Rabbi Brad Levenberg
There’s a moment in this week’s Torah portion when God tells Moses: “Gather the people and remind them of the sacred times.” God isn’t commanding the people to remember just the grand festivals like Passover or Yom Kippur, but also the weekly rhythm of Shabbat.
It’s a small verse, and it’s easy to skip over. However, the message remains as important today as it is timeless: people forget. Even sacred things need reminders.
And perhaps we all could use a reminder during this week of hazy days.
Shabbat isn’t just a tradition; it’s a strategy. It’s how Judaism insists we pause before the week gets away from us. It’s how we remember who we are apart from everything we do. And yes, sometimes it feels inconvenient or even impossible to stop or even just to slow. But that’s sort of the point. The world doesn’t pause easily. We have to do it on purpose.
Consider this an invitation from the generations before us, delivered directly to us in the ATL today: take Shabbat seriously this week. Light candles, sit down for dinner, power down, even if only for an hour. Come to services. Come late, even; just come because showing up for Shabbat is how it begins. We don’t have to do it all. But we should do something that reminds us this day, this Sabbath day, is different.
We’ve been told, anciently and urgently, to gather and remember the sacred times. The first step is choosing to do so.
Shabbat Shalom.
