gnomi | Pre-shabbat musings

It's less than an hour before shabbat (the sabbath) starts, and here I am sitting in front of the computer instead of what I am usually doing an hour before shabbat - running around like a chicken with my head cut off. This week, we decided to cheat. Y'see, we don't work during the 25 hours of shabbat - today in the Boston area this means from 7:53 PM tonight through 8:53 PM tomorrow night, I do nothing that qualifies as "work." Over the centuries, the rabbis have clarified for us what constitutes work. The short version is that I don't use any electricity (though we do set up timers that automatically turn on and off the light and such so that we don't have to sleep with the lights blazing all night), don't answer the phone, don't cook, etc. It sounds like lots of restrictions, but it is, in my view, very freeing - I have 25 hours where I don't have to worry about my e-mail, about what the stock market is doing, about whatever I don't want to deal with. We have an answering machine, and in case of an emergency, we'd hear someone leaving the message and we'd pick up the phone (there's a clause regarding violating the sabbath in order to save someone's life). So usually, I spend Thursday night and Friday from the time I get home from work cooking so that we have food for Friday night dinner and Saturday lunch and dinner (depending on how late the sabbath ends; it starts earlier and ends earlier in the winter, as it's tied to the time of sunset). This week, however, we're eating pre-made food from o ur local kosher supermarket. It's not _really_ cheating, but it feels like I should be doing stuff when there's really nothing to do - the pot pies are warming in the oven, the hot plate is on for tomorrow's lunch, and all is prepared.

So, have a good 25 hours, all. See you again sometime Saturday night..