Reading Heschel on the Sabbath

Rabbi Rose,

Many thanks for this post. I am not Jewish, but I find myself quite at home in your thoughts and those of Heschel on the Sabbath, the loss of the sense of the sacred and the "shadow side of modernity." Thanks for providing a summary and analysis of Heschel's book. It is a gift to us on this blog and it certainly has whetted my appetite and interest in reading this book and learning more about it's author.

I read Heschel's remarkable book many years ago, as a teenager. However, what I remember from it is that Heschel talked about two dimensions of time as well as space and time. Linear time is our conventional experience of time as past-present-future, the time sense within which we work and accomplish things in space. Sabbath time is eternal time, the Eternal Now, when we rest from doing and refresh our souls in "just Being." Within the stillness of non-doing, of just being, we reconnect with the divine, and what it truly means to be a human "being."

"Remember the Sabbath" in the Ten Commandments is as important as "Don't murder" and "Don't Steal." This was 3000 years before industrialization and the rise of consumer society.

Steve

Periodic refreshment of the mind soul spirit and time with family and friends should not be limited to one day off only no matter how sacred. Our day and nights should be replenished constantly in tiny but significant breaks with music dance reading or quiet time to help us clear focus ourselves to be better for others.

Hi T. Beck -- I so relate. I love my Chabad community, but there is no way I can keep that kind of Shabbos.

I can walk to shull and of course light candles, but its just me and my
developmentally disabled daughter now and I do the best I can to make it day of rest for us. I prepare a meal ahead but use the microwave to heat it up, lol, and its a good day for Beliefnet time, a cooking show on PBS and Book TV, or reading something spiritual.

I can sense my "extra soul" and the day is really special. It's
supposed to be a day where we do not do our ordinary business. What I do on Shabbos I do not have time for during the week and it really is recreation. The crowning glory of Shabbos for me is davening and going to shull.

A Chabad Rabbi said to me - If you where not raised in our customs, (and our customs become our laws), it is not expected of you . Just do the best you can. You come to shull and that is important.

I get lonely and depressed just doing NOTHING and my daughter gets to bored and is hard to handle and since she does not talk, I have no adult interactions except at shull.

You just have to make peace with it - our relationship with HaShem is more important than forcing an observance that doesn't work. What kind of a heart can we offer G-d if a strict observed Shabbos makes us miserable? I have often thought how easy it would be surrounded by family.

We still belong - we are still Jewish - and we are still loved, we just might not be able to share what we do or even talk about it with our more observant friends.

I feel the "Spirit" of Shabbat that Heschel and others write about - it is a special island in time. Shalom dear heart - chanalee

T. Beck and Chana,

I was very moved by your stories. There should be a way single adults of any age, childless or with children, living within walking distance of each other, could celebrate a Friday night Shabbat meal together...or visit each other on Shabbat to simply engage in human conversation and warmth. Every schul should organize such activity, with voluntary participation, of course.

Well you may get your wish but not because of ethical reasons but practical and certainly not only Jews!!

On the tv they are showing that people are rethinking because of finances where they live, shop and pray among other things.

People are now being encouraged to go back and live in the cities or close to their work if possible. The cities in my area are actually having programs to help people do this.

How it will be done in the smaller cities I do not know. Often you do not work in a city anymore but the business, which MAY once have been in the city, has moved to outer parts much like many people. Now we have problems traveling with or without car pooling.

It is and was the suburbs that started all this. When we lived closer to our neighbors or even in the same house-2 family or appartment house-you saw people every day and nodded and sometimes actually go to know them. Children just went outside to play instead of needing play dates.

Back to the cities people. That will do it.