Have you ever found yourself so immersed in a project that
you forget to stop for lunch. Sometimes
we’re working on something that we become so engrossed in what it is we’re doing, so
focused on the work at hand that we forget about everything else. We forget to eat, we forget to sleep, we
forget to drink, everything becomes secondary to the task with which we are
faced.
And we know that this is really not the best way to work, and that it’s not good for our
productivity and it’s probably not good
for the project with which we’re involved.
But there’s something about it that just keeps us hooked. To the
exclusion of everything else.
We might imagine that for the Israelites in the wilderness
as they were given the task of building the Tabernacle, of building God’s
dwelling place on earth, that this would be the kind of project which would be
all consuming. With all of
them dedicating their time and effort round the clock to complete the building
project and to have God dwell amongst them.
And, we know that the people were very moved by the project and that
they gave more than Moses required and that, ultimately, he had to tell the
people to stop in this week’s Torah portion. Telling them to make no further contributions towards the
sanctuary.
But at the beginning of this
week’s Torah portion, in the midst of the description of the building of the
tabernacle, we suddenly get the command of Shabbat. Moses brings the whole Israelite community
together and says to them these are the things that Adonai has commanded you to
do, on six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a
Shabbat with complete rest - Holy to Adonai.
It seems strange to get the command of Shabbat once again
amidst the building of the tabernacle we’ve had this command and instruction
already and yet here it is restated in the Torah. For the rabbis’ the positioning of the Shabbat
command here in the midst of the tabernacle building was a clue as to what types of work
are prohibited on Shabbat. And the list
of forty works less one, effectively 39 works, come from the work involved in
creating the tabernacle.
But I want to suggest, instead of coming here to tell us
about what work is, the Shabbat command was included here to tell us how
important it is to take a break from our work.
Whatever the project we’re working on, whatever it is that we’re engaged
in, is it as important as building the tabernacle, as building God’s dwelling
place on earth? Because even in the midst
of that building project, the people knew that they had to take at least one
day off a week. A day of Shabbat, a day
of rest for themselves and the community.
For us, in our lives, they can serve as the inspiration and
the reminder that whatever it is we’re doing, however important we feel the
project is, however engrossed we are in our work, we still have to take a
break. Shabbat comes as a weekly
reminder that while we might consider our work important, to rest is
sacred. And commanded by God.
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