TORONTO – For the closing of the immensely successful Shabbat Project, held for the first time on an international scale, hundreds of Torontonians gathered for a havdalah concert featuring Israeli musician Gad Elbaz.
The initiative, held Oct. 24-25, brought Jews from across the religious spectrum together to keep a full Shabbat and take part in various related programs in more than 461 cities and 65 countries, said Sarah Zeldman, the Shabbat Project’s social media co-ordinator.
“This started in South Africa last year,” Zeldman explained. “There was a conference of Jewish leaders in South Africa and the chief rabbi of South Africa stood up and said, ‘I’m starting an initiative that all the Jews of South Africa will keep one complete Shabbat on a certain date.’ The reaction was, ‘Nice idea, but it’s not going to happen.’”
But to the surprise of many, the idea quickly caught on and spread, she said.
“In the end, over 70 per cent of South African Jews kept one complete Shabbat together, and what really got people was the outpouring of videos and people saying how much they loved it and appreciated it. The response was so overwhelmingly positive that it caught international attention, and Jewish communities around the world started saying, ‘How do we bring this to our city?’”
In the months that followed, volunteers from hundreds of cities around the world have been working tirelessly to promote the cause and organize events around the Shabbat Project.
In Toronto on Oct. 23, more than 2,300 women gathered to take part in the mitzvah of baking challah at a “Challah Bake” event at the Embassy Grand in Brampton, Ont.
“It was about more than just making the dough,” Zeldman said. “It’s a very special mitzvah for women, so it wasn’t just a cooking show as much as it was learning how to make it, along with exploring the spiritual dimension of making challah and doing the mitzvah.”
She said media personality Adrienne Gold provided “some inspirational talk,” while singer Amy Sky performed, making the event an “uplifting experience.”
Among the many other events held throughout the GTA, the Jewish Urban Meeting Place (JUMP) hosted a Shabbat dinner for law, dentistry and medical students; Chabad of Markham held a Shabbaton with guest speaker Miriam Swerdlow; and Chabad @ Flamingo held an event featuring comedian Marc Weiner.
The Havdalah Unity Concert, held motzaei Shabbat at the Schwartz/Reisman Centre in Vaughan, attracted more than 1,800 people and featured Jewish folk singer Shlomo Katz and Israeli chart-topping musician Gad Elbaz, as well as other musical guests, to close the weekend-long event.
Rabbi Glenn Black, CEO of NCSY Canada, who MCed the concert, boasted that the Shabbat Project in Toronto was a success thanks to the 280 volunteers, 24 participating synagogues and thousands of people who took part in the various events.
Opening the show was Rabbi Daniel Korobkin, spiritual leader of Beth Avraham Yoseph Congregation, backed by the Achdus Choir, who led a havdalah service. They were followed by the Toronto Jewish Male Choir who, to the delight of older members of the audience, sang a number of Yiddish medleys.
Former Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue Cantor Aaron Bensoussan added some Sehardi flare to the evening when he sang songs showcasing his Moroccan roots and played the oud.
Looking out into the crowd of hundreds of people, some of whom had celebrated Shabbat for the first time, Bensoussan said, “This is a real ness [miracle], and I’m so happy to be a part of this.”
Before singer and songwriter Abie Rotenberg, joined by singer Shlomo Simcha and the Achdus choir, sang a prayer for the soldiers of Israel, Rotenberg acknowledged the recent attack on Ottawa and the murder of a Canadian soldier, calling it “a brazen attack on democracy.”
He added that what Canadians have experienced over the past week “our brothers and sisters in Israel experience every year, every week.”
Shortly before Elbaz closed the show, Katz, a performer of Carlebach-style music, serenaded the crowd with little more than his voice and an acoustic guitar.
Elbaz, who spent this past Shabbat with the BAYT congregation, said he felt at home there because although he grew up in a secular, Sephardi household, when he was nine, his family became religious and began attending an Ashkenazi shul because it was the closest one to their house.
Despite the years he spent learning about Ashkenazi traditions, Elbaz’ singing style is heavily influenced by his Sephardi roots. Adding another element to his Sephardi sound, Elbaz was joined on stage by the Oziel choir.
Zeldman, who briefly took to the stage to encourage the crowd to take photos and video and post on social media sites using the hashtag #ShabbatprojectTO, said the goal was to “bring all the Jewish people together for one Shabbat and to invite everybody to experience the gift of Shabbat.
“What is so incredible, is that in Toronto, or around the world, it is not claimed by any one shul or organization. This is a real grassroots movement of Jews across the spectrum, of all the different flavours of Judaism, coming together to plan and co-ordinate this.”