Shabbat Salon

NW Philly Salon (E Mt Airy). This salon is an experiment to see if we can create, together, a Sabbath, Common Ground style.

Since joining Common Ground, and essentially using it as my spiritual home, I miss Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath. I miss having a ritual to start the 24 hour period of peaceful, sacred space in my life, with another ritual to mark its ending and the return to regular life.

So the thought occurred to me, why not invite Common-Grounder’s to co-create our own Sabbath, commencing with a dinner-ritual that begins a day of rest and peace, and ending with the Sacred-Space event as the Havdalah (ending) ritual?

The idea is that a dozen of us will meet for a ritual dinner the first Saturday night of the month. Each attendee will contribute two things: a dish and a piece of the peace ritual.

If your religious or spiritual tradition has a practice which brings you to peace, then bring that. Or if there is a prayer or poem, picture or place, item or song, bring that. If there is a food or drink (like wine and bread) which is part of your peaceful practice, then that will satisfy both parts of your contribution.

You'll also be committing to taking the following day off, in whatever way that works for you. And to coming to CG's Sacred Space. We'll all gather together at Sacred Space and perhaps at the end, do some small ritual to end our Sabbath together.

The goal, over time, will be to create a social gathering which inspires each of us to keep the Sabbath (in whatever way that works for you) and to experience Common Ground's ritual as an integral part of that peaceful time.

Clearly, my starting place is the Jewish Shabbos Friday night dinner, lighting candles, breaking bread, drinking wine, praying. But I am completely open to co-creating a new set of rituals, hopefully adding song, story, mediation, and bringing in the beautiful rituals of other traditions, new and old. For this first event, I'm going to ask that no children attend, so we can focus on co-creation.

I've created a Group called the Shabbot Salon where we can discuss both the ritual and the day of peace. If you're interested in joining the salon, please join the group as well, so we can interact with the whole group seamlessly.

(Note: Postponed until December)