Day 6 blog, JWRP Momentum, Trip 2 October 30, 2014 Written by Yvette Stone LChaim Center, Chicago Blog 4 Shavua Tov!!! What a Shabbat we have had. Forgive me if I go a bit long describing what we heard, felt, ate, etc. Feel free to stop reading at any time. Lori Palatnik, the mastermind of JWRP, spoke to us about opening our hearts, minds & spirits to Shabbat. I will share the main messages, as I perceived them, however, my guess is that with 400 women strong each of us had a different take away. One note that was repeated throughout Shabbat is the concept that we have to disconnect to connect. As much as we hate to admit it, the world keeps spinning without us. Another concept that resonated with me is that Hashem can only give & not receive so by keeping Shabbat you aren’t doing him any favors but you do it for yourself. Just like you teach your children to have responsibility & care for themselves & treat others with respect and kindness, we do this for their own good, not ours as parents. Shabbat in Judaism is like a tree, it has leaves & roots but needs the roots to grow. Without the roots we are a forest full of tree stumps. From there we moved on to an absolutely incredible and powerful talk from Adrienne about body image & modesty. I can go on and on about the examples she gave us of what the world has done to destroy what women should like but ultimately the Jewish thought is this; A person’s appearance should reflect accurately what is on the inside. Perhaps many of us had the misperception on modesty but ultimately, the idea is when you cover up people see you as your truest self. To keep the momentum going we next braided challot and discussed women’s ability to elevate all that we do to a higher level. Something as seemingly simple as baking bread is infused with spirituality as we think about the meaning of each ingredient we add and what it represents. We “take” challah as a sacrifice to Hashem as we did in the times of the Beit HaMikdash. It is such a simple act of taking a 28 ounce piece of dough from the challah, separating it, making a bracha, then baking the piece until it burns. To bring this custom into modern terms, I would just say that Taking Challah is an act of elevating the ordinary and making it extraordinary. So the morning was pretty heavy and it was time for a break. Most of us opted to take in the “shouk”, Machane Yehuda, for the short time we had. For those of you that don’t know, a shouk is a market filled with produce, fish, meats, baked goods, spices, clothing, food, and more. On any given day it is a thrill to visit but on a Friday afternoon it is something to behold. The bustle in the hours before Shabbat is like nothing else on Earth. We ate Malawach that could actually be divinely inspired and juice from pomegranates as big as a 16 inch softball. We all are bringing home spices, sugared coconut, dried fruits, teas and perhaps someone needed a larger carry on bag that can also be purchased at Machane Yehuda. I’m not naming names. Then we raced back to the hotel in the pouring rain to dress for Shabbat evening. Apparently, this is the time of year when the Jewish people pray for rain and we got slammed for the next 30 hours. We danced and sang along with Rabbi Yom Tov Glazer. I think you can check him out on YouTube as he has a reality show. Rabbi Yom Tov is a surfer dude gone Haredi. He provided music for us to join hands and joyously celebrate the moment in anticipation of Shabbat. A beautiful woman whose face I never even saw through the crowd, shared what inspires her as she lights the Shabbat candles each week. For me, this simple and short message could have been one of the deepest for me. She lights the first candle and thinks about the fire & light in herself and asks if she is shining brightly enough and then lights each additional candle for a person in her family and asks the same question about each of them but adds the question of whether she has done all she can to light up each of their souls. In this spirit, I purchased a candelabra last night that will allow me to light a candle for each of my family members and try to do the same. We lit our own candles with our Chicago soul mates through tears and hugs and song. The tears for me began here and didn’t stop until we left our gracious Shabbat lunch hosts. We were at Aish HaTorah and as I’ve explained previously, you literally walk out the back door and you are the The Kotel. I’m not sure if you can grasp how cool this is without being there. Normally there are stairs and security but here you just walk out the door. We sang & sang & sang even when we were scolded for being too loud. The joy & comradery was just too much to contain. Just as we were winding down, these gorgeous, young, spirited female Israeli soldiers on a Shabbaton, from an organization that I tell you about in the next blog, were just getting started. They were in their IDF uniforms with guns slung on their shoulders & dancing with the freedom of kids at summer camp. There couldn’t have been a better Shabbat vision. As if our cups were not running over enough, we went on to a stunning Shabbat dinner at the Inbal hotel. Here we heard from Lori Palatnik, an amazing Rabbi (more on him in the next blog) and there was more singing & dancing. Shockingly, I was still on board with it all. Of course Lori Palatnik pulled me out of my chair & I think when you are picked out by her, you go. At our table we each made L’chaim (a great drinking game, FYI) & shared our gratitude for anything on our minds. It was another cry fest that left us wiped out. While dancing, I looked around the room & felt the power of 400 women celebrating Shabbat. As we circled around the ballroom, I caught glimpses of each of the women on our Chicago trip. The tears & smiles & pure joy on everyone’s faces were priceless. So I apologize for giving you almost 1100 + words but there was just so much that we experienced in these 24 hours! The next blog will be a continuation of Shabbat. Part II awaits. We are sending you lots of love!!!!
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 14:35:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015