Our rabbis taught: “On the twenty-fifth of Kislev (begin) the eight days of Hanukkah, on which lamentation for the dead and fasting are forbidden. For when the Greeks entered the Temple, they defiled all the oils in it, and when the Hasmonean dynasty prevailed over them and defeated them, they searched and found only one bottle of oil sealed by the High Priest. It contained only enough for one day’s lighting. Yet a miracle was brought about with it, and they lit (with that oil) for eight days…” (Talmud Shabbat 21b)

One essential teaching of this famous Talmudic passage is, quite simply, that a little bit can go a long way. Just a little light can keep us going through the darkest season, a little courage can inspire us to stand up to the greatest injustice, and little strength can sustain us even when all feels lost.

On this Shabbat Hanukkah, may we all be blessed with the miracle of spiritual sustainability…

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.

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.)