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The Sabbath“Six days a week we wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the

earth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity plantedin the soul. The world has our hands, but our soul belongs to SomeoneElse. Six days a week we seek to dominate the world, on the seventh

day we try to dominate the self.”“The Sabbath, thus, is more than an armistice, more than an interlude;it is a profound conscious harmony of man and the world, a sympathyfor all things and a participation in the spirit that unites what is below

and what is above.”

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In a nutshell

Set aside time in your life to honor God and all that has been created.

In a similar veinDaniel C. Matt The Essential Kabbalah (p. 168)Rick Warren The Purpose-Drive Life (p. 282)

CHAPTER 18

Abraham JoshuaHeschel

Throughout history, humans have sought power throughmanipulating and transforming things in space; that is, the worldof matter. We have conquered nature, created advanced

machines, and built cities, but as philosopher and theologian AbrahamHeschel argued, this has been at the expense of our sense of time.When life becomes only about doing and acquiring, we lose our grip onwhat is really important.

Because we work in order to have the physical things we feel weneed, and that work takes time, time generally has a negative qualityfor the modern person, Heschel says. Easily lost, it appears as theenemy and we have little of it for ourselves. But the idea of the Sabbathis to have a break from the anxious worries of work—of survival orgaining status. Many will feel that in their work they virtually sell theirsoul, but the Sabbath is a chance to get the soul back.

At first glance, a whole book about the Sabbath may seemsomewhat obscure. But The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man, atonly 100 pages, is an eloquent education in the Sabbath as the heart ofJudaism. Although written over 50 years ago, the beautiful prose ofHeschel’s work can make you ponder over what may be missing inyour busy life.

Sacred timeBefore Judaism, humans found God in nature, in sacred places, and inthings such as mountains, springs, trees, and stones. Religious festivalshad always been based on the seasons and the movements of sun andmoon. Gods, to be made present, had to be represented in a figure or atotem or a shrine. The great leap of Hebrew cosmology was to gobeyond space and physicality and put time at the center of spiritualunderstanding. By having a specific day for worship, the Jews had a

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reminder that God was beyond matter, and that humans couldtranscend the material too.

The God of Israel, Heschel suggested, became the God of history, itsgreat events being the freeing of the Jews from slavery in Egypt and therevelation of the Torah. In place of the idol of the golden calf, Jewswere given a golden day, a holy time in which they could renew theirdivine link.

In biblical Hebrew, Heschel observed, there was no word for“thing.” In later Hebrew there was a word, davar, which came to meanthis, but even then it referred to things like a message, a tiding, a story,a manner, a promise. The Sabbath is therefore a reminder of living nolonger within a human sense of time and morality, but a divine one.

Honoring a holy guestThe word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew Shabbat. The Fridayevening service is called kabbalat Shabbat, roughly meaning theobligation to accept the presence of God in the Sabbath. The candlesthat are lit on Friday evening mimic God’s statement “Let there belight” at the dawn of creation.

Traditional Jews do not grudgingly observe the Sabbath, Heschelsays, they love it. It is to be delighted in, a celebration. The feeling itcan give is reminiscent of the absolute love written about in medievalchivalry books, except that the Sabbath “is the love of man for what heand God have in common.” This total love is the reason the ancientrabbis created so many rules and restrictions around the Sabbath: toprotect its glory.

In the mythology of the Bible, it took God six days to make theworld, and on the seventh day He rested, pleased with what hadbeen created. On this day was created menuha, in Hebrew stillnessand peace. The Sabbath is therefore a place of still waters thatsoothes the soul; it is a different atmosphere that envelops those whocelebrate it.

There is a prayer said on the Sabbath evening: “Embrace us with atent of thy peace.” Heschel notes that old rabbis likened the Sabbath toa bride or a queen, because the day was not merely an allotted space oftime but a real presence that came into their lives.

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Freed from materialismWith time appearing to be always shrinking, we seek comfort in therealm of space—in things. As Heschel put it, “possessions become thesymbols of our repressions.” The Sabbath supplies the antidote toconsumerist madness. It is designed for us to make friends again withtime, to appreciate the “now” when we are not begetting things orworrying or regretting, but simply being in God’s presence.

“Thou shalt not covet,” Heschel notes, is the only one of the TenCommandments that is stated twice. It is given this extra importancebecause God wants us to have inner liberty, not wasting our time onearth hankering after the things of the world. The Sabbath reminds thatlife is not merely about earning money and creating things, which iswhy observant Jews do not handle money on the Sabbath.

The rest of the week we spend our time, on the seventh day wecollect time and in doing so collect ourselves. We turn “from the resultsof creation to the mystery of creation,” Heschel writes. We are given aregular opportunity to ponder eternity.

Living in matter creates the sensation of constant change, of timemoving. But in truth, Heschel notes, time is the constant and it is thethings of this world that are turning over continually:

“Things perish within time; time itself does not change. We should notspeak of the flow or passage of time but of the flow or passage of space

through time.”

It is difficult to appreciate time because we live in a world of things.But it is possible to become friends with time and see the greater realitybehind matter.

Final commentsThe idea of a day of rest from the working week now seems a little old-fashioned. Shops trade seven days a week and are open late into thenight, and it is a badge of honor for many people to have to workthrough the weekend. Why should we stop for anything?

Heschel’s book is potentially more significant now than when itwas written, because there is even greater pressure on us always to bedoing something. A whole day set aside for contemplating our

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connection to God may seem like an impossible luxury, yet bringing itback would lend quality to the rest of our week.

Heschel’s book will open the eyes of any reader who does not knowmuch about the importance of the Sabbath within Judaism, butperhaps one of the reasons it is a classic is because it goes beyond asingle religion. Jews celebrate the Sabbath on a Saturday, Christians ona Sunday, and Muslims make Friday special, which suggests a basichuman need to regain a still mind on a regular basis, to have a time formeditation or contemplation even as the world continues to rush on.Without this window into eternity we can become economic robots, sotied up with getting ahead on this Earth that we forget our place in thecosmic scheme of things.

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Abraham Joshua HeschelBorn in Warsaw, Poland in 1907, Heschel received a classical Jewisheducation and later gained a doctorate from the Central Organizationfor Adult Jewish Education in Berlin, where he also taught. After theNazis came to power he was deported to Poland, teaching in Warsawand London, before moving to the United States in 1940. He joined thefaculty at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, and in 1945 wasappointed professor of Jewish ethics and philosophy at the JewishTheological Seminary in New York. He would remain in this positionuntil his death in 1972.

Heschel’s many books include Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophyof Religion, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism, TheInsecurity of Freedom, the two-volume Theology of Ancient Judaism,Maimonides on the Jewish philosopher, Israel: An Echo of Eternity, andA Passion for Truth.

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