This is a metaphor for life. Intentional pauses and moments of reflection are vital if we are to live with health, purpose, and joy. When we move too quickly from one obligation to the next, we deprive ourselves of the chance to consider, to evaluate, to appreciate, and to absorb what is unfolding around us.
From its very beginnings, Judaism built sacred rest into the fabric of our daily lives. In Genesis, we are told that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, we too, need to rest each week on the seventh day. Shabbat is our great weekly pause. The very word “Shabbat” means “to pause” or “to rest.” Our sages understood so well that human beings need a rhythm of work and renewal. Shabbat offers us a weekly reset: time to express gratitude, to appreciate what we already have, to connect with family and community, and to rest from the constant drive to create and produce. In our fast-paced, technology-driven world, finding this pause can be difficult, but it has never been more necessary.
Taking a sacred pause once each week, however, is not enough from a Jewish perspective. Our tradition calls us to pause daily in prayer, three times each day. We also live by an annual cycle of festivals, holidays, and commemorations (please join me beginning this Thursday, September 4th, for my monthly class From Time to Time: Journeys in the Jewish Calendar. To learn more and to register, click HERE ). The month of Elul, which ushers us into the new year, is like one long, intentional breath before the rush of life begins again. Elul gives us the space to prepare our hearts and spirits so we may enter the High Holy Days renewed, awake, and ready (see last week’s Rabbi’s Corner for readings and resources to help prepare for the Days of Awe). The High Holy Days themselves remind us of this sacred pause. Yom Kippur is called Shabbat Shabbaton, the Sabbath of Sabbaths, a deep rest for both body and soul. In Hebrew, the word for breath, n’shimah, shares the same root as the word for soul, n’shamah. Breathing deeply sustains not only our bodies but our spirits. As one of my teachers taught: if we do not tend to our bodies and our souls, our n’shamah, we will soon find we no longer have the breath, the n’shimah, to do what life requires of us.
This weekend, we also observe Labor Day. Originally born out of the labor movement in the late 19th century, it honors the dignity, achievements, and sacrifices of workers in this country. In an era when men, women, and even children worked grueling hours in unsafe conditions for meager pay, the movement insisted on humane hours, safer workplaces, and the right to rest. Labor Day reminds us that meaningful work is sacred, but so too are rest, fairness, and the protection of human dignity. The Torah has many teachings about protecting the rights of laborers, who rely on their daily wages to survive, including: “You must pay out the wages due on the same day, before the sun sets, for the worker is needy and urgently depends on it; else a cry to the Eternal will be issued against you and you will incur guilt.” (Deuteronomy 24:15)
As Jews, we understand the holiness of pausing, daily, as we say our prayers and center ourselves; weekly, as we celebrate Shabbat; seasonally, as we move through our cycle of festivals; and annually, as we prepare for the High Holy Days. These pauses refresh us, renew us, and reorient us toward God and those around us with gratitude, appreciation, and a sense of awe.
Just as the rests in music, the spaces in Torah, the gift of Shabbat, the meaning of Labor Day, and the month of Elul all remind us, life requires intentional breaths. When we honor these pauses, our lives, like a great symphony, can sing with clarity, purpose, and beauty.
“Kol ha’n’shamah t’hallel Yah, hal’luyah! Let all that breathes, let all my soul, praise God, Halleluya!” (Psalm 150:6)
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Sharon L. Sobel
Interim Rabbi
Temple Beth Or
rabbisobel@tboraleigh.org
