Monday, February 25, 2008
Rabbi Art: This week in the Torah 3/1/08
Weekly Parashah – Exodus Vayakhel 35:1 – 38:20
“Moses then assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them: These are the things which God has commanded you to do: On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to God; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death." Exodus 35:1-2
In this week’s sedra the Torah repeats God’s command forbidding work on the Sabbath (also, Exodus 31:12-14) just as the people were about to start constructing the Mishkan, the wilderness Tabernacle. Why does the Torah spell out the punishment for violating this command with the death penalty? How could the Torah compare “violating” Shabbat with “violating” the command “not to murder?” Is Shabbat that important in Jewish life? Is it a matter of “life and death?”
In ancient Israelite society holiness in time was paramount; God “created” in time! Alongside the holiness of human life the sanctity of Shabbat, holiness in time, was supreme. Here is what Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, of blessed memory, taught,
“Our whole technical way of life and civilization is bent on conquering space and increasing the number of things we control. To enhance our power in the world of space is our main objective. Yet, to have more does not mean to be more. We must not forget that it is not a thing that lends significance to a moment. It is the moment that lends significance to things.
The most distinguished word in the Bible is kadosh, “holy,” a word which is more representative than any other of the mystery and majesty of the Divine. What was the first holy object in the history of the world? Was it a mountain? Was it an altar? No. The first holy thing in the world was a day, the seventh day. Holiness in time, the Sabbath, came first.
When history began, there was only one holiness in the world, holiness in time. When the people stood at Mount Sinai, God told them to be holy. The people couldn’t hold onto that idea for very long. They made a Golden Calf, an idol, and called that holy. They worshipped it. God had to then say to them, “Make Me a Sanctuary, make Me a place in space which is holy. You can worship Me from there. But, holiness in time, the Sabbath, comes first!”
Does holiness in time, Shabbat, come first for you, for your family? Is Shabbat on your weekly radar? Would you like to make Shabbat more important in your life?
Join us this Friday, February 29 at 7:30 PM, when as part of our Kabbalat Shabbat service, I will share an outline of our Reform movement’s approach to “holiness in time.”
Hope to see you then,
Rabbi Art Donsky
PS A Final Jeopardy question: When will Shabbat next coincide with Friday, February 29th – in what year?
