The Sabbath
its Meaning
for Modern Man
By DR. ABRAHAM J. HESCHEL
Copyright 1951 by Abraham. J. Heschel. Published by Farrar. Straus & Young,
Inc., New York, in cooperation with the United Synagogue of America. Repro-
duced by American Jewish Press, News and Feature Service of the American
Association of English-Jewish NeWspapers in conjunction with the National Sab-
bath Observance Effort as a public service of the United Synagogue of America.
Part II
Technical civilization is the product of labor, of man's exer-
tion of power for the sake of gain, for the sake of producing goods.
It begins when man, dissatisfied with what is available in nature,
becomes engaged in a struggle with the forces of nature in order
to enhance his safety and to increase his comfort. To use the
language of the Bible, the task of civilization is to subdue the
earth, to have dominion over the beast.
The solution of mankind's most vexing problem will not be
found in renouncing technical civilization, but in attaining some
degree of independence of it.
What are the kinds of labor not to be done on the Sabbath?
They are, according to the ancient rabbis, all those acts which
were necessary for the construction and furnishing of the Sanc-
tuary in the desert. The Sabbath itself is a sanctuary which we
build, a sanctuary in time.
THE SPLENDOR OF SPACE
An allegorical interpretation of an ancient debate.
The Time: about the year 130.
The place: Palestine.
The people present: Three leading scholars and one outsider.
The place and the people under the dominion of the Roman
Empire.
Rabbi Judah ben Ilai, Rabbi Jose, and Rabbi Shimeon ben
Yohai were sitting together, and with them was a man called
Judah ben Gerim. Rabbi Judah opened the discussion and said:
—How fine are the works of thispeople (the Romans) ! They have
made roads and market places, they have built bridges, they have
erected bathhouses.
Rabbi Jose was silent.
Then Rabbi Shimeon ben Yohai replied and said:—All that
they made they made for themselves. They made roads and market
places to put harlots there; they built bridges to levy tolls for
them; they erected bathhouses to delight their bodies.
Feast of Lights Is In Keeping With Tradition
Of the Beauty, Cheer, Hope of Ceremonials
taught that only one light is to
be kindled on the first night
and an additional light was to
Festivals and special holiday
The decision to begin the ob- be kindled on each succeeding
observances have been celebrat-
servance
with the lighting of night until there would be eight
ed by the Jews almost from the
moment they became a people one candle the first evening and lights ablaze on the eighth and
more than 3,500 years ago. To adding one more each succeed- final night of the festival. The
each generation, these periodic ing evening of the festival was rabbis accepted the doctrines of
observances in the cycle of the made not until after Josephus' the House of Hillel.
There is a feeling among
Hebrew calendar have brought time.
Although the Mishna gives many scholars that the Feast
beauty, cheer and hope. To Jews
in every land and in every age, considerable space for discus- of Lights actually had no di-
these holidays have been con- sions about the observance of rect connection with the ob-
s t a n t reminders of stirring Purim there is no discussion servance of Judah Maccabee's
events and notable personalities, about Hanukah. The Mishna victory over the Greeks. In-
as symbols of lofty principles mentions the Festival of Lights stead, they originated with an
and religious devotion, uniting only in passing, but does not older festival which took place
speak of any laws or instruc- about the same time of the
all Jews.
The liturgy for the observance tions for the kindling of the year and which lost its im-
because of the new
of Hanukah is rather sparse as oil lamps, (Baba Kamma VI, 6). portance
compared with Passover, Suk- The Gemara, which interprets popularity of the Hanukah
kot, Shevuot, Rosh Hashanah the Mishna, however, offers dis- observance.
and Yom Kippur. The reason cussions about the lighting of
This older festival had to do
is that Hanukah is classified as the lamp, and in these instances with fire and light. It was prob-
of
only in the name
the Amor- ably a nature festival, a sort of
a minor festival.
Josephus is the first writer aim the interpreters, without semi-holiday with a pagan back-
to make mention of the Feast ref ering to the Mishna, (Shab- ground that was tied in, not
of lights (Antiquities of the bat 21b). It is this section of with the official Jewish religion,
the Gemara which gives us the but with folk belief. There are
Jews, Chapter '7, paragraph 7)
where he indicates that Judah discussion about the procedure other holidays on the Jewish
calendar which came about in
Maccabee "celebrated t h e of kindling the lights.
The Academy of Shammai I the same manner, including the
restoration of the sacrifices of
the temple for eight days." He taught that eight lights were Fifteenth of Shvat and Lag
points out in the same section to be kindled on the first night B'Omer.
that the Jews "were so very and each succeeding night there
The sources for the benedic-
glad at the revival of their was to be one light less until tion over the Hanukah candles
customs, when after a long- the eighth night when only one are two. The initial source is
time of intermission, they un- light was to be kindled. The the Talmud (Shabbat 23A)
expectedly h a d regained the Academy of Hillel, however, where the basic benediction,
art thou 0 Lord our
When Rabbi Shimeon heard of the decree, he took his son "Blessed
God king of the universe," is
Rabbi Eleazar with him and hid in the House of Learning. And augmented
with 'who was sanc-
his wife came every day and brought him stealthily bread and a tified and commanded us to
jug of water. When Rabbi Shimeon heard that men were searching kindle the lights of Hanukah."
for them and trying to capture them, he said to his son:
The second source is Masechet
—We cannot rely upon a woman's discretion, for she can
easily be talked over. Or perhaps she may be tortured until she Soferim (chapter 20, Halaeha 6)
which not only gives the text
discloses our place of concealment.
So they went together into the field and hid themselves in a for the blessing over the lights
cave, so that no man knew what had become of them. And a but also gives us the original
miracle happened: a carob tree ga. ew up inside the cave and a source of "Haneirot Halalu."
To round out the ritual of
well of water opened, so that they had enough to eat and enough
to drink. They took off their clothes and sat up to their necks in the Hanukah candle-lighting
ceremony there is the hymn
sand. The whole day they studied Torah. And when the time for
prayer came, they put their clothes on and prayed, and then they "Maoz Tzur." Popularly trans-
lated as "Rock of Ages," the
put them off and again dug themselves into the sand, so that
their clothes should not wear away. Thus they spent twelve years hymn is presumed to have
been written in the thirteenth
in the cave.
century by Mordecai Chazak,
When the twelve years had come to an end, Elijah the pro-
whose name is found in the
phet came and, standing at the entrance of the cave, exclaimed:
—Who will inform the son of Yohai that the emperor is dead initial letters of the six stan-
zas.
and his decree has been annulled?
One custom which was indeed
When they heard this, they emerged from the cave. Seeing
the people plowing the fields and sowing the seed, they exclaimed: significant of Hanukah but
—These people forsake eternal life and are engaged in temporary somehow has loSt its place in
life! And the rabbi and his son returned to the cave for another the liturgy of the festival, was
the reading of "Megilat Hach-
12 months.
ashmonaim," (The Scroll of the
Hasmoneans). Also known as
"Megilat Antiochus," (The Scroll
of Antiochus), this scroll was -
read during the Middle Ages on
Hanukah as the Book of Esther
is read on Purim. Although, as
mentioned, the custom has died
out, it is still part of the liturgy
of the Yemenite Jews.
By HARRY CUSHING
Copyright, 1952, JTA, Inc.
freedom of their worship, they
made it a law for posterity,
that they keep a festival."
Ask Court to Rule
On School Segregation
WASHINGTON, (JTA)—Four
major civil rights organizations
and t w o religious associations
urged the U. S. Supreme Court
to rule that racial segregation
in public elementary and high
schools is unconstitutional.
In a "friend of the court" brief
filed with the high court, the
American Civil Liberties Union,
the American Jewish Committee
the Anti-Defamation League of
Bnai Brith, the Japanese-Amer-
ican Citizens League, the Amer-
ican Ethical Union and the Uni-
tarian Fellowship for Social Jus-
tice said that "segregation in
state-supported edtleational in-
stitutions violates tfie equal pro-
tection of the laws guaranteed
by the 14th Amendment."
It was the eve of the Sabbath when they left the cave, and
as they came out they saw an old man carrying two bundles of
myrtle in his hand, a sweet-smelling herb having the perfume
of paradise.
—What are these for, they asked him.
—They are in honor of the Sabbath, the old man replied.
Said Rabbi Shimeon to his son:
—Behold and see how dear God's commands are to Israel • • •
At that moment they both found tranquility of soul,
It was not until Rabbi Shimeon and his son came out of
the cave at the end of their second period of retreat that their
Judah ben Gerim went home_ and related to his father and minds were reconciled to the idea that the world this side of
Another all that had been said. And the report of it spread until heaven is worth working in. What caused the change of mind?
Lit reached the government Decreed the government:
It was the "old man"—symbolizing the people of Israel—
—Judah who exalted us shall be exalted; Jose who was silent who went out to meet the Sabbath with myrtles in his hand 4► 3
shall go into exile; Shimeon who reviled our work shalt be put to if the Sabbath were a bride.
death,
To be continued next week
Extract Valuable Copper Ore
From Ancient Solomon's Mines
NEW YORK, (JTA) — The
State of Israel will extract 100,-
000 tons of copper ore from the
ancient site of King Solomon's
Mines within seven months, it
was predicted by Abraham Dor,
chief engineer of Israel Mining
Industries, who arrived recently
for a nationwide speaking tour
on behalf of the Israel bond is-
sue.
44—THE JEWISH NEWS
Friday, December it, 05*