When we love a piece of clothing, or a pair of shoes, we
face a dilemma. We want to wear these
things whenever it’s appropriate, but we also want them to last.
And when the item finally does wear out, in my own
experience it’s usually someone else
who breaks the bad news that it’s time for me to part with it, and, eventually,
and reluctantly, I do.
Clothing and other things wear out, and so do we. We fight back against fatigue with caffeine,
the occasional nap, and otherwise. John
is one of my former coaches at UFC Gym, a man who is strong, and does endurance
and strength races. I told him I started
to drink more water each morning and less caffeine and that it helped me to
feel better. I expected him to
wholeheartedly endorse my new habit. He
smiled and said, “Yes, I do drink a glass of water first but then I need my
coffee.”
Shabbat is a time each week we face the reality that we all
get worn out, tired, and need a re-fresh.
This Shabbat though we read something in Ekev, our parshah, about the way
our clothes did not wear out over the 40 years in the wilderness, and our feet
did not swell from the rigors of walking countless miles – meaning that our
shoes held together, too.
So how come our clothes no longer miraculously survive
decades of use? How come our feet hurt
at the end of the day?
As Rabbenu Bachya emphasizes in reflecting on these miracles,
God changes the way nature functions.
Others emphasize that the clothing the Israelites wore when leaving
Egypt grows with them over time.
Curiously, Moses says nothing about the people themselves!
Judging by their rebellious behavior throughout the journey,
their nerves are frayed, strained, even broken.
And it is for that reason that God gives Shabbat to our
ancestors in the wilderness and to us.
Shabbat is not a miracle cure. In fact, it’s not necessarily even
restful. A friend in college woke up
late in the afternoon one Saturday and said, “I feel like I slept right through
Shabbat.” And I wondered whether a full
day of sleep, of restorative rest, would fulfill either the letter or spirit of
our weekly holiday. And I concluded that
it would not. While our tradition says,
“Ha’shena meshubachat”, on Shabbat ‘sleep is praiseworthy’, Shabbat is a form
of rest and renewal that is more active.
Shabbat can leave us feeling physically tired at the same time as we
recharge our neshamah, our spirit, for the week ahead.
Moses focuses on the physical -- miracle clothes and healthy
feet.
Shabbat attempts to reprogram our perceptions, primarily our
perception of time.
We usually talk about time as though it’s a physical thing
or product – with expressions like to make time, to have time, to waste
time. It sounds like all time is the
same, one thing, and that we can create more of it as needed – if only! Shabbat reminds us that all time is not the
same and it is a precious resource. Time
is a gift, and time is holy, more holy than things. Without time, the world as we know it does
not exist & we end up like Alice in Wonderland.
This Shabbat we can begin to appreciate in a fresh, new way
the gift of Shabbat by following the inspiration of Rabbi Abraham Joshua
Heschel – on Shabbat we appreciate that the sun, the moon, the people we love,
the trees, flowers and everything – we appreciate that it all exists, and we
don’t have to add anything to it. For
one day, as our Rabbis teach, we convince ourselves (as much as is possible)
all our work is done, all tasks completed, and we take together one, long, deep
breath…ahhh!
Clothes and shoes wear out, but Shabbat never does. As the great Achad Ha’am taught us, “More
than the Jewish people have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jewish people.” In a nod to our ancestors, let’s take our
shoes off while it’s still warm, let our feet feel the texture of the grass, or
sand, and take us back to that moment at the end of a week of creation, when
God, on the very first Shabbat, stops, looks around at everything that had been
created, and says, “Hineh tov m’od, it is all very good.”
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