SHABBAT ON A YACHT!
Noah’s Ark has nothing on this vessel — a private yacht that will combine prayer and party for some 30 Hamptonites.
And yes, says Rabbi Berel Lerman, who’ll captain Saturday’s event at the Sag Harbor Cove Yacht Club, Shabbat on a Yacht is totally kosher. Earlier this week, the Orthodox rabbi blessed the boat and affixed a mezuza (a box containing Hebrew scripture that’s meant to protect the home) to the vessel’s door frame.
Not that the yacht is sailing anywhere, for that would violate the laws of the Sabbath.
The congregation list, from Sag Harbor’s Center for Jewish Life — Chabad, is a virtual who’s who of movers and shakers, many with yachts of their own. Even Jill Zarin is impressed.
“Not too many places would they have services on a yacht,” says the former “Real Housewife,” who won’t be at this ceremony. “When people are on the water, they’re looking for peace and solace, so what better physical place to pray than on the water on a yacht?”
The yacht’s owner, Jessica, agrees. She and her husband (who withheld their last name and his first name for privacy) offered the congregation their boat last year, and that inaugural Shabbat on a Yacht was such a hit, they’re doing it again.
“People said it was amazing,” says Jessica, a non-Orthodox Jew. “The whole idea . . . is to be spiritually elevated.”
This year’s congregants are excited to worship on the water.
“I’ve never been on a boat for any religious service,” says 57-yearold congregant Andrew Quentzel. “[But] I don’t think you need to be in a synagogue to pray or be in touch with God.”