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Dear Rabbi, Why does Shabbat begin on Friday evening instead of at midnight? Thank you

Question
I am looking into a cruise at which i would embark the ship on Friday afternoon, but the ship would remain in the harbor until the following day, Shabbos, and leave port Shabbos afternoon. Am I permitted to go on this cruise?

Question
What do we do about a Shabbos guest we have a lot who comes over wearing T-shirts and shorts? In our community, people customarily invite each other for Shabbos meals on a rotation to assure that no one is alone for a Shabbos. Most people without being told know the appropriate way to dress. For men, this is a collared shirt and long pants, either suit pants or business casual. But there is one young man who moved to our community in the past year who wears T-shirts and shorts when the weather is hot. Most people don’t confront him because they don’t have the nerve to do so. He routinely goes over the homes of others and also to shul this way, but no one does anything because they are not assertive enough to challenge him. I actually did last week and he told me in response it was over 100° and he wasn’t going to let himself die from the heat. It is true. It gets over 100° here a lot of the time. But this does not stop other men in our community from dressing appropriately for Shabbos. If they can, he can too. In my opinion, his yetzer hara is telling him to dress this way. The yetzer hara makes him feel uncomfortable, and he is failing the test to follow our community’s standards in response. If he got used to dressing appropriately, his body would acclimate and he wouldn’t die. We don’t want to stop inviting him over this issue because our community does not believe in excluding others.

Question
Dear Rabbi, What is the Jewish view of laziness? Does God abhor laziness? To be honest, I am a very lazy person myself. I know I should do more Jewish things but I guess I’m just too lazy. I know many other religions consider laziness a serious sin and, in their view, I would be a terrible sinner. Thank you, Rabbi, as always, for your guidance.

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What is the reason for lighting the candles, drinking the wine and breaking the bread on Sabbath? I have searched various sites and come up with different symbolism for each. A Christian looking at the Friday night "ritual" might see an analogy with communion and as such as symbolic of the coming of Jesus - ie the body (bread) and blood (wine). I have also read that in some forms on one candle is lite whilst my own mum would only ever light two candles of a Friday night. So can someone give me a definitive picture as to what each part of the ritual means. Thanks.

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I just tested positive for COVID. It’s a very mild case. My symptoms are like a very slight cold. I otherwise feel well and I plan to work from home the rest of this week and isolate. This coming Shabbos will be less than 5 days since my symptoms started. I am scheduled to be the Torah reader at my synagogue. The rabbi says there’s no one else around to do it. He is okay with me coming as long as I wear a KN95 mask and he will tell everyone else to wear masks too. The national government guidelines say I should isolate for 5 days, therefore my required isolation ends Sunday. This is not law, but guidance. Who should I listen to, the rabbi or the national government guidelines?

Question
I have a friend I’ve been close to for the past two years. She and her husband like to have us over for Shabbos meals often, just as much as we like to have them. The problem is, she is the worst cook in the world and her food is absolutely disgusting. So much that I’d rather eat dog food (if it were kosher; I mean it figuratively) than her own cooking. She does not recognize this and she feels she is a master chef. And I don’t have the heart to tell her how I feel about her cooking. Whenever my husband and I are over, we have to physically force ourselves to eat her food, all as we feel like vomiting with each bite. And we feel compelled to praise her for it in order to be polite. She doesn’t get it how we feel. We feel very close to her and her husband, but we don’t feel comfortable insulting her over her food. We don’t know how to handle this. We look forward to socializing with this couple, who are one of our best friends, but dread their food. As a rabbi, what is your advice?