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Summary: Sacred Book
Review: A book to remind us that time is what is sacred and not space.
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Summary: occasionally over my head, but eloquent
Review: A nice book for a Shabbos afternoon at home. This book summarizes itself in a single well-put sentence: "We usually think that the earth is our mother, that time is money and profit our mate. The seventh day is a reminder that God is our father, that time is life and the spirit our mate." Indeed!
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Summary: There is no finer book on Sabbath
Review: Abraham Heschel is by far the most in-depth writer on the topic of Sabbath and how is applies to our daily lives. This book has transformed my understanding, as a Christian, to what the Sabbath is and how we should respond. I highly recommend this book and author to anyone with an interest. His book on the prophets is also a great read, with more of a scholarly touch.
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Summary: There is no finer book on Sabbath
Review: Abraham Heschel is by far the most in-depth writer on the topic of Sabbath and how is applies to our daily lives. This book has transformed my understanding, as a Christian, to what the Sabbath is and how we should respond. I highly recommend this book and author to anyone with an interest. His book on the prophets is also a great read, with more of a scholarly touch.
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Summary: Cool water on a hot day....
Review: Dipping into the pages of this thin volume is like drinking from a fresh spring in an oasis; it satisfies, but never stops bubbling up from below, refreshing again and again. Though it might not affect others as it did me, this work launches my mind off on a chain of speculations. And "The Sabbath" is quite poetic! Every (!) page is filled with gems like the following (p67): "A thought has blown the market place away. There is a song in the wind and joy in the trees. The Sabbath arrives in the world, scattering a song in the silence of the night: eternity utters a day." Another: "Israel is engaged to eternity. Even if they dedicate six days of the week to worldly pursuits, their soul is claimed by the seventh day.""The Sabbath" is also intellectually satisfying. Heschel offers fresh ways of looking at existence: "...time is that which never expires...it is the world of space which is rolling through the infinite expanse of time." At the level of daily existence, this work challenges a common perspective, asserting: "Labor is the means toward an end, and the Sabbath as a day of rest, as a day of abstaining from toil, is not for the purpose of becoming fit for the forthcoming labor. The Sabbath is a day for the sake of life. Man is not for the purpose of enhancing the efficiency of his work." I mentioned that "The Sabbath" unleashed my speculative mind. For example, I tried to imagine the bubble of space-time suspended in an otherness we call God. Space is visible, filled with things; time is invisible but no less real. We and all around us float atop the river of time.... It occurred to me that at all instants, we are supported by the otherness that is in front of us in time, as well behind us in time. I drifted into another rumination: The First and Second Temples were works of men. While wandering in Sinai, tents were sufficient. And today, with neither temple nor tent, our new temple is one of temporal structures, carried inside each of us from place to place. Then, thinking of thingness, it occurred to me that Moses destroyed the tablets upon which the Divine laws were inscribed. He left the broken slabs where they fell. The stone was merely a tool - not the substance. The words (seemingly evanescent) were the truly enduring element. I hope other readers of this volume will find it the springboard for meditation that I found it to be. I recommend it in the belief that it will.
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Summary: Central to my understanding of Judaism
Review: Heschel's "The Sabbath" was perhaps the singular most important work in helping me understand my own relationship to a weekly sabbath/shabbat. It is a masterfully written (and, unlike other Heschel books, short!) description of what it means to create a "cathedral in time" each week. Heschel's central insight that Judaism is a "religion of time and not of space" -- I'm quoting from memory so don't harass me if I got it wrong -- is brilliant and important. Highly recommended for Jews and other spiritual seekers.
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Summary: Amazing theology and writing
Review: Heschel's little 100 page book maybe the most important one I've read in the last year. He does not offer simplistic, pragmatic rationale for taking a day off, but the theological underpinnings for why God designed us to function in a pattern of work and rest.
I won't ruin the many great surprises in the little book, but here are a few gems:
Our need for more time, which we are always losing, is compensated by our search for more space, in our ongoing pursuit of more property. Time and space essentially struggle with one another through our lives. Yet time is eternal while the spatial is temporal. So, in essence, we have to make time for the eternal in our week.
The parable about the body needing to celebrate with the soul on the Sabbath on page 19 is priceless.
The criticism of Philo's defense of the Sabbath, that it is more Roman than Jewish, is brilliant.
The conclusion that the Sabbath is a day we recreate Eden and relive God's intention for us is so beautiful that I will need to take a day off this week to think about it.
"The Sabbath" is articulate, deep, witty, and practical. I couldn't recommend it more.
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Summary: An Everlasting Covenant
Review: I am not Jewish by faith, but am a Christian who has been trying to keep the Lord's day - honouring God's Covenant with His people [as an Israelite by faith - one who has circumcision of the heart]. This book was an insight into the spirituality of the Sabbath - and I am ashamed at how little thought I had put into keeping the Lord's Day. I have observed the Sabbath from sunset to sunset, as described in the Scripture, and ceased from physical labour - but the author has given me a greater insight into the rest from space and things. Sabbath will never be the same again and I am so grateful for this book. May God bless the author and lead him to know and accept His Messiah.
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Summary: A thoughtful commentary on a day of rest
Review: I give this fine, slim volume high marks for readability and fine insight. Heschel's comments are written for the lay reader and provide ample food for thought. Among other things, Heschel reminds his readers that the higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information but to face sacred moments. This is a good piece of tempering advice for those of us involved in scholarly pursuits.
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Summary: Beyond Words
Review: I grew up Christian, and I have only recently become seriously interested in Judaism. The Sabbath was something I thought I would never understand, until I read this book. It can only be described as an experience. It is so heavy with feeling one can't help but want to experience the feelings Heschel has about the Sabbath at least once.
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