Most of my Shabbat-related posts have had to do with Friday evening, when Shabbat begins. And that’s a lovely time to celebrate it. I used to love the Friday night part of Shabbat, back in the days when I was sans child. We’d go to services anywhere–Brooklyn, the far reaches of the Upper West or Upper East Side… if it was going to be a service we liked, we’d be there. (And then we’d sleep late on Saturday morning. Ah, the luxury.)
But now, with a little one who likes to go to sleep by 7 pm, we’re lucky if we can ever make it to services on Friday night. Even in walking distance. And the little one likes to get up by 6 am–at the latest. So this non-morning-person-momma has had to transition to being a morning person. (My husband would say that I am still not a morning person, but that I get up because I have to. He’s probably right.)
The perk, however, of being awake early on Saturday mornings is Tot Shabbat. (Ours is actually called Shir L’Shabbat, if you’re going to be technical.) Tot Shabbat is 30 adorable minutes of kids singing and dancing that ends with some grape juice and challah and I adore it.
But the most wonderful side effect of having to become a morning person is the fact that my daughter now sings Bim Bam, one of the Shabbat songs that she’s learned. She can’t really do very much of it, but she’s really good at saying, “Lom…HEY!” (which in non-toddler language is Shabbat Shalom, hey!) The other day she woke up from her nap and was singing it in her crib and I thought to myself, thank God for Shabbat.
“Lom” to all of you too.
