Shabbat in Lockdown 2.0

Ah, dear friends, I know there is an election going on 6,000 miles away, but scrutinising the minute-by-minute returns of Kenosha County doesn’t bring redemption, only nervousness. 

I know we are tense, saddened, angry and confused as we lockdown again, and the temptation to relook at the regulations to see just whether we can or should get away with a bubble multiplied by the childcare divided by the R number is greater or less than the …. arrgh. It’s been a challenging week. Time to unplug. 

 Please give yourself the gift of ‘Lehavdil’ this evening – the gift of rendering some time elevated, special, holy, other from the craziness of the workaday week. Turn the news streams off. Light candles. 

Say kiddush. Breathe. We are creatures of this planet, created with the divine spark within us all. We are here to serve and protect. Our duty is to love the stranger, our fellow and our Creator. Breathe again. Keep the news switched off. 

 Rabbi Natasha, Chazan Stephen and I are live-streaming from the building tonight. If you want to spend Shabbat in peaceful quiet at home, that’s great. If you want the sound and the songs of communal Jewish engagement at such a battered time, join us at www.newlondon.org.uk/digital.

I wrote before Rosh Hashanah about creating a mini-sanctuary for a screen set for Shabbat. Clear the desk, maybe lay a tablecloth, find something to cover the keyboard, check the computer is set not to power off. Use the full-screen viewing offering to limit distractions. Turn the computer from the paradigm of workaday stress into a vehicle to connect to that which is numinous and transcendent. With screens switched on, you’ll see us for a service at 6:30pm this evening, and 10:30am tomorrow morning. It will be, I hope, songful, playful, comforting and insightful. It will be a chance to come together in our faith at an atomised time.

And then … FIRE. At our Zoom Havdalah, 5:30pm Sat night, we are joined by fire artist Oscar Richards for a Havdalah you should not try at home. All welcome on-line. Kids particularly. We can return to the world of action engaged, infused with the values of everything makes the people we want to be. That is the gift of Shabbat. It’s offered freely, but it’s a gift without price. 

 Shabbat Shalom