Sabbath

San Diego -- Every family needs sacred time. Steven Baym believes that religious Jews and Christians should bring back the Sabbath and that all people, religious or not, can create a kind of personal Sabbath -- a family Sabbath.By that, he means a day focused entirely on the family and the spirit, when work is stopped, the TV turned off and the heart turned inward.Mr. Bayme is director of the Jewish Communal Affairs Department of the American Jewish Committee in New York, and director of the Institute on the Jewish Family.

I appreciated Dan Rodricks ' insightful and compassionate column on the arguments against marriage equality being made by some church leaders, based on parts of the Bible that condemn homosexuality as "an abomination worthy of death" ("Same-sex unions: What would Jesus do?" Oct. 25). As a student of the Old Testament, I examined the Book of Leviticus, from which that phrase is drawn, as well as other parts of the Bible. Sure enough, a man lying with another man commits a mortal sin. But lo and behold: In the Book of Exodus, working on the Sabbath is also a mortal sin. Elsewhere in Leviticus, a man who eats shellfish or pork, or cuts his hair and beard, also commits acts worthy of death.

"Sabbath's Theater," by Philip Roth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 451 pages. $24.95 After 21 books, Philip Roth has finally written a real novel.That may seem an outrageous statement about a near-legendary American author showered with accolades, including, in the last decade alone, two National Book Critics Circle Awards and the PEN/Faulkner prize. Nonetheless, I think it's a fair claim. Let me explain.While justly celebrated for their humor, anger, shock value and energy, Mr. Roth's novels have seemed a series of literary exercises rather than literature itself, their mechanics as visible as underwear through a sheer skirt.

Local Jewish leaders voted Wednesday to open a community center in Owings Mills on Saturdays, drawing expressions of both hope and sadness from across Baltimore's diverse Jewish community. The issue has highlighted a deep divide between the Orthodox and the rest of the Jewish community, and after the vote by the board of directors of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Greater Baltimore, leaders on both sides said they would work to improve communications. After weeks of debate, the Associated board voted 97 to 33 to allow the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore to open its Owings Mills location on Saturdays - the Jewish sabbath - beginning June 6. "The decision will give the JCC more of an opportunity to serve Jewish people in the Owings Mills area who ... do not automatically affiliate with Jewish organizations," said JCC President Louis "Buddy" Sapolsky.

BERLIN -- It's been nearly a decade since the starved consumers of East Germany burst through the Berlin Wall, but it took until yesterday to topple another formidable barrier to capitalism: a federal ban on retail shopping in Germany on the day designated for "spiritual reflection."Hundreds of stores opened their doors for the first time on the Lord's Day to a veritable storm of shoppers in this capital city, in Leipzig and in Halle, ringing up record sales and transforming the usual Sabbath somnolence into a festival of frenzied spending.

The hot line telephone started ringing just after noon yesterday as concerned Orthodox Jews checked that the Baltimore County eruv is intact so they can enjoy a relaxed Sabbath.Shmuel Siegel, 18, who spent more than two hours checking the boundaries, assured callers that all was well.Since last spring, the eruv, a symbolic enclosure, has bounded a large area of northwestern Baltimore County. Created to help attract more Orthodox Jews to the county, the eruv establishes a "private domain" in which Sabbath restrictions against "work" from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday are relaxed -- very slightly.

"The 124,000 Maryland children living in poverty" are the focus of prayers, sermons and discussions in churches, mosques and synagogues across the state today through Sunday, the "Children's Sabbath" weekend proclaimed by Gov. Parris N. Glendening.Participating congregations in Maryland will join an estimated 60,000 congregations of many faiths in other parts of the country whose worship services, religious education classes and community outreach projects are aimed at "improving the lives of America's poor children," a spokesman for the Children's Defense Fund in Washington said.

The second annual convention of the Sabbath-school association convened Sept. 8, 1868, in Westminster. Before the association formed, Protestant clergy met individually to discuss the usefulness of religious education, Sunday school classes and ways to extend their influence throughout the county. The group, comprising delegates from all Protestant denominations in Carroll County, met formally for the first time in 1867 and created the Sabbath-school association. -- History of Western Maryland, Volume 2 by J. Thomas Scharf, Page 822. Compiled by Sun researcher Shelia Jackson

Three generations of Soclofs are standing in Grandma D's kitchen doing what many women in Northwest Baltimore do on a Friday. The beans and barley are doled out, the beef stripped clean of fat, the potatoes peeled.These are the basic ingredients of what Dena Soclof (Grandma D to her six grandchildren) likes to call "Jewish soul food" -- cholent, a stewlike creation prepared by generations of Orthodox Jewish women and served on the Sabbath. It is perhaps the single most sought-after recipe requested by new brides of their mothers, the meal for which the local kosher supermarket tries to offer a meat special every week, and the fare most frequently invoked when friends are invited to lunch after synagogue Saturday morning.

Towson guard Tamir Goodman will miss a first-round game and probably half of a possible quarterfinal at this weekend's America East men's basketball tournament in Newark, Del. Goodman, who has averaged six points, 4.1 assists and 2.5 rebounds this season, cannot play in tomorrow's 8:15 p.m. game against Hartford because he will observe the Jewish Sabbath, which begins at sundown Friday and ends Saturday at sundown. If Towson - seeded seventh in the tournament - advances past the first round, it would play a second-round game against No. 2 seed Delaware at 6 p.m. Saturday, so Goodman would miss part of the first half.

The following are selected comments from the blog www.baltimoresun.com/secondopinion on whether the Owings Mills Jewish Community Center should be open on Saturdays. And on the Seventh Day, the Lord said, "Let there be racquetball." And he brought forth all manner of recreational activities, and it was good. Jeff "Even more than the Jews have kept the Shabbos (Sabbath), the Shabbos has kept the Jews." This deep insight from the Torah tradition contains profound spiritual, psychological and sociological truths.

For Yoel Benyowitz, setting aside work at sundown on Friday, lighting the shabbos candles and spending the next 24 hours in prayer and fellowship with family and friends "recharges our batteries, both physically and spiritually." It's an experience that he wishes more Jews enjoyed. The 47-year-old father of four, a computer information specialist with the state Department of Transportation, joined thousands of fellow Orthodox Jews in Park Heights on Sunday for a rally to promote observance of the Jewish Sabbath.

Opponents of a controversial plan to open the Jewish Community Center in Owings Mills on Saturday are planning a rally this weekend in defense of the Jewish Sabbath. "It's not a negative rally, it's a positive rally to cause awareness of the sacredness of the observance of the Sabbath," said Eli Schlossberg, an organizer of the event set for noon Sunday at Northwestern High School in Park Heights. From sundown Friday each week until nightfall Saturday, Orthodox and some other Jews observe Shabbat by refraining from work, handling money, driving a car, answering the telephone or operating electrical appliances.

Is today the day? Usually, your Sunday morning anticipation revolves around the crossword puzzle, political talk shows, perhaps brunch plans or counting down the days until Week 1 of the NFL season. Maybe even snagging an extra thimble of wine at morning service. But not this summer. Not in Baltimore. We wake up once a week wondering whether this is finally the Sunday - oh, cursed Sabbath - the Orioles can finally post a win. It's the most curious and inexplicable stat, fact or truth of the baseball season.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- As religious leaders and their congregations go green, they've neglected one Judeo-Christian teaching that could cut energy consumption and pollution by 14.2857 percent. That's one-seventh, just as the Sabbath halts work one day out of the weekly seven. The day of rest - long considered a gift from God - is meant to create a joyful, liberating respite from worldly concerns such as work and consumption, both activities that use the Earth's resources. So renewed observance of the Sabbath could also be a gift to the air, land and water that we consume the other six days of the week.

The vote from the Strathmore Tower condominium board was simple: Down with the Sabbath elevator. But what some thought was a straightforward vote has erupted into a religious and racially tinged controversy to others in this majority senior citizen-occupied condominium complex in Upper Park Heights. The supporters - most of whom are Jewish - say the option for a Sabbath elevator wouldn't have cost extra money and would have aided Orthodox Jewish and disabled residents while helping resale prices.

IF THE recent controversy over opening the Jewish Community Center in Owings Mills on Saturdays proved anything it is that disputes within religions are the norm, not the exception. There is no unified point of view, only shades of differing opinions.Disagreements over the degree of religious orthodoxy are common, whether the issue is ordaining women priests in Roman Catholicism, sanctioning gay rights or opening a Jewish activities center on that religion's Sabbath.To the growing number of Orthodox Jews in Northwest Baltimore, the 34-7 vote of the JCC's board to open athletic and exercise rooms Saturday afternoons was a deep affront to the sanctity of their religion.

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new coalition government faced its first mini-crisis yesterday over working on the Sabbath, a sensitive issue that splits many secular and religious Israelis. Ehud Olmert, the minister of industry and trade, ordered an indefinite suspension of the job carried out by government inspectors who enforce laws banning work on the Sabbath. The ministry planned to review the policy and might formulate new guidelines. The decision provoked strong protests from religious groups, including the National Religious Party, a key member of Sharon's right-wing coalition, which was formed just a month ago after national elections.

Ever since his son Sam was born five years ago, David Brown has observed the Sabbath with his family, singing, praying and enjoying a large meal in their Pikesville home. For Orthodox Jews like the Brown family, the time between sunset Friday and sunset Saturday is a holiday during which work, even flicking a light switch, should be avoided. "One of my biggest fears, one of the things I never wanted to happen, was for my family to sit down for Shabbos dinner and to have my chair be empty," he said.

NEWARK, N.J. --Three times, the Waters family knew the bone-deep dread of losing their baby, Noble Tyre Waters, who had a severely diseased colon and needed a transplant. After undergoing three transplants, Noble died five years ago at the age of 15 months. "I can't begin to imagine the pain and agony for those families who were able to extend our son's life, but I can imagine the joy, when hope seemed not to exist, of being told three times that our son had gotten a reprieve," said Noble's father, Robert Kevin Waters, who sponsors a Little League team called the Lifesavers to help spread the word about organ donations.