“Last year we started weekly Friday night Shabbat dinners. We have family dinners on other nights, but on Shabbat the tone is different.  We have the positive expectation of listening to each other, really being together and disconnecting from technology. We bring the spirit of rest and peace into Shabbat and reinterpret ancient prayers to be relevant to our lives now. It’s wonderful – my son expects and loves the routine, and we all embrace the special togetherness. We guard it.  We’ve been invited to secular Friday night parties, and we ask ourselves ‘Is this a priority over Shabbat?’ Mostly it’s not.  My son’s school Halloween party was on a Friday night and I figured that would be a hard decision for him. But when I asked James if he wanted to go, he said he’d rather ‘stay home and be quiet for Shabbat dinner’ than have the buzz and chaos of the party.”

Elizabeth Bailey Strzetelski , Parenting Through a Jewish Lens student at Boston-area Jewish Education Program (BJEP)