In Hebrew, the names of six of the days of the week are numbers. Yom Rishon, Sunday, is the first day. Yom Sheyni is the second day. Then there's the third, fourth, fifth, sixth day. There's only one day that has a name, and that day is Shabbat. This is a consciousness that the whole week, every week, is leading up to Shabbat. And then, that every week is unfolding from Shabbat.

Our tradition insists that unless there is a Shabbat, unless there is that awareness of connection, of purpose, of meaning, unless there is a remembering, then we are not in fact truly alive.

Shabbat is the most important holiday of the Jewish year and as far as I can tell it's the most difficult. It speaks to the essence of the human condition. We are beings who forget the truth of who we are, and stray from the awareness of the One. We're the ones with hearts that close in fear and anger and distrust and suspicion. So the good news is that there is a Shabbat. The bad news is that Shabbat doesn't Shabbat all by itself.

SHABBAT-ING
How exactly God celebrates Shabbat is something of a mystery. The text we read says, "On the seventh day God rested." The Hebrew Bible, of course, doesn't come with a dictionary. We take it for granted when we read the English translation of the word Shabbat that that tells us all we need to know. I don't think it tells us much at all.

I think part of the quest in which we are engaged is toward the discovery of the essential meaning of what it is to Shabbat, what it is to "do" Shabbat. What we do know, simply looking at a later Torah text, is that the consequence of Shabbat-ing is that we are re-souled. (Exodus 31, in which God shavat va-yinafash, "shabbats and re-souls.")

There are rules defining what it means not to work, and certainly the rules against various kinds of work can help shape the space of a day. But if we allow the awakening of a space in consciousness where nothing needs to be changed, then the rules take care of themselves.

On Shabbat, we are to celebrate the creation that has been. Normally, we work on a project, then take a break and come back to it later. We're not really done; we just take a rest. Then there are other times that it is only after we finish a project that we rest. You know the difference between those kinds of rests? That's the difference between Shabbat, Shabbat-ing, and just resting.

On Shabbat the challenge is, the mitzvah is, to literally experience the task as complete so that we can appreciate the wonders of the creation that is right now, no matter what it is. We usually think, "I'll wait until things look better and then I'll be able to Shabbat." But I think it works the other way around. I don't think things will really get better until we risk Shabbat-ing, with ourselves and with others, in all of our relationships, and even with our world.

We know that the consequence of letting go of the struggles of ordinary space and time and instead engaging in Shabbat is that we awaken to a greater sense of the fullness of life and to a greater opening of the lev, a greater opening of the heart.

SAYING YES TO SHABBAT
So just for a moment, can we allow Shabbat? Can we accept that what we did this week was exactly what we were supposed to do? And even, in some unfathomable way, what the world accomplished this week is exactly what the world needed to do?

The challenge, and the need, is to open our hearts to it all, to open our hearts to ourselves, to all people, to all beings. And when the rational mind rebels, to remind ourselves that it is our resistance, our resentment, our fear and our anger, that keeps us stuck and that keeps the others stuck and that keeps our world stuck.

Shabbat is the practice called "Yes." To every thought, to every feeling, to every sensation, to every memory, to every dream, to every hope, to every fear, to every desire - Yes, simply Yes. And Shabbat is a moment of Amen. Amen, it is so. Even where we find resistance, Amen. And Shabbat is a space for Shalom; we say Shabbat Shalom because Shabbat is a space in which the true Shalom awakens.

How do you know when you are in Shabbat? You look around and you notice that everything is exactly how it's supposed to be. How do you know Shabbat? By the Yes and the Amen and the Shalom.

To truly celebrate a Shabbat moment is not to condemn ourselves or each other or our planet to a downward spiral of destruction, but instead to release those weights that drag us down, so that as we begin the week anew our step is lighter, our vision brighter, our capacity for compassion expanded.

© 2001 Rabbi Ted Falcon, Ph.D. All rights reserved.