Getting My Shabbat Fix
Samantha Debowsky

Is Friday the end of the week or the start of when your time is really your own? Can you really think about one more responsibility or obligation? Wouldn't you rather leave work and stand in the shower for about a year?

In the twenty-something generation we talk all the time about how we're supposed to pay our dues. How we're supposed to work too much. How we're supposed to be planning for our future - kids, cars, houses, 401K's, IRA's, networking, college loans. . .

Not anywhere on this list does anyone mention attending to our spiritual well-being. Are we being short-changed? Are we not neglecting something that should be second nature?

Some friends of mine have recently involved me in a group that meets on Friday nights. Nothing fancy. Solo cups and paper napkins. Everyone brings "a little something." Just a bunch of young Jewish professionals who want to network and socialize, but we want to make sure that we're not alone on Shabbat. Efficient, eh? We don't go to services, and most of the time the conversation veers towards cigars and the presidency. But we say the blessings and we're together.

Every Friday we meet at a different house, and every Friday different people show up. It's a nice way to feel social, to feel Jewish and to feel like you are not alone. I look forward to this gang of "woe-be-gones," who try to make the week a little more meaningful as we eat our pot-luck dinners and laugh together about the unexpected twists and turns in our lives.

The weeks that we don't meet I can feel the difference. I mean, it's like the time that we spend together allows us all to get a little spiritual "re-charge." It's silly, almost, to really look forward to bagel bites and store bought deli... but it's not about the food. It's almost not even about the company, although that's important.

For me, a lot of the laws in Judaism make no sense in and of themselves. But when you believe and have faith, meaning can lie in deciding to do the actual deed. Washing your hands in the morning? They're not dirty. But when you are in front of the sink, you aren't thinking about why. . . you think about God. The act takes on its own meaning. That's the point!

So, on Friday nights, when I'm walk into a room full of lawyers and other fellow "exhuastees" and I don't know some of the new people, I never wonder why I'm there. I thank God for the moments that I am able to put everything else aside and notice that I am a Jew, notice that I am a member of a community and remember that I am a creature of God.

Samantha Debowsky is a recently married 29 year old living in Miami. She works on television commercials and feature films and has a little white dog named Whensdae.