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"Why…to…care?"

That seems to be the question many Jews in the Bay Area are asking themselves when confronted with the hype surrounding Y2K celebrations.

To many, next Friday isn't just New Year's Eve — it's Shabbat.

Therefore, some congregations and small groups of friends are planning to usher in the new millennium by focusing on holiness and inner peace, rather than on revelry and mixed drinks.

In fact, opportunities abound to eschew New Year's fever in favor of worship — for those who are observant, spiritually hungry or flat-out adamant that the new year won't arrive until the Hebrew calendar turns to 5761 next Rosh Hashanah.

At Congregation Kol Shofar in Tiburon, it's Y2S.

That's Y2Shabbat, dubbed "Shabbat of the Centuries," featuring storyteller Seth Castleman.

The genesis came from some members of the Conservative congregation, who asked for a safe place to escape Y2K madness. Moreover, they wanted something with a decidedly Judaic feeling.

"This is a wonderful opportunity to help people experience Shabbat," said Rabbi Lavey Derby. "It's Shabbat first, New Year's Eve second."

The Friday night services will begin at 7:15 p.m. — one hour later than usual — in an attempt to somewhat splice together Shabbat and the coming of Y2K.

The Oakland-based Aquarian Minyan, a Renewal congregation, will conduct its usual Shabbat routine, with a twist.

The Friday night service — held at a member's home, as it always is — will take place at the normal time, but "then move into a New Year's celebration," according to administrator Shari Berger.

Those on the Peninsula can have it both ways: a faux New Year's Eve party on Thursday, leaving Friday night open for either Shabbat observance or a quiet night at home.

A folk dance party and potluck dinner from 8 p.m. until midnight Thursday in Palo Alto allows the observant to "go out and celebrate, and still be at home for Y2K," according to organizer Mark Tischler.

For those looking for something more inspirational, there's Makor Or — Source of Light — a new meditation center in San Francisco. Founder Rabbi Alan Lew is holding a weekend of contemplation, meditation and study that begins New Year's Eve.

"Many [Jews] don't know what to do with New Year's Eve, and this offers a nice alternative. After all, being in Union Square is not consistent with Shabbat," the spiritual leader of San Francisco's Conservative Congregation Beth Sholom said.

Lew said the events, which will begin at 5 p.m. next Friday and conclude Jan. 2, offer a "way you can observe Shabbat and the secular New Year at the same time." The Shabbat service will include "an evening of meditation and study until after midnight."

Added Lew, "We'll be quite calm and balanced while the world goes mad all around us."

A number of lay-led groups will head for the hills, holding Shabbatons in such places as the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Berkeley hills.

That some people are using the secular New Year's Eve to reaffirm Jewish values through prayer, music and community bemuses some spiritual leaders, including Orthodox Rabbi Eliezer Finkelman of Berkeley's Congregation Beth Israel.

"That's our usual Friday night service you're talking about," he said with a chuckle. "And if you want, we have families in our congregation who have 15, 20 people over for dinner afterward, too."

Some area Jews dismiss the significance of the arrival of Y2K altogether.

Celebrating New Year's Eve on a Friday night "is totally incongruent with Shabbos," said Rabbi Howard Zack of Orthodox Beth Jacob Congregation in Oakland.

"I don't recommend going out at all, going to a movie, on Shabbos. Shabbos is Shabbos. Secondly, for us as Jews, a celebration is a simcha. Simcha has a spiritual underpinning."

Then again, even those with scant interest in the secular New Year acknowledge that the coming of Y2K is a major event.

At least one synagogue — Reform Temple Israel in Alameda — is holding Friday services at 6 p.m., instead of the usual 8 p.m., to allow congregants enough time to scamper to New Year's Eve festivities.

For some Jews, there is significance in the confluence of the two days.

"We are planning a spiritually oriented welcome to the millennium," said Rabbi Michael Lerner, spiritual leader of San Francisco's Beyt Tikkun, a Renewal congregation.

After Shabbat services and a vegetarian potluck dinner, Beyt Tikkun congregants will meditate, share poetry and "reflect on the past thousand years of world history," Lerner said. Saturday morning, they will "envision the possibilities for the next thousand years."

To Rabbi Shlomo Zarchi of the Orthodox Congregation Chevra Thilim in San Francisco, it is no fluke that Shabbat and the eve of the new millennium occur on same night.

"There is no such thing as a coincidence," he said. Jews who get the message will observe Shabbat and sample "the small taste of the world to come."