Attending to the New: A Journey Through Shabbat (DG)

By Daniel Gregoire, Intern Minister.

I need rest, I need to be. I need Shabbat.

In New York City, where I am from, I had always referred to Sabbath as Shabbat, to use the Hebrew pronunciation.  Although I am of Haitian descent and I’ve lived a good part of my life around people from the Caribbean islands, Jewish culture and influence suffuses life in New York City. You see it in the ease with which you can order a bagel with lox from the Puerto Rican bodega. I can remember the occasion my grandmother paired Jewish latkes with Haitian mori (a traditional dish of salted cod in a spicy tomato sauce).  In New York one can’t help but import and export cultural artifacts, and I suppose that is true of life anywhere in this deeply interconnected world in which we find ourselves.

Speaking of cultural artifacts, the Hebrew Bible makes many references to the observance of Shabbat. One must abstain from work of various sorts, and perform rites. Shabbat is a deeply important aspect of the identity of the Hebrew and later Jewish peoples.  Rev. Fred explained in his previous blog how Shabbat has been adapted and incorporated into the subsequent Abrahamic faith traditions. As Unitarian Universalists we draw on many of those sources for our inspiration. The Jewish tradition shows us that Shabbat in its most fundamental sense is about rest. And, we are all familiar with the notion that “God rested on the seventh day” in the Jewish and Christian creation narrative. 

The first intimations of Shabbat come in between two intense periods, creating the cosmos, and responding to humanity.  Elohim (“the God”, “the Council of Gods”, depending on who’s doing the translating) is a creative kind of deity, bringing forth new things, ideas and relationships.  Now, I don’t intend for this blog entry to be a historical critical study, but rather an opportunity to reflect on the importance of attending to the new; and, how the call to rest of Shabbat is a deeply important way to do just that.

As I consider rest, I feel confident in saying that rest is more than rest. It is certainly more than sleep, even a rejuvenating sleep. Rest as I understand it is about “being” - just being.  Sir Isaac Newton’s Law of Motion (in fact his first law) says that an object at rest will stay at rest unless some unbalanced force acts on it. The deeper knowledge here in Newtonian physics and in biblical exegesis is that an object at rest, and object at Shabbat, will simply “Be”.

In recent weeks I have become well acquainted with the “new” and the busyness that makes the new possible.  I graduated from Union Theological Seminary. I have had enough “Goodbye Parties” for the idea that I was really leaving my home, to finally sink into my bones. On the 24^th of August I decamped from the very center of New York City, where I could see the Empire State building from my bedroom window and feel the crush of Midtown Manhattan.  Lately, it seems I’ve retreated to the green seclusion of the intern apartment in Annapolis, where for the first few days I saw more deer than people.

I am glad to say I that now the amount of people I see outnumbers the deer. 

This is a new experience to be sure: finding a car, learning where to get groceries, where to spend leisure time, getting used to more personal space and navigating the greater distances between places. And, I know that the church has made various preparations and changes both for my arrival as Intern Minister and the start of the new church year. This is a period of intense, creative activity.

Something entirely new and never seen before is coming into existence. Leaving the city has expanded my world in many ways. Living in Annapolis is challenging me to be open, to be silly, to be tired, to be scared driving down Route 50, to be dumbfounded, to be reflective and to be inquisitive in creating a new life for myself in the community and in this particular congregation. However, the biggest challenge here is the call to just be. There is so much to do and so much to explore. There are historic sites, the Eastern Shore, seafood, an epic Naval Academy vs. St. John’s Croquet Tournament; and I hear sailing is “a big thing” here. I want to experience it all now.

At some point we’ve all been called to simply be, after or before the frenzy of creative dislocation/ relocation. We’ve rearranged our world, metaphorically separating day from night, creating sea monsters and sunflowers. We bring so much into being at moments just like this.  It could have been a long term move (like mine), or a summer getaway, or shifting gears at work. So much behind us, and before us right now and great deal more awaits us; how do we attend to it all?

“O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind [sic] is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't.”         Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Whether it’s Elohim or Miranda or me or you, behold, we are on the verge of something absolutely fascinating and tremendous. There is just so much to do and see and be a part of. It is overwhelming to consider the many possibilities that await us at UUCA this year. We have an awesome ministerial leadership team and an engaged and engaging congregation. I get overwhelmed when I think about all the options. Considering the past and anticipating the future, I could drown in the excitement, and would be quite sad.

How do we respond to all of this? With Shabbat.

Shabbat is rest. It is stopping before getting too far ahead of ourselves; it is attending to the extraordinary with an extended pause. Shabbat is finding a calm posture and remembering to breathe and perhaps even counting our breath to help us. It is a prayer of silence before crossing the threshold. Shabbat is a chance that we get again and again to just be.