Religion

Q UESTIONS • ,. Must My Job Be the Primary Source of My Identity?

SABBATH

ABRAHAM JOS HUA HESCHEL

The Sabbath

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) was born in W~rsa~, P~land, and studied and taught in Germany and England before imm,gratmg to the United States in 1940_ As Professor of Jewish Ethics and Mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America from ~945 to 1972,_ he w~s an in- fl uential and beloved teacher with in the Jewish comr:nu_mty. H1s books were and continue to be read and admi_red by many Ch_rist,ans and secular inte llectuals. In this passage, he considers the meamng of the Sabbath, the weekly day of rest that has been a central aspect of Jewish life fo r many centuries. Drawing on the history of his tradition and his belief that "the likeness of God can be found in time," he vividly portrays the holiness of this day and the urgently needed shift in perception it offers to contempo-

rary people. In Heschel's view, how does the Sabbath answer the question thal

frames this chapter of Leading Lives That Matter: "Must work be the pri• mary source of my 1dent1ty?" What criticisms of the place of work in con- temporary life are built into this account of Sabbath?

He who wants to enter the holiness of the day must first lay down the pro-- fanityof clattering commerce, of being yoked to toil. He must go away from the screech of dissonant days, from the nervousness and fury of acquisitive-

From Abraham Joshua Htschel, The Sabbath: /rs Meaning for Madan Man (New York: Furar, Straus andCompany, 1951 , 1951), pp.13-21.

116

ABRAHAM JOSHUA H ESC H EL • The Sabbath

ncss and the betrayal in embezzling his own life. He must say farewell 10 manual work and learn to understand that the world has already been cre- ated and will survive wi thout the help of man. Six days a week we wr~st le with the world, wringing profit from the ea rth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in the soul. The world has our hands, but our soul belongs 10 Someone Else. Six days a week we seek to dominate the world, on the seventh day we try to dominate the self.

When the Romans met the Jews and noticed their strict adherence to the Jaw of abstaining from labor o n the Sabbath, their o nly reaction was contempt. The Sabbath is a sign of Jewish indolence, was the opinion held by Juvenal, Seneca and others.

In defense of the Sabbath , Ph ilo, the spokesman of the Greek-speaking Jews of Alexandria, says: "On this day we are commanded to abstain from all work, not because the law inculcates slackness . ... Its object is rather to give man relaxation from continuous and unending toil and by refreshing thei r bodies with a regularly calculated system of remissions to send them out renewed to their old activities. For a breathing spell enables not merely ordinary people but athletes also to collect their strength with a stro nger fo rce behind them to undertake promptly and patiently each of the tasks set before them."

Here the Sabbath is represented not in the spi rit of the Bible but in the spirit of Aristotle. According to the Stagirite, "we need relaxation, because we cannot work continuously. Relaxation, then , is not an end"; it is "for the sake of activity," fo r the sake of gaining strength for new efforts. To the bibli- cal mind , howeve r, labor is the means toward an end , and the Sabbath as a day of rest, as a day of abstaining from toil , is not for the purpose of recover- ing one's lost strength and becoming fit for the forthcoming labor. The Sab- bath is a day for the sake of life. Man is not a beast o f burden, and the Sab- bath is not for the purpose of enhancing the efficiency of his work. "Last in creation , fi rst in intention," the Sabbath is "the end of the creation of heaven and earth."

The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of Sabbath . It is not an interlude but the climax of living.

Th ree acts of God denoted the seventh day: He rested, He blessed and He hallowed the seventh day (Genesis 2:2-3). To the prohibition o f labor is, therefore, added the blessing of delight and the accent of sanctity. Not o nly the hands of man celebrate the day, the tongue and the soul keep the Sab- bath. One does not talk on it in the same manner in which one talks on weekdays. Even thinking of business or labor should be avoided.

Labor is a craft, but perfect rest is an art. It is the result of an accord of

217

• 2

;\lusr My Job Be the Primary Source of My Identity? Q UESTIO NS .

. ,a ination. To attain a degree of excellence in art, one bod)', mind ~nd _in i tne. one must adjure slothfu!ness. The ~eventh day is a must accept its ~isc b ·id . It is made of soul. of JOY and ret1cence. Jn its p.ilact in time wh1:~ ~::e ~1 3 reminder of adjacenc! to _eternity. Indeed, :~ mosphere, a disd/

15 expressed in terms of_ab~te~tions, JUSt as the mystery of

spkndorofthe } 1 nvcycd via ncganoms, m the categories of negar God is more ad~uai~ co e can neve r say what He is, we can only say WhlVt thtol'©" which claims~ ;~:w poor the edifice would be were it built exclat He is not. We_~:~;a: deeds which are so aw~wa~ and often so obtrusiv: s1vely of our n I . the presence of eternity, ,f not by the silence of ab. How else express g ory m staining from noisy_ acts? ~b~ut a day? What is so precious to captivate th

What is so lummts eventh day is a mine where spirit's precious meta~ hearts? It is beca_u~e th~~ to construct the palace in time, a dimension in can be found Wlt . \ ~come with the divine; a dimension in which man as-- w_hich th: h::~ likeness of the divine. . pires :: ::ere shall the likeness of God be found? The~e 1s no quality that

ac: has in common with the essenc~ of God. There 1s n~t eno~gh frec-- ~pm on the top of the mountain; there 1s not e~ou~h glory_ m ~he silence of t: e sea. Yet the likeness of God can be found m time, which 1s eternity in

disg~~:-art of keeping the seventh day is the art of p~inting on the canvas of time the mysterious grandeur of the climax of creation: as He sanctified the seventh day, so shall we. The love of the Sabbath is the love o: man for what he and God have in common. Our keeping the Sabbath day 1s a paraphrase of His sanctificat ion of the seventh day.

What would be a world without Sabbath? It would be~ worl_d that knew only itself or God distorted as a thing or t~e aby~s separ~ling Htm fro m_ the world: a world without the vision of a wmdow m eternity that opens mto

rim\or all the idealization, there is no danger of the idea of the Sabbath be-- coming a fairy-tale. With all the romantic idealization, the_ Sabbath remai~s a concrete fact, a legal instit ution and a social order. There 1s no danger of us becoming a disembodied spirit. fo r the spirit of the Sabbath must always be in accord with actual deeds, with defin ite actions and abstentions. The real and the spiritual arc one, like body and soul in a living man. It is fo r the law 10 clear the path: it is for the soul to sense the spi ri t.

This is what the ancient rabbis felt the. Sabbath demands all of man's at- tention, the service and single-minded devotion of total love. The logic of such a conception compelled them 10 enlarge constant ly the system of laws

2'8

- ABR A H AM Jostt v A H ESC H EL • Th, Sabbarh

and rules of observance. They sought to ennoble human nature and make it worthy of being in the presence of the royal day. .

Yet law and love, discipline and delight, were not always fused. In their illustrious fear of desecrating the spirit of the day. the ancient rabbis estab- lished a level of observance which is within the reach of exalted souls but not infrequently beyond the grasp of ordinary men.

The glorification of the day, the insistence upon strict observance, did not. however, lead the rabbis to a deification of the law. ~The Sabbath is given unto you, not you unto the Sabbath." The ancient rabbis knew 1hat ex- cessive piety may endanger the fulfillment of the essence of the law. MTherc is nothing more important . according to the Torah, than to preserve human life . ... Even when there is the slightest possibility that a life may be at stake one may disregard every prohibition of the law." One must sacrifice mitzvot for the sake of man rather than sacrifice man 1or the sake of mirzvor. M The pur- pose of the Torah is Mto bring life to Israel , in this world and in the world to come.

Continuous austerity may severely dampen, yet levity would certainly obliterate the spirit of the day. One cannot modify a precious filigree with a spear or operate on a brain with a plowshare. It must always be remembered that the Sabbath is not an occasion for diversion or frivolity; not a day to shoot fireworks or to turn somersaults, but an opportunity to mend our tat- tered lives; to collect rather than to dissipate time. Labor without dignity is the cause of misery; rest without spirit the source of depravity. Indeed, the prohibitions have succeeded in preventing the vulgarization of the grandeur of the day . .

The seventh day is like a palace in time wi th a kingdom for all. It is not a date but an atmosphere.

It is not a different state of consciousness but a different climate; it is as if the appearance of all things somehow changed. The primary awareness is one of our being within the Sabbath rather than of the Sabbath being within us. We may not know whether our understanding is correct, or whether our sent iments arc noble , but the air of the day surrounds us like spring which spreads over the land without our aid or notice.

"How precious is the Feast of Booths! Dwelling in the Booth, even our body is surrounded by the sanctity of the Mitzvah,~ said once a rabbi to his friend. Whereupon the latter remarked: "The Sabbath Day is even more than that. On the Feast you may leave the Booth fo r a while, whereas the Sabbath surrounds you wherever you go."

The di fference between 1he Sabbath and all other days is not to be no- ticed in the physical structure of things, in their spatial dimension. Things

• 1

_ Musi My Job Be the Primary Source of My ldt , QUESTIONS nhty?

c on that day. There is only a difference in the diniens· do not chang \Jtion of the universe t~ ~od. The Sabb~~h preceded c/on of urnc, in the re 1 •tcd creation; 1t 1s all of the sp1m that th cation :ind the Sabbath colllP t e world Can t,ear . . • · .

1 civilization is the product of lab~r, of man's ex.er .

Tcehnicae sake of gain, fo r the s_ake o~ producing goods. It begin:on of pcwer ~or 1;isfted with what is available m nature, becomes enga ethcn man, di~th the forces of nature in order to en_hance his safety a~d t 1~ ,1 struggle . omfort. To use the language of the 816\e, the task of civHi 0 in- ~ ase his ~e the earth, to have domin_ion ~ve~ the beast. ?at10n 1s 10 subd d , often are of our vtctones m the war with natu

!-low p~u d "e f instruments we have succeeded in invenf re, Proud of the muln~u e 0modities we have been able to produce. Yet 0~:g,. of tht abundance O com mble defeats. In spite of our triumphs, we have f;ctotics havt come to rekseof our hands: it is as if the forces we had conque ednhVic. tiinS to the wor re avt

conquered ~\zation a way to disaster, as many of us are prone to b 1. 1~ ~ur_civt I ntially evil. to be rejected and condemned? The faiU}e ?e?

ls d~,hzano~,:;~ut of this world, but a way of being within and abov: !e ~:~~;n;:; to reject but to surpass ci~i!i~ati~n. The Sabbath is the day~ which we \earn the art of surpassing (1V1hza~on. .

Adam was placed in the Garde~ of Eden t~ ~ress 1t and to keep ir (Gen- esis i:ic:;). Labor is not only the destiny of man; tt ts endowed with divine dig. nit . However, after he ale of the tree of knowledge he was condemned to wii. not only 10 labor. · Jn toil s~a.11 thou e~t ... all the days of thy life~ (Gene- sis P l). Labor is a blessing, tot! 1s. t~e misery of m~n. .

The Sabbath as a day of abstaining from work ts not a depreciation but an affinnation of labor. a divine exaltation of its dignity. Thou shah abstain from labor on the seventh day is a sequel to the command: Six days shalt thou L,oor, anddoall 1hyworl<.

"Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is Sabbath unto the Lord thy God.· Just as we arc commanded to keep the Sab- bath. we are commanded to labor. MLove work .. .. " The duty to work forsil days is just as much a part of God's covenant with man as the duty to ab- stain from work on the seventh day.

To set apart one day a week for freedom, a day on which we would not use the instruments which have been so easily turned into weapons of de- muction. a day for being with ourselves, a day of detachment from the vul- gar. of independence of external obligations , a day on which we stop wor- shipping 1he idols of tedmica\ civilization, a daY, on wh ich we use no

no

ABRA H AM JOS H UA H ESC H EL • The Sabbmh

money. a day of arm1st1ce in the economic struggle with our fellow men and the forces of nature - is there any ins1itution that holds out a greater hope for man·s progress than the Sabbath? ·

The solut ion of mankind's most vexing problem will not be found in re- nouncing technical civilization, but in attaining some degree of indepen- dence of ii.

In regard to external gifts, to outward possessions, there is only one proper atti1ude - to have them and to be able to do without them. On the Sabbath we live, as it were, independent of technical civilization: we abstain primar- ily from any activity that aims at remaking or reshaping the things of space. Man's royal privilege to conquer nature is suspended on the seventh day.

What arc the kinds of labor not to be done on the Sabbath? They are, ac- cording to the ancient rabbis, all those acts which were necessary for the construction and furnishing of the Sanctuary in the desert. The Sabbath it- self is a sanctuary which we build, a sanctuary in rime.

It is one thing to race or be driven by 1he vicissitudes that menace life. and another thing to stand still and to embrace the presence of an eternal moment.

The seventh day is the armistice in man·s cruel struggle for ex.istence, a truce in all conflicts, personal and social, peace between man and man, man and nature. peace within man: a day on which handling money is consid- ered a desecration, on which man avows his independence of that which is the world's chief idol. The seventh day is the exodus from tension. the libera- ~~o~h~f\::~f:~~!: own muddiness, the installation of man as a sovereign

221