Every moment of Shabbat, all the way through Havdallah, is special and memorable. On Shabbat, we dress differently, we live on different time, we come together as a community at times that we generally are separated into age groupings.

I wrote this meditation when I was a member of the Shabbat Committee at Temple B’nai Or in Morristown, N.J. It is meant to be read before L’cha Dodi at Friday evening services.

Meditation

Open my heart tonight to welcome Shabbat in the natural way I did as

Four hundred people are joined together, eyes shining, faces bright, voices raised in a glorious chorus. I am sitting in a small concert hall, eyes darting between the sheet music in my open binder and the brilliant conductor on stage.

by Rabbi Micah Lapidus I recently attend a concert by the unparalleled Israeli musician, David Broza. First and foremost, any guitarist who has never heard of or heard David Broza play guitar needs to check him out ASAP.

Music plays a critical role in society as an integral part of social and political history, but more importantly as intrinsic to the total human experience, noted Irene Heskes, a historian and author specializing in sacred and secular Jewish music.

The first I ever heard of Debbie Friedman was to see her name printed on the inside covers of my synagogue’s prayer books, naming her the author of the modern Mi Shebeirach tune.