The Non-Sabbath

The Non-Sabbath

Sometime after school, I struggled with the Sabbath. My work schedule was not taxing so I had many days off and actually, depending on when the yearly sundown time was, worked on Shabbos. I didn't have any homework I could put off (or rather get done ahead of time so I could actually enjoy not doing it) and it turned into just another day. Lighting candles didn't happen as often as I would have liked because do I do it before or after work? Do I pray right at sundown? Do I try to pray at work?

I took a both spiritually and fiscally risky leap and quit my job (there were other factors as well) and told G-d, I wanted the Sabbath back. I have been blessed with a mostly M-F day job. Friday after work, I run my errands and the light candles and do kiddish. I read my portion in Hebrew and try to eat nicer food. The only kind of labor thing I do is I buy produce because Saturday is my city's Farmer's Market. And Farmer's Markets are awesome so they clearly can't violate the Sabbath even if it is an errand and I make a money transaction.

The Sabbath has been toted, by many scholars and laymen in every stream and movement as the key to Judaism. One day a week, it is so important that G-d Almighty took a break and even commanded death to anyone that didn't (Ex. 31:15; Nu. 15:32—they actually kill the guy in this second reference). And from folks who won't turn on a light to people who do domestic chores that they enjoy and can't do during the week, we have more or less kept this Sabbath.

A dichotomy is set up with this though. If you have “Sabbath,” you must have a “not-Sabbath.” And in my most recent employment [mis]adventure, I have found that this might be where the Sabbath is actually born. To keep holy is to set aside and differentiate (both are commanded specifically in the bible as expressions of Sabbath). The non-Sabbath time should be radically different from the Sabbath time. What's the most different from resting? Working, laboring, doing. At least seven references in The Torah don't just say “take a nap on day seven,” they all start out with something like “six days shall you labor/work/do work.”

I will get a little caught up grammatically (I feel like learning Hebrew is actually impeding my Bible study), most of the references to labor are in the future/imperfect tense, which could be read as “may work,” (Ex. 20:9, 23:12, 34:21, 35:2; Lev. 23:3; Deu. 5:13). Many translations use “shall,” I think, depending on how all-powerful someone believes G-d is, “will” is most appropriate because a super powerful G-d should be confident.

In Ex. 20:9, despite the imperfect tense potential, it says “all your work” gets done. Which lends itself to finishing our need-to tasks before Shabbos so that they are not lingering on our minds during the day.

The most exciting grammatical tangent I took involved teaching myself the meaning change of a case I've never learned called nifil. Spoiler: it's a passive tense. Spoiler Acher: 501 Verbs is the best book no matter the language you're studying. Ex. 31:15, is in the future/imperfect passive tense. Passivity is a nice trick to stress the 'what' of a sentence instead of the 'who'. So even if G-d is being very polite or unsure and hopeful: shit should be getting done.

I'd like to believe that this flip-side commandment is the fueling behind why Jews tend to be over motivated, but I really believe that stems from a combination of highlighting education and immigrant-compensation. However, this ambition can be combined with a little bit of bible guilt/encouragement/do it or die and enhance and enrich the Sabbath experience. Because the first Sabbath is in Genesis when G-d rests and G-d earned that by inventing the world and life and existence. If the Sabbath-observer (no matter how that observance is achieved) can throw themselves into activity during the six days of other, speed it up, then the slowing down and focus of the one, seventh day, can be truly marked and special.