“Labor is a craft, but perfect rest is an art. It is
the result of an accord of body, mind, and imagination. To attain a degree of
excellence in art, one must accept its discipline, one must adjure
slothfulness. The seventh day is a palace in time which we build. It is made of
soul, of joy and reticence. In its atmosphere, a discipline is a reminder of
adjacency to eternity. Indeed, the splendor of the day is expressed in terms of
abstentions, just as the mystery of God is more adequately conveyed via negationis, in the categories of
negative theology which claims that we can never say what He is, we can only
say what He is not. We often feel how poor the edifice would be were it built
exclusively of our rituals and deeds which are so awkward and often so obtrusive.
How else express glory in the presence of eternity, if not by the silence of
abstaining from noisy acts?”— Polish-born American Jewish theologian Rabbi Abraham
Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (1951)
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