Printer Friendly

Email to A Friend

Friday March 16, 2007

Shabbat isn’t a time to be bored — enjoy the freedom of the day

by rabbi karen s. citrin

Vayakhel/Pekudei
Exodus 35:1-40:38, 12:1-20
I Kings 7:51-8:21

In Judaism, the number of negative commandments outweighs the positive. In other words, there are more things that we are not supposed to do than things we are commanded to do. Perhaps this is why some people have the impression that religious observance is mainly about prohibitions. Some think that it is hard, maybe even impossible, to be an observant Jew because there are so many things that one cannot do.

Indeed, at first glance, this week’s Torah portion gives that impression. The portion, Vayakhel, opens with the commandment to not do any work on the Sabbath day (Ex. 35:1-3). The harsh penalty for whoever does work on Shabbat is death.

The Torah repeats the commandments not to work on Shabbat 12 times and, specifically, forbids making a fire, baking and cooking, gathering wood, moving from one boundary to another, plowing and harvesting, carrying objects, engaging in business, and buying and selling.

As if that were not enough, the early rabbis added more actions to the list of forbidden activities on Shabbat. They were not content with the Torah’s open definition of “work.”

Since in this week’s Torah portion Moses called the people together to instruct them to observe Shabbat, a day of rest from the building of the sanctuary, the rabbis assumed that every kind of labor associated with the building of the sanctuary was prohibited.

Thus, they defined 39 “av melacha,” categories of work that were prohibited on Shabbat.

As we can see, Jewish tradition took seriously the prohibition of any labor on Shabbat.

Why set aside the Sabbath as a day of no work? For those who might see the prohibitions as limiting, I would suggest that in the case of Shabbat, and other rituals as well, the prohibition sets us free.

Judaism celebrates the Sabbath as a “day of liberation.” We welcome each Shabbat with the singing of Kiddush, which makes reference to the Sabbath as a “remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt.” This connection of Shabbat with the theme of freedom reminds us that by not working, we are set free from the chains of time, the schedule, the clock. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel writes, “we have fallen victims to the work of our hands; it is as if the forces we had conquered have conquered us … On the Sabbath we live, as it were, independent of technical civilization.”

Rabbi W. Gunter Plaut observes that a person who does not work is often considered useless. He writes, “What we need now is a purposive uselessness, an activity (or nonactivity!) which is important in that it becomes an essential protest against the basic unrest which comes from competition without end … Every person needs rest from unrest, and in the face of automation needs to sanctify his free time as freedom time.”

A day, one day, not of free time but of freedom time. It is the commandment not to work on one day out of the week that sets us free.

Shabbat is not just a day of “do nots.” As Plaut would say, there are many purposively useless things to do to help us take joy in the Sabbath day.

We can do all the things we do not have the time to do during the other days of the week. We can read, go for walks, take a nap, play games, eat a good meal, sing, study Torah, go to shul and enjoy the company of family and friends.

As it turns out, this week’s commandment “not to work” makes it possible to observe the commandment “to keep Shabbat.” Rather than a day of prohibition, a day of “what not to do,” Shabbat offers a chance to do differently — to rest, to delight, to be free.

Rabbi Karen S. Citrin is the associate rabbi at Reform Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo.

Did you find this article interesting? Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and you'll be notified each week when "J." goes online. We'll tell you about the most important stories of the week and give you a link to each one.

This page contains a BETA version of Amazon contextual links. They are marked by the dashed underline.  Your purchases support our site. At times they point to items which are not related to the actual link. Please alert us by email if you discover objectionable links.