{"id":1582,"date":"2017-03-06T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kol-ami.kulam.org\/2017\/03\/06\/shabbat-as-rest-from-creation"},"modified":"2018-10-04T12:06:36","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T09:06:36","slug":"shabbat-as-rest-from-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kol-ami.kulam.org\/en\/2017\/03\/06\/shabbat-as-rest-from-creation\/","title":{"rendered":"Shabbat as Rest from Creation"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this\u00a0article,<\/a>\u00a0Rabbi David Aaron<\/a> explores the deeper meaning of rest on Shabbat, as referenced in the Friday night Kiddush, by encouraging readers to focus on the “yeses” instead of all of the halachic prohibitions. Through an examination of\u00a0<\/em>the original verses in the Torah, the author\u00a0demonstrates how Shabbat enables us to become a conscious\u00a0part of the ongoing creation of the world. Rabbi Aaron, author of several Kabbalistic books, is the founder of the Isralight Institute<\/a>, an organization dedicated to\u00a0empowering Jews to experience the relevance, wisdom, and joy of Jewish living.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Shabbat: Rest Assured\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Keep the Shabbat for it is holy unto you\u2026..<\/em>
\nbecause in six days G-d made heaven and earth: and on the seventh day
\nHe abstained from work and rested.\u00a0<\/em>(Exodus 31: 14-17)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Most people know what you don\u2019t do on Shabbat: you don\u2019t tear toilet paper, you don\u2019t drive, you don\u2019t write, you don\u2019t turn on lights, you don\u2019t shop, etc. But they don\u2019t know why, and they don\u2019t know what it is you, in fact,\u00a0do\u00a0<\/em>on Shabbat.<\/p>\n

And of course, when you just focus on what you don\u2019t do on Shabbat, the experience\u2014which is supposed to be joyous and fulfilling\u2014basically ends up sounding like torture. You have to ask yourself, \u201cIs this the way I want to celebrate a holiday? Is this how I want to spend my weekend after working hard all week long?\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to understand the real meaning of Shabbat, let\u2019s explore the first place it is mentioned in the Torah. This paragraph is from the Book of Genesis and it is recited every Friday night at the start of the Shabbat dinner as part of a blessing over wine called\u00a0kiddush<\/em>:<\/p>\n

And it was evening, it was morning, the sixth day. And heaven and earth were completed and all their hosts. And G-d completed on the seventh day, the work that He did, and G-d refrained on the seventh day from the work that He did.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There seems to be a contradiction here. It is common knowledge that G-d created the world in six days and on the seventh day He rested. According to these words, however, it sounds like G-d did do something on the seventh day, as it says \u201cand G-d completed on the seventh day, the work that He did\u2026\u201d But had it not been previously stated that \u201cit was evening, it was morning, the sixth day, and heaven and earth were completed and all their hosts\u201d? If G-d finished His work on the sixth day, so what is it that He did on the seventh day?<\/p>\n

According to the 11th century Torah Commentator Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki Rashi), the world was still missing something\u2014rest. Therefore only then, on the seventh day, when G-d rested was the work of creation finished and completed. In other words, G-d finished His work on the seventh day by resting. When G-d rested on the seventh day this retroactively completed the work of the six days. The very fact that G-d abstained from activity on the seventh day is what enabled everything that happened during the six days to become a whole and complete act of creativity.<\/p>\n

What determines if an act is a creative act or merely physical labor? The deciding factor is whether I am able to start and stop. If I can\u2019t start this activity and if I can\u2019t stop this activity, then basically I\u2019m a mindless, compulsive, laborious slave. I\u2019m simply a robot on auto drive. That\u2019s the difference. Creativity is an act of mind and intention. Creativity is something I start doing, and creativity is something I can stop doing at will. I am in control. If I start a creative act but I can\u2019t stop, then it is no longer creativity\u2014it is a mindless, laborious, compulsive activity. I become a victim to some kind of force that\u2019s carrying me rather than a master of my actions directed by my will and intention.<\/p>\n

When we celebrate Shabbat we are saying that G-d stopped the work that he had done, which retroactively indicates that G-d also started the work. Therefore the work that he had done was an act of creativity \u2014 the world is a complete creation. While some might claim that either the world has always existed or the world is just an expression of laborious, mindless, natural laws, there is, in fact, a third possibility\u2014that the world is an act of creation, an expression of will and intent. And that\u2019s the key difference.<\/p>\n

Do I choose to believe in a world which is merely a product of blind, laborious, natural forces, which are simply pumping out the world, or do I choose to believe that the world is the intentional expression of a mindful and willful power\u2014G-d?<\/p>\n

If I live in a world that is the product of intention, if I live in a world that was meant to be, then I live in a meaningful world. A world that wasn\u2019t meant to be is not a meaningful world. A world that is simply the product of blind, natural forces that somehow came into being doesn\u2019t have meaning, because it doesn\u2019t have a beginning, it doesn\u2019t have an end, it doesn\u2019t have direction, and it doesn\u2019t have intention.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s really the choice\u2014how we choose to perceive our world.<\/p>\n

When we recite the\u00a0kiddush<\/em>\u00a0on Friday night, and affirm that the world was completed on the seventh day, we are testifying that the world is a creation, which means it is meaningful, it is purposeful, it has a theme, it has direction. It means that we believe that the world is not simply the mechanistic outcome of natural laws but an expression of creativity. We believe that the world is not the product of nature at work but the creative masterpiece of G-d.<\/p>\n

To know this truth and to celebrate it weekly changes my whole week and my whole life. When I stop on Shabbat and refrain from doing creative activity, I renew the image of G-d in which I\u2019ve been created. Otherwise, I am merely an animal compelled and propelled by my natural instincts rather than a being created in the image of G-d who has a free will, who has a mind, who has the ability to choose.<\/p>\n

Some people can\u2019t stop. They don\u2019t know how to take a rest. They don\u2019t know how to put aside what they\u2019re doing. They\u2019re compulsive. These are not creative people, these are people who labor. They are slaves to their jobs and slaves to their instincts.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a very cute animated cartoon about Shabbat produced by an organization called Gesher:<\/p>\n