Beth Ami
Colorado Congregation for Humanistic Judaism
Beth Ami Shabbat
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Colorado Congregation for Humanistic Judaism Beth Ami Shabbat |
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Below is Beth Ami's standard Shabbat Celebration A Shabbat Celebration OPENING SONG - - - Bim Bam
READINGS
Reader: The Shabbat is a family day. It is the time when we honor all the families to which we belong.
Reader: Parents and grandparents are our family. Children and siblings are our family. Our friends are our family. The Jewish people is our family. The human race is our family. We remember them all on this Shabbat eve.
All: The lights of the Shabbat are the lights of family love, of the love for one another, of the love for all.
CANDLE LIGHTING
All: Ba-ruch ha-or ba-o-lam. Radiant is the light within the world.
Ba-ruch ha-or ba-ah-dam. Radiant is the light within each person.
Ba-ruch ha-or ba-sha-bat. Radiant is the light of the Shabbat.
READINGS
Reader: We belong both to families of inheritance and families of choice. The family of inheritance is the family of mother and father, sister and brother. They mold our childhood and echo our evolutionary past. The family of choice is the family of our significant others, our offspring and our friends. They are the comfort of our adult years and reflect the needs of our present. When our family of inheritance and our family of choice blend, we are indeed fortunate.
Reader: If we are good friends, we are as loyal to those in our family of choice as to those in our family of inheritance. We enjoy their health and posterity. We help them in their sickness and poverty. We thrive on their pleasure. We suffer from their pain. We need them as they need us.
Reader: If we want loved ones and good friends, we ask the same behavior of ourselves as we ask of them. To preserve friendship requires a special effort of caring. Friends are our equals, not our parents or our children. Equality is a new perspective we choose as we expect it from our friends. We must see our won dignity reflected in the dignity of those we choose to love.
SONG - - - Hin-nay ma Tov
Hin-nay ma tov oo-ma-na-eem [How good and pleasant it is She-vet a-heem gam ya-had. (repeat) For brothers and sisters to sit together.]
READINGS
Reader: The Shabbat reminds us that we need roses as well as bread, that our families and friends, our thoughts and feelings, all have a necessary place in our lives. The Shabbat reminds us that physical, intellectual, and emotional pleasures are all part of the human experience. The Shabbat is more than a reminder that we are free. It is a reminder that we are human.
Reader: The Shabbat is a day of peace. It is a time when we remember all the feelings and actions that bring people together in love and in hope. It is a time when we affirm our power to be generous, caring, and loving. It is a time when we put aside our anger, irritation, annoyances and all such negative feelings.
Reader: We are Humanistic Jews. We inhabit a world of ancient forms and timeless insights where the past is not abandoned but transformed and where the future is not found, but fashioned. We believe in a world of change and evolution—and we are part of the process.
Reader: We are Humanistic Jews. We inhabit a world of science and reason, a world alive to the probings of mind and machine. We believe in the ultimate importance of human dignity and human autonomy. Humanity is the center of our attention.
RESPONSIVE READING
Who is wise? One who understands oneself. Who is strong? One who rules oneself. Who is beautiful? One who is both wise and strong.
READINGS
Reader: Let us grow in our love for our Jewish identity. Let us enjoy it as a vital part of our lives. Let us not deny our past, but let us not succumb to it either. There is much to change in our Judaism, and much to love. Let us have the courage to do both.
Reader: We rejoice in our heritage which has given humanity its fundamental view of justice. We must strive to understand the ever-fluid distinction between what is right and what is wrong, between light and darkness, between the Shabbat and the six days of labor. We rejoice in our heritage which has taught us to seek to understand the difference between right and wrong.
Reader: We honor the Shabbat, a day of rest and peace. Throughout Jewish history, the observance of Shabbat has served as a manifestation of human dignity. Shabbat is a gift we give to ourselves—a gift of time to use as we wish. Let us celebrate the end of another week together in the company of family and friends. Peace and health to our family and friends. Peace to the world.
All: Sh’ma Yisr-ra-el E-had A-menu, A-dam E-had.
Hear, O Israel, Our People are one, Humanity is one.
CLOSING SONG--- Havenu Shalom Aleichem
Ha-venu sha-lom a-leichem Ha-venu sha-lom a-leichem Ha-venu sha-lom a-leichem Ha-venu sha-lom sha-lom sha-lom-a-leichem. (repeat)
SHABBAT SHALOM!
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Last modified: 11/05/06 |
