24/6 Good enough for God

Rabbi Dr. Jana L. De Benedetti
B’nai Zion Congregation
Shreveport

Some people believe that the miracles in the Scriptures are not true – they are myths to help us understand a value system. Some people think that God is the crutch that others use when they don’t understand enough about something. Some people think that commandments don’t really need to be commanded, since humans could have worked these things out for ourselves.

I believe that being commanded to have a holy day of rest, proves that there is a God. What an incredible concept – work hard, and then take a day when you don’t work. Take a day when you can’t work. Make it a day when you don’t let anyone work for you – not even your animals can work. We couldn’t have invented that one ourselves. Even if we tried to make a rule enforcing rest, I don’t think we would have come up with the idea of making it every seven days.

Obviously – there is a God – a wonderful and awesome God who commands me to rest – every seven days. And now I have to try to understand what God means by “rest.” I have to try to understand what it means not to “work.” Now that I am certain there is a God, I would really like to do what God says.
There are a few ways to determine what God means. If we want to know what it means to “work” we can look in the Scriptures for every time the same word for “work” (mal’a-chah) is used. We find examples when we are commanded to build the Tabernacle, so we try not to build (or tear down) on Shabbat. We see that we are working when we are tending to our crops, so we don’t plant or sow, or harvest. In fact, we find 39 specific things that are considered work.

We also see that after the first Creation story God tells us that God rested on the seventh day. We realize that at that point, God’s work was to create. We don’t create things out of nothing like God did – but we could light a fire – there was nothing, and now there is a fire. We could write – there was a blank sheet and now there is writing. So we learn to avoid these things too.

Some people see the list of things we aren’t supposed to do on Shabbat to be restrictive and oppressive. I see it as uplifting and holy. It is a little bit like when you find a person that you fall in love with – there may be other options out there that you will no longer consider, because the person you found fills your heart. You could spend your time thinking about all the other possible partners out there, or you could spend your time appreciating the one you love.

In fact, the Jewish mystics teach us that one way to see Shabbat is as if Shabbat were a bride – and we are the groom. We spend our week preparing for our “bride.” We dress-up to greet her. We prepare a special meal. We spend the day thinking only of her.

I spend my Shabbat appreciating. I love Shabbat worship. I love Shabbat study. I love Shabbat rest. I never do business on Shabbat. I don’t have to worry about mowing a lawn, or doing homework, or housework, or any of the other things that may have been on my to-do list during the week. It will all be there waiting for me after Shabbat is over – or sometimes it loses its importance after I have gained a refreshed perspective.

The strangest part to me is how many people don’t take advantage of this incredible gift that God has given us. God even commands us, and many of us choose to ignore this “direct order.” It is for our own good. It keeps us healthy. It refreshes us. It keeps us holy. Imagine what the world would be like if we all obeyed this commandment. Start small, if you have to: Just remember to set it apart from the rest of the week in some special way. You will be glad you did. God obviously wants you to. Or as a bumper sticker I was saw says: 24/6… if it is good enough for God, it is good enough for me. I wish you a “Shabbat Shalom,” a Sabbath of peace.