"Come on Rabs, it's New Years tonight, we have extra alcohol for Shabbat dinner but no Shul."
Well, thankfully I won that argument a few minutes ago, but unfortunately there are many others who may not give me the chance to make the case for 60 minutes with Hashem (and 60 minutes less of Heineken) as the best way to get whatever blessings you're hoping to get in the next 12 months.
But isn't that sacrilegious? Why would you combine a secular pagan festival with the sanctity of our Divine gift of Shabbat?
Well, the truth is, there is a point to that. Making Judaism relevant is perhaps about changing the packaging. But the product is an untouchable gift from the Divine.
But, it's also important to remember that the holier and more spiritual the energy which we experience, the more material and mundane the effect could and should have.
So perhaps the best place to be on the night of 31st December is, you guessed it, at Shul and then your Shabbat Table.
It was in NYC exactly 30 years ago tonight. No, I'm not talking about Times Square. I'm thinking of 770 Eastern Parkway, Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
It was the evening of December 31 1980. Only a few miles away hundreds of thousands of people were partying the night away. But in that brightly lit room, there was a celebration of far greater significance.
The Rebbe was discussing precisely this issue, that the greatest achievement of the holy, is when it influences the unholy. The strongest power of the spiritual is because it can reach the most mundane.
This week we read the story of a year that was far more calamitous for the world than the recession of 2010. Time and again the evil Egyptian empire was struck with the plagues, the consequential result of their murderous oppression of the Jewish People.
In ways that would have had any environmentalist scratching for answers (Global Warming, Cooling and Meltdown - all in a matter of months) the plagues struck, again and again, until finally their stiff necked refusal was broken and the Jewish People were set free.
Why all these complex manipulations of nature? "So that they know that I am G-d in the midst of the land."
What does "midst of the land" mean? Rashi explains G-d's words that "although my presence is in the heavens, my decree is fulfilled on earth."
Whilst we often think of a figurative divide between heaven and earth, G-d doesn't think so at all. On the contrary; The power of heaven is most relevant when we feel it on earth.
Yes, earth is an earthly place. Especially on the night of 31 December when a good portion of civilization finds themselves under the influence of substance other than oxygen.
But it's also Shabbat. Tonight is a night to remind yourself that there is no place in the world, and no time of the year, that is distant from G-d.
And even when your party spirit says, na, tonight's not a night for Shul. Yes, that's the best and most important night of the year to make sure you're there.
Wishing you a Happy New Shabbat,