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alisajeffus's review
4.0
AJ Heschel beautifully describes the sabbath, the importance of it, and it’s meaning. A lot was lost on me though, his writing is very high level, mystical, and conceptual. The book responds to a lot of Jewish writings which I am unfamiliar with.
While it’s a beautiful book about the sabbath, it was a pretty difficult-to-understand read.
While it’s a beautiful book about the sabbath, it was a pretty difficult-to-understand read.
razzberry_pi's review
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
2.0
fairly dense theological text with lots of references to both the Tanakh and the Talmund
some interesting pieces about the destinctions between work and rest, as well as time vs space, emphasizes the importance of jewish sanctification of time through the Sabbath, rather than space
did contain some weird bits that seemed to put down other religious/spiritual traditions which wasn't great, and took the thread of "conquering space" further than I would have liked
some interesting pieces about the destinctions between work and rest, as well as time vs space, emphasizes the importance of jewish sanctification of time through the Sabbath, rather than space
did contain some weird bits that seemed to put down other religious/spiritual traditions which wasn't great, and took the thread of "conquering space" further than I would have liked
lgpiper's review
3.0
This is a short, rather interesting reflection on the institution of the Sabbath, as in "remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy". It was written by a Jewish scholar, so is specifically related to the Sabbath as celebrated by Jewish people. But, it has some interesting ideas and concepts that people of other faiths might find helpful as they try to understand and relate to their Creator.
The lives of men, according to Heschel, are primarily lived on a structural (physical) plane, i.e. we build things, we manage things, we fix things, we sew and reap crops, we write/plan/calculate, and so forth. All we create, even our mightiest structures, e.g. the pyramids, or our most elevated ideas, eventually decay back to nothingness. Time is different. Time is eternal. The structural is consumed by time, but time never changes, it just goes on...eternally. Something like that.
So, although we work in the structural world for six days of the week, we can escape to the temporal when we celebrate the Sabbath. Creation was done and continues to be done in time. So the Sabbath becomes a day of re-creation, a day of holiness ("...and on the seventh day, God rested...and called it holy"), and also a day, because we are living it in time and in holiness, where we deepen our relationship to and celebrate our relationship with our Creator. In so doing, we attain glimpses of eternity.
I am, of course, missing a lot, and perhaps making some stuff up (and didn't have a clue what he was talking about when he likened the Sabbath to a Bride to be celebrated at the wedding feast). Properly read, this book would be studied, i.e. re-read, notes taken and so forth. I won't be doing that, in part because the book is due back at the library muy pronto. But it is interesting to contemplate how the world might differ if we all took off one day from our normal pursuits—many of us, one day off from being assholes—and considered our relationships with our Creator, and consequently with each other, since we are each of us a little piece of our Creator's work—all many parts, but just one body kind of stuff. That's not going to happen any time soon, of course, because the love of money—allegedly the root of all evil, or so Paul would have it—has pretty much trumped everything else in our modern world. But just think, if each of us reduced our personal assholism by just one seventh, how much better a world we would share with each other.
The lives of men, according to Heschel, are primarily lived on a structural (physical) plane, i.e. we build things, we manage things, we fix things, we sew and reap crops, we write/plan/calculate, and so forth. All we create, even our mightiest structures, e.g. the pyramids, or our most elevated ideas, eventually decay back to nothingness. Time is different. Time is eternal. The structural is consumed by time, but time never changes, it just goes on...eternally. Something like that.
So, although we work in the structural world for six days of the week, we can escape to the temporal when we celebrate the Sabbath. Creation was done and continues to be done in time. So the Sabbath becomes a day of re-creation, a day of holiness ("...and on the seventh day, God rested...and called it holy"), and also a day, because we are living it in time and in holiness, where we deepen our relationship to and celebrate our relationship with our Creator. In so doing, we attain glimpses of eternity.
I am, of course, missing a lot, and perhaps making some stuff up (and didn't have a clue what he was talking about when he likened the Sabbath to a Bride to be celebrated at the wedding feast). Properly read, this book would be studied, i.e. re-read, notes taken and so forth. I won't be doing that, in part because the book is due back at the library muy pronto. But it is interesting to contemplate how the world might differ if we all took off one day from our normal pursuits—many of us, one day off from being assholes—and considered our relationships with our Creator, and consequently with each other, since we are each of us a little piece of our Creator's work—all many parts, but just one body kind of stuff. That's not going to happen any time soon, of course, because the love of money—allegedly the root of all evil, or so Paul would have it—has pretty much trumped everything else in our modern world. But just think, if each of us reduced our personal assholism by just one seventh, how much better a world we would share with each other.
a_tall_yid's review
4.0
Short read and very beautiful but even for a short book, quite redundant. Basically Shabbat gives us spirituality and control over time. Other religions build temples to space.