The Civilization That Learned to Receive

Shabbos gives release from the tyranny of technology, yes, but the deepest rewards of Shabbos go beyond direct utility and practicality. They are in the social, interpersonal, and spiritual realms – family bonding, community formation, opening the heart to grace, nobility of character, orientation in place and time, rediscovery of the self, liberat

I wanted the result, not the process. Was it just me, or was the Western spiritual way, with its emphasis on redemption, more inclined to results? The Day of Judgment, the end of days: one day, everything will count for something, every last deed and smallest act.

During the six weekdays, we think of ourselves as creators. On the seventh, we become aware that we are also creations – part of the natural order, whose integrity we are bidden to respect.

Jews have endeavored to realize the transformation that Shabbos effects on the soul, to cultivate and ripen their appreciation of the gift each week, and to pass on their practices and their realizations to coming generations with openness to ever deeper insight to appear in the future.