Shabbat 119: Preparing for Shabbat

The source for Kabbalat Shabbat is here - going out to greet the Sabbath - and the implicit honor to the day. And a list of rabbis attests to what each of them did special in preparation for Shabbat. It's a real lesson to our efforts today too. Plus: One of the most famous stories about Shabbat - Yosef Moker Shabbat - is next, with a special guest. This telling includes a detail that we think is left out of many renditions for kids. Its message - getting back from Shabbat what he'd invested. How does this narrative play out a discussion of astrology? Also: Angels! Who accompany us in the way we already choose to go, in terms of Shabbat preparation. Lastly, the desecration of Shabbat, in the context of the destruction of the Temple - counterpoint to the stories we tell children, as their education was interrupted... Also problematic was the equivalencies made in that society, a critique that sounds difficult to our modern, democratic ears.