Shabbat
When most people think of holidays, they think
of annual celebrations, but in Judaism there is one holiday that occurs every
week - the Sabbath. Known in Hebrew as Shabbat and in Yiddish as Shabbos,
this holiday is central to Jewish Life. As the great Jewish writer, Adad Ha-Am
has observed: “Even more than the Jews have kept the Shabbat, the
Shabbat has kept the Jews.” The Sabbath has been a unifying force for Jews
the world over.
There are so many “things” we associate with Shabbat.
Rituals like candle lighting, Kiddush and Havdalah.
Prayers, naps, big meals with family and friends. So what’s at the heart of the
Jewish day of rest? What’s it really all about?
The Torah tells us that G-d created the world in six days,
and on the seventh He rested – which means “Shabbat,” in Hebrew.
Later on, after G-d took the Israelites out of Egypt and gave them the Torah at
Mt. Sinai, He commanded them to keep Shabbat – to desist from all labor
every seventh day, just as He did. But this command is not some meaningless call
for mimicry. It’s a way of recognizing where the world came from, and it gives
us time away from the daily grind to focus on becoming a little closer to G-d.
All of the little details of Shabbat all
connect back to this central idea: acknowledging that G-d is the Creator of
all. We know Shabbat is the day
of rest. But what does that mean? Why is rest such a big deal? When G-d first rested, He had completed His
task of creating the heavens and the earth. In other words, G-d wasn’t taking a
break – there was nothing left to do. Everything was complete, and there was
simply no need for further effort or thought – now the point was to simply
enjoy the fruits of all the hard work.
Similarly, when we talk about Shabbat being a day of
rest, this doesn’t just mean, “take a break for a day.” Resting is a
perspective. It’s not just refraining from work; it’s believing there’s no work
to be done. It’s allowing oneself to enter into a mindset of completeness. When
you enter into this mindset, our goals and ambitions take a backseat, and life
becomes just about enjoying what’s around us.
Why
is the Sabbath still important, thousands of years later? What does it mean to
refrain from 'work' in a modern world? How can we rest in a hurried world?
We need to re-assess our ideas about work and
rest. G-d’s rest had very little in common with the idea of vacation. It was
not something that merely happened after G-d created the world; it was not that
G-d took some time off for a breather. The Creator’s rest was a deliberate act.
It was a kind of rest that was, somehow, an end in and of itself. Rest always provides a complement to
work. G-d stopped not because the work
was over. The work of improvement is never over. But He pulled back and left
that work in our hands. It is now up to us to become earthly creators, to
“guard the world and to work it”; to leave to the next generation a world
better than the world we were given.
On Shabbat, we escape the
need to keep on tinkering. Sit back, let
go, and appreciate all that is around you. Shabbat is an island of
tranquility in the turmoil of work, anxiety, struggle and distress that
characterizes our daily lives for the other six days of the week. Shabbat is the soul of the week; our
weekly taste of this future world. On Shabbat we see the world as a
reflection of G-d, a manifestation of His imaginative thoughts. G-d is the
artist, the universe is His gallery, and on Shabbat this gallery is open
to the public.
Enter and Enjoy! Shabbat
Shalom!
Rabbi Stuart A. Paris, HaKohen
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