"The higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information, but to face sacred moments." -AJH, The Sabbath. Background The creation story in the Torah describes seven days of creation - light and dark; the sky and earth; the seas and dry land, with vegetation; the sun, moon and stars; birds and fish; animals and human beings; and finally, rest. Though often understood as the six days of creation, followed by Shabbat, we can also say that G-d did create something on the seventh day: rest. While G-d declared the other six days to be "good", or even "very good", G-d "blessed the seventh day and made it holy." (Gen. 2:3). This is the first time the word "kadosh", Hebrew for "holy", is used in the Torah. It is significant because the first thing that G-d declares sacred is time. Later, on Mount Sinai, G-d calls for the Jews to be a holy people, and finally, after the worshipping of a thing, the golden calf, is there holiness in space, the tabernacle. But what exactly is holiness? The word "kadosh" specifically means "separate". At the beginning of Shabbat we light candles to separate the work week from Shabbat, and in the Havdallah service at the end of Shabbat, we say "mavdil ben kodesh l'chol", "to separate the holy from the profane". Jews around the world and throughout time have celebrated Shabbat in many different ways. The Sabbath is the only day of observance included in the Ten Commandments. The Commandments are stated twice in the Torah, with slight variations between the two. The first tells us to "remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy," while in the second we are told to "observe the Sabbath". What's the difference? The Rabbis declared that "to observe" meant to not work, and this was defined as anything involving production, creation or transformation of an object. The Talmud describes thirty-nine categories of work, "melacha", to abstain from on the Sabbath. These are all derived from work done to build the tabernacle, such as agriculture, cloth and leather work, construction, using fire and carrying or transporting objects. In addition to these categories, the Rabbis also added other prohibitions that are not directly (though many are indirectly) related to the thirty-nine melachot. These are intended to help us "remember" the Sabbath and keep it holy'. For example, many traditional Jews refrain from tearing toilet paper on the Sabbath. Why? On the "observe" side of things, by tearing on the perforations, one is cutting something to size, like preparing strips of leather for the tabernacle. On the 'remember' side of things, doing something different on Shabbat, using already torn pieces or facial tissues, reminds one that this day is indeed different. In the same line of thinking, some people use a favorite, special mug for their coffee on Shabbat, or place bouquets of flowers in each room for the holiday. The essence is to make the day different, separate, beautiful and restful, whatever that may mean to you. "Labor is a craft, but perfect rest is an art." -AJH, The Sabbath