The Israelite people shall keep the sabbath, observing the sabbath throughout the ages as a covenant for all time. It shall be a sign for all time between Me and the people of Israel. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day, God ceased and was renewed. (Exodus 31:16-17)
The verses above, which come from this week’s portion Ki Tisa, are probably best known as “Veshamru” – the prayer/hymn featured in the Shabbat Evening service. It’s one of JRC’s favorites (particularly with the younger kids who love the jaunty melody.) I wonder, however, if Veshamru would be nearly as popular if we started singing just one verse earlier: “…whosoever does work on the sabbath day shall be put to death.”
While I expect most of us would consider it overly harsh to prescribe capital punishment for Shabbat transgressors, it might be helpful to view this verse as descriptive rather than prescriptive. In other words, let’s read it this way: “whosoever does work on the sabbath day will eventually work him/herself to death.”
Take a closer look at verse 17: “and on the seventh day, God rested and was renewed.” It is notable that the word for “renewed” (“vayinafash”) comes from the root nefesh, which refers to the life force or essence. This Godly act of renewal suggests that the need to replenish regularly is somehow woven into the very fabric of creation. Like the world itself, we are so designed as to require cyclical renewal.
Shabbat is thus the Jewish means of expressing this eternal truth: we ignore the importance of soul-rest at our peril. This insight speaks even more powerfully to a contemporary world in which workaholism is rampant; in which studies increasingly show the health dangers of enslavement to an unmitigated work week. According to medical experts, the stress caused by overwork has been linked to heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, cancer, and other serious illnesses. By all indications, we are indeed working ourselves to death.
It is also indicative of our times that, sadly, we will only tend to rest when rest is “forced” upon us. Wayne Muller writes poignantly of this phenomenon in his book, “Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest:”
If we do not allow for a rhythm of rest in our overly busy lives, illness becomes our Sabbath – our pneumonia, our cancer, our heart attack, our accidents create Sabbath for us. In my relationships with people suffering with cancer, AIDS, and other life-threatening illness, I am always struck by the mixture of sadness and relief they experience when illness interrupts their overly busy lives. While each shares their particular fears and sorrows, almost every one confesses some secret gratefulness. “Finally,” they say, “at last. I can rest.”
Postscript: this “renewal imperative” also has important public policy implications. In a 2003 article for the New York Times Magazine, journalist Judith Shulevitz suggested that the socially egalitarian nature of the Shabbat was revolutionary for its time. Moreover, Shabbat is considered by the Torah to be a remembrance of of Israel’s liberation from slavery in Egypt (see Deuteronomy 16:3). As Shulevitz concludes, the liberation of the soul is inextricably linked to the liberation of working men and women:
In other words, we have the Sabbath to thank for labor legislation and for our belief that it is wrong for employers to drive their employees until they drop from exhaustion.
(Why not learn about interfaith labor advocacy in celebration of Shabbat Ki Tisa? Just click here for more info.)
There is a lovely defense of the importance of sabbath rest, and its connection to workers’ rights in the children’s book “Black Beauty.” The horse Beauty’s owner Jerry is asked to take a Sunday cab license by a wealthy client, and threatened with losing his best customer if he refuses. But Jerry stands up to his customer, saying,
“…anything that I could do to oblige you, or the lady, I should be proud and happy to do; but I can’t give up my Sundays, sir, indeed I can’t. I read that God made man, and he made horses and all the other beasts, and as soon as He had made them He made a day of rest, and bade that all should rest one day in seven; and I think, sir, He must have known what was good for them.”
Chapter 36, “The Sunday Cab”
http://sewell.thefreelibrary.com/Black-Beauty/3-5
The author, Anna Sewell was a Quaker, but she had a very “Jewish” sensibility about religion and ethical behavior.
My recollection of the value of Shabbat goes back to 1973, when I was making a bridesmaid’s dress for my daughter=in-law’s non-Jewish roomate. Commenting on Carol’s observance of Shabbat she said “I really envy her. It’s so peaceful to withdraw from the daily grind for 24 hours.”
Wish I could.”
I don’t want to work,
I want to bang on my drums all day, especially on Shabbos.
Is that ok?
As the foremen were appointed immediately before this passage about the Sabbath, I take the sense of the passage to be instructions to the foremen but told to all of the Israelites so that they will be able to hold the foremen accountable (in the same way that the instructions for priests are given to all). Perhaps the intent of the passage is better expressed by “whoever assigns work for the Sabbath day shall be cut off from among the people.”
A few years ago I had a great conversation with a bunch of fellow JRCers regarding what constitutes “work” on the Sabbath. My own response to this question is that I get to define what is work and what activities help me to replenish my spirit. If the activity is one that replentishes me, even if others would call it work, then it is something that I can do on the Sabbath and still be following this commandment.