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Keep
the Shabbat for it is holy unto you.....
because in six days G-d made heaven and earth
:
and on the seventh day
He abstained from work and rested. (Exodus 31:
14-17)
Most
people know what you don't do on Shabbat: you don't
tear toilet paper, you don't drive, you don't write,
you don't turn on lights, you don't shop, etc. But
they don't know why, and they don't know what it is
you, in fact, do on Shabbat.
And
of course, when you just focus on what you don't do
on Shabbat, the experience—which is supposed to be
joyous and fulfilling—basically ends up sounding like
torture. You have to ask yourself, “Is this the way
I want to celebrate a holiday? Is this how I want
to spend my weekend after working hard all week long?”
In
order to understand the real meaning of Shabbat, let's
explore the first place it is mentioned in the Torah.
This paragraph is from the Book of Genesis and it
is recited every Friday night at the start of the
Shabbat dinner as part of a blessing over wine called
kiddush :
And
it was evening, it was morning, the sixth day. And
heaven and earth were completed and all their hosts.
And G-d completed on the seventh day, the work that
He did, and G-d refrained on the seventh day from
the work that He did.
There
seems to be a contradiction here. It is common knowledge
that G-d created the world in six days and on the
seventh day He rested. According to these words, however,
it sounds like G-d did do something on the seventh
day, as it says “and G-d completed on the seventh
day, the work that He did...” But had it not been
previously stated that “it was evening, it was morning,
the sixth day, and heaven and earth were completed
and all their hosts”? If G-d finished His work on
the sixth day, so what is it that He did on the seventh
day?
According
to the 11th century Torah Commentator Rashi (Rabbi
Shlomo Yitzchaki Rashi), the world was still missing
something—rest. Therefore only then, on the seventh
day, when G-d rested was the work of creation finished
and completed. In other words, G-d finished His work
on the seventh day by resting. When G-d rested on
the seventh day this retroactively completed the work
of the six days. The very fact that G-d abstained
from activity on the seventh day is what enabled everything
that happened during the six days to become a whole
and complete act of creativity.
What
determines if an act is a creative act or merely physical
labor? The deciding factor is whether I am able to
start and stop. If I can't start this activity and
if I can't stop this activity, then basically I'm
a mindless, compulsive, laborious slave. I'm simply
a robot on auto drive. That's the difference. Creativity
is an act of mind and intention. Creativity is something
I start doing, and creativity is something I can stop
doing at will. I am in control.
If I start a creative act but I can't stop, then it
is no longer creativity—it is a mindless, laborious,
compulsive activity. I become a victim to some kind
of force that's carrying me rather than a master of
my actions directed by my will and intention.
When
we celebrate Shabbat we are saying that G-d stopped
the work that he had done, which retroactively indicates
that G-d also started the work. Therefore the work
that he had done was an act of creativity -- the world
is a complete creation. While some might claim that
either the world has always existed or the world is
just an expression of laborious, mindless, natural
laws, there is, in fact, a third possibility—that
the world is an act of creation, an expression of
will and intent. And that's the key difference.
Do
I choose to believe in a world which is merely a product
of blind, laborious, natural forces, which are simply
pumping out the world, or do I choose to believe that
the world is the intentional expression of a mindful
and willful power—G-d?
If
I live in a world that is the product of intention,
if I live in a world that was meant to be, then I
live in a meaningful world. A world that wasn't meant
to be is not a meaningful world. A world that is simply
the product of blind, natural forces that somehow
came into being doesn't have meaning, because it doesn't
have a beginning, it doesn't have an end, it doesn't
have direction, and it doesn't have intention.
That's
really the choice—how we choose to perceive our world.
When
we recite the kiddush on Friday night, and
affirm that the world was completed on the seventh
day, we are testifying that the world is a creation,
which means it is meaningful, it is purposeful, it
has a theme, it has direction. It means that we believe
that the world is not simply the mechanistic outcome
of natural laws but an expression of creativity. We
believe that the world is not the product of nature
at work but the creative masterpiece of G-d.
To
know this truth and to celebrate it weekly changes
my whole week and my whole life. When I stop on Shabbat
and refrain from doing creative activity, I renew
the image of G-d in which I've been created. Otherwise,
I am merely an animal compelled and propelled by my
natural instincts rather than a being created in the
image of G-d who has a free will, who has a mind,
who has the ability to choose.
Some
people can't stop. They don't know how to take a rest.
They don't know how to put aside what they're doing.
They're compulsive. These are not creative people,
these are people who labor. They are slaves to their
jobs and slaves to their instincts.
There's
a very cute animated cartoon about Shabbat produced
by an organization called Gesher. It portrays a very
busy day in Manhattan, a lot of noise and a lot of
traffic, and you see a policeman in the middle of
all this traffic, but he doesn't have a face— he has
a whistle for a head. And then you see a lot of people
walking down the street but nobody has a face; one
fellow has a computer monitor for a head, another
has a pen for a head, and another has a wrench for
a head. It is a faceless world. Everyone has become
his or her career. They are no longer people with
careers, they are careers. There's a
feeling of tension and every so often you see a clock
that is ticking towards some set time. One fellow,
who has a briefcase for a head, is shown walking quickly
home. When he finally reaches his home, he enters,
sits down in a soft chair, and an alarm clock rings.
At that moment his briefcase head melts into a warm
and smiling face and he joyfully says “Shabbat Shalom.”
This
cute cartoon delivers the point—I can lose my humanness.
I can become my career. If I become my career then
my career leads me and I'm just a victim of a mechanistic
world; I'm just another cog in a big machine called
Planet Earth. Shabbat is the antidote to mechanism.
Shabbat is the antidote to the notion that the world
is simply some big machine constantly in motion. When
I stop on Shabbat, I demonstrate that I am not a compulsive,
laborious, mindless force, but rather I am a human
being created in the image of G-d, and I make my own
choices.
Stop
in the Name of Love
I
stop on Shabbat because if I don't stop on Shabbat,
then I mistakenly think that my life is my business,
instead of G-d's business, and I am “self- employed.”
Imagine I'm working in a company and the company closes
on Saturday, but I decide to go in to work anyway.
Why?
The
Jewish attitude is that the human being is an agent
for G-d, and because of this the human being can actually
become an angel ( malach ) by accepting to
do G-d's creative work ( malacha ).
In
other words, G-d created a world full of opportunities
for creativity and He appointed me His agent to complete
His creative work. If I'm all by myself, and I'm just
a sole proprietor, it's no big deal. But when I feel
like I'm part of a huge corporation, and we're all
working for the Boss, that's different. And if the
Boss closes the business on Saturday but I go into
work just the same, then I am confusing myself by
thinking that I don't need to follow his schedule,
his rules, that this is my business and I
do not work for anyone.
When
I don't work on Shabbat I remind myself that I'm really
working for G-d. During the week I am empowered with
His power-of-attorney to work on His behalf. I represent
G-d in what I do in this world. This is a tremendous
honor. G-d has entrusted me to do His job.
He could have done it Himself if He wanted to, but
He wanted me to do it so that I could be part of creation
and contribute creatively. Yet somehow I could get
confused and forget who I'm working for. If that happens
then I have fallen into a very egotistical illusion
that I work for myself, and that this creative work
is my own, and that this world is mine and nobody
else's business.
When
you celebrate Shabbat you remind yourself, “This world
is G-d's business, and I just work here.”
That's
why Shabbat is referred to as the source of all blessings.
If I stop working on Shabbat, I'm affirming that my
work throughout the week was for G-d's sake—then everything
I do is blessed with the status of being holy work.
There
is a great deal of truth in the observation of the
early Zionist leader, Ahad Ha'am: “More than the Jews
have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews.”
Rabbi
David Aaron
Author of Endless Light, Seeing G-d, The Secret Life
of G-d, Inviting G-d In and Living a Joyous
Life |
