Shabbat!

So, this weekend was a myriad of plans and here they are:

Plan A: go visit my freshman college roomate and her husband who are now living in Colorado Springs and stay the weekend.

Plan B: Go to Steamboat Springs for the weekend to mountain bike and get away with each other since Michael has never been to Steamboat.

Plan C: Have a large BBQ at our house and spend Satuday riding mountain bike at a new spot Sara has never ridden.

Here is how good at planning we are...ready? We didn't do any of them! We opted for no plan this weekend. We are planning people though, we usually plan so this was kind of different for us. Anyway, the weekend turned out pretty great anyway, and it is not over!

Friday night I eluded to a dinner we were going to at the CSU campus. It was a Shabbat dinner called Shabbat 200. Please click on the link to learn a little bit more about the dinner, but I'll explain a little about Shabbat, or try to anyway, if you still have any questions just ask me sometime.

Shabbat is the night before the Sabbath, which in Jewish tradition is Saturday, so shabbat is held on friday night. If you have ever seen the movie "Fiddler on the Roof" they run around like crazy at the beginning trying to get ready for the Sabbath? Then they sing the song at the Shabbat meal together as a family. Family is very important in this, the day of rest (sabbath) meant that no work was to be done and you were supposed to spend the day re-energizing and re-aligning yourself to God and your family. The rabbi who led the dinner said he doesn't even check email and turns off his phone on Saturday so he can spend the day with family and God. We are pretty bad in this culture of always going and going, God knew we needed rest.

Anyway, this dinner marks the beginning of the Sabbath and you take the bread and wine first (like communion) except that the bread is Challah bread, which is a braided loaf, looks like this,

And you have a glass of wine. The blessing over the bread is called the Ha-motzi and over the wine is called the Kiddush. It is almost exactly what we do in church on Sunday morning. We say a blessing over the wine and bread, then partake. Same thing, except the blessing/prayer is always the same at shabbat, and they both just say how blessed is the Lord, who brings for bread for us, or who give us the fruit of the vine. Very meaningful. They then eat a traditional dinner which usually consists of gefilte fish, salads, chicken, rice, and matza ball soup. Although I know that eating other foods is done occasionally. i love matza ball soup, especially if you fill it full of chicken and veggies with the matza balls. History of matza ball soup can be found here. this is actually a cool article if you like history at all. Sorry I'm linking everything, I guess I feel others can explain better than i can some things.

There are other traditions, such as songs, prayers, handwashings, etc. but I am not as familiar with those. If you want to know how a whole shabbat dinner goes at an orthodox jewish home click here. But as many of you know, I believe in Jesus, whereas orthodox Jewish relgion does not believe that Jesus was the son of God, or the Messiah. But I still love to celebrate this tradition of Shabbat, or the Holy Days that God mentions in the Bible. If Jesus's parents were jewish, and I'm pretty sure they were, I know that Jesus was a part of these same holidays and shabbat dinners. He celebrated those! Well, that is my take/belief. I'm so glad that I do know Jesus and that He came.

So, that is Shabbat. I did attend a Messianic Jewish church for a couple years while I was in high school with my family, so I am more familiar with the kind of Jewish side that believe in Jesus. Someday I'd like to attend a Messianic Jewish church in town, I think there is one. But, Shabbat Shalom everyone (means peaceful sabbath to you!).