Radiating Shabbatin All Directions

Boston ’s Hebrew Rehabilitation Center is known for its strong Jewish identity. It has a rabbi and offers kosher foods and regular religious services. But the center, part of the Hebrew SeniorLife group, also is very large—there are 725 beds, and many residents stay on their units for all of their daily routines. So when Rabbi Sara Paasche-Orlow came on board in spring of 2004, she found that the Friday afternoon observances to welcome the Sabbath varied widely. On some units the residents and staff were saying blessings and singing some songs, but on others nothing was happening.

“On our units where residents have less awareness, they needed more support to evoke the sounds and traditions of beginning Shabbat,” she says. “The kit has made people more comfortable bringing Shabbat to those units. It’s given an important tool to volunteers and staff.”

Hallah, the traditional braided bread, and grape juice are served to those who can manage them, and the Sacred Seasons CD is put on and candles are lit. As in other elder communities, Paasche-Orlow says the strongest common denominator here is the melodies. “The music gets through to people. It really touches something deep in almost every single person here. Following the songs, the volunteers or staff here will walk around the room, taking each person’s hand, looking them in the eye and saying, ‘Good Shabbas.’ It comes through to people. It’s beautiful.”

A Flexible Celebration, and a Few Surprises…

Residents who are very healthy and alert, Paasche-Orlow says, can always add more to the basic celebration. On one unit, one of the elders starts gathering people each Friday afternoon around 3:30. His wife gathers the ladies to the front of the room, and together they do the blessing over the candles. After all the blessings, when the group plays the tape, many sing along.

And sometimes, strong voices can be heard from surprising sources, adds the rabbi. “In almost every unit here, there is at least one resident who sings all the words along with the songs, even if they aren’t aware of anything else. I see that happen one on one with people I visit. What the kit provides is a group experience for that, which doesn’t require the rabbi or the cantor to be there to facilitate.”

Volunteer Ruth Gershman, whose husband is a resident, comes each Friday afternoon to observe Oneg Shabbat. She brings her own tray, hallah cover and cup for the kiddush, the blessing over the wine, in an effort to make things as home-like as possible. She, too, found that for some elders the music could uncover hidden connections. “I noticed that one resident, when I put on the tape, his lips were moving with all the songs. I went over and sat beside him. He sang beautifully. Then I found out he was a cantor.” From then until he passed away, Gershman says, the usually quiet former cantor led the kiddush.

The staff at Hebrew Rehab is predominantly non-Jewish, and, Paasche-Orlow says, the kit serves as a tool to help them connect with the Jewish past and the Jewish identity of their residents. And for the elders, she adds, spiritual expression carries special importance. “These songs and expressions of Jewish life are timeless for these people. They evoke decades of memories, of warmth, of people. They tap into the etz haim—the tree of life; and residents, then, tap into something bigger than themselves.”