Ki Tissa “Shabbat Time Zone (STZ)”
We are all familiar with time zones and how they can affect our daily lives. A person flying back from abroad -crossing over a large time zone- can experience “jet lag” which temporarily disturbs their circadian rhythms. This effect is usually shaken off in a day or so. Then there is daylight saving time where we put our clocks back and then forward to take advantage of the light during normal waking hours.
These changes in how we measure and calibrate time are purely utilitarian in nature. But does time have a deeper meaning beyond just a measure of day and night? Is time just a tool to help us know where we are up to so that we can schedule our lives and function as a society?
Let us explore this further:
In Parshat Ki Tissa we encounter the commandment to keep Shabbat.
“Therefore, keep the Sabbath, for it is a sacred thing for you. Those who desecrate it shall be put to death, for whoever performs work on it, that soul will be cut off from the midst of its people.
Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever performs work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.’
Thus, shall the children of Israel observe the Sabbath, to make the Sabbath throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant.
Between Me and the children of Israel, it is forever a sign that [in] six days The Lord created the heaven and the earth, and on the seventh day He ceased and rested.” Shemot 31:14-17
This is not the first time we encounter the Mitzva of Shabbat. Shabbat as a concept is already introduced in the creation narrative in Bereishit. It is also the 4th of the ten “commandments”. Moses repeats the ten commandments in Deuteronomy except here Shabbat is no longer a remembrance of creation. Rather it is connected to the remembrance of the Exodus. The Exodus is a key moment in Jewish history as it established God as personally involved in our affairs. In other words, God cares about His creations and intervenes in history. He is interested in a relationship. God and man can meet and embrace.
Shabbat then is an oasis in time where a Jew can connect to his or her creator.
The Torah introduces to the world the profound concept that time is more than just a utilitarian tool for the functioning of man and society. Time is a construct that gives life structure and therefore meaning. Shabbat is the idea that we work and live towards a higher purpose. Six days we engage in the physical world and on the seventh we pause not just to refresh ourselves and rejuvenate though this is also an aspect of Shabbat. Shabbat is about developing our internal spiritual clocks so that all our weekdays are infused with meaningful pursuits. For a Jew this is living his or her life through the framework of the Torah and Mitzvot.
There are numerous laws and customs surrounding Shabbat whose purpose is to engender within us a special feeling of the holiness of“shabbat”. The Rabbinic Mitvzah to light candles brings light to the home both physically as well as spiritually uplifting the family unit to a higher mode of being. The Code of Jewish Law mandates we prepare special food and bathe in hot water prior to Shabbat. We lay a special white table clothe and don our best clothes. These and many other customs help us to feel connected to the time zone of Shabbat.
Forgetting what day is Shabbat!?
The Talmud (Tractate Shabbat) records a fascinating debate between two 3rd Century sages, about what to do in the event a person is travelling in a desert and has lost track of time and therefore unable to work out which day is Shabbat!
Rav Huna ruled the person should count six days (from the day he recognised he had forgotten time!) and then observe Shabbat on the seventh day. The sage Chiya Bar Rav, however held that he should keep the first day as Shabbat and then count six more days. Of course today mobile phone signals are usually picked up even in the desert so this case would be unlikely to happen! But like many Talmudic debates and discussions, the practicality or relevance of the case is secondary to the deeper thinking behind the debate.
The Talmud explains the reasoning behind the divergent views. Rav Huna reasons that the lost person must act in accordance with the pattern of creation where first six weekdays were counted prior to the Shabbat when God “rested”. A person should therefore follow this blueprint when in doubt.
Rabbi Chiya on the other hand follows the pattern of the first man “Adam Harishon” who was created on Erev shabbat and who therefore first kept Shabbat and only then counted six days.
There is a wonderful story of the great Chassidic master Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin (Rabbi Yisrael Freidman 1796-1850) who was known for his extraordinary piety and holiness even from a very young age. As a child in cheder his Rebbe was teaching this Talmudic debate about the desert traveller who forgot time. Little Yisrael told his Rebbe that he did not understand the debate. The teacher repeated the section of Talmud explaining it slowly and clearly, yet Yisrael kept informing his teacher that he could not understand it! The Rebbe was baffled as Yisrael was known for his precociousness and sharp mind. Yisrael seeing his teacher’s perplexed expression explained “Rebbe, I don’t understand the question of the Talmud. How is it possible not to know when Shabbat is? Surely one just looks up to the sky and sees and feels its Shabbes!”
You see for Ruzhiner Rebbe Shabbat was an actual spiritual reality that existed which which he had the spiritual sensitivity/antenna to pick it up. This is what I call STZ – the Shabbat Time Zone. Only very special souls can sense it naturally without any effort. Yet according to the Kabbalists every Jew is gifted with an “extra soul” on Shabbat which enables them to reach higher spiritual levels then on the weekday.
In fact, this is one reason we smell spices as part of the Havdallah (separation) ritual after Shabbat leaves. The spices help rejuvenate us after we have lost the “extra soul” [of all the five senses, the sense of smell is most associated with our souls. The Neshama was “blown” into man’s nostrils. Additionally, the sense of smell is the only sense that was not involved in the sin of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eve saw the tree was delight for the eyes, she touched the fruit, ate/taste it and heard enticing words of the serpent]
However, for most of us it takes a lifetime of dedication to the concept of Shabbat and its myriad of laws and customs to continually develop a sensitivity to the holiness of Shabbat.
Shabbat is not just the weekend God forbid. Shabbat exists both within time but simultaneously connects us to a dimension that is beyond time- that is to our souls and their eternal connection to Hashem.
When we truly tune into Shabbat then we are prone to experiencing “Shabbat-lag”. This means a trace of the inspiration we generated on Shabbat continues to live on within us throughout the week!
I know most people detest Jet Lag and its negative effects on our bodies and mood but
Shabbat Lag is something we should all strive for!
Shabbat lag Shalom!