Something that comes once a week can never compete with something that comes once a year.
Rosh Hashanah is our New Year. That gives it a certain magic, even a sense of urgency.
Shabbat comes once a week. We’re used to it. We see it all the time.
Tonight, the annual and the weekly will merge.
Have you noticed that we’re hearing “Shana Tova” a lot more than “Shabbat Shalom”?
It’s natural. People are focusing on the Big One, not the Weekly One.
But here’s the extraordinary thing about our tradition: Shabbat is also the Big One.
The irony is that among the things that make Shabbat big is precisely that it comes once a week.
You see, an annual event is easy to forget once it’s gone. We may love the sermons, embrace the lessons, commit to a better year– but where are the reminders?
Shabbat is the space where we remember.
It is our sacred, weekly ritual where the lessons of our annual holidays can come into play; where lessons can turn into habits.
Before we forget the commitments we’re making at Rosh Hashanah this year, it’s good to know Shabbat will be here every week to rescue us. It will remind us how good those commitments are. Just as we renew ourselves at Rosh Hashanah, we renew ourselves on Shabbat.
Shabbat doesn’t compete with our annual holidays– it completes them.
Shana Tova and Shabbat Shalom.
