The Ten Commandments in Our Lives (Part 4)
By Sara Esther Crispe: May 26, 2014: Category Decoding the Tradition, Inspirations
Stop Creating
It’s a bit confusing. Right after we are all pumped up on how great we are, how much we are needed, how our individuality must shine and that we have a unique function and purpose in this world, we are told to stop. Just stop. The world can and will continue without us. At least temporarily.
While the Third Commandment is about our essential need to create, the Fourth Commandment is how we need to know when to stop. And more than when to stop, why we must stop and Who we are stopping for.
“Remember the Shabbat (Sabbath) and make it holy.” Two commandments in one. It’s interesting that in this particular context we aren’t commanded to keep the Shabbat but to remember it. Remembering is the process of recalling something we already knew but might have forgotten or could come to forget. As the dictionary defines it, remembering is “the ability to bring to one’s mind an awareness…”
The overriding connection of all the prohibitions on the Sabbath is that for 25 hours we are not allowed to create. We don’t change reality. We don’t add or subtract from it. We rest. We respect. We recognize. We remember.
For six days we work. We use our talents, abilities, intellect and emotions and we (hopefully) do some astounding things. But if we are not careful, we might mistakenly think that we are the be all and end all. So there is Shabbat. It reminds us that while we are essential to the world we are not the Creator of the world. And that as much as we must do what we do, we must never forget why we do it. The objective should be to elevate the world, to bring in more beauty and goodness. Ultimately it should not be just about us.
Percentage wise, Shabbat is only 1/7th of the week. But it is the focus. It is not the weekend but the week-center. The week surrounds Shabbat. In the morning prayers it reads: “Today is the first day of Shabbat…today is the second day of Shabbat….” Shabbat instills the lesson that it is not about quantity but quality. It is recognizing what counts and remembering the foundation of who we are.
But this is only half of it. Once we remember, we must actively work to “make it holy.” Shabbat can easily become about what cannot be done and what must be avoided. Yet it requires focus to actively make it meaningful and beautiful. This is especially vital with children. Shabbat needs to become a time that they look forward to and enjoy. A time that they recognize as different and special because the effort was taken to make it holy. If all they see is how it is “remembered” in terms of keeping the laws, then it could become a time they resent rather than respect.
Shabbat is also our time of unification. During the week our differences shine. We work in various fields, we live in scattered areas, our homes and bank accounts range in size. Yet on Shabbat we all stop and focus on what we share rather than what we don’t. We recognize that what unites us is what is greater than us. And our differences, in this light, should be something we admire rather than find alienating. Every Shabbat becomes an opportunity for us to recenter ourselves as we focus on the center of our week. It is a time for family, for quality, for what counts in life.
http://www.interinclusion.org/inspirations/the-ten-commandments-in-our-lives-part-5/
http://www.interinclusion.org/inspirations/the-ten-commandments-in-our-lives-part-3/
The Ten Commandments in Our Lives (Part 4),
Print 
PDF
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
;)
