Religious Living - Observance | Temple Israel of Northern Westchester

Shabbat

Observance
Shabbat Chametz Chanukah Counting the Omer Elul Havdalah Jonah Kohelet Kol Nidre On Death and Mourning Pesach Proverbs Purim Rosh Hashanah Shavuot Simchat Torah Song of Songs Sukkot The Scroll of Ruth Tisha B'av Tu B'Shevat Words of the Prophets Yom Ha'Atzma'ut Yom HaShoah Yom Kippur

Shabbat
Sanctifying Time, Not Space

The challenge of Shabbat is observing it by sanctifying the time. According to Abraham JoshuaHeschel, in a wonderful book entitled The Sabbath, Judaism is a religion of time, aiming at the sanctification of time, sacred events that celebrate our connection with history and the Divine. "To set apart one day a week for freedom...a day of detachment from the vulgar... a day on which we stop worshipping the idols of technical civilization, a day on which we use no money, a day of armistice in the economic struggle with our fellow men and the forces of nature"-...

The Hebrew word holy, first appears in the Torah at the end of the story of Creation. "And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy." In that portion of the Book of Exodus containing the Ten Commandments, the term holy is only applied to Shabbat. "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. You shall labor for six days and do all your work. The seventh day is Shabbat to the Eternal, your God, you shall do no work...for in six days the Eternal made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, therefore the Eternal blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy".

Later generations added to the glorification of Shabbat, giving it almost supernatural powers. The observant Jew was said to gain a neshamah yetirah, an additional soul, to experience the spiritual happiness created by the day. For the mystics in our tradition, Shabbat was a royal bride, a symbol of Israel's union with God, to be welcomed with joy and love and song. Shabbat is therefore meant to be a particularly sensual time, with good food, songs, spiritual and physical contact with family and community.

I know, I know. We are in fact slaves of time. We don't have enough of it and what we have is often taken up by one or two jobs, external obligations and the demands we place on ourselves. The secular world schedules soccer games, PTA fairs and SAT exams on Shabbat and we accept it as we have accepted that Shabbat has turned into Saturday, with all that entails.

How do we build that sanctuary in time, where our only task is to be human and in harmony with each other?

Written by Stephen Butterfass for Religious Living on the Web.

Simchat Torah
Proverbs
Purim
Rosh Hashanah
The Scroll of Ruth
Song of Songs
Sukkot
Tisha B'av
Tu B'Shevat
Yom Ha'Atzma'ut
Yom HaShoah
Kiddush for the Eve of Yom Tov
Words of the Prophets
Pesach
Elul
Yom Kippur
Shavuot
Chametz
Chanukah
On Death and Mourning
Havdalah
Jonah
Kohelet
Kol Nidre
Counting the Omer
Kiddush