By: Rabbi Jonathan Matt
The Shabbat (Jewish Sabbath) was the most revolutionary holiday in the ancient world. Prior to the Israelite religion, many cultures had holy places, and holy places are still a feature of most religions, including Judaism. But the Shabbat revolution was the concept of holy time: And G-d blessed the seventh day and declared it holy... (Genesis 2:3 NJPS translation). This aspect of Shabbat was beautifully described by Abraham Joshua Heschel in his book The Sabbath: "This is a radical departure from accustomed religious thinking. The mythical mind would expect that, after heaven and earth have been established, G-d would create a holy place - a holy mountain or a holy spring - whereupon a sanctuary is to be established. Yet it seems as if to the Bible it is holiness in time, the Sabbath, which comes first." (The Sabbath, p. 9) In order to become aware of the holy, the Jew is first commanded to cease from work on the Shabbat. The centrality of this command is emphasized by including it as one of the Ten Commandments: Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your G-d... (Exodus 20:8-10). In one of the most beautiful chapters of the Bible, Isaiah deals with the tension between Divine command and spiritual intention. After relating to the true significance of the fast, he speaks of the Shabbat: If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, From pursuing your affairs on My holy day; If you call the Sabbath 'delight,’ The Lord’s holy day 'honored;’ And if you honor it and go not your ways Nor look to your affairs, nor strike bargains- Then you can seek the favor of the Lord. I will set you astride the heights of the earth, And let you enjoy the heritage of your father Jacob - For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 58:13-14) Abstaining from work on Shabbat and spiritual delight are intimately related. Developing biblical law, the Sages of the Talmud enumerated thirty-nine categories of work which are forbidden on the Shabbat. These categories can be generalized in two different ways. From one point of view, they are the processes by which bread is produced, by which clothes are made, and by which a Torah scroll is written. From another point of view, they are the varieties of work which were needed for the construction of the Tabernacle in the wilderness of Sinai. "Technical civilization stems primarily from the desire of man to subdue and manage the forces of nature. The manufacture of tools, the art of spinning and farming, the building of houses, etc. On the Sabbath we live, as it were, independent of technical civilization; we abstain primarily from any activity that aims at remaking or reshaping the things of space. Man’s royal privilege to conquer nature is suspended on the seventh day. “What are the kinds of labor not to be done on the Sabbath? They are, according to the ancient rabbis, all those acts which were necessary for the construction and furnishing of the Sanctuary in the desert. The Sabbath itself is a sanctuary which we build, a sanctuary in time." (Heschel, p. 3-4, 28-9) It seems that any organized religion must deal with the danger that its forms will become fossils. It must also deal with the autonomy of the individual who feels imposed upon by higher authority. How did Rabbinic Judaism deal with these dynamics? It met the challenge by infusing Halachah (Rabbinic law) with Agada (spirituality). For example: Each of us has innumerable projects which must be finished "yesterday". Our sense is that we will be blessed with peace of mind only when the projects are completed. The Sages tried to teach otherwise through the following midrash (spiritual biblical interpretation): "Six days you shall labor and do all your work... (Ex. 20:9). But is it possible for a human being to do all his work in six days? Rather, rest on the Shabbat as if all your work were done." (Midrash Mechilta, see Lauterbach, II, p. 253.) From a down-to-earth point of view, the plain sense of the biblical verse stands on its own two feet. But the Sages searched for a theoretical imperfection in the verse ("... is it possible for a human being to do all his work...?"). This "imperfection" became the basis for the point of the midrash, a development of the halachah prohibiting work on Shabbat to enhance spiritual rest. The following Rabbinic story relates to the difficulty even the Sages had in achieving spiritual rest on the Shabbat: "A hasid (pious man) went walking on Shabbat through his vineyard. During the course of his walk, he saw a breach in the fence and made a mental note to repair it after Shabbat. He later decided: 'Since it was on Shabbat that I planned to fix the breach, I will never fix it.’ And how did the Holy One, Blessed be He, reward him? A caper tree grew and plugged the breach and he ate of the fruit and prospered for the rest of his life.Ó (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shabbat 150b and parallels) The Sabbath of the Lord was never intended to be a burden to man, but a time of blessing, a time of rest and reflection, a time to be with G-d and family. It is said that on one’s deathbed, no one ever regrets, "I wish I had spent more time working." Often, however, one does regret, "I wish I had spent more time enjoying G-d, the life He gave me, and my family.Ó The Sabbath gives us just that opportunity, so that the busyness of life does not rob us of all the blessing G-d intends for us. The concept of Shabbat as a "sanctuary in time" was a revolution in the ancient world. And it still has much to teach us moderns searching for spiritual meaning in the post-technological era.
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