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The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness
The Sabbath
A Day of
Gratefulness
Rabbi Henry Glazer
In grateful
memory
Abraham
Joshua
Heschel
A REBBE
for all time

Table of Contents
Introduction
A Personal Preface:
Prologue:
Working on the Sabbath
14
Listening, Blessing, Thanks and Praise
16
Part 1- Listen: Be Mindful
22
A Tree Alone-A poem
30
Part 2 : Be Blessed
32
Taste and see how good is the Lord.
38
Oneg-the heart of the Sabbath
41
Sights, smells, songs and sex on the Sabbath:
48
The Gift of Torah
52
Shabbes in Becket
55
Part 3: Thank-Praise :Todah vTehilah
60
The Sabbath Liturgy:
60
Shacharit of Shabbat-Sabbath Morning
66
Shabbat-A Day of Freedom
84
Sabbath as a Gratefulness Meditation:
86
How to begin?
89
Epilogue:
90
Personal gratitude
66
Introduction
Why another book on the Sabbath? The subject of the Sabbath has
received the fullest attention from countless scholars, philosophers
and rabbis as well as thinkers of all religious persuasions. Beginning
with its first references in the Bible the Sabbath has expanded into a
complex institution as a result of extensive commentary in the
literature of the Rabbis -the Talmud, Midrash, legal codes,
philosophical treatises and mystical documents. Over the centuries,
the Sabbath has emerged as a pivotal institution in the life of the
Jewish people and indeed in the experience of all humanity.
Like the Torah whose meanings are indeterminate, the Sabbath, as a
vital piece of Torahs mosaic of wisdom, likewise holds out multilayered
strata of possible interpretation and meaning.
For many, the Sabbath is seen either as a day guided by strict and
unyielding religious behavior often impeding the embrace of the
Sabbaths inner light, or is experienced as a day of leisure devoted
exclusively to recreational, familial and ethnic experiences, leaving
little room for the exploration of the days spiritual richness.
My intention in presenting this book is to extract from the radiant crown
of the Sabbath one gem that needs, I believe, further polishing to
release its brilliance and beauty. The Sabbath invites us all to lend our
hearts and minds to the task of renewed discovery within its limitless
layers of holiness and blessing.
For me, a jewel on the tiara of the Sabbath is that of gratefulness.
Sabbath is many things -a day of rest, a holy day, a day of leisure,
a day of prayer and study, a day of family bonding, a day of
delight. What infuses the many facets of the Sabbath is the
underlying opportunity it offers to rediscover life as a gift,
experience gratitude for being alive, and articulate this
gratefulness in many traditionally Jewish ways that are expressive
and heartfelt
As the Sabbath summons us to cultivate a heart of gratitude it
likewise holds out the invitation to respond with generosity and
compassion each day of the entire week.Not only does a day of
physical rest rejuvenate the body, but the Sabbath replenishes
and restores the soul with its vital essence so that the weekdays
may be approached with the sanctified aura of each Sabbath day.
5

Sabbath becomes the wellspring not only of the bodys rejuvenation but of the
souls renewal to find its home and touch the lives of others.
A Personal Preface:
In my early twenties I read Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschels The Sabbath
more than once as part of my seminary education. Sadly for me, its poetry and
emotional depth collided with a closed heart. Thankfully, as I grew to understand
the place of the heart in ones spiritual life, I have re-read this masterpiece many
times as one would read inspirational poetry or a sacred text, and today, with
each reading, I rejoice like one who has found great treasure. In his brief
treatise on the Sabbath, Heschel succeeded in releasing the brilliance of
Sabbaths crown of glory to the great blessing of us all.
I write this essay on the Sabbath as a humble midrash, a commentary, on a sacred
text, Heschels The Sabbath, and as a belated response of a grateful heart to a poet
who has enlightened not only the hearts of Jews but the soul of all humanity as well.
As a confused adolescent seeking a sense of specialness, a feeling of stabitlity and
uniqueness in an emotionally turbulent world, I cloaked myself in the mantle of strict
Orthodoxy, which included a rigid form of Sabbath observance.This immutable
structure gave me a framework which would help, so I thought, in creating some
coherence to the many disparate fragments of my emerging identity and sense of
self.
The Sabbath became a day of legalistic obsessiveness accompanied by the dread of
the most minute of technical violations. It was my immature way of showing God and
others my extraordinary piety .While others of my family and friends enjoyed the
secular pleasures of a day free from work and school -matinee movies, Friday night
television,Saturday morning sports - I attendied Sabbath services, read and passed
the time in psychological isolation. Self- restriction and sacrifice further served the
function of atoning for a range of unacceptable adolescent feelings touching on erotic
stirrings and inclinations of violent rivalry with siblings and friends.Thus my Sabbath
experiences were joyless, devoid of inner peacefulness and delight. I was locked into
a web of regulation and restriction rather than freely embraced by the warmth of
Sabbaths sacred stirrings.
This relationship to the Sabbath continued for many years. My decision to enter the
Rabbinate only exacerbated the difficulty of my relationship to the Sabbath; Shabbes
became a day of demands for excellence in the pulpit and the excessive need for
public approval. The day which proclaims freedom from the need for success,
6
approval and competition, became for me the very opposite. Instead of

a cathedral in time-Heschels remarkable metaphor- the Sabbath was
a cathedral of conflict and fear.
Years went by; new experiences and extended efforts at selfevaluation and understanding eventually bore fruit and lead to a new
internal awareness of the Sabbaths majesty and delight.
Unlike the earlier awareness which was intellectual and didactic in
nature, my more open-hearted consciousness began to encompass
the experience of the Sabbath as a day of deeper personal feeling and
authenticity. It slowly emerged as a day of yearning, a day that touched
the edges of my heart and soul.
In particular, stepping into the world of Jewish spirituality softened my
heart and illumined my mind to the richness and beauty of the Sabbath
as the most precious time in ones week. The practices of meditation
and heart-directed contemplation paved the road to a loving embrace
of the Sabbath day.
Prologue:
The Sabbath is so monumental an institution, so over-arching and

multi-dimensional, one searches in vain for an underlying spiritual
premise or theme that can simply and accurately capture the
variegated richness and universal meaning embedded in the day.
As a secular institution, the Sabbath is recognized and valued as a
much needed day-off from work activity, an opportunity, even a
necessity to relax from the strains and stresses of earning a livelihood
or preparing to do so. All contemporary societies acknowledge the
benefits of a day of rest and leisure as a basic human right.1 But the
Sabbath is more than a legal or social institution; the Sabbath is not
only ....a state of mind or a form of conduct, but a process in the world
of spirit.2
One major pillar of the Sabbath that upholds and sustains its spiritual
significance is the obligation to cease from work.Beginning with the
Bible, the Sabbath continues to evolve through the process of
interpretation and application, creating many dimensions of
understanding regarding the nature of work in each century and each
location where Jews dwell.This process is on-going and each
generation is challenged to re-discover the Sabbaths scope, beauty
and blessing .According to the Talmud, the categories of work
7

associated with the construction of the Sanctuary in the wilderness
during ancient Israels sojourn to the Promised Land served as the
foundation for all later interpretations and definitions of work. Why?
Heschel informs us that, On the Sabbath...we abstain primarily from
any activity that aims at remaking or reshaping the things in space.
What are the kinds of labor not to be done on the Sabbath? Those
acts which were necessary for the construction and furnishing of the
Sanctuary in the desert.The Sabbath itself is a sanctuary which we
build, a sanctuary in time.3
I understand Heschel this way; on the Sabbath we are invited to
refrain from reshaping, recreating, adding, enlarging, improving upon
the world as we have it. To do so is to suggest that the world is
incomplete and imperfect, it is not good! By not working, by
abstainiing from imposing our own designs on the world, we reaffirm
the divine proclamation in the book of Genesis that the world is indeed
very good!4 Thus Shabbat requires one fundamental spiritual
response, namely to immerse ourselves in the wonders of the world as
they are, and decipher the fingerprints of the Ultimate Source of All
Things within it. Shabbat beckons us to rediscover the sacred
sensations of a grateful heart. Heschels revelation was his
understanding of the Sabbath as a palace in time, bequeathing to us
his profound insight that Judaism is a religion of time, and the Sabbath
is a weekly gift of experiencing a foretaste of eternity.5 It is day.within
the dimension of time when we can discover holiness, or the presence
of God.
The question that challenges me is: How do we personally, even
viscerally, feel the holiness of the day? For me that holiness in time is
arrived at when we are able to infuse time with gratitude for the gift of
life. Six days a week are set aside for tikun olam, to repair the world,
to work as partners with the Creator in improving the world. Shabbat
by contrast signals a halt, a stepping back and taking stock of the gifts
given to us by the Creative Source of the Universe. One could say that
the inability to pause in the acts of doing and building even for a short
time suggests an attitude of dissatisfation and discontent. Sabbath
arrives and announces: Remember the Sabbath to keep it as a holy
day by desisting from labor and recognizing the goodness of the world
as it is and being grateful for this goodness.The day is intrinsically
holy; we need not do anything active to transform the day into a
8
sacred period of time. All we have to do is pause and remind ourselves

that the world is fine as it is; all that is required of us is to be thankful,
to marvel at the marvelous. Instead of constructing edifices to civilize
our environment and to impose the stamp of humanity upon it,
Shabbat proclaims the utter fullness of life as it is, awaiting our grateful
participation, awareness and receptivity. The responses of the Sabbath
observer- prayer, study, festive eating and drinking, intimate relations
with ones partner, physical rest - are all natural reactions to that which
has been given us.
Shabbat allows us to be free and enjoy what is.The one spiritual
requirement is to articulate in feeling, thought and word, our capacity
to say thank you to the Giver of all things

-Then the heavens and the earth were completed.( Gen.2.1) The
Aramaic translation of the Torah translates vayechulu-were finished
as veishtachaluwere perfected. The Sabbath day represents
perfection and with it the response of profound gratefulness for the
perfect day
Leon Weiseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic, shares a
brilliantly written essay titled Outcome and Experience in which he
captures the philosophical essence of the Sabbath day.
I am wary of finding myself in the middle of an existence too busy,
too arrogantly busy, for elementary things. I inhabit a universe in
which busyness is a measurement of importance; but really what is
taking place is an exchange of one variety of importance for another.
It is often a bad bargain,...it is a petty redemption when the
imperative of time management gives way before the imperative of
time enhancement...against the principle of outcome one must
defend the principle of experience...Many people live most of their
lives in the interregnum.They cannot bite the day, as the poet says,
to the core....Now we are to be wide instead of deep, nimble as
clickers and cursors, never idle and never still..6
The Sabbath summons us to be still,idle, in order to experience the
elementary things of life.In the midst of this detachment from
busyness, we make friends with our world and feel deep gratitude for
this friendship.If we wish to discover the freshness of each moment,
its fullness and richness, we need to slow down.
9
To sanctify the Sabbath as prescribed by tradition, an honest and open

hearted sense of gratefulness is indispensable. Paradoxically, this
attitude of gratefulness bears with it a deep potential for repair of the
world during the other days of the week as well. As we emerge
refreshed spiritually, and having regained our sight of the world as a
gift, we find ourselves more inclined to share that gift with others, and
in this way, live out the weekdays with a sense of generosity and
kindness.This idea that gratitude activates generous and
compassionate responsiveness to the world is profoundly articulated
by Lewis Hyde in his book The Gift:
I would like to speak of gratitude as a labor undertaken by the soul to
effect the transformation after a gift has been received. Between the
time a gift comes to us and the time we pass it along, we suffer
gratitude Passing the gift along is the act of gratitude that finishes the
labor.7
heaven
and
earth
were
c
o
m
p
l
e
t
e
10

G
God
r
e
s
t
e
d
In the popular mind, Sabbath means rest. Resting means more than
relaxing the body or not being engaged in any strenuous physical
activity. In fact the Hebrew word for rest is incorporated in the term
Shabbat. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy
because on it He rested-shavat-- from all the work of creation
He had done.8
Only from the perspective of gratefulness for what is on this day of
non-doing can we understand the rationale of Jewish laws
insistence that down to the tiniest and most elementary of activities,
one needs to be attentive to the possibility of crossing the line
between impacting our world in a direct way and allowing the world
to be, without the slightest interference. Nevertheless, exclusive
preoccupation with prohibitions, without an internal mindfulness of
this systems rationale in cultivating gratefulness on this day, is to
betray the soulfulness of the day for the arid and lifeless mechanics
of disembodied behavior. Such a view makes Shabbat a burden, not
a blessing.
Why Shabbat? From a religious point of view a satisfying answer
could be to emulate God by resting; as He rested so do we have the
obligation to rest. Another response could be understood in terms of
obeying all of Gods laws pertaining to this day and as such we
make this day one of dedication to divine authority and to the will of
God.
For the traditionalist, the above can be fully satisfactory. My
understanding doesnt preclude the nature of this kind of relationship
to the Sabbath. I prefer however, to expand the context of Sabbath
celebration to embrace those who may not share the formal
conventional connection that is rooted in a more conventional belief
in God. I believe that all human beings have the capacity and
spiritual need to consecrate one day a week during which to pay full
attentiveness, in mind, body and heart, to the giftedness of life and
the world, and then begin to convert time from a context of petition
to one of praise, from a setting of dissatisfaction to one of utter
gratefulness.
I pray the following pages will help serve that purpose.
11
There are times when a universe of thought is contained in one word.

Hebrew, in particular, is a language rich in multiplicities of meaning. We
know from Jewish tradition, especially the mystical strain of that
heritage, that language, especially Hebrew, reflects the fundamental
spiritual nature of the world; in other words, it has mystical
value...man's common language...reflects the creative language of
God.9
As a frame of reference around which I
shall construct my presentation, I have made use of the Hebrew word
for the Sabbath, , shabbat, discovering in each of its three
letters- -- - Shin- Bet-Tav-an acronymn that spells out the
essential meaning of the Sabbath as a day of gratefulness.
Taking each of the three Hebrew letters of the word Shabbat, I assign
to each one a particular reference to a fundamental principle and
dimension of the Shabbat experience and potential . These three
letters symbolize and encompass the core essence of Sabbath as a
divine opportunity to discover and incorporate gratefulness in our lives.
Shin ( ) suggests exercising one of
the basic capacities of the human mind and heart, one called upon by
Jewish tradition daily-Shema-- listen, give heed, pay attention to.
Shabbat is designed as a gift to the Jewish people and to the world by
which one is given the time and opportunity to pay attention, to
12

listen with heart mind and soul, to the fullness of life and the world around us.
The second letter, Bet ( ) , is the first letter of beracha- blessing.(It is also the
first letter of the Torah-Bereishit - )The middle letter of Shabbat--is the
heart
a
n
d core of the Sabbath reality, that of a world and life of blessing, the gift of God's love.
The third letter, Tav (), points to the
p
o
ssibility and necessity of a human response to the awareness of blessing in one's lifeTehillah,Todah- -: prayerful praise, thanksgiving,
gratitude.
13
Working on the Sabbath

Baking bread is not hard
cooking corn is easy too
Barebecuing in the yard
Or heating up cholentA Sabbath stew
Yet all these things
and plenty more
Forbidden flings
Fill legal lore
All kinds of work

Thou shall not do!
Resting is your perk
even animals in the zoo
There is some toil
yet left undone
not the holiness to spoilto find our place in the sun.
Mary Oliver,
a bard for all time
the soul she can stir
with words sublime
Lifes purpose, she states,

In ways so direct,
Transcending fates
if we so elect.
My work,she unfurled,
banner in the breeze,
Is loving the world
its wines and its teas.
Is that not exactly
What Shabbats supposed to be
To love all Creation
From sea to shining sea
14

To sit by the window
In winter or fall
And witness pure snow
Or autumns rusty sprawl
To gaze at the sky
And wonder aloud
How endlessly high
Beyond every cloud
Sabbath
And as we look
clear and deep
into every nook
a treasure keep
our heart fills up
hardly catching a breath
overflowing our cup
even ready for death
I finally see
Sabbaths great mystery
Not the hands heavy labor
But the hearts love to savor.
sabbath
peace
pax
salam
la paix
la paz
sabbath
15
Listening, Blessing, Thanks and Praise

Listen - shema -
How do we listen ?
By Remembering
By Refraining
By Rejoicing
Blessing - beracha
How do we bless?
And God blessed-- the seventh
day and blessed it (Genesis 2:3)
Thanks and Praise todah vtehilah-
Why do we praise?
16

Introduction:
A day so happy.
Fog lifted early, I walked in the garden.
Hummingbirds were stopping over
Honeysuckle flowers.
There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess.
I knew no one worth envying him.
Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.
To think that the same man did not
Embarrassed me.
In my body I felt no pain.
When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.10
CZESLOW MILOSZ
It has been said that the Sabbath is an incubator for wisdom. Like
an incubator that provides the warmth and moisture necessary for a
babys physical growth, so too can Shabbat be seen as a setting in
time that offers us a way of being, thinking and feeling for one day, a
way of listening that nurtures our hearts, bodies and souls. Six days a
week we are tempted and trapped by the seductions of the market
place. The world of commerce conquers our souls with the message
that the more we have, the happier and more blessed we become. If
we only buy what the purveyors of merchandise have to sell, our
troubles will dissolve, our lives will be sweet and happiness will be
achieved. The unmistakable American message is: We are blessed
only if we are wealthy. This message propels our efforts, sacrifices,
energies and commitments throughout the six days of the work week.
The headlines of a recent New York Times article pierces the
heavens with the cry of ingratitude in todays contemporary world.
The Millionaires Who Dont Feel Rich, it announced. The front page
item proceeded to describe a community of working-class millionaires
in Silicon Valley, California, accomplished and ambitious members of
the digital elite (who) still do not think of themselves as particularly
fortunate, in part because they are surrounded by people with more
wealth-often a lot more you look around, Mr. Barbagallo said, and
the pressures to spend are everywhere. Children want the latest
fashions their peers are wearing and the most popular high-ticket
17
I Have a
precious
gift
among
My
treasures-
the
Sabbath
It
was
G
o
o
d
toys. Spouses talk, and now that resort in Mexico the family
enjoyed so much last winter is not good enough when looking
ahead to next year
To Mr. Milletti, it all looks like a marathon with no finish line.
Here the top one percent chases the top one-tenth of one
percent, and the top one-tenth of one percent chases the top
one-one-hundreth of one percent, he said.11
The Sabbath teaches us a
totally different lesson. On
the Sabbath, free of the
distractions and busyness of
everyday life, we are able
to listen to another voice,
our own godly voice, the still,
small voice that utters a different
message from that of the weekday.
We are wealthy because we are blessed and we take time
to bless. We listen-, to the reality of blessing-,
and we take time to bless, to articulate praise and
thanks, . The awareness of the richness in
our lives, however diversified
and heterogeneous, is a
fundamental source of feeling
blessed, given to, honored,
singled out for care and love, worthwhile and dignified. The
Sabbath allows us to take the time to
18

understand an ancient insight of our Rabbis about the meaning of life:
Who is rich? Those content with their portion.12

Because the Sabbath is so opportune
a time during which to perceive life
and the world differently, gratefully,
as a blessing, it affords us the extra
soulfulness by which to not only feel
blessed, but to bless others. Indeed, as
will be shown, from the Sabbaths first
moments of release and surrender
until its final fluttering with the
fading sun on the following day, words
of blessing fill the day to the brim- we
bless our wives, our husbands, our
children, our friends, the produce of the land, our God. In fact the blessing of the
Sabbath is best understood as an expression
o
f
thanksgiving for the wealth contained in each and every object of our blessing.
19

Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day.

Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.
And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while were asleep.
When we work well. A Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good. 13
Wendell Berry
Sabbath is essential for the connection to our humanity and for the
natural preservation of our planet. While recognizing the human need
and ability to control and improve upon nature in order to civilize life,
many scientists, and theologians alike, bemoan the increasing
blindness of humanity to the vulnerability of Nature and to its
pauperization.We ignore our natural origins and instead set our sights
on the syntheticizing of life and the world through techno-scientific
revolution.
If ever there was an institution or pattern of living that insisted on the
sacred stewardship of our world, it is the Sabbath. One day a week,
without exception, our compulsion to control and conquer nature is
constrained. In place of the triumph of technology, the Sabbath is
transformed into a time of grateful trust. Great are the laws that
govern the processes of nature. Yet without holiness there would be
neither greatness nor nature.14
O.E.Wilson, the distinguished sociobiologist and Pulitzer Prize winner,
passionately reminds us of our need for greater humility, in spite of his
utter dependence on science. Homo Sapiens is a species confined to
an extremely small niche. True, our minds soar out to the edges of the
universe, and contract inward to the subatomic particlesin this
respect our intellects are godlike. But lets face it; our bodies stay
trapped inside a proportionately microscopic bubble of physical
constraintsThis protective shield is the biosphere, the totality of all
life, creator of all air,cleanser of all water, manager of all soil, but itself
20

a fragile membrane that barely clings to the face of the planet. Upon
its delicate health we depend for every moment of our lives.15
Not only is our physical survival dependent upon the fullness of
nature but so too our psychological and spiritual well-being, our very
human-ness and sanity.
We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we
never do more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a
means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part
of the geography of hope. 16
21
Part 1- Listen: Be Mindful

Zachor- Remember -
We have to remember to stop because we have to stop to
remember17
The Bibles injunctions regarding the
Sabbath are not many. They stand out
however, since they constitute the fourth of
the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 20:8 we are bidden to remember
zachor- - the Sabbath day, its rationale being associated with
the creation of the world: For in six
days the Lord made heaven and earth
and the sea, and all that is in them and
He rested on the seventh day.(v.11) We remember Creation, a
moment of absolute wholeness and peace, a moment of
22

Creation's completion, the giving of the world to humanity as God's greatest gift.
23
R
e
m
e
m
b
e
r
Shabbat is a gift of living in the present, the past being a frame of

reference for the perfection of the present. Likewise, Shabbat is
viewed as an eternal moment, the anticipation of an ideal future-the
end of days which are Messianic in nature-being contained in the
here and now.
To pay attention, tradition has formulated a pattern and process of
experiencing a full day in a particularly attentiveness-raising
manner, in the form of a unique liturgy and a set of rituals and
practices. By carefully examining parts of the Sabbath liturgy we
can fully appreciate the power of Sabbath prayer to help us
crystallize our ability to pay attention to a new voice, to discover an
old-new spiritual reality in our lives. To remember the Sabbath is to
be spiritually mindful and attentive to the message of the Sabbath
as a day of recognizing the reality of blessing in our lives, to touch
the gratefulness and sanctity embedded in that day.
If we read the letters that constitute the Hebrew word for remember
zachor- backward (from left to right)-we construct the word
-rachoz- -which means to concentrate, to make central and
all-important.
the
Sabbath
Day
24

Furthermore, thank is derived from think as I will think on it, or remember.
The entire scope of Sabbath prayer-through song, word and meditation, is designed
to contribute to our ability to cultivate a greater sense of mindful consciousness of
the uniqueness of the Sabbath as a day during which we acknowledge our lives, the
world, Nature, as the invaluable gifts of our existence.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. I have always been perplexed by the
religious term- holy, -kadosh- which lies at the very core of the entire edifice
of Judaism. While meanings abound,, the
term remains abstract, if not out of reach.
Holy has been defined as special,
separate, set aside. We refer to God
as holy; religious items i.e. the Torah, are
holy, and the Sabbath day itself is regarded
as having been hallowed by God to be continuously
sanctified by Israel and the human community.
How is that done? How do we make the Sabbath or anything else, for that matter,
holy? If we accept the commonly held definitions of
speci
a
l, set aside, unique, how do we separate the Sabbath from the rest of the week?
25

Many make the day special by setting aside the Sabbath for some
special event or activity- a sports event, a concert, a visit to the
museum, a day at the beach-and in this way, the Sabbath is set
aside! But is it holy?
All religious traditions search for the experience of the sacred,the
numinous. My question remains: Is there an essential characteristic,
a common denominator, a thread that runs through this spiritual
enterprise that points to a spiritual reality shared and understood by
all as one of sanctity and holiness? Furthermore, how do we wrap
our minds and hearts around such an abstract concept in the course
of a particular twenty-four-hour period of time?
Rabbi Joseph B.Soloveitchik captures the merging of the holy and
the aesthetic, in the following words: The cosmic drama impresses
us with its orderliness and reverence.These emotions are
represented by adoration of the Author of this beautiful awe-inspiring
drama...God is experienced ecstatically as the artist whose creation
abounds in grace and loveliness...the beauty of God is experienced
in holiness...18
Revisiting the commandment Remember the Sabbath to keep it
holy- may give us a clue. In terms of the natural order of things, the
Sabbath is like any other day of the week. The sun shines in exactly
the same way it does on the other days of the week. Rains fall, winds
blow, even hurricanes hoist upon us their devastation. What
differentiates the Sabbath is an act of remembrance, a response of
listening, the inward, mindful and soulful awareness and
acknowledgement of the world and life as a gift by an Ultimate Giver.
What converts the day into a source of the sacred, what makes it
Holy, is the prior act of Remember the Sabbath day in six days
God made the heavens and the earth. Gods holiness is contained in
the divine identity of God as Giver and Creator of all things. We in
turn share in and reflect that holiness by our experience of
acknowledgement and thanksgiving. Gratefulness is the nexus of
holiness shared by the human and God.
And God saw all that He made and it was very good. The fact of the
worlds goodness is sacred because God declared it as such. But
before the goodness of the world can be transformed into a reality of
holiness, man has to meet God halfway by remembering the
goodness of creation and responding gratefully to the Giver for this
26
Listen
Take
Notice
Be
Mindful

goodness. What brings God and humanity together (on the Sabbath) is the mutual act
of hallowing.19
Holy
Holy
Holy
His Glory fills the universe
27

One particular psalm, Psalm 19, captures the fullness and essence
of the Sabbath as a day of listening.This Psalm, in fact, is recited only
on the Sabbath and Festivals.
The heavens declare the glory of God
The sky proclaims His Handiwork.
Day after day the word goes forth
Night after night the story is told
Soundless the speech,
Voiceless the talk,
Yet the story is echoed throughout the world.
Every day, every moment, is a reflection of the continuation of
Creation, an unfolding of God's uninterrupted capacity to renew
creation and sustain the miracle of that first amazing cosmic
moment.The story is on-going, unfolding every day of every week.
But, it is only on the Sabbath, without the distractions of work and the
need to conquer, are we afforded a day-long gift during which we can
lie back and listen, observe the gift around us and relish all its
wonder.
He or she who loves God, will look most deeply into His works.
Clouds are not only vapor, but shape, mobility, silky sacks of nourishing
rain.
The pear orchard is not only profit, but a paradise of light.
The luna moth, who lives but a few days, sometimes only a few hours, has a
pale green wing whose rim is like a musical notation. Have you noticed?20
Mary Oliver
Shabbat is the time to take notice of the treasures of the world and
rediscover thankfulness in our hearts. Shabbat is story-telling time.
Nature is a narrative without words, full of drama, excitement and joy.
On Shabbes, we enjoy the privilege of hearing this tale of times
movement through space and at the same moment catch a glimpse
of time standing still. The universe in all its silent glory utters a
moment of eternity on this day of gratefulness. Like children
enchanted by the unfolding of some fairy-tale, each of us is invited on
Shabbat to listen to the magical mystery of lifes mesmerizing miracle.
28
the
heavens
tell the
story
As we witness the narrative unfold, we gasp with gratefulness at the

grandeur of it all. As an audience we are overcome by grateful awe.
And we applaud with praise and acclaim the Author of this magnificent
epic.
The sun from its tent in the heavens
comes out like a bridegroom from his chamber

exulting and eager as a champion to run his course
From the rim of the east it rises
To sweep in majesty upward,
Westward, warming all on earth as it passes.
On the Sabbath we bask in the suns rays of warmth and clarity,
aware of its life-giving energy. The sun also rises like a bridegroom,
which brings us back to the night before when we experienced the
Sabbath as a bride and we greeted her with the love and yearning
that only a bridegroom could understand. Now, at the peak of the day,
the love of bride and bridegroom, Shabbat and Israel, flood the world
with climactic beauty and joy like the sun pouring out its rays upon the
earth. Drenched in the brightest light of Shabbats luminescence, we
yield to the fullness and saturation of the days perfection. It is no
wonder that the popular custom of an afternoons nap is an integral
part of the Sabbath experience. With such wholeness of feeling, we
let go and like Adam fall into a deep slumber of trust and surrender.
The sun..
like a lover
from his
canopy
29
A Tree Alone-A poem

I pray alone,
When in the country far,
Without a congregationss drone
Under sun and lonely star
On wooden deck,
wrapped in summer breeze,
A tiny human speck
Amidst a world of trees
And as the wind freely blows,
A welcome chill it brings,
A tingle in my sandaled toes
My heart elated sings
With swaying trees in dance,
I watch graceful bows,
perhaps the very last chance
To forget the whys and hows
Blessed I feel ,
on this fine day
my heart to heal
not a single thing to say,
For being in moments solitude,
With nothing but tree and me
Pouring forth with gratitude
To be in Gods company
Each tree, straight and tall
branches bending toward others
green leaves not ready to fall
like lips of aching lovers.
I listen to the breeze,
watch leaves bend and dance,
Who needs a cantors recitatives
When outdoor melodies, en-trance
30

Torahs chanting do I hear
Not written on a scroll,
But chirpings, pure and clear,
Enchant my yearning soul
And for sermon, deep and wise,
A rabbi I need not,
The silence in my lifes surprise
With knowledge is it fraught.
A butterfly,
just passing by,
beyond all beauty, blessing,
I really reach and really try
The endless praise, at best its only guessing
And so I wish each bird and tree,
A peaceful Sabbath day,
My country prayer community
If only I could stay.
31
Part 2 : Be Blessed
Fulfill-shamor--Refrain:
A second prominent reference to the Sabbath day is the second
version of the Ten Commandments in the book of Deuteronomy.
Observe, fulfill, (keep) the Sabbath day to make it holy...the seventh
day is holy to the Lord your God, do not do any work on it. (Deut.
5:12) Inseparable from the experience of the Sabbath is the
necessity to refrain from work. Knowing the adverse reaction many
have to living under a veil of restriction, especially when the purpose
of the Sabbath institution is freedom, how do we reconcile this
apparent contradiction? The following citation provides us with an
illuminating insight.
The Sabbath is a patch of ground secured by a tiny fence; when we
withdraw from the endless choices afforded us and listen, uncover
what is ultimately important, remember what is quietly sacred,
Sabbath restrictions on work and activity actually create a space of
great freedom; without these self-imposed restrictions, we may
never truly be free.21
While the risk remains of being overwhelmed and suffocated by the
mountains of Sabbath prohibitions, nonetheless these restrictions
create a reality in which one can release oneself from the tyranny of
doing, of making, of creating, of acting in order to feel one's sense of
self-worth and value. Shabbat celebrates one's being, our capacity
to witness the wonder of the world and draw forth a deep sigh of
satisfaction and gratefulness.To work, to re-fashion and re-shape our
world is an expression of dissatisfaction, an impulse to improve upon
the creation as we have it. Prohibited activity suggests any action
that interferes with the prospect of acquiring a deeper sense of
gratitude for our lives.
Kabbalistic thinking understands the word for remember--from
its translation as zacharmasculine.To engage in remembrance
and sanctification requires a creative
act.The second equally important
32

...
Praised are
You,Lord our
God...
And
He
Blessed

dimension of the Shabbat experience resides in the fulfillment
of the obligation to -- observing, fulfilling, connoting the
feminine aspect of being receptive
and embracing. In the spiritual
world we all encompass the
dynamics of giving and receiving, of releasing and taking in the
fullness of lifes myriad blessings.Masculine and
Serve the
divine
with
grateful
joy
33

feminine are integrated into a unity of utter harmony and completion.
Shabbat calls upon us to do many things, all of which are designed toward achieving
delight, pleasure and joyfulness, enhancing our awareness of gratitude and
thankfulness.
On the
Sabbath,
human
forms of
creation
are
forbidden-
whether
34

baking a pie or running a warehouse or writing a sonnet-to recall all the better what
humans cannot produce. Making love is especially encouraged, along with good
food and wine and company. Only what gets in the way of gratitude is proscribed.22
c. Rejoicing:
Shamor -
- fulfill, not only entails activity to be avoided, but calls our
physical and spiritual beings into response in

the celebration of the day. As a
complementary experience to zachor,
remembering, the positive side of
observing is a broad spectrum of sensual
and physical experiences that help sensitize us to
the awareness of the Sabbath as a day of giftedness and gratefulness. The
commandment shamor--observe, carry out, fulfill, embraces the imperative
that we do those things and perform those rituals and activities that heighten our
awareness of the
multipli
c
ity of pleasures by which human life is blessed and made more meaningful and joyful.
In much of Western religious thinking, the dichotomy of body and spirit seems to
prevail as a fundamental way by which we differentiate between that which is
significant and that which has little or no enduring value or meaning. It is assumed that
the spirit is superior and the material is to be abandoned, rejected if not entirely
repressed, in order to achieve greatest sanctity and saintliness.
By contrast, the casting away of the carnal is not the Jewish way. Rather, Judaism
insists that it is possible, if not necessary, to sanctify the physical and the bodily, and in
this way approach the fullness of life with an understanding that all of life is Gods gift
for which we are summoned to be grateful. Thus on Shabbat, we celebrate not only the
spirit but also the body; not only the soul but also the senses.
35
E. O.Wilson touches on a growing contemporary spiritual

phenomenon of great concern and consternation. Advocates of the
religious view toward life are abandoning their stewardship of the
world in favor of a promise of a spiritualized life entirely detached
and disconnected from the body and the physical form. Even more
perplexing is the widespread conviction among Christians that the
Second Coming is imminent,
and that therefore the
conditions of the planet are of
little consequence. Sixty
percent of Americans,
according to a 2004 poll
believe that the prophecies in
the Book of Revelation are
accurate. Many of these,
numbering in the millions,
think that the End of Time will
occur within the life span of
those now living.23
The Sabbath proclaims that
the material, the physical, the
sensual are not intrinsically
evil. To the contrary; the
material contains the
miraculous as does the
sensual encompass the
sparks of the sacred. How can the senses and sacredness fuse
together successfully?
Shabbat holds out the extraordinary message that divinity can be
discovered not only in the realm of the spiritual but in the arena of
human sense experience as well. The Sabbath is thus hallowed
through physical things- wine, fine clothes, gourmet foods, pleasant
fragrances, midday naps, intimate contact with one's spouse!
However, there exists a bridge between the sensual and the spiritual
without which they can remain apart, even antithetical.
36

In order for the sensual to seep its way into the spiritual and undergo
a transformation of sacredness, the sensual requires an
accompanying sense of gratitude and recognition of a divine source
as the Giver of these gifts. Gratitude is the bridge between the
sensual and the spiritual. On the Sabbath, all is elevated by dint of
our ability to gratefully acknowledge the giftedness of everything.
A delightful rabbinic comment points out that the word of Shabbat : Shin -, Beit -, and Tav-, is an acronymn for sleep
on the Sabbath is a pleasure-Sheinah Bshabbat Taanug. 24 .
Thus, a mundane activity such as sleep takes on the spiritual
dimensions of great sanctity. The Sabbath transforms the pedestrian
into the poetic as it reminds us that sleeping is an act of letting go,
surrender, not having to exert control, having trust in the goodness of
the world, resting in the arms of the divine(knowing) there are
forces larger than us that take care of the universethe deep
wisdom embedded in creation will take care of things for awhile.25
Not only are the mind and soul, the spiritual capacities of the human
being, necessary for the celebration of the Sabbath, but in fact all the
human senses touch, smell, taste, sight, hearing- are enlisted as
vital means by which the Sabbath is sanctified and our capacity to
respond with gratefulness is enhanced and enriched.
In the words of Wayne Fuller:
Sabbath invites us to take off our shoes, and allow our bodies to
touch the earth. Fleshy tenderness meets grass, dirt, sand and rock,
cool and warm and sensual like a lovers touch, feet on ground like a
kiss, an embrace. Walk slowly on a patch of ground, feel it on the
feet, feel the angles, curves, irregularities, know the way you know
the body of a lover, every fold and mound and line.26
A
Sabbath
Snooze
is
a
delight
37

To hallow it(Exodus 20:8)-with a blessing. On the basis of this verse,
wine
makes
the
heart
glad
the Sages said: At the incoming of the Sabbath we hallow it by

reciting the hallowing(Kiddush) of the day over wine. 27
Wine, the symbol of joy and physicality, the beverage of sweet
intoxication, is called into service as the first item of the Sabbath day
to be utilized in the act of sanctification.The well-known adage from
the book of Psalms , Chpt.104:15-Wine gladdens the heart, makes
it abundantly clear that together with all the products of the land-oil
from olive trees and bread from the wheat of the field, wine is a
natural part of the myriad gifts bestowed by God upon humanity.
Thus, the organic flow of gratitude that arises from an open and
grateful heart. Together with the drinking of the wine is the
indispensability of the act of blessing. We make holy by tasting the
wine and by acknowledging its source with words of gratefulness, of
blessing. Thus the onset of the process of gratefulness crystallization
and enhancement.
Taste and see how good is the Lord.

Psalm 34:9
The Psalm that contains the reference to tasting as an approach to

understanding the goodness of the world, hence the goodness of the
worlds Creator, is recited each Shabbat. An all-encompassing
dimension, without which the Sabbath experience is incomplete, even
eviscerated, is that of the fullest experience of physical delight on that
day. Without the inclusion of the body, how can one fully appreciate
and be grateful for, the given goodness of the universe and life? In
the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the beverages we drink, the
utensils we use, the games we play, the fragrances we smell, the
sounds we listen to, the full measure of Shabbats holiness and the
worlds blessing come to the fore. Even our ability to sleep and to
engage in intimate, sexual activity is looked upon as not only
permissible but desirable.
Taste
38

We wish you peace, angels of
peace, Angels of the most
sublime-the Holy
One Blessed be He.
What do angels do? They are messengers of the

divine who bring holiness into the world.
They praise God.
He will instruct His angels to guard you in all your
paths
May the Lord guard your going and your coming
now and forever.
We are grateful for the angelic part of the human
soul which allows us to make life holy and praise
God from grateful hearts.
39

Yevarechecha Adonai vyishmrecha
Yaeir Adonai panav eilehcha vichoonehka
Yisa Adonai panav eilehcha vyaseim lecha SHALOM
May God bless you and protect you
May God turn His light toward you so that you may be gracious and
generous
May God favor you , your loved ones, Israel and the human
community, with PEACE.
If any day elevates our gratitude for children-whether our own, those
of our family or the children of the world-it is the Sabbath.
Friday night is the holy time of blessing and parents transmit that
blessing by placing hands on the tender heads of our children and
recite ancient words pregnant with hopes and dreams.
May
God
bless
and
protect
you
40
Oneg-the heart of the Sabbath

Oneg --pleasure or delight, is a leitwort, a thematic key word
around which the prayers and
practices of the Sabbath pivot.
According to the Sephardic
tradition, the following selection
is included in each of the
recitations of the Amidah prayer on the
Sabbath day, with the exception
of the afternoon of Shabbat whose spiritual quality is particularly
unique. (In the Ashkenazi tradition, this excerpt is
A
A
H!
41
Make us
grateful
for Your
Goodness
42
hon
or
it
43
44

reserved only for the morning Amidah of the Additional service, the Musaf).
They shall rejoice in Your Sovereignty-those who observe -(shomrei--from the
word, shamor) the Sabbath and call it a delight-Oneg- ;the people who sanctify
the seventh day will be satisfied and delighted (yitangu--from the
word-oneg-delight) because of Your goodness (bounty or gifts).
The prayer brings to our conscious awareness the spiritual imperative of experiencing
physical pleasure and delight on the Sabbath as a means of fulfilling Gods wishes.
Blessing is embedded in the day, readily available, inviting us to open our hearts and
receive it. At the core of this expectation is the realization that the Sabbaths greatness
and joy pulsate and come alive when the Sabbath observer is able to deeply recognize
the source of lifes delights with an inner perception of gratefulness. To deprive the
individual of lifes basic pleasures on the Sabbath would be entirely inimical to
Sabbaths purpose.
The centrality of oneg-- of delight on the Sabbath originates in an early Biblical
passage- Thou shall call the Sabbath a
delight.(Isaiah 58:13) The Rabbis expand on
the notion of delight to encompass the
totality and essentiality of the elemental
components of raw physical existence. With
what is one to show his delight on the
Sabbath? R. Judah son of R. Samuel bar
Shilat said in the name of Rav: With a dish
of beets, large fish and heads of garlic. R. Hiyya bar Ahi said in the name of Rav: So
long as it is prepared in the honor of the Sabbath, even a
hum
b
le dish is a delight. What humble dish, for example? R. Papa said: Fish-hash pie. 28
Thus, whether the dish eaten on the Sabbath is regarded as
something of a
delicacy or a food that is common and readily available, what transforms the prosaic,
primitive item is the spiritual perception of the Sabbath as a day of gratefulness, which
converts it into a moment of holiness. A more dramatic illustration of the unique power
of the Sabbath experience is in the following:
A Caesar asked R. Joshua b. Hananiah: Why do Sabbath dishes have such a fragrant
aroma? He answered: We have a certain seasoning called Sabbath which we put in
the dish, and that gives it its fragrant aromaFor him who keeps the Sabbath it avails;
45

but for him who does not, it will not avail.29 The key to the special ness of the Sabbath
is not the material item itself, whether one dish or another. The secret ingredient is the
Sabbath.
How is ones taste of the Sabbath enhanced and sensitized? I would suggest through
the mindful awareness of the extraordinary wonder contained in virtually each and
every dish. By tapping into a spiritual capacity for gratefulness, the spiritual dimension
refined by way of this awareness enlarges and intensifies the sensual experience of
smell, sound, sight, touch and taste.
Another central phrase of the Sabbath liturgy that reinforces and
amplifies the force of oneg, , of delight, is the reaching for satisfaction and
contentment on the Sabbath day. A thread
that runs through the entire worship service of the Sabbath is the hope for fulfillment:
sabeinu mituvecha,- -Satisfy us from Your goodness. Based on the
assumption that on the Sabbath we do not
petition God for anything, how are we to
understand this prayer that seems to imply
that to request an abundance from God is
perfectly natural and in keeping with the
spirit of Shabbat? We are not petitioning
God for abundance; we are asking for the
capacity to feel satisfied with the abundance
that is already available to us. Herein lies
the nub of Sabbaths meaning. When we
gratefully recall the creation of the world,
which is one of the two basic rationales of the
Sabbath, then we experience a sense of
gratification and are rendered content,
even happy. The challenge of the Sabbath is
to present us with a structure, a set of practices and experiences, a series of
techniques and ways of thinking, that enable us to make internal connections
w
ith the wellsprings of our innate sense of gratefulness. Gratification is within our grasp.
My Shabbes outfit is jeans.
Ones total ambience, all that surrounds and embraces an individual, reflects the
uniqueness of the seventh day. Even, or especially, ones clothing. Clothes mark the
special ness of an occasion and our attitudes to it. Getting dressed up is a common
feature of preparing for a singular event in ones life; The Sabbath is that weekly
46

occasion that mandates a mindful awareness of how we dress and how we feel as a
result of our attire.
And thou shall honor it(Isaiah 58:13)-so that your garment for the Sabbath is not like
your garment for weekdays. Rabbi Huna said: If one has a change of garments, he
should change them; but if he has nothing to change into, he should let them down.30
(and not tuck them up as he does while working.)
A number of years ago, as rabbi of a Manhattan synagogue, I noticed that a young
woman would regularly attend Sabbath services always dressed in jeans. She was
quite conspicuous compared to everyone else wearing his or her Sabbath best. While
recognizing the growing informality that was emerging in the public behavior of the
younger people of the community, I still remained very curious about this womans
insistence on coming to shul on Shabbes so casually dressed. Perhaps the reason
was related to some kind of personal rebellion or expression of gender equality.
One Shabbat, at the conclusion of the services, this woman approached me and said:
Rabbi, you are probably wondering why I come to shul on Shabbes in jeans? Not
wanting to embarrass her, I hesitated. As a matter of fact, I replied, I did wonder
about it. I quickly reassured her that her being present in the synagogue was more
important than her dress. Let me explain why, she continued. All week long I dress
up formally for work. I have to appear at my very best to impress clients and coworkers. One day a week, Shabbes, I dont have to impress anyone. Its a day of
complete relaxation and change from the tension and competition of the work week. I
am most comfortable, and most myself, when I wear jeans. Jeans are my Shabbes
outfit.
I thought of the Talmudic statement referred to above and appreciated her comment.
If a change is made that highlights the holiness of the Sabbath as a day of
gratefulness, then we have honored the day and have fulfilled its expectations.
47

Sights, smells, songs and sex on the Sabbath:
Perhaps the most widely known and practiced ritual associated with the Sabbath is
the lighting of the Sabbath candles on Friday evening. Who can forget the touching
scene from Fiddler on the Roof during which Tevyas family is gathered around the
simple Sabbath table and his wife and daughters share in the ritual candle lighting. The
theatre is darkened and all that the audience sees are flickers of flame which evoke
powerful memories and emotions of deep attachment and longing. This act is
accompanied by the fathers blessing his children, another deeply endearing
experience of the day.
The symbolism of light, with all its many spiritual ramifications, is captured in the
moments of the lights glow. Light and fire, a fundamental source of energy, a gift of
creation, conveys the magic and the blessing of this natural manifestation of the
worlds wonder. So central is lights significance that the Sabbath is both ushered in
and escorted out at the end of the day, to the kindling of lights, an unmistakable
reminder of the gift of all heavenly luminaries. We feast our eyes on the colors, warmth
and enchantment of the flames, perceiving with our minds eye the generosity of the
Ultimate Source of all things. These little lights bring us great delight.
And call the Sabbath a delight(Isaiah 58:13). The word delight-oneg--refers
to the kindling of the lamp on the Sabbath. My life was bereft of
peace
(
Lamentations 3:17) refers, according to R. Abbahu, to the lack of the Sabbath lamp. 31
The eyes become a conduit for Sabbaths message of gratefulness. We quietly
witness, with the awareness of our hearts and the blessings on our tongues, the
spiritual freedom embedded in the humble flames of this sacred day.
...Fire is the ultra-living element.It is intimate and it is universal.It lives in iur heart.It
lives in the sky.It rises from the depths of the substace and offers itself with the warmth
of love...31
48

Three generations back
My family had only
To light a candle
And the world parted.
Today, Friday afternoon.
I disconnect clocks and phones.
When night fills my house
With passages,
I begin saving My life.
Marcia Falk 32
49

We not only stop to look on the Sabbath; we stop to smell as well.
An ancient practice still followed by members of the Sephardic
community is the taking of fragrant flowers or plants and inhaling
their aroma with the arrival of each Shabbat.
One Sabbath eve, before sunset, R. Simeon ben Yochai and his son
R. Eleazar saw an old man holding two bunches of myrtle and
running in the twilight.What are these for? They asked him. To honor
the Sabbath, he replied. But one should be enough? One is for the
commandment of remember and one for the commandment to
observe. R. Simeon said to his son. See how beloved are the
commandments to Israel.33
In both cases of sight and smell, the tradition mandates more than
one. A minimum of two candles is required and from the above
passage it is clear that the Shabbat is more fully observed when
there is an abundance of aromas as well, satisfying our sense of
smell and nurturing our physical senses with the consciousness of
lifes plentiful pleasures. We are forbidden to stint on the Sabbath. By
bestowing upon ourselves the fullest measure we can afford of lifes
physical and sensual joys, the spiritual meaning of the Sabbath is
more fully understood and embraced.
Again, like the lights
of Shabbat so too its
fragrances. As we
welcome the Sabbath
with sweet scents so
do we bid farewell to
this moment of
gratefulness with
spices of rich pungency and renewal
during the Havdallah-- service,
the service of
separating the Sabbath from the weekday period.
The gift of hearing is also celebrated on the Sabbath. One of the
exceptional features of the Sabbath celebration is the chanting of
Sabbath songs during Sabbath meals.Normally, families eat and
50
Yah
My
Strength
My
Song
make
the day
Holy
make
love
run. In the best of circumstances, they linger at the table for protracted
conversation. Only on the Sabbath, however, is the meal experience
complemented and enhanced by the melodious strains of songs
praising the Sabbath and the Sabbaths Source.
The tunes, lyrics and sounds all converge to heighten our awareness
of how great a gift is all that we enjoy-our food, family, friends and the
fact of our existence.
The Talmud prescribes the Sabbath as
a time for making love. How often are
scholars to perform their marital duties? Rab Judah in the name of
Samuel replied: Every Friday night.32 Moreover, Jewish law defines
lovemaking as one of the delights taanugei Shabbat-- of the Sabbath.34
It was Judaisms recognition of the sanctity of sensuality, especially on
the Sabbath, that made intimate contact between husband and wife a
strongly desirable Sabbath activity. The pleasure of the human body,
the physical experience of touch and contact, are regarded as a
profound means by which to acknowledge the joy and giftedness of life
and the companionship of ones spouse. If the Sabbath is designed in
such a way as to elevate our sense of gratefulness for all things of life,
it is natural that the Sabbath would emerge as the most conducive and
desirable time during which to engage in intimate activity as well.
Further more, the leisure associated with the Sabbath allows for the
fullest expression of love and gratefulness to ones partner for the gift of
human sexuality.
There is no reason or valid justification to hurry with the satisfaction of
ones physical needs. The commentaries on the Code of Jewish Law
recommend strongly that all effort be made by the husband to express
himself romantically and lovingly so that the sexual act be incorporated
as part of a larger relationship of love.35 Shabbats freedom from daily
demands and burdens permits the couple to more fully open their
hearts to one another and engage in a more meaningful exchange of
caring and love. Shabbat is the time to be grateful for human love.
51

The Gift of Torah
The Torah of the Lord is perfect, renewing the spirit
The precepts of the Lord are just, gladdening the heart
More precious are they than gold, than purest gold,
Sweeter than honey, droppings of the honeycomb.
(Psalm 19)
Recited as part of the Sabbath morning liturgy, this Psalm highlights
the study of Torah is an integral part of the Sabbath experience.
Minimally, the Sabbath service mandates the public reading of the
Torah, a portion each week until the entire Torah is completed either
in one or three years.
Together with recognizing
divinity in the text of natures
glory, Shabbat affords us the
understanding of the intimacy and
love associated with the
discovery of the divine in the
text of Torah as well. The vivifying
capacity of the Sabbath, ordained in the Torah by the
word-Vayeenafash--- He was refreshed, nefesh-being the word for life-force or soul, is
52
sweeter
than
honey
Your
Torah
is
my
Play thing
53
Let the
humble
be glad
54

realized and reinforced by one's engagement in Torah study on this day.
The Sabbath is a particularly opportune time during which Torah is engaged in not only
intellectually or halachically, with all its many manifestations of controversy and
differing opinions, but rather, in the words of the Psalmist, as an experience of
sweetness that gladdens the heart and renews the spirit. For the study of Torah to
be Shabbesdik- true to the spirit of the Sabbath- it must make available to all a sense
of grateful joy, connecting us to its treasures of genuine guidance and love.
Berekhia taught in the name of R. Hiyya bar Abba: The Sabbath was given solely
for enjoyment. R. Haggai said in the name of R. Samuel Bar Nachman: The Sabbath
was given solely for the study of Torah. But the two do not really differ. What
R.Berakhia said applies to disciples of the wise who weary themselves all week long
in the study of the Torah but on Shabbat come out and enjoy themselves. What R.
Haggai saidapplies to workingmen who are monopolized by their work all week long
but on the Sabbath come in and busy themselves with the Torah. 36 I understand this
rabbinic comment to apply to all, not only the scholar or the workingman, in a
somewhat different way. The way by which the Torah is experienced, especially on the
Sabbath, is when its potential for joy is shared by all, a joy that is joined to the sense of
gratefulness for the gift of the Torah itself.
Shabbes in Becket
I, the text,
She, the commentator,
I, God-the final word,
She, Rashi running with the word
Cradled in her heart
Side by side on rocking chairs
Suns rays washing our faces
With warm rivulets of honeyed
Light,
Eyes closed,
Knitted blankets blocking winters chill,
We cuddle up to the caress of Torah
What is the reading today, she asks?
and we embark on a Shabbes journey
into our souls, taking with us a
satchel of sacred words, of ancient stories
with echoes of eternity.
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I recite and Rosie
Rivets words into moments
of midrashic enchantment,
wonder of clarity and vision
I, Moses, raise my hand
and perform magic,
rods into snakes and back again
to lifeless sticks,
water into blood,
day into night,
and death in the service of freedom.
But Miriam
Raises the hem of long flowing skirts
Lifting her legs in dance,
Raising her voice in song,
Miriam the miracle maker,
With body and breast
Bursting with life
In service of life.
Her descendent, my wife,
Sings the song of hearts softness
And dances the dance of Sabbath delight.
I will praise the Lord at all timeslet the humble be glad
Taste and see how good is the Lord.(Psalm 34 :2,9)

Witnessing the wonder of the world and tasting
the sweetness of Torah, how can anyone not
praise the Giver of these gifts?
Furthermore, knowing the all time-ness of
the human capacity for gratefulness, for
praise, is a source of great assurance and
inner stability. It is common for most to thank, to praise at moments of favor and
fortune. Tamid--always, perpetually, uninterruptedly, represents the temporal
reality of Sabbaths extraordinary bestowal of blessing by which to transcend
circumstance and
t
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h
e transient and touch the tassels of Gods Presence every seventh day of every week.
Enlightened by the awareness of Creation, Torah and eternity, the darkness of passing
moments is illumined as if by the piercing rays of a floodlight, the sacred gift of the
Sabbath.
Shabbat is meant for all. It is the most completely democratic gift. Let the humble be
glad
As long as the external and material dimensions of success blind the eye and block the
heart of the ungrateful, Shabbat remains onerous, even wasteful. If gratefulness is
granted, however, its power can redeem us from our fear and failure. It is only the
grateful heart than can sanctify the day, no matter our riches and renown.
57
Commenting on a passage in Deuteroomy, Chapter 8:10-You shall eat, be

satisfied and bless the Lord for the good land He has given you, Shlomo of
Karlin stated:
When one eats in a spirit of gratitude,whether there is much food

or little, the meal is satisfying.
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With all your offerings you must offer salt( Leviticus 2:13)
It is the custom on the Sabbath to add salt to the challah when having each of the
three Sabbath repasts. Salt, the symbol of preservation, suggests the eternity of the
covenant and the special relationship between God and those who celebrate the
Sabbath as a day of holiness and gratefulness to the Source off all things.
Curiously, the Hebrew word for salt is ,melach and by re-arranging the three
letters you arrive at the Hebrew word for bread,,lechem, or to do battle.(Other
re-arrangements of the letters constitute other words of significant meaning--to
have compassion;-to forgive,the act of dancing;-to dream)
A wonderfu Hindu storty about salt.

An apprentice of an aging Hindu master could not stop complaining.One morning the
master sent his disciple for some salt.When he returned, the master instructed the
unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then drink it.
How does it taste? the master asked.
Bitter, spit the apprentice.
The master then asked the student to take the same handful of salt and put it in the
lake.The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and once the young man swirled his
handful of salt in the water, the old master said.: Now drink from the lake.
As the water dripped down the disciples chin, the master asked:
How does it taste?
Fresh, remarked the apprentice.
Do you taste the salt? asked the master.
No, said the young man.
The master taught: The pain of life is pure salt.The amount of pain in life remains the
same.But the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put the pain
in.When you are in pain, the only thing to do is to enlarge your sense of things...Stop
being a glass. Become a lake
Perhaps the custom of adding salt to challah reminds us of Sabbaths song of
gratefulness, a song that resides in our soulful capacity to praise and to thank, no
matter what our pain.Gratefulness can be as large and refreshing as a lake.
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-
Part 3: Thank-Praise :Todah vTehilah
The Sabbath teaches all beings whom to praise.

Abraham Joshua Heschel
Angels have six wings, one for each day of the week, with which
they chant their song; on the seventh day, the angels plead with
God: Master of the Universe! Please give us another wing with
which to praise You on the Sabbath? God replied: I have one wingthis world -that sings for Me today. It is written: From the wing of
the earth we have heard songs, Glory for the righteous! (Isaiah
24:16) Indeed, on Shabbat God wants to hear only the songs of His
children.37
We examine the liturgy on Shabbat to
gain an understanding of how prayer
on Shabbat is an integral component of the gratefulness experience
on this day. Prayer on Shabbat is never petition; it is exclusively
praise-, an expression of thank you -, of gratitude.
The Sabbath Liturgy:

Kabbalat Shabbat FridayEvening
With the setting sun on Friday

afternoon, we step into a sacred and joyful space by reciting the
Kabbalat Shabbat - - service, welcoming the
Shabbat. The Hebrew word -- kabbalah, means more than
welcome. The word suggests receiving, embracing,
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ingesting
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the Sabbath in all its many manifestations of blessing and goodness.
This service encompasses six Psalms
of praise corresponding to the six days of creation and culminates in
Lecha Dodi- - a song of welcome to the beauty of the
day, metaphorically experienced by the images of the Sabbath as
queen or bride. The
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words of this song urge the banishment of all sorrow, humiliation and grief.
Feel not ashamed or humiliated,
Why are you bowed down, why do you moan?

Wake up! Wake up!
For your light has come,
Arise and shine;
Awaken! Awaken! Utter a song.
Instead of sadness and shame, there is joy and light; in place of not enough there is
more than enough. So complete is the Sabbath that there is literally no room for
sorrow in our hearts. Jewish law itself dictates that when a loved one dies, no public
mourning rites are observed on the Sabbath day. 38 All is gratefulness, with
consternation and worry edged out of our consciousness.
Evening time is a time of uncertainty, fear.
Darkness brings dread and our evening
weekday prayers petition God for protection
and safety. But insecurity is alien on
Shabbat, a day of utter confidence and trust. During the prayer for evenings
peace-hashkivainu - -we do not recite the weekday-closing blessing of:
Blessed are Youforever the Protector of Israel. Rather, the closing blessing elicits
the hope for and awareness of, peace -- shalom: Who spreads His Sukkah
of peace over us. Curiously, the image of
the sukkah, a simple hut, evokes an
association to all that is frail and
vulnerable, without the alleged security that
comes from our reliance on dwellings made of
steel, brick and stone. The sukkah suggests exposure, to the sky and the elements
around us, to the natural world. If anything, the sukkah allows us to intimately sense
G
o
ds handiwork, the creation celebrated on the Sabbath, a gift of the loftiest importance.
A highlight of the evening service is a citation from the Torah that conveys the
Sabbaths spiritual significance, its reflection of the uniqueness of our relationship to
God.
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It is a sign-- between Me and the people Israel for all time38 What is the
Sabbath? A sign, a symbol, a signature, a totality. If one analyzes the numerical
construction of the Hebrew word for sign-Ot -- it is comprised of 3 letters: Aleph
-- the first letter of the alphabet ;
Vav-- with a numerical value of 6, and
Tav--the last letter of the alphabet. One
can say, therefore, that the middle letter of
the Hebrew word for sign, vav=6,
representing the six days of creation, is encompassed by the first and final letters of
the word for sign and of the alphabet, suggesting beginning and
ending
,
alpha and omega, the all-ness of everything captured in the sacred sign of Shabbat.
Furthermore, the sign of the Sabbaths link between Israel and God is leolam -forever, for all eternity. Not only does the word olam- -point to
allness in time but it also suggests
totality in space, the word olam being synonymous with world. All needs
are satisfied, all desire is met, and all aspiration is attained. God Himself, Shavat
Vayeenafash, - -rested and was refreshed and renewed. The Sabbath
replenishes, fills all the empty spots in
our bodies and souls, with nothing
lacking, with everything within the reach of our consciousness, our ability to be
grateful. The seventh day has the flavor of seventh heaven and was given as a
foretaste of the world to come; ot hi leolam, - -a token of
eternity. 39
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Most of our many daily blessings bring needs and desires before
God.The Amidah prayer of the weekday pivots around petition. On
the Sabbath, by contrast, not a word of I want or I need is
contained in our prayers. Only praise and thanksgiving arise from
our hearts glorifying the Sabbath day.
You sanctified the Sabbath day for the sake of Your Name.
For the sake of Gods reputation as the ultimate and most

generous of Givers do we sanctify the Sabbath. This day has no
other purpose but to present our pleasure and appreciation.
Upon closer examination, however, we do need to petition, to pray
for something on the Sabbath. Its not health or wealth, not
happiness, power or fame. We pray for that which is so very
difficult to attain, a spiritual posture that is sometimes so daunting it
often remains beyond our reach. After all, to gripe, to demand, to
feel entitled, to envy and compete all come pretty naturally. But
gratitude is different. Thus even on the Sabbath we have to ask for
divine guidance in our attempt to acquire a heart of gratefulness.
As a result we have the core prayer of the Sabbath:
Accept our rest, sanctify us with Your mitzvoth, allow us a portion
of Your Torah; permit us to experience the fullness of your freely

given goodness and love; grant us the joy of knowing Your
kindness and compassion.
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Shacharit of Shabbat-Sabbath Morning

On the Sabbath, the flow of praise unfolds more elaborately than on
weekdays.
By the mouth of the upright, You are extolled;
By the words of the righteous, You are praised;

By the tongue of the faithful, You are acclaimed;
By the heart of the saintly, are You hallowed.
This brief paragraph of praise, prior to the formal beginning of prayer
ushered in by the Barchu --can be understood in a
straightforward way, namely, those
who praise God are naturally and expectedly to be considered as
upright, righteous, faithful and saintly. Those who do not meet these
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spiritual standards are less likely to express words of devotion and honor.
I would suggest reversing the sequence between the first and second phrases of each
verse. Rather than starting with the description of ones religious character as the
motivating factor leading to the response of praise, I submit that the common thread
uniting all four categories of spiritual attainment-uprightness, righteousness,
faithfulness, saintliness-is the disposition to relate to God from the vantage point of
praise. Those graced with a grateful heart are the ones who naturally praise. Without
the inner inclination of gratefulness as the foundation for ones life, it is unlikely, if not
impossible, to reach the degree of piety reflected in the above mentioned
classifications.
Therefore, on the Sabbath we recite these words reminding
ourselves of the
spiritual standard of holiness inextricably tied into the mind-set of gratefulness.
For it is the duty of all creaturesto extol, laud and glorify You.
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Faced with the unhappy prospect of being excluded from the
community of the saintly and the righteous, the average individual is
informed in no uncertain terms that all creatures have a duty to
praise, every one can discover the natural capacity to be grateful
and to celebrate the Sabbath as a unique spiritual day of the week.
It is a day on which we abandon our plebeian pursuits and reclaim
our authentic state of being in which we may partake of a
blessedness for what we are, regardless of whether we are learned
or not, of whether our career is a success or a failure: it is a day of
independence from social conditions. I would add that the Sabbath is
a day of independence of all conditions except one-the condition of
being grateful.
One could argue that in reviewing the entire continuum of Sabbath
prayer the essential thrust of all the many words, and there are
indeed many, is to utter grateful praise as an instrument of
relationship to a Higher Source of Giving and Compassion.
Immediately following the call to prayer, the Barchu,-- we
come into contact with the
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allness, the comprehensive and over arching reality of the universe.
All creatures praise You, all declare Gratefulness generates an explosion of
exaltation throughout all living things. Shabbat is the ideal time for the performance of
this worldwide chorus to reach its sublime crescendos.
The Sabbath prayers reiterate the wonder, beauty and grandeur of the world as it is.
His greatness and goodness fill the universe; knowledge and wisdom encircle His
PresenceHe is acclaimed by beauty and gloryall bodies of the heavens, the stars
and planets, acclaim Him with praise.
The central Morning Prayer, the Amidah, usually replete with petitions, contains one
central theme, the giftedness of the Sabbath.
Moses rejoiced at the gift of his portion.. adorning him with splendor atop Mt. Sinai,
two tablets of stone did he bring down inscribed with Sabbath observance What is
clearly and unmistakably echoed in this prayer is the Talmudic exegesis on the
Sabbath that informs us of the following:
i
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The Holy One Blessed be He, said to Moses, I
have a precious gift in My treasure house called
the Sabbath and desire to give it to Israel; go and
inform them for it is written: that you may
know that I the Lord sanctify you.(Exodus
31:13) 40
Intrinsic to the gift of the
Sabbath day is the notion of the
Giver. As in all things given
that we cherish, the recipient, by
nature of her role as receiver, is
morally expected to acknowledge
and be grateful to the source of
the gift. The Amidah reiterates the
nature of this day by reminding us
that You gave (this day) lovingly to
the people Israel, Your beloved
descendents of Jacob. Why? What is
the purpose of this gift? The prayer
answers the question this way: (So that)
The people sanctify the seventh
day. How? The Amidah
continues directly with its
reply. (The people) will all be satisfied, satiated and delighted, filled
with pleasure from tuvecha-- Your goodness. The people of
Israel sanctify the day by
achieving a sense of fulfillment
and sufficiency from that which
already exists in the very nature of
Gods created world. To take the
utmost delight and joy from every iota of creation, of nature, is to
attest to the generosity of the Creator and thereby
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experience a sense of
gratefulness that
permeates the experience of the day.

A little before the Barchu, the
Sabbaths morning service is
particularly enriched by the
dramatic declaration of the
aliveness of all things in Nature.
The animus and energy of being alive is the source of Gods untold
praises. Nishmat kol Hai - -the breath, the soul, the
life force of all living things in the world-tevoreich et sheemcha
adonai elohaynu- - Praises Your
name, Lord our God. This prayer
conveys the spiritual reality that
every species that lives represents
membership in the universal chorus of
song and praise, from the lyrical language of humans to the muted
movement of millions of minuscule creatures and forms of
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72
73
74

primitive life. Nature in its fullest diversity and numbers pulsates with praise.
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We acclaim Gods shem-- name or signature, imprinted on every atom of life,
and all things delight in this document of divinity.
These words are reserved for the Sabbath.
The prayer continues with the stark awareness of how woefully inadequate our words
are when attempting to do full justice to the marvel and wonder of life.
Could song fill our mouth as water fills the sea,
And could joy flood our tongue like the countless waves,
Could our lips utter praise as limitless as the sky,
And could our eyes match the splendor of the sun?
Could we soar with arms like eagles wings
And run with gentle grace
As the swiftest deer,
Never could we fully state our gratitude
For one-ten-thousandth of the lasting love
Which is Your precious blessing dearest God
Granted to our ancestors and to us.41
Together with a sense of overpowering gratefulness the liturgist recognizes the inability
to accurately express gratefulness which only reinforces his profound experience of
humble thankfulness. By what merit do we deserve life and its countless blessings?
What entitles us to so much, to the gift of being alive in all its myriad forms?
This question is raised not only by the author of our prayer but by contemporary voices
as well. I can think of no finer or precise poetic expression of this spiritual
understanding than the words of Mary Oliver:
Everywhere I go I am
Treated like royalty, which I am not.
I thirst and am given water. My eyes thirst,
and I am given the white lilies on the black water.
My heart sings but the apparatus of singing doesnt convey
half what it feels and means. In spring there s hope,
in fall the exquisite necessary diminishing,
in winter I am as sleepy as any beast in his leafy cave,
but in summer there is everywhere the luminous sprawl of gifts,
the hospitality of the Lord and my
inadequate answers as I row my beautiful, temporary body through this water-lily world. 42
Why these gifts? What is their source? How do we explain to ourselves the miracle,
the wonder, and the mystery of human existence?
You guide the world with kindness,
its creatures with compassion.
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The ultimate gift of life is the love that finds its finest expression and translation in
responses of compassion and kindness to all things that live. The Sabbath is a gift
therefore by which we can recognize and be grateful for everything which is the allembracing gift of the human experience.
In the minds of many, the Sabbath is a lazy day, one of sleepy leisure. Certainly
compared to the frenetic pace of the work week, its mood and movement are designed
to slow us down, to instill in us the dreamy quality of being at rest.
Interestingly, however, the Nishmat-- prayer suggests an experience of
alertness and aliveness that is
dramatically different from other days of the
week, in spite of their accelerated tempo.
Gods gifts to humanity are made manifest
in that He stirs the sleeping, supports the
falling, frees the fettered, raises those bowed
down, and gives voice to the speechless. The Sabbath paradoxically is a day of peak
aliveness, an experience embraced by spiritual
free
d
om, self-esteem and confidence, and the ability to articulate our innermost aspirations.
Not only is the worlds macrocosm a source of amazement in its allness and
multiformity, but also each individual microcosmically encompasses an entire universe
of ability and function by which to make known the miracle of living.
These limbs which You formed for us,
This soul-force, which You breathed into us,
This tongue which You set in our mouth
Must laud, praise, extol and sing Your holiness and
sovereignty
Every knee shall bend to You,
Every back shall bow to You,
Every heart shall revere You,
Every fiber of our being shall sing to Your glory.
The totality of our being can sing praise as our every fiber is filled with gratefulness for
lifes goodness. As this prayer represents a reflection of the innate spiritual capacity of
every human being to humbly thank the source of all for the gift of all, so too does it
instruct us to awaken our awareness and evoke the inner need to praise and thank
and to gratefully accept the full panorama of life.
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Mizmor Shir Le-Yom Ha-Shabbat
A Song for the Sabbath Day
Each day of the week has a chosen psalm, one associated with the nature and
purpose of that day, a psalm that was recited in the ancient world as an addendum to
animal offerings.
The Sabbath too has its particular psalm.
At first glance there seems to be no
direct kinship to the qualities of the
Sabbath that would justify its selection
for this special day. In fact, the words of
this psalm could easily and appropriately be
recited any time during the week.43 Why are
they relegated to Shabbat with an introduction
that reads: A song for Shabbat. A closer examination reveals the reason. The
superscription of the psalm- ,mizmor shir is generally translated as a psalmsong.Each of the two words refers to song in
some way.It is as if the author were saying-Song song to the Sabbath! In other
words, the Sabbath itself is a source of song and
prai
s
e,a reality in time that reflects and resonates with unmitigated gratefulness and thanks.
It is good to acclaim the Lord, to sing Your praise, exalted God.
Is this not the emotional underpinning of the
Sabbath? When Genesis tells us that God rested, we are first informed that all that He
had made was very good-tov meod.- -(Genesis1: 31). The opening word
of the Sabbath psalm is: Tov --it is good, to acclaim etc. Is not the Sabbath an
opportune time to acknowledge the goodness of the world, creation and nature by
e
x
periencing how good it is and expressing praise and gratefulness for all this goodness?
Furthermore, the psalm resonates with the commandment -Remember the Sabbath
dayfor in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth as it continues with:
Your works O Lord make me glad, I sing with joy of Your creation.
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Why the need for Shabbat? How else can we pause to witness the grandeur, splendor
and majesty of the world we inhabit? As genuine and trustworthy witnesses, we attest
to this wonder through words of praise and inner consciousness of contentment and
gratefulness.
Samachti- -I rejoiced. The joy-simcha-- is derived from not only
the awareness of natures extraordinary glory
but in perceiving such magnificence as a gift
beyond measure. Joy is embedded in
gratefulness. The Sabbath is a time of
joy because it is a time of grateful awareness. I will sing as a result of Your
handiwork; again, the melody of the Sabbath day is one of marvel and the
gr
a
tefulness that emerges from this remarkable insight of lifes miraculous manifestations.
The Psalm concludes with the assertion
that God is just, without flaw. The
Sabbath holds out the privilege and
opportunity to see life gratefully,
without the need to focus on its flaws,
without the inclination to search for that
which is missing, unsatisfactory, and a source
of complaint and grumbling. On the Sabbath we
do not entertain feelings of Gods unfairness; a
Sabbath perspective is one of wholeness, one
which reflects a sense of completion and
fullness, a moment in which to catch a glimpse
of a reality often overlooked, of a unified and
harmonious universe which can be grasped only with the open heart and soul blessed
with the power of gratefulness. It was on the seventh day that the world was given a
soul. He rested -vayinnafash--(Exodus 31:17);nefesh - - means soul.44
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As the day wanes, a sadness begins to settle over our minds
knowing that this special gift of time is coming to an end. Thus the
Amidah for the Afternoon prayers fortifies our awareness of the
giftedness of the day, reminding us that it is an unconditional gift that
recurs weekly without interruption. The historic eternity of the
Sabbath is featured as well informing the worshipper that even
before the giving of the Ten Commandments the Sabbath was the
precious possession of our earliest Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob.
Abraham would rejoice, Isaac would exult, Jacob and his children
would rest viz. find serenity (on the Sabbath). Implied in its ancient
history is the promise of continuity so that the growing gloom of the
fading day is tempered by the optimism inherent in these prayers.
What is the nature of Sabbath tranquility?
A peacefulness of love and generosity, one of faithfulness and
trust, a serenity of peace, quiet, security and assurance, a
peacefulness of wholeness that You desireYour children will
recognize and know that You are the Source of their tranquility and
by way of that serenity they will sanctify Your name. The Amidah of
Shabbat afternoon culminates in an expression of the fullest
experience of contentment, where the sorrows of the world are
safely poured and gently dissolve into the unfathomable immensity
of rest, and silence. 45 The ability to embrace life in its fullness and
garner an inner sense of peace and unity is the desire of God and
the purpose of the gift of Shabbat.46
In examining the usage of the term menuchah, - rest,
tranquility, calm, in this segment
of prayer, one discovers that the
term is repeated in various descriptive contexts that flesh out its
meaning, seven times. Obviously, the author was quite
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81
82
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deliberate in the association between the number seven and the Sabbath day.
Moreover, the word Menucha --is almost identical to the word minchah, -
-offering or gift. To rest spiritually is a gift not only to God but also to us. When
the heart is filled with the serenity that seeps through our beings when we are fully
grateful for our lives, we discover the
d
ivinity of Sabbath time and realize that our tranquility is tied to the Source of all things.
Shabbat-A Day of Freedom
The other rationale provided by the Torah for

the celebration of the Shabbat is related to the
experience of the Exodus from Egypt. The
fourth commandment indicates this rationale
explicitly: Remember that you were a slave
in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God
freed you from there(Deut. 5:15). It is
evident that the opportunity to rest is a Godgiven one that must be made available to all,
your male and female slave may rest as you do.(Deut.5: 14). In contrast to Egypt mitzrayim- - the place of slavery, of constriction and narrowness-from the
Hebrew meitzarim -, the Torah insists on the Sabbath as a day of physical
rest and liberation, a day when we are granted
the opportunity of exercising our minds and hearts with great expansiveness and
imagination. Beyond the gift of physical rest, the
Sabba
t
h has the powerful potential for enhancing the process of spiritual redemption as well.
Slavery has many forms. We can be physically free, yet psychologically and spiritually
find ourselves in fetters of the soul. I believe that the phenomenon of spiritual
enslavement is not uncommon in contemporary society. Heschel captured the mood
of today when he described our age as one gripped by
the nervousness and fury
of acquisitiveness.
The spiritual slave is one controlled by cravings, addicted to the need to have more.
The illusion that more will make one happy is the intoxicating instruction of our
consumer driven culture. In a million forms, calling us from billboards, magazines,
television, radio, newspapers, movies, web sites, and telemarketers, every single
message without exception is this: You are not enough. You do not have enough.47
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On the Sabbath we focus our heart
not on what we want but rather on what we
have. Instructed to remember, we allow
ourselves to be attentive and awake so that
each single breath and movement of our
body can fill us with an overflowing sense
of gratefulness. A gentle touch of a loved one, the beauty of a single flower, the
delicate taste of a sip of wine, the innocence of a childs smile, can all give us a
profound sense of enough, dayenu,-- it is sufficient, we need no more.
The Sabbath is like a magnifying glass that enlarges the perception of lifes meaning
and lends greater clarity to our capacity for gratefulness for what we have and who we
are. To be able to luxuriate in what we have is to transform the day into one of great
contentment, a feeling that is internal in nature, influenced by a subjective sense of
gratitude.
The Sabbath frees us from our spiritual stiff-neckedness. It is curious to note that the
Hebrew name for Pharaoh, Paroh --when its letters are rearranged, spells out
the word for neck, oref- . Pharaoh's very name represents the embodied symbol
of slavery, encompassing hard, callous
obstinacy in the face of God's challenge to
allow Israel to go free. Slavery in Egypt
became intensely personal as the
Israelites realized that their bondage
affected not only their bodies but their souls, souls that hardened from suffering, and
made it virtually impossible for their spirit to embrace life with
o
p
en arms and hands, with a surrender to Sabbaths summons to trust the world and life.
Our enslavement to control and dominate originates in our sense of stubbornness, a
stubborness often born of fear and myopic vision, without the awareness of seeing the
world in the full wonder of its potential for supporting and caring for us. The Sabbath is
designed as a means by which to re-organize our minds and hearts so that the world
is seen differently, as a good place, a place of trust and peace, a place that provides
for our needs, a place for which we are profoundly grateful.
R.Hiyya bar Abbah said: Better is a handful of quietness-the Sabbath- than both
hands full of labor and striving after wind. the six days of the week. (Eccles.4: 6) For
Rabbi Hiyya used to say: Only through the merit of the Sabbath will Israel be
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redeemed, as it is said, In sitting still and rest you shall be saved.(Isaiah 30:15) That
is, your salvation shall come about through the Sabbath and its rest.48
Most fascinating is how this idea of Sabbath as a source of salvation was expressed in
a totally different tradition, that of the Sufis, especially from the soul of its greatest
poet, Rumi. It is on the Sabbath in particular when we are blessed with the gift of
understanding, of experiencing the following:
Whole world (that) lives within a safeguarding, fish
Inside waves, birds held in the sky, the elephant,
The wolf, the lion as he hunts, the dragon, the ant,
The waiting snake, even the ground, the air,
The water, every spark floating up from the fire,
All subsist, exist, and are held in the divine. Nothing
Is ever alone for a single moment.
All giving comes from There, No matter who
You think you put your hand out
Toward, its that which gives. -Rumi 49
The Sabbath utters its gratefulness for all things.
Sabbath as a Gratefulness Meditation:

The Sabbath is not only a legal institution, a state of mind or a form of conduct, but a
process in the world of spirit. 50 From sunset to sunset, all the experiences of
Shabbat converge in such a way that the mind and soul can alight upon an area of
gratefulness and wholeness . As in formal meditation, when we make an internal effort
to calm the mind of its inner turbulence and wanderings, its worries of the future and
its regrets over the past, and focus upon something that frees our minds, opens our
hearts and liberates our souls, so too does the Sabbath, in its totality of time, render
the day as a journey of inner mindfulness to the moment and its marvel, to what is as
an inspiration, to what we have as holy. Shabbes shrinks the pedestrian and the
mundane, while it stretches and sharpens the poetic and sacred in human existence.
For Shabbat to become a weekly event of majesty, its soul must be addressed and
experienced, not only its outward behaviors and physical manifestations.
It was a beautiful Shabbat morning and my wife and I began our Shabbes stroll. It was
summertime, we were in the country, and before we made our way on to the country
road in front of our house, we casually examined the labor of our amateur efforts at
horticulture. Weeds were popping up everywhere. I mentioned to my wife that the
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following day, immediately after the Sabbath, we had to get a weed whacker and rid
ourselves of this unpleasant growth. I then paused
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and realized that in a real sense I had violated the spirit of Shabbat.
To be sure I hadnt performed any unwarranted activity; yet, my
thoughts took me to the next day, a weekday, and I abandoned the
mindful attentiveness to the moment, anticipating a work activity and
finding myself unhappy with the current state of affairs of our garden.
I could not help but think of an ancient rabbinic episode that
reinforces this challenge to sensitize ones thoughts on the Sabbath
to the fullness of lifes gifts at the moment, in the here and now.
A pious man took a stroll in his vineyard on the Sabbath. He saw a
breach in the fence and immediately determined to mend it as soon
as the Sabbath was over. At the expiration of the Sabbath he
decided: Since the thought of repairing the fence occurred on the
Sabbath I shall never repair it.51
Clearly, to avoid physical labor on the Sabbath is easier than
cultivating a sense of gratefulness to the extent that we not even
think of or consider that which remains to be done in our lives. Like a
child completely engrossed in his gift, without thought of anything
else, so too is the Sabbath a sacred moment during which we strive
to immerse ourselves in the fullness of the moment, acknowledging
the joy of receiving what we need and what we have, putting aside
any thoughts and feelings of what we dont have and what we are
unhappy about.
And it was good. For the Sabbath to be a sacred day, it must be a
day of gratefulness, a day of seeing that it was (and continues to
be) good.
Remember the Weekday to Keep it Holy:
The Sabbath ... is not an interlude but the climax of living. 52
Heschels holy words raise the question regarding the spiritual
challenge of Sabbathizing the ordinary workday.
In the Jewish calculation of time, the week in Hebrew is referred to
with the same word for the Sabbath, Shabbat. Sunday is the first
day of Shabbat, Monday, the second day of Shabbat etc. If the
Sabbath is so pivotal spiritually in the experience of the unfolding of
time, how do we bring the Sabbath into the rest of the week?
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Not surprisingly, a wonderful source of direction and instruction in
this regard is the culture of Buddhism. In the Buddhist community of
Plum Village, Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk, periodically
rings a Mindfulness Bell. Upon hearing the bell, everyone stops, and
takes three silent, mindful breaths. Then they are free to continue
their work. When one stops and becomes gratefully mindful, he/she
enjoys a Sabbath pause. This can be done anytime and anywhere.
A moment of prayer, smelling a rose, tasting a new dish, making
love to ones spouse, catching sight of an item of beauty, are all
moments of Sabbath pauses.
How to begin?
The Sabbath has been observed and celebrated for millennia.
Customs, rituals and practices abound. Yet, each generation adds
its insights, experiences and unique creativity to the enrichment of
this day. Allow me to suggest just one way by which to infuse your
Shabbat with the attitude of gratitude.
At the Shabbat table, or anywhere else on the Sabbath day, review
in your mind the previous week, one experience, one event, one
happening, one attainment, one idea or insight, one person, for
which or for whom you are particularly grateful at this Shabbat
moment. Share this with others or have them share it with you. In
this way, we dwell at least for a moment, on one gift for which we
may be thankful, a feeling of gratefulness that has the power to
heal, to cleanse and to purify our hearts to serve You in
faithfulness.
89
Epilogue:

We have been taught:All blessings from above and from below depend on the seventh
day...all the six days of the week derive their blessings from the Sabbath.. 53
Perhaps the incomparable words of our rebbe, Abraham Joshua Heschel, explains this
text best:
On the Sabbath it is given us to share in the holiness that is the heart of time. Even
when the soul is seared, even when no prayer can come out of our tightened throats, the
clean, silent rest of the Sabbath leads us to a realm of endless peace, or to the
beginning of an awareness of what eternity means....Eternity utters a day. 54
That day is the
Sabbath.
90
91
92
Endnotes (continued)
45. HESCHEL, The Sabbath, p.83
46. Sabbath-Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest, Bantam Books, 1999
47. Siddur Otzar Hatfilah, commentary of Iyun Tefilah, vol.1,1915, NY, p.384.referring to
the rest of love and generosity the author points out that this rest is not designed to renew
our physical strength which is needed after physical work and effort, but rest for its own sake
i.e. rest or tranquility that is saturated with the love of God and the kindness of a pure heart.
(My trans.)
48. MULLER, Sabbath, p.135
49. Ecclesiastes Rabbah, chpt.4,5.
50. RUMI, Jellalludin, The Essential Rumi, trans. Coleman Barks.HarperCollins Press, 1997
51. The Sabbath, p.53
52. Jer. Tal. Shabbat 15a
53. HESCHEL,The Sabbath, p.14.
54. Zohar, parshat Yitro, p.88a
55. HESCHEL,The Sabbath,p.101
93
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The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

Rabbi Henry Glazer

The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

Working on the Sabbath

Listening, Blessing, Thanks and Praise

Part 1- Listen: Be Mindful

A Tree Alone-A poem

Taste and see how good is the Lord.

Oneg-the heart of the Sabbath

Sights, smells, songs and sex on the Sabbath:

The Gift of Torah

Part 3: Thank-Praise :Todah vTehilah

The Sabbath Liturgy:

Shacharit of Shabbat-Sabbath Morning

Shabbat-A Day of Freedom

Sabbath as a Gratefulness Meditation:

The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

approval and competition, became for me the very opposite. Instead of

The Sabbath is so monumental an institution, so over-arching and

The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

sacred period of time. All we have to do is pause and remind ourselves

The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

To sanctify the Sabbath as prescribed by tradition, an honest and open

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The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

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All kinds of work

Lifes purpose, she states,

The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

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Thanks and Praise todah vtehilah-

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Who is rich? Those content with their portion.12

The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

Must be lived out from day to day.

The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

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Part 1- Listen: Be Mindful

The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

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The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

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As we witness the narrative unfold, we gasp with gratefulness at the

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The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness

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The Sabbath-A Day of Gratefulness