Reflection on The Sabbath: Its Meaning for the Modern Man by Abraham Joshua Heschel

              I was looking for a book on spirituality in Judaism or theology and I really loved this short book that I found and finished today. The Sabbath is all about the seventh day of the week and what it means and how best to observe it. Heschel is an excellent writer and I plan to read more of his works. He can be confusing to read at times, but that’s really because his work can get really dense with meaning. I found the first third of the book especially interesting an the middle third not as interesting.

              In the prologue, Heschel is very concerned with the contrast between space and time. He claims that many people equate reality with “thinghood,” focusing on space and objects, but that Judaism is a religion of time. Consider native American religions that have sacred mountains and rivers and other sites against Judaism, which has sacred days like the Sabbath and the high holy days. Heschel sums it up by saying that “Judaism is a religion of time aiming at the sanctification of time.” In fact, the first holy object was not an object in space but a day—the Sabbath— “And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” This is why in Judaism there are fixed times but no fixed place of prayer that is holy by itself.

              Heschel moves on to discuss how to observe the Sabbath and one important thing is that it is not a means to an end. The Sabbath is a day of rest, but not in the sense of resting from exercise so that the body can heal and be stronger. Rather, it is a rest for rest’s sake. Heschel says that “Labor is a craft, but perfect rest is an art… The seventh day is a palace in time which we build.” The Sabbath is given by God to us and we are not given to the Sabbath, so Heschel implores us to take advantage of that day and enjoy it because it is an example of the reward given to the worshippers of God. You shouldn’t even get angry on the Sabbath. He goes on to say that the likeness of God is not found, therefore, in any image, and though we may think of God as all-present in space, that’s not really it either. Rather, God’s likeness is found in the Sabbath and “our keeping of the Sabbath day is a paraphrase of His sanctification of the seventh day.”

              Another really important concept in the book is the qualitative difference between different moments in time. It is unfortunate that for many people time is just a “measuring device rather than a realm in which we abide,” meaning that people just use time to say that something was before or after another thing. Yet, says Heschel, “everyone will admit that the Grand Canyon is more awe-inspiring than a trench. Everyone knows the difference between a worm and an eagle. But how many of us have a similar sense of discretion for the diversity of time?”

              This quick read is excellent reading for any Jewish person and really any student of philosophy. It was very thought-provoking for me and I would highly recommend to others.