A few weeks my son Aaron called me at 11:11 PM just as he was reaching the summit at Masada, in Israel, after his sunrise ascent. So for those of you that want to know, yes, there is cell service at Masada! Built by Herod the Great, 1,000 feet above the Dead Sea Shore with a three-tiered palace, this fortress is also the backdrop to the story of the epic siege of the Jewish War against Rome. It was here that Aaron and his fellow classmates had tfillot in this ancient synagogue. A reminder that even here, under siege, services and Shabbat were observed.
In Parashat Vayakhel-Pekude, Moses assembles the Israelite community. He tells them that on six days they may work, but on the seventh day, God has commanded that there is a Sabbath of complete rest. This day is holy-kadosh-to the Lord and whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. God is making a connection here with Shabbat and the Community and the Tabernacle. Connections for us to know just how important these things are to us as Jews.
The commandment to honor and observe Shabbat and not to work is repeated twelve times in the Torah. The first mention of Shabbat is alluded to in my B'nai Mitzvah portion, at the end of creation in Genesis 2:1-3 - V'varek Elohim et yom hashvii v'kadesh oto - And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it - ki va shavat michol melachto asher bara Elohim laasot - For on it God rested from all the work that God had created to be done. The word shavat means to rest - to cease - to stop - and it is the root word for Shabbat. It does not mean to finish.
Let's say you are working on a project and you need to stop at certain points to take a break, to eat or to sleep but it does not mean that even though you are stopping, you are finished with your project. So shavat does not mean that God had stopped creation and had finished it but had stopped - had rested from all the work that God had done to that point - Bara Elohim laasot - God had created to be made-the first allusion to that we are partners with God in the completion of the world. That God had rested from all the work that God had created to that point and now we would all work together to complete - to perfect the world - which is Tikkun Olam.
Stopping and letting go for a full twenty-four hours is a very difficult thing to do in the world in which we live. In Israel, starting Friday around noon, shops begin to close, people are making their last runs up to the grocery store and you really can feel everything coming to a stop by dusk! But we don't live in that system and the system we do live in has our Shabbat, as Jews, just as another day of the week. And even if we do make the attempt to slow down, turn off our cell phones and go to services, perhaps take a long walk or nap, how many of us really honor Shabbat as kadosh - as holy - and what does kadosh really mean.
It says in Parashat Vayakehl-Pekude that if we do not honor Shabbat we shall be put to death. I believe the intention here is that you will have a spiritual death. I have this saying I tell my friends that there is nothing accidental about spiritual or emotional health. In this regard, it is like physical health in that if we don't take care of it, we may be spiritually harmed.
When I think about holiness, I think about connecting with God on Shabbat. I know for my own life that I have been through times of great difficulties when I almost had no choice but to stop and to rest. And that ironically is was then that I became closer to God and began to be more at peace with myself. And it is not that I think I won't have any more struggles in my life. Because as long as there is life, there are struggles. It is that I know I will be able to handle the normal feelings of anxiety, grief or being overwhelmed that often accompany struggles. The reason I know this is by finding Shabbat, I discovered the power of spiritual health.
I begin with Lauren and Aaron (when he is town!) with the lighting of our candles. Often we go to services. Phones and computers go off! On Saturday I sleep late, eat a simple brunch and do what I really look forward to all week. Praying without feeling rushed! And I also read from my special pile, which always includes a spiritual reading. I then pray again and try to deeply listen to what God asks of me so that I may hear it. Then I take a very long nap! As Shabbat ends, the phones go back on, I check my email and get ready to go out on Saturday night. Isn't it interesting that we have new age spiritualists telling us that our spirituality is connected to our physical bodies yet God already told us this so very long ago.
A few moments ago I was talking about the importance of Shabbat and the connection with the Kehilla - the Community and the Mishkan - the Tabernacle in relation to our spirituality. In Parashat Vayakhel-Pekude, Moses also addresses the community and says this is what the Lord has commanded: Take from among you gifts to the Lord, everyone whose heart so moves him shall bring them - gifts for the Lord: gold, silver, and copper, blue, purple and crimson yarns, fine linen” and the list continues.
Why should God be concerned with the beautiful decoration? Because God wants us to know that no matter how insignificant an item may appear, God created that item and there is Holiness in that item. And because God created Beauty and Beauty is important. God wants us here. Because just as we desire and need to be close to God, God desires and needs to be close to us. And it is not that we are not with God outside of the Sanctuary. Of course not - God is with us at all times, through out our whole life. Prayer, Tefillah, in Hebrew, is the root word to Unite. And it was there in the Tabernacle and here in our Sanctuary that something very special occurs for us and to us as a Community in our Prayer.
The tabernacle is a place of beauty. In mystical Judaism, Beauty, or Tiferet, are considered important aspects of the Divine Presence. On Shabbat, we strive to find holiness, kidusha, through connection with God. As the Shekhinah, the Divine Presence, enters the Sanctuary on Shabbat and we rise to greet her, we watch as these two aspects come together. Just as human lovers are described as “soul mates” so Kabbalists describe Tiferet and Shekhinah as du parzufin, “twin faces” of each other. They have been separated since Adam and Eve's fall from the Garden of Eden. Here, in the Sanctuary, on Shabbat they unite - Tefillah - prayer - where they become whole - the root word for whole in Hebrew - is Shalom - Peace.
You hear a lot of talk about Peace in this world. It is difficult for one not to be disillusioned to believe that Peace in our lifetime or any lifetime even remotely close to ours is really possible. But it is.
This physical world and our physical bodies are finite. Yet the spiritual world and what we create for not only ourselves but for others spiritually is infinite. It lives beyond this physical world. Shabbat gives us the time to take our physical bodies and let them rest and integrate into our spiritual selves. It is a time of healing and as we become more intimate with our self, we will come closer to others and closer to Kidusha-Holiness-and nearer to God.
Through Prayer - we join together as a Community to usher in Shabbat. Here, in our Sanctuary, we pronounce the Shema as God as One, Echad - to bring us to Shalom-Peace. The premise of Tikkun Olam - perfection of the world - is that if you heal one person, you heal the world. And that one person, may be yourself. The Torah tells us again and again - each of us has the opportunity to affect ourselves for the better, and simultaneously to have an impact on others as well. It begins with us, as individuals. Tikkun Olam, perfection of the world, can only come about by beginning with Tikkun Atzmo, perfection of one's self.
Every generation hopes that it will be the one to finally perfect and bring peace to themselves and thus to the world; the Torah tells us where to start. Where to begin. Here, in our Sanctuary - on Shabbat.
Home