I suspect most Jews not into Shabbat associate it with rules and limitations.  Ironically, they are not wrong, yet they miss the whole truth.  The purpose of the strictures is to facilitate an outcome that would not otherwise occur: structured time for assuring that you stop on that day to enjoy being alive and utter thanks to the people and your Maker, who are part of your life. 

 Shabbat also connects you to your past: awareness of the history of Judaism and its values that contribute to who you are and what / who is important.

 Since the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem , Shabbat joy has been tempered by the historical memory of how the Jewish people were uprooted and scattered throughout the world by Ancient Rome.  One reason Shabbat is not important to most of you as a 24 hour weekly celebration is that, since that Dispersion, the Jewish people have lived as a minority in every land they have otherwise made home.  The Jewish calendar is not in alignment with the society in which you live. 

With Diaspora (life outside Israel ) the reality for 2000 years, certain restrictions added to the Shabbat made symbolic and even stylistic sense.  In the days of the Second Temple , the lute, lyre, drum, stringed instruments, flute and loud sounding cymbals (as in Psalm 150) and other joyous instruments were part of the Temple ritual on Shabbat.  With the Destruction and Exile by Rome , they were forbidden as a tangible reminder that Shabbat, in the shadow of a non-Jewish majority culture, can not be as joyous or fruitful as the days of celebration of life in the land God designated for the descendants of Abraham and Sarah and the children of the Covenant at Sinai.

 The restoration of Israel in our own day, albeit fraught with danger and uncertainty (now true for all the world!), brings to life Jerusalem once more filled with the vibrancy and joy of Hebrew and Jewish celebration in the city King David established as the Capital of the Jewish people in 1000 BCE.

  Israel 's rebirth and reemergence as home for the Jewish people opens possibilities for adding to measures of joy on Shabbat, even in the Diaspora.  In a ritual sense, it opens up the possibilities of restoring some of the celebration that we did in ancient Temple times.  Beginning with Jessica Pechner's Bat Mitzvah at the end of August, after exploring the matter with religious ritual committee and Board members and also more traditional members of Bnai Israel, we have decided to welcome Shabbat appropriate Jewish music, recorded and instrumental, twenty or more minutes after the morning service has concluded, in the social hall, only, in enhanced celebration of Shabbat.

 In increasing this measure of joy in our little part of the Diaspora, I would ask you to revisit your time priorities and add Shabbat at Bnai Israel and other Jewish settings back into your equation.  With your enthusiastic support of the newly created monthly Davin and Dine Shabbat service and meal (spectacularly and lovingly prepared to this point by Helene Falk), with continued and increasing participation, there is no longer any reason not to add Shabbat music and dancing to the already joyous time together.  In fact, there is no reason that Jewish life, in the light of Israel 's reemergence among the nations, cannot grow in joy and meaning in enhancing the quality of overall life in Solano County .