You and I know that we Reform Jews don’t like to be told what to do, so when various “guides” were published they were rejected out of hand. In the early 1970s, however, Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut, editor of Reform’s Torah Commentary, felt the time was ripe to give it another shot. He focused on Shabbat and Shabbat alone.
The stumbling block, he believed, could be found in one word, that word being mitzvah. We freely say that it means a “good deed.” Oh, no, it means “commandment,” and we Reformers wouldn’t hear of being commanded. So, what did he do? He changed the translation, modified it, let’s say, from “commandment” (that is, obligation), to an “ought.” Something we “ought” to consider doing.
By the 70’s we were far more open to personal, family-oriented and spiritual manifestations of who and what we were. Plaut’s Shabbat Manual, now Gates of Shabbat, was well-received. In fact, the rabbis of those days convened small groups to discuss its contents, to hear the opinions of their flocks, and to see whether anything might be adapted for their congregation. In so many ways the Sabbath was “reJEWvenated.”
For example, had Plaut insisted on “We must kindle the Sabbath lights,” it wouldn’t have worked, but suggesting “We ought to consider kindling the Shabbat candles,” well, the word did the trick. Another example: “The family should sit together at the Shabbat meal,” rather, “It would be great if all its members could join in a Shabbat meal, but if mom or dad came home from work an hour or two after the usual mealtime, the family might begin anyway but the family as a unit ought to join together in the Shabbat rituals and meal when mom and dad and the kids could be together.” That’s a bit of a long explanation, but you get the point.
It’s softer; it’s welcoming; it’s far more in the mood of what Shabbat should be: how can you have a day of holiness, kedusha; or a spirit of oneg, joy; or a hefty dose of simcha, happiness; or a time for menucha, rest; or an atmosphere of Shabbat shalom, Sabbath peace, with an attitude that magnifies law and order, strict interpretation, and in doing so minimizes kedusha and oneg and simcha and menucha and, above all, shalom! Rabbi Plaut was an astute scholar (and I must say as a fellow yekkeh, surprisingly, pretty darn sensitive for a German Jew).
He joined all those rabbis and cantors and laypeople who have held Shabbat precious and wanted to preserve it, recognizing that Shabbat has in so many ways indeed, kept our people unique and together. May we always remember and observe Shabbat, recognizing its potential and celebrating its place in our religious history. As Achad HaAm said, “More than Israel has kept the Sabbath, has the Sabbath kept Israel.”