Emor: A Palace in Time

Source Sheet by Yair Robinson

My favorite trick question to ask in religious school is to ask the kids what the most important holiday is in Judaism. Inevitably I get a lot of Chanukah and Yom Kippur and Passover, but at least one kid always gets it. The answer is Shabbat. I know we don’t think of Shabbat as a holiday, but it is. How do I know it’s the most important? First, it is the holiday all the other holidays are modeled after; every other holiday is described at some point as ‘shabbat shabbaton’; that is, treat it as Shabbat. Second, it is mentioned 60 times in the Torah. Sixty times! And finally, the rabbis remind us that what we do most frequently is most important, and we get to experience Shabbat every single week, if we choose to make it a part of our lives. Finally, it is a sanctuary in time, as Abraham Joshua Heschel called it. We talk so much about self-care these days; Shabbat is a day devoted to real self-care, a chance to step back from our creative endeavors, the successes and defeats of the week, and reflect on what is most important in our lives, including our relationship with ourselves and each other. There will always be demands on our time and our bodies: to work more, cram one more activity in, do ONE MORE THING. And Shabbat reminds us to take care of ourselves and be at peace, even for just one day a week.