What is so special about #Shabbat? Three things. First, it introduces in the most vivid way the idea of limits. We can’t produce, consume and deplete our resources constantly with no constraints and no thought for future generations.
Second, it creates for one day a week a world in which values are not determined by money or its equivalent. On Shabbat you can’t buy or sell or pay for someone’s services. It is the most tangible expression of the moral limits of markets.
Whether in the synagogue or at home, relationships are determined by other things altogether, by a sense of kinship, belonging and mutual responsibility.
Third, Shabbat renews social capital. It bonds people into communities in ways not structured by transactions of wealth or power. It is to time what parks are to space: something precious that we share on equal terms and that none of us could create or possess on our own.
These are just three of the many reasons why I love and value #Shabbat. I hope you do too. Wishing you all #ShabbatShalom!
