Shabbat: The Forgotten Commandment
Parshat Yitro 5765

By Rabbi Mark B Greenspan

This morning we were fortunate to listen to the reading of one of the most significant statements of religion and morality: the Aseret Hadibrot, or the Ten Commandments. Isn’t it strange that the these commandments are just as controversial today as they were 3500 years ago when the Jewish people first received them at Mount Sinai? Who could imagine that at the beginning of the twenty first century we would still be arguing about these ten simple laws? While most people define human decency and morality by the Decalogue, few people truly observe them, or at least all of them.

I once saw a bumper sticker that said: “The Ten Commandments are not multiple choice.” We are not supposed to pick and choose between them. Yet I suspect that we do.

The other day I received an internet quip about the Ten Commandments that made me laugh and cry. Someone wrote that, politics aside, we can never place the Ten Commandments in our halls of justice because our courts are filled with lawyers and judges. The commandments state, “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain,” and “You shall not steal.” With all those lawyers and politicians in our halls of justice, the Ten Commandments would create a hostile work environment.

The truth is, though, most of us do affirm the Ten Commandments. If I received a dime every time someone said, “I’m a good person. I try to live by the Ten Commandments,” I’d be rich. Most people choose to define morality by this basic set of laws. The fact that there are six hundred and thirteen commandments in the Torah, and not just ten, doesn’t seem to matter to most of us. Everything comes down to this sub-set that we can count on two hands. We believe them. We affirm them. And we try to live by them.

All, except one, that is. There’s one commandment that we seem to have forgotten. “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” While we regularly affirm the Ten Commandments as the fundamental laws of society, few people make the time to ‘remember’ the Sabbath and make it a regular part of their weekly schedule. I don’t mean simply coming to synagogue or attending a church once a week. I mean setting aside twenty four hours as a true day of rest and renewal.

Just the opposite is true: we are moving furiously toward a society that functions 24/7. In fact we may already be there. We value immediate service, fast response, and we crave our constant connection to the world. How many of us carry cell phones and other wireless internet devices with us all the time. There is no time for breaks and we value speed above all else. The instruments that we consider conveniences actually enslave us. We can’t free ourselves of them. We have to check our e-mail; we can’t bear to forgo the last phone call. We’re afraid we’ll miss something.

While communications devices have brought us closer together, they have also made our lives more chaotic and hectic. There was a time when you wrote a letter and you had to wait several days or a week for a response. Now the response is almost immediate. Rather then improving our lives, wireless devices consume the spare minutes between chores. There’s no time to breathe; someone is waiting for our answer.

Regular mail is now referred to pejoratively as snail mail. It has become something of a dinosaur. One of my colleagues recently asked me, when was the last time you took the time to hand-write a letter to someone? Worst of all, our work follows us home as we turn on our personal computers. Or if you’re like me, then you never turn your computer off. It’s constantly feeding you an overwhelming amount of data and information. We are on overload. Life doesn’t stop. And we grow more and more tired each day.

Two summers ago when we suffered a black out, there was a wonderful moment, when we all realized that everything was at rest. As inconvenient as it was, people came out on the streets and met one another for the first time. They sat down on the stoop in front of their buildings and just waited. They started walking to wherever they had to go. They helped one another. And for just a few hours there was real quiet: no buzz of electric lines, no phone calls, no computers.

The other day I listened to an interview about whether computers have “rights.” It sounds strange but as computers become more and more sophisticated, the question of considering both the rights and responsibilities of devices with artificial intelligence becomes more of a reality. I wonder whether the same can be applied to their right to rest. The Torah commands us to rest and it commands us to allow our male and female slaves, and even our cattle, to have a time of rest. Maybe a computer has a right to receive a 24 hiatus from the internet as well, a day of complete rest. And maybe the new theme of Shabbat should be: “Turn off, shut down, and reconnect.”

This obsession with technology has had another ill affect on us. The more time we spend focusing on the outside world means that we spend less time focusing on our inner spiritual life. It is so easy to spend all our time checking e-mail, looking at the news, watching video clips, and monitoring the weather that we never stop to listen to the inner sounds of our soul. Shabbat is an opportunity to take a moratorium from the world so that we can get back in touch not only with God but with ourselves, and our community. It’s a chance to rediscover our family and renew our romance with our spouse. What could be more romantic than a dinner with candle light and wine. We call it a Shabbas dinner! Shabbat is an opportunity to smell the roses, take a walk, or just spend time “veg’ing out with a friend.

I was fascinated to discover an article on-line recently about the importance of “Keeping the Sabbath.” What was so fascinating for me was that the article appeared in an on-line journal from the Alden Institute. The Alden Institute is an organization that advises churches on how to function more effectively. Written by Lynne Baab, A Presbyterian Minister, the article suggests that we need to rediscover the Sabbath as a way of avoiding burn out. Rev. Baab responds to several myths about keeping the Sabbath. Her approach sounds very Jewish!

One common myth is that we can’t afford the time to give up a whole day of productivity each week. Ms Baab points out that in recent studies it was found that people who worked seven 50-hour weeks got no more done than those who worked seven 40-hour weeks. Among more than a hundred and fifty church goers the author found that people who observed the Sabbath got more done because they felt more focused and rested during the work week even though they may work fewer total hours.

Another myth: “I have to stop all kinds of work and engage in spiritual activities in order to benefit from the Sabbath.” Rev Baab correctly points out that the word Sabbath means to stop, cease, desist, rest or pause. She asks: what do you need to cease from, multi-tasking, using the computer or cell phone, over loading yourself with information? Worrying?

Baab suggests an interesting approach to the Sabbath. Why not start observing the Sabbath by giving up one overused activity on the day of rest?

Of course there’s much more the Sabbath than this. In the two versions of the Ten Commandments in Exodus and Deuteronomy, the law of the Sabbath is described differently. In Exodus we are told “Remember the Sabbath day” and in Deuteronomy, “Observe the Sabbath day.” The word ‘Observe’ focuses on the proscriptive aspects of the Sabbath – the things we avoid, while the term ‘Remember’ focuses on the prescriptive aspect of the Sabbath – the things we do to make this day a delight: good food, great company, nice clothes, and relaxation. We Jews are fortunate to have a very specific definition of how to renew ourselves on the Sabbath, something non-Jews don’t. Rev Baab has written her book defining for her readers how to do something our tradition has been advising us about for generations.

We need the Sabbath now more than ever. Shabbat does not restrict our lives – it frees us to become our selves. It saves us from burn out. And while Shabbat may be different for each of us, we need to begin by blocking out this time and giving it back to God.

Shabbat is the forgotten commandment. And we need it now more then ever. So lets “Turn off, shut down, and reconnect to life!”

Shabbat Shalom