Shabbat is a funny thing. There is a great book by Abraham Joshua Heschel that does a great job of explaining shabbat. However, it talks about shabbat in an intellectual way, an abstract way. It does not talk about what shabbat feels like, or how I know I am in shabbat.
The reason that this is important is because, without knowing, or grokking for those who know the term (it means knowing something in your bones, in your kishkas), what being inside shabbat feels like, the not doing of malachah, or certain forms of work comes across as arbitrary.
Now, I know some of you out there are going to say, “So, what. A Jew should keep shabbat because god says so, not because of how it feels,” or, “If a Jew keeps shabbat a few weeks in a row, that Jew will start to feel what shabbat is.” I almost believe this second statement, because I found it to be true, sort of.
What I found to be true is that I felt something when I kept shabbat not according to the hallachah or Jewish law. And I feel something different when I keep it according to hallachah. Shabbat feels different depending on if I pray in the morning or not. So, maybe I don’t really know what shabbat is.
Recently I had an interesting idea on what I can compare shabbat to: it is like an acid trip. Now, for those of you who have never taken acid, you might think I have just turned shabbat into some bad, evil nightmare. However if you have taken acid you know what I am talking about.
On acid, the world is still the world. You know you are in the world. However, it looks a little different. You see things like tracers (kind of like the trail of a jet as it goes by, except they are attached to everyday motions like a bee buzzing or someone waving a cigarette. Often times you feel very connected to the web of creation, and you realize that everything is one. Money has no meaning on an acid trip; it is just metal and pieces of paper. And once you take acid, you are going to be on it for the next 12 hours. There really is no way to get off the ride.
And this is what shabbat is like (except that it lasts 25 hours). When you are in shabbat, money has no meaning, you can feel that everything is really part of the oneness that is creation and is beyond creation. Everything is just a little bit brighter, and more joyful. And just like work has no meaning on acid, it has no meaning on shabbat.
On shabbat, everything is perfect and awesome. On acid, you can look at the leaf forever, marveling at the beauty of its intricate structure.
I could go on. However, I hope I have made my point and don’t need to go on. The point is this, for those who have experienced acid, shabbat is like an acid trip without having to take acid. And when you can get there, then you’ll see that the laws of what you cannot do are not restrictions, they are just common sense: why would you want to do these things? On acid you have no interest in doing them. On shabbat, ideally, you also will have no interest in doing them.
And with that, I wish everybody and shabbat shalom. Please feel free to leave your comments below.
About the Author
Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.