WHAT WE THINK

Shabbat: A Weekly Pause

Shabbat isn’t just about going to synagogue. It’s a 25-hour experience of spiritual, meditative, psychological, and intellectual reset—a deliberate break from the usual drive to control time and space. On Shabbat, we step into a mindset of awe, wonder, joy, pleasure, reflection, and connection—both with ourselves and our communities. As the psalm for Shabbat says: “I rejoice in Your work, O God. I will exalt in the works of Your hands!”

During the week, our lives are often a whirlwind of getting, spending, and shaping the world to our will. Shabbat invites us to stop, slow down, and shift from active doing to receptive being. We celebrate life through song, dance, food, conversation, intimacy, and reflection. We connect with the rhythms of nature—the sun, the moon, the stars—and recognize the immense preciousness of existence.

In this practice, we stand in reverence before the Source of all life. Language can point toward reality, but God, or the ultimate Source, is beyond words. As Abraham Joshua Heschel taught, we can approach the world in two ways: seeking to control and accumulate, or seeking to appreciate and respond. “Life without wonder is not worth living,” he said. Shabbat is our weekly invitation to choose appreciation, greeting the world with our hearts rather than our tools, as a lover reciprocating love rather than a hunter seeking prey.