Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

Often, we can be “put off” by all of the different regulations that accompany Jewish observance. We may be afraid of making a mistake, of not performing a ritual in the correct way. This may result in us not doing it at all! Or we may feel that if we do not perform all of the laws set down by the Rabbis for observance, we are inauthentic if we perform only some of them. Rabbi Yitz Greenberg writes that Shabbat is not about following rules. “The Sabbath is actively to achieve menucha, rest, through self-expression, transformation, and renewal. On this day humans are freed and commanded to explore themselves and their relationships until they attain the fullness of being”.