I think what I will miss the most about my multi-faith community is our shabbat service. Each Friday evening, as the sun begins to set we gather together in our home. Each week has brought new challenges, overwhelming information, self discovery and doubt and beyond. But no matter what happens each week, we gather together to think of a more perfect world.
This is not an easy practice. A week ago we visited a maximum security prison. As we shared this space with incarcerated men, their stories and poems unearthed emotion in us all. We reflected on the brokenness of our society and the injustices of the prison system. Coming home that night we started our shabbat service with troubled hearts and minds. How could our country be so entrenched in wrong doing? How do we reconcile the good we seek to do with the bad systems holding justice back? But I was reminded as we began to sing in Hebrew that life is not perfect. Shabbat is not living perfection, but a reflection of our earnest attempts to ameliorate society. Yes, we may be bogged down by injustice, weary and cynical at times, but shabbat reminds us to rest and take care of ourselves so that we may continue our journeys.
Yesterday, shabbat reminded me that the world is what I make of it. I can dream big dreams of what I want the world to look like. In Genesis, the creation story tells us that God created the world in six days and on the seventh day God rested because the world was good. Whether you believe this story is literal or not bears no importance. God saw the world as wonderful after six days of work and God rested. Sometimes it's hard for me to believe that there is ever a time to rest because our world is so full of suffering. But shabbat has taught me that rest gives us the chance to break from the ruckus of our weekly work and return to envisioning a more perfect world.
During my last night's shabbat I was not sad about leaving my multi-faith community but inspired to bring shabbat home with me to my own community. Maybe I won't know the tune to every Hebrew song and prayer, but I can rest assured that my intention will remain pure-- to rest, pray, dream and act. Shabbat shalom.
