Sabbath

Marva Dawn quoted The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschelin in her book Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting

It is a very special concept for me, time as a sanctuary. It makes me rethink my whole concept on Sabbath. You can read the whole excerpt here. We often use our time to exchange for space or to increase our power in space, but for God, time is much more important than space.

Judaism is a religion of time aiming at the sanctification of time... Judaism teaches us to be attached to holiness in time, to be attached to sacred events, to learn how to consecrate sanctuaries that emerge from the magnificent stream of a year. The Sabbaths are our great cathedrals; and our Holy of Holies is a shrine that neither the Romans nor the Germans were able to burn; a shrine that even apostasy cannot easily obliterate: the Day of Atonement. According to the ancient rabbis, it is not the observance of the Day of Atonement, but the Day itself, the "essence of the Day," which, with man's repentance, atones for the sins of man...

One of the most distinguished words in the Bible is the word kadosh, holy; a word which more than any other is representative of the mystery and majesty of the divine. Now what was the first holy object in the history of the world? Was it a mountain? Was it an altar?

It is, indeed, a unique occasion at which the distinguished word kadosh is used for the first time: in the Book of Genesis at the end of the story of creation. How extremely significant is the fact that it is applied to time: "And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy." There is no reference in the record of creation to any object in space that would be endowed with the quality of holiness...

When history began, there was only one holiness in the world, holiness in time. When at Sinai the word of God was about to be voiced, a call for holiness in man was proclaimed: "Thou shalt be unto me a holy people." It was only after the people had succumbed to the temptation of worshipping a thing, a golden calf, that the erection of a Tabernacle, of holiness in space, was commanded. The sanctity of time came first, the sanctity of man came second, and the sanctity of space last. Time was hallowed by God; space, the Tabernacle, was consecrated by Moses...

The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time. It is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation, from the world of creation to the creation of the world.

Read another excerpt here.

According to Stagirite, "we need relaxation, because we cannot work continuously. Relaxation, then, is not an end;" it is "for the sake of activity", for the sake of strength for new efforts. To the biblical mind, however, labour is the means towards an end, and the Sabbath as a day of rest, as a day of abstaining from toil, is not for the purpose of recovering one's lost strength and becoming fit for the forthcoming labour. The Sabbath is a day for the sake of life... "Last in creation, first in intention", the Sabbath is the end of creation of heaven and earth."

The Sabbath is not for the sake of weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of the Sabbath. It is not the interlude but the climax of living.

Can we live for the Sabbath in our life? And redefine our purpose of life?