Get set for the Shabbat Project
THE Shabbat Project is taking a different turn this year, focusing on a broader span of activity and involvement across the Sydney Jewish community, with an aim “to touch over 15,000 Jews in some way”.
THE Shabbat Project is taking a different turn this year, focusing on a broader span of activity and involvement across the Sydney Jewish community, with an aim “to touch over 15,000 Jews in some way”.
On the Shabbat of October 23/24, Australian Jewry is again being invited to take part in the South African-born initiative, which sees Jews from around the world keep one full Shabbat together.
While The AJN can confirm there will be no major communal challah bake or havdalah concert this year, the focus instead will be on community organisations and synagogues coming together and creating events for the community.
“Last year we took on to introduce the Shabbat Project to the communal vocabulary,” project leader Rabbi Benji Levy told The AJN.
“This year everything will be more homegrown and grassroots – offering members of the community many touchpoints through different events, tailor-made by different organisations.”
Rabbi Levy said there will be “something for everyone”, with events around the eastern suburbs, in the south-east and north shore including challah bakes, kids zones, communal meals, themed events, havdalah ceremonies, speaker circuits and more.
Rabbi Levy said organisers hope to achieve “a greater sense of ownership, with more individuals participating and more avenues by which they can participate”.
“It is an opportunity to come together with over one million Jews from around the world, disconnecting from without to reconnect from within,” he said.
“Too often we commiserate together as a community – this is an opportunity to celebrate together as a community. Shabbat’s message is more relevant today than ever before.”
Encouraging members of the community who don’t normally keep Shabbat to take part, Rabbi Levy cited what the day of rest does for him.
“Shabbat creates the perfect conditions for me to face myself and assess my priorities without outside distractions. It reminds me of the importance of ‘time out’ and of making space for family, prayer and community. It allows me to simply ‘be’ with myself without exacting a goal or a motive,” he said.
“It frees me from everything I am enslaved to during the week, and in that way I achieve my own exodus and emancipation which allows me to enter the new week refreshed, re-energised and renewed, ready to assume my responsibilities to myself and those around me. Shabbat is the freedom to be as a Jew.”
To receive more information about the Shabbat Project Sydney, register at www.shabbatprojectsydney.com.au.
EVAN ZLATKIS
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