The Last Two Shabbats of the Year: 10 Ways to Make Them Count

On Thursday night, we are all excellent project managers. There is a plan, an order, and an unexplained sense of optimism. “Tomorrow morning: shopping and cooking. In the afternoon: cleaning and resting. By 4:00, everyone will be showered.” A satisfied look at the ceiling, and good night.

By Friday at 3:30, those same project managers are searching for one shoe under the couch while something burns in the background.

What happened in between? Nothing. And that is exactly the problem.

Because your stressful Friday did not begin on Friday. It began on Thursday night, at the very moment when everything seemed under control and you decided there was no need to rush. And if Thursday is partly responsible for Friday’s stress, it can also provide the solution.

This year, there is an especially good reason to start preparing on Thursday.

This coming Shabbat (August 29) and the Shabbat after it (September 5) are the final two Shabbats of the year. Rabbi Yechezkel Levinstein, of blessed memory, one of the leading teachers of Jewish ethics in recent generations, often spoke about their unique significance. The source is the Gemara in tractate Shabbat (118b): “If the Jewish people observed two Shabbats according to halacha, they would immediately be redeemed.”

From this, Rabbi Levinstein taught that if two Shabbats observed properly by the entire Jewish people can bring redemption to the nation, then two Shabbats observed with special care by an individual can help that person merit a favorable judgment. He therefore encouraged people to invest particular effort in these final two Shabbats, so they might speak in their favor on the Day of Judgment.

A Shabbat you enter calmly feels completely different from one you fall into exhausted. And much of the difference is decided on Thursday. Here are 10 things you can do the night before. Most are small, but all of them can make Friday a little easier.

1. Make a List. A Real One. In Writing

Not a “list in your head,” which may be the world’s most popular and least reliable format. A written list on your phone or a piece of paper works perfectly well. Your memory on Thursday night may be excellent. That same memory at 11:00 on Friday morning is a completely different person.

2. Open the Refrigerator and Look Inside

It sounds unnecessary, but this is the move that can save you a second trip to the supermarket. It is surprisingly easy to buy things you already have while forgetting the one thing you actually need. Usually eggs, which always seem to be there until the moment you discover they are not.

3. Cook One Dish. Just One

Make something tonight. Really, just one thing. A dish made on Thursday is one less dish to think about on Friday, and that can be the difference between getting everything done comfortably and barely getting everything done at all. Start with the dish you least enjoy making. Tomorrow, you will thank yourself.

4. Take Your Shabbat Clothes Out of the Closet

Yes, now. Because the white shirt always seems to reveal at exactly 4:50 that it is wrinkled, stained, or mysteriously missing a button. There is no worse time in the week to discover it.

5. Set the Table on Thursday Night

It sounds excessive until you try it. Put out the tablecloth, dishes, and candlesticks. Then, on Friday afternoon, you walk past the dining room and see a table already prepared for Shabbat. Something shifts. You begin to feel that Shabbat is coming toward you instead of you constantly chasing after it.

6. Decide Who Is Doing What

If there are other people in the house, Thursday night is the time to divide up responsibilities calmly, not while running around the kitchen holding a pot. Assigning jobs the night before works much better than shouting instructions at 3:00 on Friday afternoon.

7. Check the Start Time. Now

Because “I roughly know when” is a sentence that has been proven wrong far too many times. Five seconds of checking can save 15 minutes of panic. The time Shabbat begins changes throughout the year, and it definitely does not take your plans into account.

8. Take What You Need Out of the Freezer

The freezer is a great place to store food and a less great place to discover on Friday afternoon that dinner is still frozen solid. Take out meat, fish, or anything else that needs defrosting and allow it to thaw safely in the refrigerator. A task that takes a minute on Thursday can save a lot of culinary creativity on Friday.

9. Prepare the Shabbat Essentials

Candles. Wine. Challah. The things you are always “sure you have.” Check anyway. There is a very good chance that at least one of them is not where you thought it was.

10. Go to Sleep

The tip no one likes, which is why we saved it for last. But in terms of importance, it may actually belong first. One extra hour of sleep on Thursday night can make the difference between a parent who reaches Shabbat functioning reasonably well and one who is simply trying to survive until candle lighting.

The Gemara in tractate Beitzah (16a) tells us about Shammai the Elder, who lived throughout the week with Shabbat in mind. Whenever he found a particularly fine animal, he would set it aside for Shabbat. If he later found an even better one, he would save the better one for Shabbat and eat the first during the week. For Shammai, preparing for Shabbat did not begin on Thursday. It began on Sunday.

The Gemara also teaches, “One who prepares on the eve of Shabbat will eat on Shabbat” (tractate Avodah Zarah, 3a). The preparation we do beforehand does more than make Friday easier. External preparation can also create inner readiness, allowing us to enter Shabbat with the space to actually experience it.

There is no need to turn Thursday into a second Friday. Just move three or four tasks forward. And if you still find yourself searching for one shoe at 4:40 on Friday afternoon, at least the table will already be set.