Shabbat under the stars
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- November
- 19
How can a planetarium star show at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers shed light on the Jewish Sabbath?
Members of the Greenburgh Hebrew Center will find out Saturday evening.
First, the Conservative congregation will have a special Havdalah service in the museum’s courtyard—marking the end of Shabbat.
Rabbi Barry Kenter explains: “The Havdalah ritual marks the conclusion of the Sabbath, separating the sacred quality of the Sabbath from the everydayness of the rest of the week. All of our senses are activated as we communally recite blessings over wine, fragrant spices and a multi-wicked candle.”
Then everyone will move into the planetarium for the star show. Why? Sandy Zisser, religious school director for the synagogue, explains:
The twist comes when we add the Jewish aspect to the presentation. The Planetarium show designer and I worked on creating additional programming to emphasize the difference between dawn and dusk, twilight and night, day and night. Because the Jewish calendar is based on the lunar cycle, the stars play an intricate part of when the day begins and when it ends. Shabbat, the Sabbath, begins an hour before sundown and ends with the emergence of 3 stars.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 11:17 am by Gary Stern.
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The world of religion, we don't have to tell you, is vast. The purpose of this blog is for Stern to note, flag and comment on some of the more interesting religious developments on the scene – weighty and quirky, somber and laughable, far away and just down the road. He won't interpret Scripture, take sides in conflicts or judge anyone. But he will take advantage of the journalist's license to observe.
