L’Chaim Slice of Life: Shabbat Wherever!

Recently I had an article published in the L’Chaim newslettter.  Check it out, I hope you enjoy it!  It is all about spending Shabbat in Nepal, how to keep Shabbat while traveling, how to keep Shabbat in a third world country, and all the things that go along with it.  What a great experience. Enjoy!

Sunset behind Phewa Lake in Pokhara, Nepal, taken from our guesthouse

I loved Pokhara.  It was a special place to me – peaceful, serene, beautiful.  We had a cute but spartan room with the most stunning view overlooking Phewa Lake.  Nothing but a green field of grazing water buffalo was there to obstruct our view.  Surrounding the lake we could see Himalayan peaks rising up, the tallest among them tipped in white.

It was a perfect place to spend Shabbos.  And indeed, we ended up spending several Shabbosim there.  However, the first couple we spent there, the local Chabad House had not yet opened up.  We had been counting on it for our Shabbos meals and companionship.  That meant that, as with numerous other Shabbosim during our journeys, we were on our own.

Yet, the stunning surroundings in no way made preparing for Shabbat any easier.  To my surprise, I discovered that most of Nepal was on electricity rationing.  According to the schedules, we would only have about 7 hours or so of electricity on any given day, split between two sessions, one of which always seemed to fall in the middle of the night.  Preparing for Shabbat during travel can be challenging under the best of circumstances, but without electricity, we would be unable to boil the eggs and potatoes that were staple foods for us during our travels.

But that’s not all – after sunset on Friday night, there would be no electricity, no light to read by.  The Chabad House would have had a generator available, but not our guesthouse. The guesthouse’s policy on this was just that guests should use a candle or two, or a flashlight (in our case, a headlamp).  But after lighting Shabbos candles, we would be unable to light any further candles.  Once our Shabbos candles finished, we would be plunged into complete darkness and we wouldn’t be able to wear our headlamps either.

I think most people out there would find this a challenging situation to be in, week after week, during the entire month and a half that we spent in Nepal.  And it’s true, these situations did present challenges.  But I don’t think of it as anything particularly extraordinary.  After all, electricity is still a relatively recent invention.  We just take our modern living for granted.

In this week’s parsha, when we receive the 10 commandments, one of the most important is to keep the Sabbath.  The ancient Israelites did not have electricity as they spent 40 years traveling in the desert.  They would not have had to cook their own food, that is true (the manna that fell took on any taste they wanted), but they would still have had to sit around the Shabbos table.  They would have wanted light to see by during and after the meal and they wouldn’t have just been able to run to the store and pick up some extra candles.  They would probably have used clay or stone lamps filled with oil with a wick burning in them, rather than candles.  When the oil ran out, so did the light.

So Rabbi Ben and I took our small Shabbos meal (I did manage to boil some eggs and potatoes, and even steam some peas, during the few short hours of electricity – careful planning!) and we went to sit outside.  We watched as the springtime sun descended behind the lake, colors painting layers of rainbow behind the Himalayan peaks.  The guesthouse owner came by and gratuitously placed a single candle in front of us without us needing to ever say a word to him. (Asking a non-Jew to do this type of work on Shabbat could be very problematic, so we couldn’t ask him for it.)  We enjoyed our meal and the incredible scenery.  It was not hard to connect to Hashem in such surroundings.

When we returned to our room, my Shabbos candles were still burning.  We sat and read by their flickering light, enjoying them fully.  In our modern lives, we often fail to really appreciate and use the light cast by our Shabbos candles, as we truly are meant to.  But in this small town in Nepal, we were able to use our Shabbos candles for the purpose they were originally intended – to bring shalom bayis (“peace in the home”).

Boiling potatoes for dinner requires a lot of patience, especially when there is not often electricity

These Shabbosim we spent together in Pokhara are some of my most cherished moments.  I remember the feeling of warmth the Shabbos candles brought in our relationship. I remember the sight of those glorious mountains and the beautiful lake that Hashem Himself made for us to appreciate.  I remember how a simple salad of potatoes, or eggs, or fresh vegetables, seasoned with nothing more than oil and a pinch of salt, could taste so wonderful, could have the flavor of Shabbos.

This is what it truly means to keep Shabbos.  It means to put our worries and cares aside.  Not simply that we “shall not do any work” – but that we should not even think any work – even if we are in a place where it is challenging to keep Shabbos.  It is a time to reconnect, both with Hashem and with one another.

This week as we head into Shabbos, let us concentrate on this most important of commandments, on keeping it fully, on keeping it well, and – most of all – on really appreciating its beauty as a gift that Hashem has given especially to us.

North Shore Synagogue in Sydney, Australia

Shabbos at North Shore Synagogue, Dover Heights Shule, and South Head Synagogue
This Shabbos, Rabbi Ben was asked to be guest rabbi at North Shore Synagogue in Sydney, Australia.  North Shore Synagogue is a beautiful building and Rabbi Ben has a long history there – he worked there as chazzan for 3 years.  He’s very close to the current rabbi there, Rabbi Lewin, who asked Rabbi Ben to step in while he was on vacation.

On Friday night, Rabbi Ben led the services while the usual chazzan took a break.  The chazzan of the North Shore Synagogue just had a baby girl last week and I’m sure he needed the break – mazal tov!  Rabbi Ben also gave a sermon about how Moses teaches us to have respect for the earth and the water.  On Saturday, Rabbi Ben leined the Torah portion and again gave the drasha.  This time he spoke all about the plague of the frogs and how much we can learn from him. He didn’t tell any jokes, but he still managed to make people laugh!

The usual congregants of the North Shore Synagogue were really happy to have Rabbi Ben back and they were happy to meet me, since they all doubted that the Traveling Rabbi would ever find a woman crazy enough to go along with him!  There were also some very special guests in the crowd, including one of my cousins and some visitors from other area synagogues.  It was a really nice crowd in spite of the summer vacations and everyone was friendly, welcoming, and happy to have us.

Last Shabbos, we went to South Head Synagogue in Dover Heights in Sydney, Australia for Friday night services.  It was also quite a nice shul.  Unfortunately, the rabbi was out of town, as were many of the congregants.  So we didn’t get to meet and get to know as many people as we would have liked.

Then we went to Dover Heights Shule on Shabbos day.  They have a spacious new sanctuary and after services, there was a kiddush.  Rabbi Ben knows quite a few people there (where doesn’t he know people!) and he enjoyed seeing old friends and classmates.  They also got him to lead davening at the evening service later.

As I’ve said before, there are lots of things I like about Australia, and one of them is how welcoming and warm the communities are.

The Fijian village where I spent several days learning about their culture - and explaining my own.

I just came back from spending several days in a remote Fijian village.  I know, I should have been spending my time relaxing on the beach by our resort, but I couldn’t help myself – I wanted to see how the locals really live.  So I hopped on a local transport (buses don’t run there) and went as far into the interior of Viti Levu as I could get without walking (and there are still villages you can only access by walking quite far).

One of the most interesting things about our visit to Fiji was the reception we got as Jews there.  Most people actually said they were honored to meet us – members of the “chosen people!”  “I have only read about the Jews in the Bible,” said Mario, head of my village host family, “but here I see one before my face!”  The people I met were overwhelmingly excited to hear about Jewish life and culture, and just plain to meet someone from a culture and religion they had heretofore placed only in the realm of legend.

Mealtimes in the village, even breakfasts, were huge affairs with many people in attendance. These gatherings were not just about eating, but were also about story-telling - and the stories they wanted to hear were from me! They wanted to learn about the Jews.

Mealtimes in the Fijian village were an affair.  Even breakfast was a big ordeal with people coming from homes all around and converging on one house to share food and stories.  Doors and windows are always open and if someone walks by outside, the residents within will shout to that person to come and join them – and often they will!  So when I sat down and joined them, they were all very excited and began to ask me dozens of questions.  What was interesting was their reaction when I told them of the Jews’ history: being exiled from the land of Israel, then chased out of many countries on pain of death.  “But why?” they asked me. “Why would they want to kick out the Jews? Fiji has never done this!” Why indeed…

To be asked this question in the last few days by these native Fijians shocked me to my core.  How apropos!  In fact, in this week’s parsha it says, “And all the nations will say, ‘For what reason did Hashem do so to this Land; why this wrathfulness of great anger?’ And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the covenant of Hashem, the G-d of their forefathers…’”  This is exactly the answer I had to give the Fijians.  The Jews have not followed completely the word of G-d, the law of G-d, and therefore have been punished mightily.

It’s easy for us to look around and find others doing aveiros (sins), violating the laws of the Torah.  It’s easy to look at someone who is not as religious and say, “That person does not make a blessing before eating bread!”  It’s easy to look at someone who is religious and to find their fault, to say, “That person wears a hat and a beard but he uses curse words!”  But what’s not easy is to look at ourselves and realize that we are as guilty – or, truthfully, more guilty – as any other person.  We all violate the laws of the Torah, every day.  We are fallible, we are human, we make mistakes. This is why so many people in the world still hate us and chase us out. This is why we continue to eagerly await moshiach.  Not because of him, or her, but because of me.

Now is the time to do teshuva (repentence).  With Rosh Hashana coming up, it’s an important wake-up call for us.  In just a few days, we will be inscribed in the book of life… or death.  Just days after that, the judgement will be sealed, and we cannot change it.  Now is the time to return to G-d, to accept our faults and recognize them so that we can admit them to Him and so that we can make a commitment to doing better in the future.  We shouldn’t have to have the nations of the world asking us these questions in order to ask them ourselves.  We should be doing it every day, and especially now.  This Shabbat, let’s try introspecting and looking inward at ourselves, in preparation for the days of holiness ahead.

Shabbat shalom!

Rabbi Ben surprised me with a trip to Fiji to celebrate our anniversary!  Of course the Traveling Rabbi would think of the gift of travel – and I am definitely not complaining! It is beautiful here!

So far we haven’t found any Jews, although I have heard that there are a handful of people of Jewish descent living in the capital city of Suva, which we have not visited.

We spent Shabbat on the island of Mana in the Manaluca Islands group.  These photos show the beautiful Shabbat candles I lit, with some Fijian flair.  Even our candles look like they’re in paradise!

To prepare for Shabbat, we brought some small challah rolls with us from the plane and I went fishing on Thursday and caught us some fresh local fish.  For lunch on Saturday we just had some eggs that were boiled on Friday afternoon, some salad, and some bread.  It was simple, but we were able to sit and watch the calm waves of the Pacific Ocean lap at the shore as we ate, which made everything so beautiful!

It was truly a very special Shabbat!

We spent this past Shabbos in Miami Beach Florida. It was a year since our last Sahbbos spent there. Shabbos day we met a couple from New Jersey who were eating lunch at the same host family as us. Rachel has known the family for a number of years and they, knowing we were back in the Miami area, invited us for Shabbos. The New Jersey couple found the host family on shabbos.com.

When we spent Shavous with ‘Daven With Dov’ on Hollywood Beach, there was a boy staying over the chag who also had found the place through shabbos.com.

I have not ever used the site personally though perhaps I will try it soon, as it seems to be working and it appears that one could find some very nice people to spend Shabbos with.