ON THE WEEKLY NEW YEAR
I had a few thoughts while reading A Guide to the Sabbath by Rabbi Solomon Goldman, part of a 1960s box set of holiday handbooks published by Jewish Chronicle Publications of London. 1 Rabbi Goldman states that Shabbat takes precedence even over Yom Kippur, a fact already moderately well known in Jewish circles. 2 He shares some reasoning for this conclusion; firstly that the penalty for non-observance of Shabbat is greater than that of non-observance of Yom Kippur, and secondly because of the principle that “the more frequent takes priority over the less frequent.” 3 The idea that with greater frequency comes greater importance I found striking, as we generally celebrate and value the rare, and demean and denigrate the commonplace. In December we’re all asked about our plans for the new year. It is a weighty question; we recognize that time is a limited resource. To us as individuals, time is perhaps the most precious resource we have. There is no way to earn it back. We understand how carefully we should chart our course, and the importance of forming a plan to guide us. After all, a year is spent wisely or wastefully, and whichever way we choose to spend it, it is nevertheless spent. A frugal man can invest his time, but even the most miserly among us cannot store it up. Such care is present in our discussions of time in general, in a lifespan, in a decade and in a year, but less so for months, weeks, days and hours.
A given day might be productive or lazy, often without much distinction between the two. Most of us don’t mind if an individual day goes to waste, not even enough to discern what is or is not a productive day. The same goes for the course of a week and the course of a month. We can lose a month and be comfortable that it was only a month, as most of the year remains to make up for it. The same goes for the loss of a week or a day, as more weeks and more days may make up the loss, but the prospect of losing a year is out of the question. In our culture the year is perhaps the smallest large amount of time, and therefore in practice it may be our smallest significant amount of time. But by undervaluing the day and the week, the year pays too.
The remedy exists in Genesis, for the world was founded on the week, and the week was founded around Shabbat, “made last, conceived first.”4 Though it is a danger in every age, in modern times I fear that Shabbat has taken on the commonness of the surrounding weekdays. This is precisely what we are commanded not to do; we are to observe the Sabbath and keep it holy. Shabbat should not be lowered because she visits us every week. On the contrary, the days of the week should be elevated because of the presence of Queen Shabbat.
As Yeshua taught, building on a bad foundation leads to disaster. Knowingly or unknowingly, we build our years on the foundation of weeks, and our lifetimes are built in a matter of days, if you’ll pardon the turn of phrase. As we have seen throughout history, if we keep Shabbat, Shabbat will keep us. 5 By observing Shabbat every week, we end up giving all days of the week a bit more meaning and value, which helps us spend our months and years more wisely. Therefore, in this new year, may the L-rd teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 6 Best of luck to us all in building a good set of fifty-two good weeks. – Matthew Lilly
1 These books are enjoyable and informative, if you’re looking for recommendations to round out your Jewish studies.
2 Yom Kippur is known even among non-Jews as Judaism’s “Holiest Day of the Year,” yet still Shabbat takes precedence.
3 Rabbi Dr. Solomon Goldman, A Guide to the Sabbath, Jewish Chronicle Publications, London, page 2.
4 Lekhah Dodi, stanza 2
5 “More than Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews.” — quote by Achad Ha’am
6 Psalm 90
