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January 20, 1956

The Meaning of the Sabbath, Part 2: What the Prophets and Mystics Saw in It (1956)

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Sabbath Rest (1968)

The central precept of Shabbat is the refraining from indulging in melakhah, in creative changes in nature, which is the halakhic definition of "work." A corollary, however, is rest or menuhah. The Bible (in the second version of the Ten Commandments), says that we must observe the Sabbath "that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou" (Deut. 5:14). This means that on Shabbat we should not work in the ordinary lay sense of the term. We should not go to our offices or our schools or our factories or our stores.Apparently, this is a purely negative act. It is a vacation, a day off. But is it really so? The significance of *menuhah* is emphasized throughout the Sabbath liturgy. Three times we pray, "Our God and God of our fathers, be pleased with our rest (*menuhah*)..." as though our *menuhah* were a form of *avodat ha-Shem* as are sacrifices. Obviously we are not dealing with a mere self-indulgent vacation, anthropomorphically invoking God's maternal approval of our concern with our health. The *minhah* prayer, which celebrates the qualities of *menuhah*, concludes its central portion on this note: "...and by means of (Israel's) *menuhah*, they sanctify Thy Name." Sabbath rest is thus nothing less than a vehicle for the observance of Judaism’s most illustrious precept, *kiddush ha-Shem*, "the sanctification of the divine Name." But to "sanctify the Name" means to act in such a manner, generally before Gentiles, that glory will redound to Judaism and enhance the Name (i.e., reputation) of the God of Israel in the world.Obviously we are dealing with something far more fundamental than just taking a day off from work every week. There lies within *menuhah* a concept that Jews must teach to all mankind (unlike the halakhic observance of the prohibition of *melakhah* which was covenanted just for Israel) and the appreciation of which will add to the glory of God and Torah. We are dealing, in other words, with a Jewish ideal of universal import and r…
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The Meaning of the Sabbath, Part 1: How Jewish Law Defines It (1956)

1. Allow me to present to you certain characteristic problems facing modern man which will probably seem unrelated to you. They are aspects of the "mess" in which our civilization finds itself. A. Loneliness... sense alienation... how many can stay alone one day – no telephone TV etc without feeling depressed and imminent panic of being isolated B. Piety, genuine spirituality, once mark authentically religious person, now very rare. C. In an age of time-saving devices, we have less time than ever... we actually look for something to do even if
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The Sabbath as Law, as Philosophy, and as Model for a Theory of Leisure (1968)

If one had to choose the single institution most directly responsible for the survival of the Jewish people, it would un-questionably be the Shabbat. More than any other Jewish religious institution, it has not only kept us alive and distinct, but it has benefited the entire world. As a social concept structuring the week and allowing the laborer regular respite from his work, it has, by virtue of the Jewish influence on Christianity and Islam, allowed its beneficial effects to filter through to all of Western civilization.The Shabbat is not, as the naive modem sometimes imagines, the invention of a group of bright legislators who were confronted by a social and economic problem at the time of Moses, and decided to come up with a solution couched in religious terms. It is, in Jewish tradition, quite important, the fourth of the Ten Commandments, and the only one of the so-called ״ritual observances״ mentioned in the Decalogue. So important is Shabbat, that Halakhah (Jewish law) con-siders the public desecration of the Sabbath the equivalent of Idolatry — the rejection of all of Judaism, the entire Torah. The Bible oensiderr Shabbat as berit olam, beini u-vein benei yisrael, an ״eternal covenant״ between God and Israel. The observance of the Sabbath is thus a symbolic assent to the terms of the covenant or the special relationship between God and Israel• Sabbath observance, therefore, despite its large-scale contemporary neglect, should never be taken lightly, as merely the vestigial practice of some tradition-bound remnants of the community, because it is indeed the essence of Judaism. A measure of its Importance is the precedence granted to the Sabbath over the Temple in Jerusalem, the Beit Ha-mikdash. The building of the Temple (or the Tabernacle) could not proceed on the Sabbath day. More than that, this idea that the Temple could not be constructed on Shabbat became the model for Sabbath legislation. Which kinds of labor are forbidden on the Sabbath? Specifical…
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