Welcome to our computer-based learning site devoted to the Sabbath and its songs, "Friday Flowers"!  The site has been designed to accompany and extend a course given in the Judaism Department of the Michlelet Kaye Teachers College, Be’er Sheva, Israel, "The Sabbath and its Songs."  The course seeks to engage secular Israelis in the texts, ideas and pleasures of the Sabbath, understood as a national day shared by all Jews regardless of their involvement in religion, a fundamental heritage of the Jewish people as a whole.  By virtue of its being part of the Internet, however, the course is also open to outside participants, especially those in the Diaspora.  In this way, a virtual experience of Shabbat may serve as a bridge between different elements of the Jewish people, truly the sign of their common covenantal tradition.

The key idea of the learning site centers upon the attempt to create a "virtual Sabbath meal" experience, together with all its associated elements, as a way of learning the contents of Jewish tradition.  For example, preparations in honor of the Sabbath, Sabbath songs, Torah learning, familial discussion (and argument) around the Sabbath table in search of Jewish values, the pleasures of both body and spirit, laughter and joy, and of course, good food, might each serve as the basis for experiential learning.  Making use of the resources available through the World Wide Web - texts, pictures and sound - the site intends to facilitate a reciprocal involvement in the delights of a virtual Sabbath meal, and through such pleasures, teach.

The idea of the site grew from an essay by Teddy Weinberger, a recent immigrant from America, "Friday Flowers."  There Weinberger describes the widespread custom of Israelis to buy flowers on Friday afternoons in anticipation of the Sabbath, regardless of whether they identify themselves as secular or religious.  The popular pleasure points to the way in which the Sabbath is a "peoplehood" tradition, whose customs - like those of Judaism in general - extend far beyond what would ordinarily be called "religion."

In order to read the original essay, click HERE.
 
 

The interactive experience of the site is structured around the four main commandments - two rabbinic and two biblical - that define the classical Jewish Sabbath:  Honor, Enjoy, Remember (Ex.20:8), and Keep (Dt.5:12) the Sabbath day in order to make it holy.  Participants "fulfill" these commandments ("mitzvot") on the basis first, of content-learning within the site, and secondly, by "surfing" the Internet in search of resources (texts, pictures, music) that will meet the needs of making Shabbat in a virtual home environment on the computer (for example, within the PowerPoint design application).
 

The course and the site based on it integrate three kinds of learning resources:

1.  study of the classical Shabbat and its textual sources, both biblical and rabbinic;
2.  learning Sabbath songs ("zemirot"), both their texts and their melodies;
3.  interactive, multi-sided discussions in the Forum attached to the site, responding to issues and views connected with the practice of the Sabbath in our day, both in Israel and in the Diaspora.

These learning experiences together combine to create our Virtual Sabbath meal.