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Love, Meg.
This week, the Israelites are in the desert (as they will be for the rest of the Torah, until the end of Deuteronomy) and Moses is telling them laws – shocking, I know. And this week, we are reminded of the day of rest – the shabbat. Earlier in the book of Exodus we learned about the six day work week and with the seventh day being the day of rest, for the sake of HaShem, the Source of Life. In this parasha, again, we are reminded of the following.
Exodus 35:2
“On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a sabbath of complete rest, holy to יהוה; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.”
שֵׁ֣שֶׁת יָמִים֮ תֵּעָשֶׂ֣ה מְלָאכָה֒ וּבַיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֗י יִהְיֶ֨ה לָכֶ֥ם קֹ֛דֶשׁ שַׁבַּ֥ת שַׁבָּת֖וֹן לַיהֹוָ֑ה כׇּל־הָעֹשֶׂ֥ה ב֛וֹ מְלָאכָ֖ה יוּמָֽת׃
Even though this is just the second verse of the parasha, I couldn’t get past it. Normally I don’t flinch when the Torah’s punishment for disobeying the law is death but here, I flinched. Rest or die? Stop working or stop living – the choice is up to you? Seems extreme. But also, seems accurate.
We all know that rest is a necessity. It is a necessity for the body – yes, you can die from overwork. It is a necessity for the spirit – without pausing you become an autopilot widget. But what is it? In my earlier reflection about silence (check it out here) I thought about silence as something different than the absence of sound – as something full and present in and of itself. And it seems that I may have gotten that idea from the concept of rest. I’ll explain.
One of the most influential thinkers in my life is someone I’ve never met but listened to often – Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Heschel’s seminal creation, The Sabbath, is probably the book I’d bring to a desert island if I was allowed only one book, or if I had to require reading for the whole world, or whatever hypothetical question that asks you to pinpoint an extraordinary piece of writing. In his book, Heschel shares a theology that … well I’ll let him speak for himself. Here are a few excerpts:
“The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.”
“The seventh day is like a palace in time with a kingdom for all. It is not a date but an atmosphere.”
“What is the Sabbath? Spirit in the form of time. With our bodies we belong to space; our spirit, our souls, soar to eternity, aspire to the holy. The Sabbath is an ascent to the summit.”
His work is poetry. Theology as poetry – which maybe, is the only way to do it. But here is the section I’m thinking about today – a few sentences on the concept of “rest.” Take a read:
“Menuha which we usually render with ‘rest’ means here much more than withdrawal from labor and exertion, more than freedom from toil and strain or activity of any kind. Menuha is not a negative concept but something real and intrinsically positive…‘What was created on the seventh day? Tranquility, serenity, peace, and repose.’ (Genesis)…To the biblical mind menuha is the same as happiness and stillness, as peace and harmony…In later times menuha became a synonym for the life in the world to come, for eternal life.”
Menuha is a synonym for life. Rest, harmony, completeness, peace – these are the stuff of life. Life is when we emerge from work, the surviving, and enter into the experiencing. To live is not the same as to exist.
So, of course if you don’t observe the sabbath you die. Or more accurately, you just don’t experience moments of true living – you never emerge from existing.
But maybe that’s not fair. I mean, what about those of us who find true purpose in our work – who feel completeness in our day to day tasks? To this objection I say, fair point. Maybe we can count those among the lucky – who have achieved a sabbath state of mind that can permeate the whole week. Maybe those people are already in an internal world to come – and internal eternal life.
For the rest of us, let’s consider Heschel’s wisdom – rest is not a stopping of work, but an embracing of the other parts of life – the parts of life that we stay alive for, that we work for. The why of it all.
Heschel also teaches us that shabbat is not mean to be a sort of recharging period – to rest up for the work week. The work week is to earn us the sabbath. It is the “what for.” The taste of bliss, made sweet by its impermanence.
Finally, let us remember that the sabbath is for the person observing it but really it is a dedication to the Source of Life. That is, when we rest, we actually are offering our gratitude to whatever miracle gave us our life-force. When we rest we we say “my life is not meant to simply pass by in constant toil, and my life is not made valuable by my work.” When we rest we say, “my life has value, intrinsically – I am made sacred.”