O pinion
Shabbat Transformed, Reinvigorated
BY OLIVIA SHER
LIKE EVERYONE, I spent
the duration of last week with
CNN, The New York Times
and NPR. Their websites were
running in the background of
all my meetings, classes and
leisure time — constantly
open, constantly refreshed.

As the week dragged on
and Wednesday, and then
Thursday, went by with no
results, I became growingly
anxious that the news of the
presidency would be deliv-
ered over Shabbat. I’m shomer
Shabbos, which means I
observe Shabbat traditionally
by abstaining from technology
from Friday night to Saturday
afternoon. I feared I’d miss the
biggest news of the year — the
very news I’d been desperately
waiting to hear for days.

My Orthodox Jewish friends
and roommates in New York
City were in the same boat,
trying to make peace with being
in the dark for 25 hours during
one of American history’s most
important elections. An election
that we all had a personal stake
in. On Friday, I did one last
refresh at 4:27 p.m. — Shabbat
started at 4:28 — and accepted
that whatever happened over
those next 25 hours, I simply
wouldn’t know. At Shabbat
dinner in
Manhattan’s Washington Square Park, my
friends and I discussed trying
to get access to a newspaper
for Saturday morning lunch. As
we saw a large crowd gather at
the fountain, we thought maybe
this was the moment. We ran to
ask a stranger if the president
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM had been declared, but there
were still no answers.

I’ll be honest: It was one
of the hardest Shabbats to be
without technology.

This Saturday started like
any other Shabbat morning. I
got up and climbed onto my
fire escape to daven Shacharit,
the morning prayer service,
then showered at 11 a.m. to
prepare for lunch in the same
downtown park where I had
dinner. I was sitting in a towel
delaying picking an outfit
when I heard my block on St.

Marks Place, among the most
iconic streets in New York City,
burst into screams. I heard pots
banging and cheers that went
on for minutes. I ran to wake
up both my roommates and
screamed, “I think Joe Biden
won the presidency!”
We rushed to get dressed,
none of us knowing any official
news, and made our way to
the bottom of our fifth-floor
walk-up. Congregating at the
corner of St. Marks and Second
Avenue, people were dancing
in the streets, every car was
honking and the cheering never
watching history happen in
real-time on the streets of my
newfound home.

This was catharsis. The
community I fell in love with
when I moved here three years
ago had a beating heart again.

People were smiling at each
other on the street, everyone
was out (in masks!), and we
were all sharing our collective
love for one another.

The last four years as a
woman, a queer person and a
Jew has been exhausting and
fearful, to say the least. But
on this Shabbat morning, I
watched the world truly begin
to re-create itself. The work is
far from over, but we can begin
anew. It’s the truest meaning of
Shabbat I have ever heard.

Saturday, Nov. 7, is the
Shabbat I will tell my children
and grandchildren about one
day. A moment in history so
monumental that I found out
purely through human experi-
ence. I will tell them of the
party in Washington Square
Park, strangers pouring
champagne, a dance party in
the street, doing shots of pickle
KVETCH ’N’ KVELL
Riskin: Wrong About Atheists
RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN made significant errors in describing
atheists in his Torah commentary (“Belief Never as Important as
Action,” Oct. 22) on Parshat Noach.

Riskin states that “ … the atheist [is] confident in his rejec-
tion of God … ” This assumes the existence of only one “God.”
Atheists do not believe in the actual existence of any of the many
deities that have been imagined by humans over thousands of
years — only as mythic characters.

Riskin goes on to confuse the concepts of “knowing” that a
god (or gods) exist and “believing” that a god (or gods) exist. No
one actually knows with 100% certainty; people have differences
in beliefs. Riskin then states that a lack of certitude as to whether
supernatural beings (gods) exist usually causes despair — a
presumption without evidence.

Noah is praised for following the dictates of a god that he
doesn’t even believe in — the idea being that it is praiseworthy
to act (follow religious rules) as if you are a believer even if you
are not. But rules of which religion? By the rabbi’s logic, someone
unsure of his/her faith should be lauded for killing a blasphemer
or apostate, following the dictates of Islam!
Glen Loev | Wayne
An Absurd Term
Thank you Dave Olim for calling out the absurdity of Jews using
the term anti-Semitism (“Anti-Semitism an Outdated Term,”
Nov. 12). It’s an example of how we Jews absorb the hatred of our
enemies. This term was coined in the 1870s by a German hater of
Jews as an early form of political correctness. He felt that Juden
haas (hatred toward Jews) was too harsh. It’s past time to drop
this term from our spoken and written language. l
Henry Frank | Philadelphia
Saturday, Nov. 7 is the Shabbat I will tell my
children and grandchildren about one day.

seemed to stop. One young
family started banging pots
on their fire escape. Another
man stuck an American flag
outside his window and started
an anthem of “Bye, Bye, Bye”
by NSYNC.

It was one of the most
beautiful things I have ever
seen, and it made me fall in
love with New York City again
— and appreciate my Shabbat
observance all the more.

Seeing everyone’s unadul-
terated joy was such a better
way of receiving such tremen-
dous news than a CNN news
notification. It felt like I was
juice with my rabbi because
“we are Ashkenazi and that is
how we celebrate.” I will tell
these stories because it is the
first time in four years that
many New Yorkers believed
freedom was possible again.

No notification from any
news site I spent the week
refreshing could have given
me that feeling. Only the
communal love that was
reborn in New York City that
day could have given me the
hope that I have now. l
This piece originally appeared in
JTA via Alma.

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NOVEMBER 19, 2020
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