Stop, Look, Listen: Celebrating Shabbos through a Spiritual Lens

the essential posture of Shabbos is trust in God and the gifts of presence and intimacy cultivated by shared space within community.

Each Shabbos deposits a baseline of preparedness for further growth. Every Shabbos enriches – blesses – the following weekdays, to enable them to be days of preparedness for the Shabbos to come.

The deeper the commitment, the more profound the life-changing outcome. Touristic excursions into Shabbos territory are unlikely to lead to lasting transformation.

Shabbos is best understood as a day of heightened awareness and keen attention, not a day of sedate inactivity. I translate menuĥa as “tranquility,” rather than “rest.”

For example, political discussions are not appropriate for the Shabbos table. Partisan wrangling and point-scoring are inimical to Shabbos spirit. And Shabbos is no time to critique or criticize anyone – no invidious comparisons.

we must leave every trace of small-mindedness behind, filling our hearts with expansive awareness and acceptance. When we do so, the turbulence and distractions of mundane existence fall away

Melakha points to both skilled activity (workmanship) and the product of such activity (opus),

The goal of Shabbos is mindful awareness that aligns with bodily repose. One must speak differently on Shabbos, with graciousness and kindness, with understanding of people whom one is tempted to dismiss as different. On Shabbos, we avoid language that disparages or belittles.

Share stories about yourself and others that are consistent with the buoyant spirit of Shabbos. Share what you are grateful for.

What does all this have to do with Shabbos? Shabbos is first and foremost an act of imitatio Dei; just as God ceased from melakha on the seventh day, so should we (Ex. 20:11; 31:17). The aspirational ideal is to cease for the reason God ceased – not out of weariness, fatigue, and drained energies, but out of confidence that the facets of melakha –