Shabbat: the Cure for Our 'Affliction'© - Yitro 5776/2016
Rabbi
David Baum, Congregation Shaarei Kodesh
I
received a call yesterday close to noon from a friend asking if I wanted to go
to the Pearl Jam concert with him.
But guess when it was?
Friday night. I told him I
couldn’t because of Shabbat. It
was then he said to me, you know, I kind of feel bad for you. You have this life that is so
restrictive, you can’t go out to bars and spend money on Friday nights, you
can’t cook on Saturday, you can’t go to concerts. You waste a whole day at home when you could be out doing
things! You miss out on so
much! How do you live this? And I know, some of you might be
thinking the same thing about me.
And
then, there’s another story, a conversation I had with a younger family member,
a young person in their 20’s. This
family member confessed that she can’t sit and do just one thing anymore. I am so tied to my phone, the internet
and constant communication that I can’t focus on anything. So I gave her an idea – one day a week,
the best day would be Saturday because it is the weekend after all, just leave
your phone at home and don’t use it, or the internet. Try it, and you will see how your life will change.
“Wow,
that’s an amazing idea!” How did
you come up with it?
And
I thought to myself to my loved one, how could you live like this? With no rest, no boundaries in your
life?
So
today, I want to talk about why Shabbat is important for our people, and for
humanity; and what Shabbat is really all about.
In
this week’s parashah, we see the famous 10 Commandments or 10 Utterances; the
10 big ideas that govern a society.
We learn about the importance of one God, not making false oaths,
Honoring your parents, the prohibitions against murder, adultery, robbery,
false witnessing, and coveting, and along with these commandments, we see a
command to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, one day a week. We can make an argument that when these
nine other ideas are the framework for a moral and just society – so where does
Shabbat fit in? Why is Shabbat so
important?
Because
it has kept us who we are – as Ahad Ha’am, the founder of cultural Zionism, and
a secularist said, “More than the Jewish People have kept the Sabbath, the
Sabbath has kept the Jews."
But I think it’s actually more than this.
Rabbi
Abraham Joshua Heschel famously wrote in his book the Sabbath: “Technical civilization is man’s
conquest of space. It is a triumph
frequently achieved by sacrificing an essential ingredient of existence,
namely, time. In technical
civilization, we expend time to gain space. To enhance our power in the world of space is our main
objective. Yet to have more does
not mean to be more. The power we
attain in the world of space terminates abruptly at the borderline of
time. But time is the heart of existence.
The
realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give,
not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. Life goes wrong when the control of
space, the acquisition of things of space, becomes more sole concern. Selling himself into slavery to things,
man becomes a utensil that is broken at the fountain.”
He
goes on to say that human is constantly trying to subdue and manage the forces
of nature. He was right, and he
still is right. I wonder what he
think if he were alive today, if he heard the conversation I was having with my
friend and my family member. It
seems that today, maybe more so than ever before, we think that time is the
final frontier to conquer and subdue.
We think we can subdue time with technology, to make things faster and
more efficient. But are we more
relaxed now than we were 20 years ago?
We have more, but are we more?
And
Shabbat is the antidote to this control over time that we think we have.
In
the last couple of years, an online project started to help out people like the
family member who felt that her life was so out of control. It’s called the Sabbath Manifesto, a
project by Reboot which affirms the value of Jewish traditions and creates new
ways for people to make them their own.
The Sabbath Manifesto is a creative project designed to slow down lives
in an increasingly hectic world.
Here
are the 10 rules for the Sabbath Manifesto:
1. Avoid technology
2. Connect with loved ones
3. Nurture your health
4. Get outside
5. Avoid commerce
6. Light candles
7. Drink wine
8. Eat bread
9. Find silence
10. Give back
There
are no explanations for how to do these things, but there is a comment
section. In the comment section,
Leslie wrote: “I recently had a guy fix my laptop. He (Joe) has a small PC
fix-it business near my town in Western Massachusetts. Joe is from Ghana. I was
asking him about life there. He said, "People are connected to each other
there. Here, people are connected to machines."’
Zachor
et Yom HaShabbat L’Kodsho – Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
In
this commandment, we invoke God creating the world.
Rabbi
Ethan Tucker recently wrote:
“According
to this version of the Ten Commandments, Zachor et Yom HaShabbat, or remember, Shabbat
is an act of imitating God's behavior on the seventh day of creation. It does
not emerge from Jewish, or even human, history; it predates it. Shabbat is an
opportunity for human beings to be like God and to frame their relationship to
the physical world of creation in which they live. By imitating God's stopping and resting, we also acknowledge
that we did not create the world, and, therefore, do not have the right to
dominate it without limits. Creation is from God; it is perhaps, at least in
part, for humans, but it is not simply the plaything of humans to do with what
they will. Shabbat reminds us of our place in the divine world that graciously
contains us.”
Can
you imagine if you actually talked to people with your breath instead of
through text? Shabbat is a time
when we communicate feeling the breath of our fellow human being. Shabbat is very much connected to the
creation story – God creates the world with words, but words can be typed or
written; but the special name that God has with the Jewish people is YHVH –
which, if said, sounds like a breath.
When we talk to the people around us, feeling their breath, and we
recognize that they are created in the image of God, we start appreciating
them, and ourselves.
Our
conversation becomes elevated, we tend to talk about the things that truly
matter.
Creativity
comes from letting things lie fallow – studies show that when you are in a
creative rut, we have to take walks or go on long drives without music and let
our minds go. We cannot be
distracted by music or emails, or texts – without ceasing our work, we hold
ourselves back from future creation!
On
Shabbat, we allow ourselves to bask on the work we’ve done. We don’t worry about creating more and
more, because what use is there to create more if you cannot appreciate what
you’ve already created?
The
Romans used to look down upon Jews because of Shabbat. They called us lazy – who stops work
once a week?
But
we are still here, and where are the Romans?
“More
than the Jewish People have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the
Jews." Perhaps Shabbat was
given to us not just to keep us alive, but for this very moment in time – as a
gift to the entire world.
I
know there are people in this room who keep Shabbat, and I know there are many
who don’t. But, if you can, I
humbly ask that you think of one thing, and you have over a month to prepare: March 6 – 7, which happens to be a
Friday and Saturday, is a national day of unplugging through the Sabbath
Manifesto. Go on the site, and
think about how free you can be if you just let go of the control you think you
have.
May
we all taste rest on this Shabbat and every Shabbat to come, may our lives slow
down, may we let ourselves stop creating one day a week, so we can be more
creative the other six days.
Amen.
Comments