Economist Writing Every Day

According to a recent CDC Report on the mental health effects of COVID-19 lockdowns, 1 in 4 young adults (ages 18-24) have had suicidal ideation. Even before COVID-19, many of you may also know about the so-called “deaths of despair” that refers to the rise in mortality among middle-aged white men starting in the late 1990s from suicide, overdose, chronic liver disease or cirrhosis.

With so much existential anguish, my book review is on a slim little book called The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel. The book is packed with zeal for a day Heschel calls, “a palace in time”,

“The seventh day is a mine where spirit’s precious metal can be found with which to construct a palace in time, a dimension in which the human is at home with the divine; a dimension in which man aspires to approach the likeness of the divine. For where shall the likeness of God be found? There is no quality that space has in common with the essence of God. There is not enough freedom at the top of the mountain; there is not enough glory in the silence of the sea. Yet the likeness of God can be found in time, which is eternity in disguise.”

Heschel divides the world into two categories: space and time. Both are means to understand God. The toil that we experience happens in space and allows us to better understand God as Creator. But, Heschel spends more pages writing about time.

In thinking about time, there is a tension because Genesis 2:2 reads, “On the seventh day God finished his work,” Exodus 20:11 reads, “In six days the Lord made the heaven and earth.” How is it possible to finish making heaven and earth in six days but not to be finished until the 7th day? The rabbi’s resolved this tension by stating that menuha was created on the Sabbath. Menuha is not an object that we create that can be grasped in our hands. Heschel states menuha means something akin to “tranquility, serenity, peace, and repose”. God created an architecture in time and menuha is the special attribute of the seventh day.

The fact that God blessed the seventh day, and not the other days, should hint that the seventh day is special. What this means is that time is not homogeneous —some time is different than other time. So it seems there is time for creating and time for remembering that we were created. On the seventh day we remember our relationship with God, that remembrance is a refuge from a fury of sound and distraction. What is more, this remembrance carries us through the rest of the week.

This was a great joy for me to think about The Sabbath today. It was also a reminder. If you are like me and still trying to find your groove amidst Coronavirus, consider setting apart one day from the others. Create a palace in time, a time that is different from all the other time. Remember, time is not homogenous. Your palace will look different depending on your position in life but it should be restorative and help you to remember and be grateful.

At one point, Heschel asks, “. . . is there any institution which holds out greater hope for man’s progress than the Sabbath?” I do not know. But, genuine rest — not diversion — seems necessary in the tensions of our present moment.