Abraham Joshua Heschel and The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man

Celebrating cultural highlights of 1951...
Sabbath-blogging, essay 9 of 9 on

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

“For where shall the

likeness of God be found?”

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Chapter 1:  “A Palace in Time”

Last night, Pastor Jessica Brendler Naulty and I concluded our five-week “Ancient Spiritual Practices” class with a small, intimate communion service.  Here at 21 Essays, this nine-part series on The Sabbath:  Its Meaning for Modern Man by Abraham Joshua Heschel has been a sort of complement to the course.  As we explored a variety of spiritual practices (including Sabbath observance) in our weekly evening classes at church, I blogged here on my personal Sabbath experiences, reflecting on Heschel’s poetic wisdom.  This is my final entry in the series.

Illustration of a man creating an eruv (Shabbat fence)
from Decisions of Isaiah of Trani the Younger,
published in central Italy in 1374.
From the British Library Catalogue of
Illuminated Manuscripts.

The third-floor room that we were in last night was a completely ordinary space, set up in a standard classroom style with rows of chairs and a table at the front for me to perch on.  The space was not special.  But our communion service was.  It was a special moment in time.

Heschel’s most soul-stirring metaphor in The Sabbath is his conception of the Sabbath as a palace in time.  The image serves as the title of the book’s first chapter, “A Palace in Time,” and is supported by an evocative cosmology that Heschel eloquently spins as he describes a unified “theory of everything,” encompassing space, time, humanity, and God.

In Heschel’s model, space is the inferior element:

“There is no quality that space has in common with the essence of God.  There is not enough freedom on the top of the mountain; there is not enough glory in the silence of the sea.”

… and time is the superior element, closer to the heart of God:

“Yet the likeness of God can be found in time, which is eternity in disguise.”

Heschel associates space with the first six days of the week—the world of labor and personal ambition.  He stresses that humanity is meant to actively participate in this world and acknowledges that space can be as sublime as the Grand Canyon.  Nevertheless, in Heschel’s view, even the Grand Canyon pales in comparison to the sublimity of the Sabbath, the day set aside by God as a free gift to man.  Heschel writes:

“This is the task of men:  to conquer space and sanctify time.”

Today, Heschel is remembered for the work he accomplished during his six-day work weeks, conquering space through the books he wrote and his social justice work with leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  It was important work but, for Heschel, secondary to the primary task of life:  the sanctification of time.  As an observant Orthodox Jew, Heschel sanctified time by observing the Sabbath, the festivals, and the Day of Atonement.

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

Note the verb.  We build the palace.  That’s interesting…

Like all the great mystics, Heschel was unafraid of paradox.  Did you catch the one he slipped in here?  By not working on the Sabbath, we build the most beautiful palace of them all.

I think we were palace building last night during our communion service.  Not that you’ll find a palace on the third floor of our church.  Go there now and you’ll see an ordinary classroom space, appropriate for meetings or Sunday School.  The palace we built is in time, not space.

“For where shall the likeness of God be found?  There is no quality that space has in common with the essence of God.  There is not enough freedom on the top of the mountain; there is not enough glory in the silence of the sea.  Yet the likeness of God can be found in time, which is eternity in disguise.”

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Chapter 1:  “A Palace in Time”

Fanciful illustration of the mnemonic device YaKeNHaZ, used to
recall the sequence of ritual acts to perform at the close of
the Sabbath, from the Haggadah for Passover,
published in southern Germany, circa 1460.
From the British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.

Reference Sources

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Sabbath Keeping by Lynne M. Baab

Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva J. Dawn

A Day of Rest: Creating a Spiritual Space in Your Week by Martha Whitmore Hickman

© 2013 Lee Price

The Sabbath is a Queen

Celebrating cultural highlights of 1951...
Sabbath-blogging, essay 8 of 9 on

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

“What we are depends on what

the Sabbath is to us.”

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Chapter 10:  “Thou Shalt Covet”

“What we are depends on what the Sabbath is to us.”  What does this mean?

Miniature of a young man roasting the
Passover Lamb, from the Haggadah,
Sephardic rite, published in
Barcelona, Spain, circa 1340.
From the British Library Catalogue of
Illuminated Manuscripts.

Perhaps Abraham Joshua Heschel, writing his first book and intending it for philosophical-minded Orthodox Jewish readers, meant this as a narrow statement for a narrow audience.  But that’s hard for me to believe for Heschel’s vision of the Sabbath is cosmic in scope—as it defines the very nature of space and time, I would think it accommodates all of us who live in space and time.  And therefore, I hope it’s okay to interpret this little sentence as a universal statement, not just for Jews but also applicable to Sabbath-practicing Christians, and even to Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, agnostics, and atheists.  Ultimately, we’re all in this space-time boat together.

As Heschel presents in The Sabbath, for six days our identities are strongly shaped, pulled, and informed by the standards of the world:  the work that we do, the money that we make, the reputation that we build.  And then the Sabbath arrives.  On the seventh day, we are asked to abandon all thought of our worldly identity.  We simply are—with that italicized are that Heschel employs to stress his point.

In a famous blog essay, palliative care nurse Bronnie Ware shared about five things people regret when dying.  According to Ware, the dying often regret spending too much time focused on the values of the work week.  They wish they spent more time being true to their inner selves.  Who are we in that final deathbed moment?  Heschel might answer, “What we are depends on what the Sabbath is to us.”  The Sabbath prepares us by a weekly stripping of our professional identity, the masks that we wear at work.  The Sabbath locates our real value elsewhere.

I don’t think we need to faithfully observe the Sabbath to grasp the truth of this.  Exposed before the sum total of the universe, the infinity of time and space, our personal ambitions, successes, and failures are nothing but dust.  If we look at life only from the perspective of the six days, we might be tempted to despair.  It’s easy to see only insignificance.  But Heschel challenges us to adopt a seventh-day perspective.  The Sabbath is a visiting Queen and we are the host, welcoming the Sabbath into our homes.  There is no place for money or personal ambition when the Sabbath is at the door.  Heschel responds with joy and celebration.

That’s the attitude I want in my Sabbath!

As I’ve attempted to begin observing a weekly Sabbath, my main rule has been to exclude all activities connected with personal ambition (and, among other things, that means no blogging on the Sabbath!).  My Sabbath will never be the Orthodox Sabbath that Heschel describes, but I think it shows promise of becoming a meaningful time for me.

There are four books listed as references on the bottom of each of these Sabbath essays.  Compared to Heschel’s profound book of Jewish philosophy, the other three are lightweight fare.  They’re more like “how-to” books, each of them promoting the development of individualized Sabbaths for Christians.  All three of the books share a common approach to cobbling together a Christian Sabbath:  Embrace the core Sabbath ideas (rest, worship, celebrate, feast) but don’t get hung up on the details.

My hope is to find that freedom—that inner liberty—that Heschel loved in the Sabbath.  There is royalty waiting at the door.

“What we are depends on what the Sabbath is to us…  Nothing is as hard to suppress as the will to be a slave to one’s own pettiness.  Gallantly, ceaselessly, quietly, man must fight for inner liberty.”

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Chapter 10:  “Thou Shalt Covet”

A miniature depicting a family at the Seder table
from the Haggadah, Sephardic rite, published in
Barcelona, Spain, circa 1340.
From the British Library Catalogue of
Illuminated Manuscripts.

Reference Sources

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel
Sabbath Keeping by Lynne M. Baab
Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva J. Dawn
A Day of Rest: Creating a Spiritual Space in Your Week by Martha Whitmore Hickman

© 2013 Lee Price

The Sabbath is a Bride

Celebrating cultural highlights of 1951...
Sabbath-blogging, essay 7 of 9 on

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

“The Sabbath

is a bride,

and its celebration

is like a wedding.”

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Chapter 5:  “Thou Art One”

Sure, I think sunsets are beautiful.  But the truth is I rarely notice them.  Within the past year, there have been a few times when I’ve looked up from my book while traveling home on the train, and I’ve seen the sun setting on the Delaware River.  And I’ve thought:  That really is pretty.  Hard to believe it happens every day!

However, most days I don’t look up.  To quote from a Jewish Sabbath prayer:

“Days pass,

Years vanish,

And we walk sightless among miracles.”

Miniature of the Shabbat kallah
(Sabbath bride or queen) from a
festival prayer book (mahzor).
From northern Italy, 1466.
From the British Library Catalogue
of Illuminated Manuscripts.

I hope things are changing in my life.  I’ve been noticing—and appreciating—sunsets more as I attempt to observe a Sabbath that begins on Friday at sunset and ends on Saturday at sunset.  (Note:  According to traditional Jewish protocol, I should light the candles at least 18 minutes before sunset on Friday and conclude on Saturday evening after sunset when the first three stars become visible in the sky.  This sounds like a very poetic protocol to follow.)

Lately, many people have written about the Celtic concept of special thin places on earth, like a mountaintop where we feel that earth is almost touching heaven. Making a distinction between space and time, Abraham Joshua Heschel might have countered that a mountaintop may be a thin place in space but the Sabbath is even more special because it is a thin place in time.  And, if that’s the case, wouldn’t sunsets be like gateways opening into heaven?

Most days, with my head buried in a book, I travel sightless among miracles.

In The Sabbath, Heschel writes about the ancient Jewish conception of the Sabbath as the bride and Israel as the groom.  He quotes Israel ben Joseph Alnaqua, a 14th century rabbi:

“Just as a bride when she comes to her groom is lovely, bedecked and perfumed, so the Sabbath comes to Israel lovely and perfumed…  just as a groom is dressed in his finest garments, so is a man on the Sabbath day dressed in his finest garments;  just as a man rejoices all the days of the wedding feast, so does man rejoice on the Sabbath;  just as the groom does not work on his wedding day, so does man abstain from work on the Sabbath day;  and therefore the Sages and ancient Saints called the Sabbath a bride.”

Lisa on our wedding day,
October 17, 1987.

For my observance of the Sabbath, I haven’t started dressing in my finest garments yet—I have that 21st century American love for t-shirt comfort that’s hard to override.  But I can embrace the beautiful metaphor of the bride, instantly recalling that moment more than 25 years ago when I saw Lisa in her wedding gown coming down the aisle at Salford Mennonite Church, “just as a bride when she comes to her groom is lovely...”  The Sabbath would be very special indeed to be like that.

Afterwards at the reception, Lisa danced with her father to one of her favorite songs.  It always makes her cry.

I’ll share it here:

Is this the little girl I carried,
Is this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older,
When did they?

When did she get to be a beauty,
When did he grow to be so tall?
Wasn't it yesterday when they were small?

Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years,
One season following another,
Laden with happiness and tears.

“Sunrise Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof

Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, Music by Jerry Bock

“The Sabbath is a bride, and its celebration is like a wedding.”

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Chapter 5:  “Thou Art One”

Detail of a miniature of the Shabbat bride under the huppah
(wedding canopy) and surrounded by her entourage.
From a festival prayer book (mahzor), from northern Italy, 1466.
From the British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts.

Reference Sources

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Sabbath Keeping by Lynne M. Baab

Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva J. Dawn

A Day of Rest: Creating a Spiritual Space in Your Week by Martha Whitmore Hickman

© 2013 Lee Price