Yom Shabbat (Torah, tradition, experience, Israel, Christians)

[Avi]

What do you guys do on Shabbat, besides go to services? In other words, what do you guys do on this "island in time?" I personally enjoy reading--Torah of course--, but I also enjoy writing and studying Hebrew, since I am taking a class on it presently.

Another question: where can I find a complete guide to melacha? I haven't really found a good one.

[JonM]

I am usually pretty bad about getting to services on Shabbat, but many a Friday night has gone by since I last forgot to usher in Shabbat in some way. I do try as hard as possible to make the Sabbath holy and distinct, but it isn't always possible, and I'm certainly not shomer Shabbos in the literal way.

[Deut 13:1]

Originally Posted by Avi

What do you guys do on Shabbat, besides go to services? In other words, what do you guys do on this "island in time?" I personally enjoy reading--Torah of course--, but I also enjoy writing and studying Hebrew, since I am taking a class on it presently.

Well, that is one thing I avoid.

Well, I normally stay with at my Rabbi's hosue for Shabbas as I'm at a secular school which is very lacking for observant jews; while at my rabbi's we have the traditional dinner, normally 40-50 people go every week. about 4/5ths of the people are furm and the other 1/5th are returnees who are learning the basics. We have some songs, say kiddish, wash, eat. Dinner is normally 3-4 hours. After dinner normally I'll drink some more beer, then go to sleep.

In the morning, we go to Shul, normally about 3 hours, then we normally have someone sponser kiddish. After that, we walk back to the rabbi's and I nomally take a 2-3 hour nap or if I skip nap, I read tehillim or discuss gemora w/ my rabbi and some of the other people staying with us. Then we go back for minchah and maariv.

Originally Posted by Avi

Another question: where can I find a complete guide to melacha? I haven't really found a good one.

Like an on-line one? or a book? Books I know where, on-line I don't recomend. There is a reason you're suppose to have a torah partner. For someone like you, I recomend getting a learning partner at J-net. You work w/ someone over the phone for an hour a week and you learn whatever you want. They give you a pre-paid card and you guys work out a time that works for you.

For details, PM me, but this is for JEWS only, not Christians.

[jewscout]

well aside from service.
I spend the day at Rachel's family's house, we eat and talk about what happened at shul, i talk about Beth El, her dad talks about services at Young Israel of Richmond/Kol Emes.
Then we sit around and read and study and talk about the torah portion for that week and usually follow it up w/ either a nap or a lesson from Aish.com.

[dauer]

If I'm not in shul, eating, reading holy books, singing, meditating, sleeping, davening on my own because I'm too lazy to drive to shul, or some combination of the above, I like to go off into the woods for a nice hike. There's something beautiful about being surrounded by nature like that. The Shechinah is so readily perceivable there. I was out once on Shabbos and I had a really intimate experience with this garter snake. I saw him/her, and s/he saw me, and we just stood in our places and watched each other for a while. And then, as quickly as the moment started, we both went on our way. It was beautiful. There was also one time I was out in the woods with someone on Shabbos and a squirrel followed us all the way through the woods. I think it might be because other people had fed it frequently, but it was still pretty awesome. But I think some of my most powerful experiences in the woods have just been alone, silent or singing a niggun to myself, with the beautiful trees all around me.

Someone asked about a list of melachah. There's a children's site that's not bad:

http://www.akhlah.com/holidays/shabbat/39/39.php

If you plan on taking the rabbinic restrictions upon yourself, that's not really enough to go by, but it does give an initial sense of what they entail.