A lot of the time when people think about Shabbat they focus very heavily on the things they CAN T do. No cell phones. No driving. No shopping. No TV. It s not so easy to stop doing these things for a 25- hour period. Our focus here, however, is going to be the things we CAN do. Perhaps if we understand these, it may shed some light on the things we can t do as well. Think about some of the things we CAN do on Shabbat; think also about the things that we are encouraged to do on Shabbat as well. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let s think about something important if you were designing a Day of Rest what would YOU put into it? How would YOU choose to celebrate it? What would YOU suggest we take a rest from? Once you ve thought about that, let s take a look at some common Shabbat things that we CAN do, and decide based on YOUR view of the Day of Rest which ones are the most important.
If YOU were making a weekly Day of Rest how would YOU rank the following options in terms of importance: Spending time with family Praying Sleeping Eating delicious food Learning Torah Spending time with friends
Now rank them according to how you think G-D would place them in terms of importance: Spending time with family Praying Sleeping Eating delicious food Learning Torah Spending time with friends
The truth of the matter is that, even according to G-d, eating and drinking, sleeping and spending time with family and friends are more central to the unique Shabbat experience than praying and learning: ו ק ר את ל ש ב ת ע נ ג, ל ק דו ש ה מ כ ב ד, ו כ ב ד תו מ ע שו ת ד ר כ י ך, מ מ צו א ח פ צ ך ו ד ב ר ד ב ר אז, ת ת ע נ ג ע ל -ה and you shall call Shabbat a delight ( oneg ), and the holy of Hashem honorable, and you shall honor it not doing your routine matters or pursuing your business or speaking about it then you shall delight yourself in Hashem (Isaiah, 58: 13-14) Oneg Shabbos is the mitzvah to turn Shabbos into an enjoyable experience! Here s one problem though Aren t there things we enjoy doing that we can t do on Shabbos?! If it s about enjoying ourselves why can t we do anything we want?!
ש ש ת י מ ים ת ע ב ד,ו ע ש ית כ ל- מ ל אכ ת ך. ו יו ם, ה ש ב יע י-- ש ב ת, ל ה א ל- י ך: לא-ת ע ש ה כ ל- מ ל אכ הא ת ה וב נ ך וב ת ך, ע ב ד ך ו א מ ת ך וב ה מ ת ך, ו ג ר ך, א ש ר ב ש ע ר י ך. For six days you shall labor and do all of your work ( melachah ) but on the seventh it is Shabbat for Hashem your G-d. You will do no work ( melachah ) on it you or your, The Torah tells us that the things we can t do on Shabbos are called melachah ; this term is usually defined as work but what is melachah really? or your daughter, or your servant or maid or animal or the convert in your gates.
The melachah which is forbidden on Shabbat is [the] production, creation, transforming an object for human purposes; [this does not include] physical exertion - even if you tired yourself the whole day- as long as you have produced nothing within the meaning of the word melachah. As long as your activity has not been a constructive exercise of your intelligence you have performed no melachah. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Choreiv, 21:144 Melachah has to be the practical carrying out of an idea that shows the would-be dominion of the human mind over the world of matter ibid. 21:145 Melachah is done only when human beings show they dominate the world by creating something! Think: (1) How are some of the well-known melachot e.g. turning on lightbulbs examples of creation? (2) Why do you think that creating things is what G-d wants us to stop doing on Shabbat?
כ י ש ש ת -י מ ים ע ש ה ה א ת-ה ש מ י ם ו א ת-ה אר ץ, א ת-ה י ם ו א ת-כ ל-א ש ר-ב ם, ו י נ ח, ב יו ם ה ש ב יע י; ע ל-כ ן, ב ר ך ה א ת- יו ם ה ש ב ת-- ו י ק ד ש ה ו For in six days G-d made the heaven and the earth and the seas and everything in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore, G-d blessed the day of shabbat and made it holy. Read the quote from Steve Jobs above; based on what we ve learned would the Torah be in favor of his view about human creativity? During the week the Torah tells us to work as much as we can we are supposed use our personal creativity and talents to make this world a better place just like G-d did when he created the world. On Shabbat G-d wants us to pull back on creating in order to remind us that ultimately it is Him and not us who are the real creators who run this world. This doesn t mean that we aren t supposed to be creative we are! Rather, this is a message we are supposed to bring back with us into the week to give us the proper perspective on our creative accomplishments. Have a Great Shabbos!