for discussing thoughts and ideas as well as how, you know, maybe beautiful
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moments in our week.
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This is a time for coming together.
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And that's what happens in our home.
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It's a beautiful time.
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It's a time where books that are only read on Shabbat are opened.
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It's a time for connecting with friends who are walking down the middle of the street,
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not driving.
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What an incredible thing to exchange with your neighbors in not in a hurried and rushed
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way.
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So this is a little taste.
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Of course, the food, speaking of taste, is outstanding.
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Shabbat dinner is a banquet.
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Shabbat lunch is a special meal called Chant, which is a special stew.
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Imagine a meat and potatoes with vegetables and beans and barley and other flavors that
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has been literally simmering for like, what, 14 hours?
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The aroma throughout the house.
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Okay.
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And then you get to Shabbat lunch, get to eat this.
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So these are some of the ideas that go on.
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It's food.
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It's song.
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It's coming together as families and community.
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It's delving into the subjects that we may not have a chance to deal with during the
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week.
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And more importantly, it's not about sleeping through Shabbat.
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It's not about that at all.
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It's about being awake and alive.
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That's beautiful.
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You know, you've said so many things that I want to ask about, but in one, you were
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listening to one of my podcasts when I kind of misspoke on Shabbat.
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I gave the impression that you didn't have hot food, and that's not what I meant, but
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that is what I said.
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So you do not turn on the heat to start a fire, to heat up food.
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But of course, you leave it simmering so that you do have delicious hot food during the
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Saturday.
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Exactly.
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So I just wanted to correct that because I did kind of misspeak.
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But you just said something that's so beautiful.
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And I read this when I was doing some research on the Shabbat that Shabbat is a type of sanctuary.
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It's not a building like the temple, but it's a sanctuary of time where you carve out a
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space in time.
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And it's a place, it's a place you go into to have the special time every week.
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And you just described it so beautifully.
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Some people think that resting one day a week, which you've just corrected even that, it's
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not about the rest.
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It's about having that sanctuary time for Bible, for prayer, for time with your family.
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But some people think that it's very limiting to have this one out of seven days that you
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can't do the regular things.
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So how do you see it?
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So and it is, by the way, very, very important that you did mention that we don't cook and
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we don't start fires and we don't turn on electricity.
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And I think that that's the making of a stew or letting the food stay warm is, in a sense,
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a response or a solution on what to do when you cannot, like you absolutely correctly
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described, cannot cook and not start a fire and not turn on electricity.
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Shabbat, to answer this question, the word Shabbat, if we look at the Hebrew root word,
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every Hebrew word has a two letter or three letter root.
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And you can learn so, so much from going into that Hebrew word, whereas in English or German
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or French or any Chinese, any other language is not going to help because that's only going
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to be a translation.
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So Shabbat, the root word is Shem Vett, Shav.
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Shav, like we're doing right now, sitting, Shav.
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And this word Shav is very important because it's not just sitting, it's about settling.
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It's about settling in.
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As a matter of fact, the word for it to settle, like a settlement, like a community where
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you build your homes is called the Yeshuv.
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You can hear the word Shav in the word Yeshuv.
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It's also really interesting that the word for strike, to go on strike, is Shvita.
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So there you have the Shvita, Shabbat, you hear it?
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To go on strike, to go on strike is about saying, no, I'm a human being.
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I have rights.
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I can't be worked like some animal.
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Or these days, maybe we should use the word, I can't be worked like some robot.
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I'm a human being.
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I'm a creation of God and I am butsella mellokim.
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I am in the image of God.
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And I'm going on strike against the idea of working nonstop or not having the opportunity
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to switch into Shabbat.
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And so in a sense, Shabbat is a strike.
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Shabbat is about going on strike.
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And Shabbat is about saying, Shabbat is about saying, no, no, we have an opportunity.
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God gave us this gift, this opportunity in creation to take one day out of seven and
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do what?
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Connect with him in the deepest, deepest way.
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Can you imagine your father, your mother saying, listen, I'm really busy all week, but I'm
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going to block a little bit of time just for you and I and your friends in your community
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for us to really, really get closer.
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Can you imagine?
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What are you going to say?
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No?
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Have you got something else to do?
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That's ridiculous.
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That's what Shabbat is.
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It's this incredible opportunity to, we're invited literally, as you say, it's a sanctuary
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in time.
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It's an island in time.
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It's about God Almighty, our Father, being a saintess, Susan, Shmuel, come on in and close
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the door behind you.
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This is our time.
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So is it, am I feeling restricted or oppressed because one day in seven, I'm not going to
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be able to turn on my iPhone or jump in my car to a meeting or go to whatever it is?
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Really?
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Really?
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Let's weigh these things out.
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Let's see, doing anything, anything, opposed to having the deepest, most intimate connection
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with our creator.
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That's what it comes down to.
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So it's absolutely not restrictive whatsoever.
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Yes, to the outside onlooker.
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It looks like, oh, look at that.
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Well, I guess you're not able to come on over, Shmuel, or I guess you can't fly on that
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day or whatever.
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That's for the outside onlooker.
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That's how it may seem.
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What's happening with me?
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It's like, don't worry about it because I am in the sanctuary.
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I'm in the throne room with my creator.
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That's what's going on, Shmuel.
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And the halla hoot, the laws.
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That's the roadmap.
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That's the guidebook, the instruction manual on how to do that, on how to get close with
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our creator, how to get close with the Almighty.
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That's what the Torah is giving us, the instruction manual on how to do that.
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So I want to read that instruction manual.
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I want to follow the steps.
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I want to be, we say, right?
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We say, Achacha altimeh tadonai otavakesh shiftee beveet adonai kol yumei hayai.
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One thing I ask of God, right?
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Achacha altimeh tadonai kol yumei.
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What I want to do, I want to sit in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
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I get chills just saying this, Susan.
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And God is saying, no problem.
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Shabbat.
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That is absolutely beautiful.
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And it's a perfect segue to my last question, which in a way you've probably already answered
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it.
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But what is your favorite part of Shabbat?
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What is it that you look forward to all week long that is your favorite part?
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So I can tell you my favorite part.
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And I'm also going to invite everybody watching to perhaps consider it.
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Is that okay?
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My favorite part is at the Shabbat table right before I do the blessing over the wine.
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Is I bless my children?
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I bless my children.
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Ah, this is an opportunity from the time that they were literally born till forever, as
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long as I'm alive.
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To be able to go over and take a moment with each child.
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And you know, my eldest is like going to be 27 years old.
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It doesn't matter.
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It doesn't matter how old they are.
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My hands on his head or her head and give over the koanik, the koanik, the Aaronic,
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excuse me, the Aaronic blessing.
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Right?
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And first I say their name.
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So I say to my son, Yoav Natanel Ben-Lea Michal.
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Yoav Natanel, the son of Lea Michal.
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I say it in my wife's name.
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Yisach elehim ke freimu kumashin.
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May you be blessed, right?
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Like a freimu manashin.
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Yivrechachad naivishmerecha.
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Yerad naipanavilecha buchnecha.
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Yisad naipanavilecha viasem lachashalom.
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We take that moment.
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We have a little bowman kind of thing where I give them a kiss on the head.
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They give me a kiss on the head, but you don't have to do that.
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Just that moment in time when we get to, when parent and child connects in the sanctity
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of that sanctuary you're talking about, I love it.
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Well, and it is something that we should all adopt into our week, that special time of
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blessing the children and the family members.
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It is a very touching part of the Shabbat evening.
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So I hope you've enjoyed listening to Rabbi Bowman today and just sensing the heart of
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this gift that God gave, this gift that God created for mankind, which is to enter a sanctuary
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of time and spend time with him every week.
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So I hope you've been blessed by this.
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Please if you'd like more information on what Rabbi Bowman does in Operation Lifeshield,
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we'll put a link in today's show notes.
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And we'll see you back here next week.
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Until then, God bless.
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Welcome to Out of Zion with Susan Michael, an exploration of the Bible and the land of
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Israel.
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From ancient biblical sites to the story behind the stories, join Susan on a journey through
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the most exciting book on the planet.
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Hit the subscribe button for future episodes, which will deepen your faith and bring the
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Bible to life.
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And now, here's our host, Susan Michael.
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Well, welcome to this week's Going Deeper series, where we have a very dear friend with
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us, Rabbi Shmuel Bohman.
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And as you can tell from the background, we are sitting here live in Jerusalem with a
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gorgeous olive tree behind us, which is really quite appropriate, don't you think?
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So we want to welcome everyone.
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Rabbi Bohman is here with me today to discuss Shabbat.
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And I know many of you are listening to my Shabbat Shalom devotionals each Friday.
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So I wanted to have this opportunity just to talk a little bit deeper about the meaning
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of Shabbat and how the Jewish people observe it.
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So with me is Rabbi Shmuel Bohman.
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He is not just a rabbi.
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He's also a Torah scribe, and he's executive director of Operation Life Shield.
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And we partner with him placing bomb shelters here in vulnerable communities in Israel.
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He's a very dear friend of the International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem, and I count
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him as a friend too.
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So thank you for being with us.
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My first question for you is just take a few minutes and explain to us the biblical meaning
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of Shabbat.
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What does the Bible say about it?
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Why do we have a Shabbat?
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Thank you, Susan.
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It is beautiful to be here in Jerusalem in your Shalime on this gorgeous, gorgeous day
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of the flowers are blooming and it's wonderful.
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Shabbat first and foremost is a biblical commandment.
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I mean, it's sitting there in the Ten Commandments as our fourth commandment.
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And it's telling us some very powerful information even in the Ten Commandments itself.
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We look at it, we talk about Shemur Yom Shabbat L'Kochot.
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Guard the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
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Sheshitimimasad naite shemaim vat'ar.
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It's Yom Shvi Shabbat Vainafash.
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God created in six days and on the seventh day God arrested.
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So it's packing a lot of information in this seemingly simple commandment that discusses
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what is creation?
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What does it mean for God to create?
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And it's very, very interesting that even Shabbat is an act of creation.
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Even Shabbat is not outside of creation, it's within the framework of creation.
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So this is all God's doing.
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So just as God is creating the sky and the water and the flowers and the animals and
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us, God's also creating Shabbat.
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So it becomes this fact.
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It's not even a question of, oh, should I celebrate Shabbat or not?
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Shabbat is happening.
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The question is, am I happening with it?
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So whether or not you're sleeping through it or working through it or ignoring it, it's
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going on because God created Shabbat just as God created everything around us.
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The question is, what is our relationship to it?
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That's the big question.
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And then the commandment continues because it's not just one line as we see from the
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movie The Ten Commandments of Trout and Heston, which is a great movie.
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And we know we both love this movie.
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It continues.
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Lotasekoma lacha, ta'ovincha vetecha.
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Do not do any acts of creating yourself, any acts of work.
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Atta'ovincha, you and your children.
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Uvagerecha besharecha, and the stranger within your gates.
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In other words, you have an opportunity to participate in this gift called Shabbat and
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really do something different.
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So what does that do something different?
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It's very, very interesting because we talk about the idea that more than Jews have kept
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Shabbat for thousands of years, really it's Shabbat that have kept the Jewish people.
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Which means that here is this institutionalized day in the middle of our lives in which we
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have to think differently, do differently, act differently with our families and with
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our communities.
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And this has kept Jewish communities all over the world for thousands of years.
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So I would begin by just saying that that's what Shabbat is for me.
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It's this piece of creation with an invitation for me to participate in it.
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And what a gift that is.
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And then the question is how do we actually do that?
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But that's the basics.
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The Torah, the Bible, goes on and discusses the parameters.
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But it's really important to understand that when the Torah is given at Mount Sinai.
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And it's not that I believe that the Torah was given at Mount Sinai.
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I know the Torah was given at Mount Sinai.
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When that happens, there are two things happening at the same time.
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And the Hebrew is really, really important here.
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Shemor.
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At Yom HaShabbat, Bakut Shol.
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And Zahor.
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And Shemor means to guard.
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In other words, to restrict entrance, if you will.
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That's what it means to guard.
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There is a guard at the hotel entrance here.
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He's restricting the people from coming in to guard what happens on Shabbat.
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The Zahor.
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Zahor means to remember.
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That's an active commandment.
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That's a doing.
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So Shabbat has its do's and its don'ts.
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And it's replete with all sorts of examples in the Torah of what to do and what not to
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do on the Shabbat.
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And that's just beginning to kind of wet our appetite for the conversation.
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So tell me how your family typically observes the Shabbat when it begins.
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What's the first thing you do?
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Walk us through a Shabbat with your family.
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Okay.
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Well, first of all, Shabbat begins the moment the previous Shabbat ends.
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So we're talking about getting ready for Shabbat.
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It's like Shabbat is over at, you know, when it's nighttime on Saturday evening, right?
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As soon as the three stars are out, which is in the indication that it's now the next
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day because, right, the biblical calendar begins at the evening, right?
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Just like the Bible says, and it was evening and it was morning, day two, day three and
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so on.
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So that's how we, that's how we do our days.
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So soon as the day, soon as Shabbat is over, when the three stars come out at night time,
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we're already getting ready for Shabbat.
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We're already, our mind is already ready for the following week.
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What does that mean?
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That means that my wife, Leah, is already filling up the oil candles.
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We light with oil.
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You can use wax.
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You can use whatever you want.
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We like to use actually colored oil.
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And so she likes to change out the colors.
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And so she's already changing and putting in the new wicks.
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That's already happening minutes, minutes after Shabbat ends.
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We're already washing any of the utensils and dishes that may be needed for the following
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Shabbat and placing it back in a respected, beautiful place, okay, where we're ready to
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have it for the fall.
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Everything is getting ready.
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Our books are all set and ready to go so that you can pull them out ready when you need
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them.
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We don't get ready for Shabbat minutes before Shabbat starts.
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It's already happening throughout the entire week.
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We're going to have a special day for shopping for Shabbat or ordering, ordering food for
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Shabbat.
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We're already planning who our guests are, okay, which of our kids and if our granddaughter
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is coming, that's all starting to happen.
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What it's going to look like.
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So we're already thinking we're getting into a Shabbat mode.
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I would say honestly that by Wednesday of the middle of the week, we're already in Shabbat
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Drive.
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Okay.
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By Thursday, forget about it.
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That's as far as we're concerned, Shabbat is already in Thursday.
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Are you kidding me?
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Friday's Shabbat.
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But really, of course, of course, we know that Shabbat really begins on Friday, early
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evening before nightfall.
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And this is where everything in our home and the Bowman household moves from a frenzied
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panic to making sure that we get everything done on time because Shabbat has to begin
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at a certain time.
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Okay.
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And then as I mentioned before, there's all sorts of regulations in the Torah in terms
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of what you can and cannot do.
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So we don't want to, of course, break those commandments, those laws.
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And so there's a certain frenzied panic making sure everything can happen on time.
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And it does.
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It always seems to happen.
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We also happen to have a synagogue in our house or I should say on our house.
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It's on our outdoor upper patio.
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So get our little synagogue ready.
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So there's a lot of things that goes on, making sure that we have a shower schedule, make
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sure that everyone is showering with all this is going on.
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You make sure your clothes are already set and ready.
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Everything is ready to go.
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It's like, it's like getting ready to go to a wedding.
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It's like getting ready to go to a great wedding.
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It's like getting ready to go to a great appearance before, before the queen or the king.
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And so you got to look nice.
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You got to be ready.
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You got to get ready to go.
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And then Shabbat comes in and Shabbat comes in and there's this, there's a piece and that
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piece is a certain sense of there's nothing else that can do.
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Even if I wanted to do it, the phones turned off.
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The iPhones are turned off.
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The computers are shut down.
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In the old days, we used to talk about turning off the fax machine.
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Remember the fax machine?
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All that kind of stuff.
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The car stopped.
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All that kind of, we've stopped.
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We've just stopped.
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But really we haven't stopped.
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We've started.
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Shabbat is not about necessarily just kind of like turning off and now, okay, no, it's
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not about taking time off.
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It's about taking time on.
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And now we get into our Shabbat attitude.
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It's a time for prayer.
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It's a time for song.
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This is when we really, ah, we got great voices right here in our throats and in our lungs.
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We use them.
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We don't use instruments.
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And so it's a time for singing.
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There are special songs that we sing as a family and as a community around the Shabbat
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table.
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This is also in a sense like a wedding.
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Our table itself and our home becomes what's called, a miniature version of the Holy Temple.
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You're literally in the throne room.
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The table itself has all the different symbols that are going to be happening.
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The halah, the wine, the wine, okay, the salt, the fact that you're using your best dishes.
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We've entered into a replica, a miniature replica of the Holy Temple.
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It's an amazing feeling.
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People come to the table.
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Okay, the discussion is different.
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You're not talking about the usual, I mean, every family in politics and sports.
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No.
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This is a time for discussing Bible.
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This is a time for discussing thoughts and ideas as well as how, you know, maybe beautiful
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moments in our week.
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This is a time for coming together.
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And that's what happens in our home.
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It's a beautiful time.
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It's a time where books that are only read on Shabbat are opened.
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It's a time for connecting with friends who are walking down the middle of the street,
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not driving.
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What an incredible thing to exchange with your neighbors in not in a hurried and rushed
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way.
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So this is a little taste.
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Of course, the food, speaking of taste, is outstanding.
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Shabbat dinner is a banquet.
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Shabbat lunch is a special meal called Chant, which is a special stew.
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Imagine a meat and potatoes with vegetables and beans and barley and other flavors that
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has been literally simmering for like, what, 14 hours?
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The aroma throughout the house.
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Okay.
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And then you get to Shabbat lunch, get to eat this.
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So these are some of the ideas that go on.
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It's food.
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It's song.
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It's coming together as families and community.
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It's delving into the subjects that we may not have a chance to deal with during the
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week.
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And more importantly, it's not about sleeping through Shabbat.
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It's not about that at all.
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It's about being awake and alive.
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That's beautiful.
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You know, you've said so many things that I want to ask about, but in one, you were
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listening to one of my podcasts when I kind of misspoke on Shabbat.
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I gave the impression that you didn't have hot food, and that's not what I meant, but
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that is what I said.
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So you do not turn on the heat to start a fire, to heat up food.
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But of course, you leave it simmering so that you do have delicious hot food during the
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Saturday.
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Exactly.
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So I just wanted to correct that because I did kind of misspeak.
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But you just said something that's so beautiful.
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And I read this when I was doing some research on the Shabbat that Shabbat is a type of sanctuary.
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It's not a building like the temple, but it's a sanctuary of time where you carve out a
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space in time.
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And it's a place, it's a place you go into to have the special time every week.
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And you just described it so beautifully.
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Some people think that resting one day a week, which you've just corrected even that, it's
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not about the rest.
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It's about having that sanctuary time for Bible, for prayer, for time with your family.
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But some people think that it's very limiting to have this one out of seven days that you
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can't do the regular things.
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So how do you see it?
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So and it is, by the way, very, very important that you did mention that we don't cook and
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we don't start fires and we don't turn on electricity.
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And I think that that's the making of a stew or letting the food stay warm is, in a sense,
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a response or a solution on what to do when you cannot, like you absolutely correctly
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described, cannot cook and not start a fire and not turn on electricity.
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Shabbat, to answer this question, the word Shabbat, if we look at the Hebrew root word,
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every Hebrew word has a two letter or three letter root.
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And you can learn so, so much from going into that Hebrew word, whereas in English or German
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or French or any Chinese, any other language is not going to help because that's only going
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to be a translation.
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So Shabbat, the root word is Shem Vett, Shav.
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Shav, like we're doing right now, sitting, Shav.
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And this word Shav is very important because it's not just sitting, it's about settling.
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It's about settling in.
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As a matter of fact, the word for it to settle, like a settlement, like a community where
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you build your homes is called the Yeshuv.
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You can hear the word Shav in the word Yeshuv.
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It's also really interesting that the word for strike, to go on strike, is Shvita.
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So there you have the Shvita, Shabbat, you hear it?
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To go on strike, to go on strike is about saying, no, I'm a human being.
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I have rights.
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I can't be worked like some animal.
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Or these days, maybe we should use the word, I can't be worked like some robot.
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I'm a human being.
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I'm a creation of God and I am butsella mellokim.
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I am in the image of God.
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And I'm going on strike against the idea of working nonstop or not having the opportunity
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to switch into Shabbat.
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And so in a sense, Shabbat is a strike.
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Shabbat is about going on strike.
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And Shabbat is about saying, Shabbat is about saying, no, no, we have an opportunity.
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God gave us this gift, this opportunity in creation to take one day out of seven and
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do what?
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Connect with him in the deepest, deepest way.
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Can you imagine your father, your mother saying, listen, I'm really busy all week, but I'm
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going to block a little bit of time just for you and I and your friends in your community
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for us to really, really get closer.
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Can you imagine?
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What are you going to say?
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No?
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Have you got something else to do?
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That's ridiculous.
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That's what Shabbat is.
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It's this incredible opportunity to, we're invited literally, as you say, it's a sanctuary
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in time.
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It's an island in time.
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It's about God Almighty, our Father, being a saintess, Susan, Shmuel, come on in and close
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the door behind you.
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This is our time.
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So is it, am I feeling restricted or oppressed because one day in seven, I'm not going to
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be able to turn on my iPhone or jump in my car to a meeting or go to whatever it is?
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Really?
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Really?
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Let's weigh these things out.
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Let's see, doing anything, anything, opposed to having the deepest, most intimate connection
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with our creator.
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That's what it comes down to.
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So it's absolutely not restrictive whatsoever.
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Yes, to the outside onlooker.
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It looks like, oh, look at that.
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Well, I guess you're not able to come on over, Shmuel, or I guess you can't fly on that
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day or whatever.
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That's for the outside onlooker.
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That's how it may seem.
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What's happening with me?
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It's like, don't worry about it because I am in the sanctuary.
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I'm in the throne room with my creator.
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That's what's going on, Shmuel.
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And the halla hoot, the laws.
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That's the roadmap.
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That's the guidebook, the instruction manual on how to do that, on how to get close with
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our creator, how to get close with the Almighty.
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That's what the Torah is giving us, the instruction manual on how to do that.
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So I want to read that instruction manual.
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I want to follow the steps.
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I want to be, we say, right?
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We say, Achacha altimeh tadonai otavakesh shiftee beveet adonai kol yumei hayai.
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One thing I ask of God, right?
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Achacha altimeh tadonai kol yumei.
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What I want to do, I want to sit in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
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I get chills just saying this, Susan.
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And God is saying, no problem.
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Shabbat.
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That is absolutely beautiful.
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And it's a perfect segue to my last question, which in a way you've probably already answered
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it.
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But what is your favorite part of Shabbat?
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What is it that you look forward to all week long that is your favorite part?
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So I can tell you my favorite part.
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And I'm also going to invite everybody watching to perhaps consider it.
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Is that okay?
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My favorite part is at the Shabbat table right before I do the blessing over the wine.
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Is I bless my children?
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I bless my children.
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Ah, this is an opportunity from the time that they were literally born till forever, as
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long as I'm alive.
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To be able to go over and take a moment with each child.
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And you know, my eldest is like going to be 27 years old.
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It doesn't matter.
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It doesn't matter how old they are.
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My hands on his head or her head and give over the koanik, the koanik, the Aaronic,
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excuse me, the Aaronic blessing.
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Right?
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And first I say their name.
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So I say to my son, Yoav Natanel Ben-Lea Michal.
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Yoav Natanel, the son of Lea Michal.
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I say it in my wife's name.
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Yisach elehim ke freimu kumashin.
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May you be blessed, right?
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Like a freimu manashin.
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Yivrechachad naivishmerecha.
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Yerad naipanavilecha buchnecha.
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Yisad naipanavilecha viasem lachashalom.
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We take that moment.
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We have a little bowman kind of thing where I give them a kiss on the head.
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They give me a kiss on the head, but you don't have to do that.
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Just that moment in time when we get to, when parent and child connects in the sanctity
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of that sanctuary you're talking about, I love it.
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Well, and it is something that we should all adopt into our week, that special time of
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blessing the children and the family members.
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It is a very touching part of the Shabbat evening.
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So I hope you've enjoyed listening to Rabbi Bowman today and just sensing the heart of
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this gift that God gave, this gift that God created for mankind, which is to enter a sanctuary
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of time and spend time with him every week.
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So I hope you've been blessed by this.
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Please if you'd like more information on what Rabbi Bowman does in Operation Lifeshield,
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we'll put a link in today's show notes.
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And we'll see you back here next week.
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Until then, God bless.
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