Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Thou Shall Not Lie... in Bed Shabbos Morning

Is going to shul on Shabbos morning an "issue" in your house?

I think the females should go. They don't always agree.

Should Shabbos only be about sleeping late, getting up to eat, sleeping the afternoon away, and then rousing yourself to get dressed, do your face, and go out partying with friends?

Somehow there isn't much sanctity there.

Something nice about davening in shul, hearing laining, hearing a speech, saying a whole bunch of Amen's. Without a party.

what say you?

2 comments:

tembow said...

i've gotta agree. i used to always sleep on on shabbos morning and wake up just before the men came home and quickly daven before the meal. but for a few months already i decided to get up and go to shul and it really makes it much more special. not having a rushed davening, getting to hear laining, speech, seeing people in shul- it's nice. though it is nice to get those extra zzzzzzs... :)

corner point said...

I agree with you.
Somewhat.

I used to go to shul nearly every Shabbos when I was back in high school. I didn't want Shabbos to be my day of shluching around at home in a robe, sleeping the day away.

And then life required me to start getting up before the sun did and going to sleep way way after any normal person should. At that point, I was falling asleep in my soup bowl(!), let alone into my siddur on the women's side. I stopped going to shul, reasoning honestly that a few extra hours of sleep would help me daven better at home.

I don't think that was just a rationalization. I liked going to shul. It felt special. Just at that point, it made much more sense to me not to push myself. I did want my Shabbos to be special, and so I made it special for me in other ways. I can honestly say that my Shabbos is so much more meaningful to me now than it ever was before, even though I never make it to shul.

To address what you said, there's a lot of middle ground in between going to shul and sleeping the day away. You can have someone who goes to shul and spaces out or looks at all the women's clothing, or you can have someone who davens for an hour at home by herself. It's more about the spirit of the thing than the actual going or staying....

So yes, shul is special. I still wish I was a regular shulgoer, but that is not on my list of things I would like to work on. I have a lot more I have to fix about myself before I push myself to go to shul every week. Halevai I should be up to that soon.... ;-)