So I've been using sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday as my Sabbath. (Anybody who wishes to argue that only sundown Friday to sundown Saturday is acceptable is free to do so, but I will not respond.)
One of the regular fixtures in my week is a community dinner on Saturday evenings. So I was treating that as my Shabbat dinner and it all fit together just beautifully. For the first week at least.
However, every now and again, instead of meeting for dinner we'll get together for brunch on Saturday morning. Uh oh. You can't have half my Saturday -- not when I don't get a Sunday. And then I was long overdue for catching up with a friend. Thanks to Sabbath observance I have all kinds of availability on Sundays -- would that be a good time to hang out? Well, no, she's a freelance photographer and was working all day Saturday and most of Sunday -- up until right about sundown, but Sunday evening was just perfect!
Aack. Laundry needs to get done, groceries need to be shopped, food needs to be made, dishwashers need to be loaded and run, trash needs to be taken out, life generally needs to happen. So, if I want to preserve this valuable relationship time, I have from noon to about 4:30 on Saturday to do all this. That's it. I got home at noon, tried to figure out what to prioritize and how to make this happen.
And then I decided, somewhat petulantly, screw it. Nuts to this. I. did. not. want. to. A lot of laundry and housekeeping were done on Sunday during the day -- Saturday day and Sunday night were all about worship, rest and relationships.
I suppose I could have been really on the ball and gotten all that "general life" stuff done during the last week but I'm not that on top of things. That's not going to change, so my options seemed to be prioritizing relationships or prioritizing my own schedule. And prioritizing that schedule would have left me me doing laundry when I could be building relationships and sitting home alone on Sunday. So I chose people.
I'm in trouble. Torah doesn't allow this. I can't switch things around to make things work. Rest on the Sabbath day, not some day that works best for you. If you life doesn't fit with the Law, change your life or get stoned.
Last week, Brandy, Kristi and Lisa didn't have that dilemma as they spent a lovely Sabbath together. Among our fellow Levites, these same restrictions can bind us together -- but it sure does complicate matters when we're dealing with anyone else.That is, of course, largely the point. And I continually keep butting up against the same issue in different ways. You are all wonderful folks -- but I don't want my social circle to be limited to my fellow Levites. I suppose I could do that for a month, but my heart sinks at the thought of doing that forever. I like the world. There are nice people there.
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I too do not wish to argue with you about when Sabbath is. I will say that your statement that your sabbath is sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday is accurate. But equally accurate, and most important, is that YHWH's Sabbath, that HE commanded we observe, is from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. This is not being argumentative, just stating the Scriptural facts. So if being submitted to the Almighty, as bondservants, means anything to any of us, we should place more weight on what HE says than what we say. Peace.
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