Parashat Emor- More than Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews

Sheishet yamim tei’aseh m’lakhah u’vayom hashvi’i Shabbat Shabbaton mikra-kodesh kol m’lakhah lo ta’asu Shabbat hi lA’donai b’khol mosh’voteikhem.

Six days you will do work, and on the seventh day will be a Shabbat Shabbaton, a sacred occasion; all work you will not do; it will be a Shabbat to the Lord in all your settlements. (Vayikra 23:3)

Ahad Haam, pen name of Asher Zvi Hirsh Ginsberg (1856-1927) and contemporary of Theodor Herzl, looked toward a vision of a Jewish spiritual center. In his book, The Jewish State and Jewish Problem, he wrote of the importance of “a Jewish state and not merely a state of Jews.” The future state had to educate and strengthen Zionism in the Diaspora. He understood that, while not every Jew would make aliyah, every Jew must have a connection to Judaism, the Jewish people, and the Jewish land- Israel. It was not enough to create a place; we had to create a revival of spirit in the Jewish heart. To this effect, one of Ahad Haam’s more famous quotes is “More than the Jewish people have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jewish people.

Observance of Shabbat is the fourth of the Aseret Dibrot, commonly called the Ten Commandments, following immediately after the statements focusing on God. It is at the center of our beliefs as Jews. Not only we, but also all those in our community are given this rest. However, not all work is forbidden. Kol m’lakhah lo ta’asu, all m’lakhah you shall not do. M’lakhah comprises 39 categories of action. These 39 categories related to the labours required in the creation of the Mikdash. Each is a creative act that allows us to exert control over our environment. Perhaps the verse is better translated “Six days you will create, and on the seventh day will be a Shabbat Shabbaton, a sacred occasion; you will cease creating; it will be a Shabbat to the Lord in all your settlements.”

For so many of us creative labour is the way we relax. We garden; we blog; we doodle. While some of these acts many be communal, many are solitary. Today, activities can even be both communal and solitary in a single moment. Blogging, like much internet activity, allows individuals to interact with the entire world while sitting alone. Shabbat, as a time when we must cease this creative work, pulls us out of our own heads. It is a time we step out to reconnect with the community. As a sacred day, we gather for shared rituals and meals. We focus on community- on Judaism, the Jewish people, and Israel. Ahad Haam means one of the people. Perhaps he chose his pen name to stress the importance of our interaction as a community, that we are all just one of the people needing to interact as a community. A name is a distinction. Like our creative acts, it marks our individuality. But to maintain who we are as Jews, to build a future in Israel and as a world community, we need to connect and reconnect to each other. Shabbat ensures this. It raises our interactions to holiness, making our relationships sacred. Through Shabbat, a connection shared in all Jewish communities around the world, we continuously revive and renew our Judaism, our connections as a people, and our link to our homeland.

Shabbat shalom.