shabbat is here

SHABBAT IS HERE BUT THIS ONE IS softer. I used to tell my religious school students to think about Shabbat as their best friend from summer camp. The one they miss and cannot wait to be reunited with that summer. Your parents don't understand you and that it doesn't matter if you fold your clothes. Your math homework is dumb busy work and all you want is your bunk bed. Then suddenly your best friend surprises you with a visit in the middle of the year! Camp is early! You needed this so badly all week and here they are. Shabbat tells you to sit in your camping chair on the porch and watch the squirrels squabble and the fireflies flicker. Lay on your bed and listen to Phish and Guster and sigh contentedly. Catch up on all the things you and your friends have missed, even the silly little things that didn't actually matter but whatever that boy or girl you have a crush on is cute, your brother is driving you totally crazy, you're nervous about the future. Sing all the songs no one else will sing with you, that no one else appreciates. Rainbow Connection is an obvious choice, but even singing Birkat HaMazon is a wonderful release. It isn't that you're grateful for your food, though you are, especially that fresh challah, it's just a joy to be together with the people who accept your weird teenage self for all that it is. Shabbat is wearing flip flops and the squelch of the mud as it sucks your feet in and you don't care you'll be stained Georgia clay orange. Shabbat is the unmistakable sound of zipping up your rain jacket on the steps of your cabin when you see how dark the sky got. Shabbat is optional breakfast, and your pockets stuffed with muffins. Shabbat is falling asleep after lunch even though you're afraid you'll miss something. It's ok to rest, that's what the day is there for and there will be more days too. Shabbat can be the world to come that isn't yet here. The one where things make so much more sense and are beautiful. The surprises aren't really surprises, just the calendar of looked forward to events that sneak up on you like the camp play (it's the Wizard of Oz this year) or Yom Sport. You belong perfectly in a way you never knew you could. You love suddenly and truly and so much faster than ever before. Remember Shabbat. Remember all the good things that have come to you, the flash points in time where everything came together. You can always go back there. It never left. You can make it again on Shabbat. I love Shabbat and I love you.