Hitzonim | Outsiders

The seventh day is a palace in time in which we build. It is made of soul, of joy, of reticence.

Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath

Shabbat, the Sabbath, whether that is Saturday for you, Sunday, in the Christian tradition, or agitating for a four day work week in the labor movement; any or all! Each connect with an idea that we are not valuable, first, for our production, and neither that rest is a privilege. We are worthy and fit to a time of routine rest and wholeness because our value is derived by our very natures as being in the world to improve it, ourselves, and each other and not measured by the outcome.

These calls of being in the world demand from us, and so, we are due cycles of rejuvenation to be whole for the work we are called to do.

“He who wants to enter the holiness of the day,” Abraham Joshua Heschel begins his brilliant work, The Sabbath, “must first lay down the profanity of clattering commerce, of being yoked to toil.”

In your time of Sabbath rest, I encourage you to pull back from the grind. Imagine a world where work does not exist, and we persist by community and mutual support.

Heschel offers imagery that we may cling to, “The seventh day is a palace in time in which we build. It is made of soul, of joy of reticence.”

How do you construct your palace in time? Not with the raw materials of the world, but we build with units of time that are ours to organize: Keeping watch over a slow, simmering stew, scratching our children’s backs at bedtime, turning toward your spouse or partner, enriching your inner life though contemplative practice, or reading from your tradition.

However your palace is built, you are worthy and fit for rest. Shabbat Shalom. Happy Friday.

Look for a post about Shabbat HaChodesh, hitting your inboxes tomorrow! Shabbat HaChodesh isn’t a day of grand celebration, but rather a quiet moment of anticipation and preparation. Thank you for being in community with me. I value you.

xx. ❤ -a.