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The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time
“Everyone curls up inside a Sabbath at some point or other. Religion need not be involved.”
The Sabbath is not just the holy day of rest. It’s also a utopian idea about a less pressured, more sociable, purer world. Where did this notion come from? Is there value in withdrawing from the world one day in seven, despite its obvious inconvenience in an age of convenience? And what will be lost if the Sabbath goes away?
In this erudite, elegantly written book, critic Judith Shulevitz weaves together histories of the Jewish and Christian sabbaths, speculations on the nature of time, and a rueful account of her personal struggle with the day. Shulevitz has found insights into the Sabbath in both cultural and contemporary sources—the Torah, the Gospels, the Talmud, and the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, as well as in the poetry of William Wordsworth, the life of Sigmund Freud, and the science of neuropsychology. She tells stories of martyrdom by Jews who died en masse rather than fight on the Sabbath and describes the feverish Sabbatarianism of the American Puritans. And she counterposes the tyranny of religious law with the equally oppressive tyranny of the clock. Can we really flourish under the yoke of communal discipline, as preachers and rabbis like to tell us? What about being free to live as we please? Can we preserve what the Sabbath gives us — a time outside time—without following its rules?
Whatever our faith or lack thereof, this rich and resonant meditation on the day of rest will remind us of the danger of letting time drive us heedlessly forward without ever stopping to reflect.
The Sabbath is not just the holy day of rest. It’s also a utopian idea about a less pressured, more sociable, purer world. Where did this notion come from? Is there value in withdrawing from the world one day in seven, despite its obvious inconvenience in an age of convenience? And what will be lost if the Sabbath goes away?
In this erudite, elegantly written book, critic Judith Shulevitz weaves together histories of the Jewish and Christian sabbaths, speculations on the nature of time, and a rueful account of her personal struggle with the day. Shulevitz has found insights into the Sabbath in both cultural and contemporary sources—the Torah, the Gospels, the Talmud, and the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, as well as in the poetry of William Wordsworth, the life of Sigmund Freud, and the science of neuropsychology. She tells stories of martyrdom by Jews who died en masse rather than fight on the Sabbath and describes the feverish Sabbatarianism of the American Puritans. And she counterposes the tyranny of religious law with the equally oppressive tyranny of the clock. Can we really flourish under the yoke of communal discipline, as preachers and rabbis like to tell us? What about being free to live as we please? Can we preserve what the Sabbath gives us — a time outside time—without following its rules?
Whatever our faith or lack thereof, this rich and resonant meditation on the day of rest will remind us of the danger of letting time drive us heedlessly forward without ever stopping to reflect.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
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1921 people want to read
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May 13, 2018
Well, that was a huge chore. Shulevitz ostensible set out to explore the history of Shabbat and whether it still has meaning in the modern age. I would still read the heck out of that book, if anyone would like to write it.
But not Shulevitz. I will never read anything she writes ever again. I've read a lot of bad books, but rarely finished a book with such a strong antipathy for an author. It's not just Shulevitz's writing style, although there's certainly a lot to complain about there:
*the prose is disorganized and often self-contradictory (some examples: in one portion Christians celebrating Sabbath on Sunday were considered anti-Shabbat, and in another the same activity is considered Sabbatizing; Christians don't celebrate a Sabbath in the Roman world because it's too hard when you're a minority group, but in the previous chapter, being a minority group is given as a reason that Jews persisted in celebrating Shabbat);
*the topic selection is eclectic enough to be completely dismissive of the reader -- pages of quoting Wordsworth because he once wrote a poem in which a single line references the Sabbath? An entire section on the author's experience in a talmud study group with no discussion of Shabbat at all? Why not, I guess...
*the completely undeserved authoritative tone. At one point Shulevitz quotes several rabbis saying one thing and then follows that up with "but I think [the complete opposite]", without any reason, then continues on as though her point of view is clearly the correct one. In another, following several pages of quotes from the New Testament about Jesus breaking the Sabbath she says "Obviously, the historic Jesus observed Shabbat." Really, obviously? We'll just take it as a given that Jesus was shomer shabbat in face of all available evidence because...Shulevitz says so?
But also, the slim autobiographical sections displayed the same personality. In writing about her mother becoming a rabbi in her 50's (P.S. I would totally read that autobiography), Shulevitz relays that because no congregation would accept a female rabbi, her mother became a hospital chaplain. She then dismisses reports that her mother got extremely good feedback on her bedside manner by saying "my mother never had patience for the sick." Then follows that up with the most offensive statement I've ever read in a modern book: "she was basically a glorified nurse". Yes, that's right, chaplains? Glorified nurses. As someone who works alongside both chaplains and nurses, I struggled to decide on whose behalf I was more horrified. She then states that the whole situation was so troubling to Shulevitz (Why? Unclear.) that she had to go to psychoanalysis.
As an aside, Shulevitz loves psychoanalysis. She starts the intro by comparing Shabbat to psychoanalysis, because they both are considered antiquated, but are valuable. Or, I mean, psychoanalysis is a completely debunked form of pseudoscience, but whatever. She then spends the first chapter writing about Jewish psychoanalytics, including Freud, and speaks extensively and lovingly about Freud in the conclusion.
More evidence that Shulevitz is exactly as she portrays herself: A hilarious passage in which she says that she was frequently asked if she was going to become a Rabbi, since she knew scripture so well. She appears to have no insight into the fact that her knowledge of scripture, consisting of a single adult Talmud class, is quite lean.
Beyond my antipathy towards Shulevitz, the book was also frustratingly not any one thing. She never even articulates what a standard Shabbat would look like to an Orthodox family, instead strictly equating "Sabbath" with "free time" except for one confused passage where she tries to distinguish different types of Sabbaths, but puts Dickens' Sabbath in as contrasting subtypes "romantic" and "scientific" in different paragraphs. She seems to have done no research at all, which she excuses by calling this book an "autobiography". And yet, for an autobiography, there's really not much there, either. I know that Shulevitz was raised Jewish and didn't like religion. She went to a Jewish overnight camp, where she felt the least educated in Judaism. Then she went on one date with an orthodox guy. Then she went to the synagogue that was the set for the Melanie Griffith/orthodox movie, because it was the movie set, but kept going back and crying in the back. Then she went to an adult talmud class, where she developed a crush on the rabbi. Then she stopped going to synagogue. Then she started going to synagogue again, because she got married. Now she tries to keep Shabbat, but mostly fails. Her children go to Jewish day school, but don't believe in G-d. That is literally the entirety of the autobiographical information in the book, with no more exploration into why these things have happened or what they mean to her.
I almost gave back a star for the admittedly interesting study of the Sabbatarian sects of Christianity, including the Anabaptist schism and the heaving Judaized Christianity of Transylvania. That was cool and novel to me. But less than 10% of the book, and given her error-prone statements in the parts of the book where I had background knowledge, I just can't trust anything she says.
But not Shulevitz. I will never read anything she writes ever again. I've read a lot of bad books, but rarely finished a book with such a strong antipathy for an author. It's not just Shulevitz's writing style, although there's certainly a lot to complain about there:
*the prose is disorganized and often self-contradictory (some examples: in one portion Christians celebrating Sabbath on Sunday were considered anti-Shabbat, and in another the same activity is considered Sabbatizing; Christians don't celebrate a Sabbath in the Roman world because it's too hard when you're a minority group, but in the previous chapter, being a minority group is given as a reason that Jews persisted in celebrating Shabbat);
*the topic selection is eclectic enough to be completely dismissive of the reader -- pages of quoting Wordsworth because he once wrote a poem in which a single line references the Sabbath? An entire section on the author's experience in a talmud study group with no discussion of Shabbat at all? Why not, I guess...
*the completely undeserved authoritative tone. At one point Shulevitz quotes several rabbis saying one thing and then follows that up with "but I think [the complete opposite]", without any reason, then continues on as though her point of view is clearly the correct one. In another, following several pages of quotes from the New Testament about Jesus breaking the Sabbath she says "Obviously, the historic Jesus observed Shabbat." Really, obviously? We'll just take it as a given that Jesus was shomer shabbat in face of all available evidence because...Shulevitz says so?
But also, the slim autobiographical sections displayed the same personality. In writing about her mother becoming a rabbi in her 50's (P.S. I would totally read that autobiography), Shulevitz relays that because no congregation would accept a female rabbi, her mother became a hospital chaplain. She then dismisses reports that her mother got extremely good feedback on her bedside manner by saying "my mother never had patience for the sick." Then follows that up with the most offensive statement I've ever read in a modern book: "she was basically a glorified nurse". Yes, that's right, chaplains? Glorified nurses. As someone who works alongside both chaplains and nurses, I struggled to decide on whose behalf I was more horrified. She then states that the whole situation was so troubling to Shulevitz (Why? Unclear.) that she had to go to psychoanalysis.
As an aside, Shulevitz loves psychoanalysis. She starts the intro by comparing Shabbat to psychoanalysis, because they both are considered antiquated, but are valuable. Or, I mean, psychoanalysis is a completely debunked form of pseudoscience, but whatever. She then spends the first chapter writing about Jewish psychoanalytics, including Freud, and speaks extensively and lovingly about Freud in the conclusion.
More evidence that Shulevitz is exactly as she portrays herself: A hilarious passage in which she says that she was frequently asked if she was going to become a Rabbi, since she knew scripture so well. She appears to have no insight into the fact that her knowledge of scripture, consisting of a single adult Talmud class, is quite lean.
Beyond my antipathy towards Shulevitz, the book was also frustratingly not any one thing. She never even articulates what a standard Shabbat would look like to an Orthodox family, instead strictly equating "Sabbath" with "free time" except for one confused passage where she tries to distinguish different types of Sabbaths, but puts Dickens' Sabbath in as contrasting subtypes "romantic" and "scientific" in different paragraphs. She seems to have done no research at all, which she excuses by calling this book an "autobiography". And yet, for an autobiography, there's really not much there, either. I know that Shulevitz was raised Jewish and didn't like religion. She went to a Jewish overnight camp, where she felt the least educated in Judaism. Then she went on one date with an orthodox guy. Then she went to the synagogue that was the set for the Melanie Griffith/orthodox movie, because it was the movie set, but kept going back and crying in the back. Then she went to an adult talmud class, where she developed a crush on the rabbi. Then she stopped going to synagogue. Then she started going to synagogue again, because she got married. Now she tries to keep Shabbat, but mostly fails. Her children go to Jewish day school, but don't believe in G-d. That is literally the entirety of the autobiographical information in the book, with no more exploration into why these things have happened or what they mean to her.
I almost gave back a star for the admittedly interesting study of the Sabbatarian sects of Christianity, including the Anabaptist schism and the heaving Judaized Christianity of Transylvania. That was cool and novel to me. But less than 10% of the book, and given her error-prone statements in the parts of the book where I had background knowledge, I just can't trust anything she says.
July 28, 2010
So yeah. I need to take a rest from things that have been recommended to me by relatively mass media. Fresh Air, you had a pretty good interview with this lady, and there were lots of breaths of fresh air (oops) in this book.
From the moment she declared that because of the destruction of the temple, "the sages inherited an inoperative religion of space, and set about turning it into a religion of time" and went on quickly to say that the idea of the holy is inherently lonely. Yes. Yes. People who talk about sanctifying time, and the complexity of the reality of time, I am pro-this.
So she talks history, philosophy, psychology, theology, social theory, biology, and autobiography. Each of these pieces is good and valid and interesting on its own. But the longer it goes on, the more frustrating it is, as she how she uses each field of study to support or complicate or invalidate the last. It is all woven together well, but the ultimate feeling is one of frustration: when you're trying to show all sides, you don't come down as for anything, and you seem a bit slippery.
Although her bias showed through -- essentially a secular-leaning Conservative Jew, the sort of person who believes in the ethos of Judiasm and not so much the God of it (which is a cool way to be for reals!). She is willing to talk about the idea of God academically without connecting it to her own heart. To some degree this book was academic writing cloaking the complexity of the author rather than an dry-eyed survey. I would rather have all bias or all survey, it seems a bit more honest to me.
And frankly, all bias would have been best. Many reviewers say she should have skipped the personal stuff -- Jewish Summer Camp, Puerto Rico Sabbaths, Jew-on-Jew-peeping in Brooklyn, brief dating with Orthodox Men and so forth. Real life is interesting lady!
In terms of her academicness - she glossed over the intervening Catholic centuries between the Romans and the Reformation. And of course, in my bias, this was pretty disappointing to me. She seemed to say: The Jewish Sabbath was the real thing, and the Protestant Sabbath was edifying and secularizing, for the best. I wanted a little more history than that. So I guess I saw that as the less than ideal, but it's mostly cuz I just wanted more of my peeps. :P
In her closing chapter she declares -- "In the embryonic progressive [our plugged in world:] nothing ends. The Sabbath by contrast, demands of us a hard and tragic sense of beginnings and ends." ... and "God, then, is the ungovernable reality commemorated by ritual." With declarative statements like this, I must love her. But on the whole, academic tone took the place of brave certainty, and though that may work for some, it did not for me.
From the moment she declared that because of the destruction of the temple, "the sages inherited an inoperative religion of space, and set about turning it into a religion of time" and went on quickly to say that the idea of the holy is inherently lonely. Yes. Yes. People who talk about sanctifying time, and the complexity of the reality of time, I am pro-this.
So she talks history, philosophy, psychology, theology, social theory, biology, and autobiography. Each of these pieces is good and valid and interesting on its own. But the longer it goes on, the more frustrating it is, as she how she uses each field of study to support or complicate or invalidate the last. It is all woven together well, but the ultimate feeling is one of frustration: when you're trying to show all sides, you don't come down as for anything, and you seem a bit slippery.
Although her bias showed through -- essentially a secular-leaning Conservative Jew, the sort of person who believes in the ethos of Judiasm and not so much the God of it (which is a cool way to be for reals!). She is willing to talk about the idea of God academically without connecting it to her own heart. To some degree this book was academic writing cloaking the complexity of the author rather than an dry-eyed survey. I would rather have all bias or all survey, it seems a bit more honest to me.
And frankly, all bias would have been best. Many reviewers say she should have skipped the personal stuff -- Jewish Summer Camp, Puerto Rico Sabbaths, Jew-on-Jew-peeping in Brooklyn, brief dating with Orthodox Men and so forth. Real life is interesting lady!
In terms of her academicness - she glossed over the intervening Catholic centuries between the Romans and the Reformation. And of course, in my bias, this was pretty disappointing to me. She seemed to say: The Jewish Sabbath was the real thing, and the Protestant Sabbath was edifying and secularizing, for the best. I wanted a little more history than that. So I guess I saw that as the less than ideal, but it's mostly cuz I just wanted more of my peeps. :P
In her closing chapter she declares -- "In the embryonic progressive [our plugged in world:] nothing ends. The Sabbath by contrast, demands of us a hard and tragic sense of beginnings and ends." ... and "God, then, is the ungovernable reality commemorated by ritual." With declarative statements like this, I must love her. But on the whole, academic tone took the place of brave certainty, and though that may work for some, it did not for me.
January 1, 2011
This book is like liquid smoke or powdered milk--not exactly one thing or another. The author wends her way between describing historical developments, analyzing social trends, and sharing reflections grounded in her own experience (while telling us as little as possible about her life, it felt like). Near the end, Shulevitz writes, "The conventions of spiritual autobiography require me to conclude by telling you how I keep the Sabbath now, as opposed to when I began this book." I almost wanted to laugh: "Please," I thought, "if you're feeling so constrained by the conventions of spiritual autobiography, which you're barely writing anyway, don't put yourself out just for us readers!" I did enjoy the book, but it defies categorization--it's a meditation or musing more than it is a history, sociological treatise, or spiritual autobiography. So if you're looking for any of the latter, you are likely to be disappointed; however, if you're looking for liquid smoke, then this book is perfect.
May 16, 2017
The Sabbath World is part memoir, part history, part spiritual reflection. With beautiful prose, vulnerability, and a dash of humor, Judith Shulevitz takes us on a journey into what the Sabbath means, how it affects a particular life, and what it could do for all of us. She gives a good introduction to the Jewish Sabbath of the Old Testament, AND the Sabbath of post-Temple Judaism, AND of Christianity over the past two-thousand years, followed by examinations of how all of the above have changed. Woven into all of that is her own journey toward the Sabbath, but not necessarily any closer to God. Take it all together it is an engaging read that sheds light on our time, our beliefs, and our struggle to believe.
April 21, 2010
I am giving this book four stars in spite of the intrusion of quirky personal episodes from the author's life which rarely illuminate, often interfere, and usually contain TMI.
Still, the book is illuminating about the history of the sabbath and sabbatarianism. It's discussion of developments in Judaism and Christianity and their interrelationships is fascinating and amazingly comprehensive for such a short book(less than 220 pages without notes and far shorter, if the personal episodes had been omitted). The author's discussion of sabbatarianism and blue laws in the United States is also valuable.
Perhaps some of the personal material may have been necessary to explain the author's quest, but after that it became annoying, popping up in the midst of excellent surveys of broad swaths of history.
Still, the book is illuminating about the history of the sabbath and sabbatarianism. It's discussion of developments in Judaism and Christianity and their interrelationships is fascinating and amazingly comprehensive for such a short book(less than 220 pages without notes and far shorter, if the personal episodes had been omitted). The author's discussion of sabbatarianism and blue laws in the United States is also valuable.
Perhaps some of the personal material may have been necessary to explain the author's quest, but after that it became annoying, popping up in the midst of excellent surveys of broad swaths of history.
May 1, 2023
I thought that "The Sabbath World" was worth reading and carries tremendous lessons. However, I think that its form almost concealed this from me. I found that it was hard "to get into", and I almost put it down. The reason here is that the book seems a melange of religious scholarship, social commentary, and memoir. I'm not sure exactly why the book was written that way -- to tell a personal story or to tell how important the author's life is that it compelled her to study the Sabbath or that the Sabbath is worth studying on its own. But it made me suspicious when I started that this was a book simply about "ME".
The result is that I mainly remember "lessons" that I think are truly valuable. One is the attachment of Judaism or at least parts of it to the details and minutiae of daily life. This seems odd until one realizes that everything that exists or that one does is attached to God. This is perhaps the point of parsing Scripture in the Talmud -- not to mention the deep pleasure of commenting on Scripture, then commenting on the comments, and then commenting on the comments to the comments! One could spend one's whole life absorbed in this beautiful landscape that stretches both intellectually and across generations.
Another lesson is what I would call the debasement of time in our world. Keeping the Sabbath requires regular timekeeping so that one does not miss out on the day of rest. What has happened, according to the author, Ms. Shulevitz, is that we now have undifferentiated time due in some part to flex time work, to online work, to the demands of commerce for salespeople et al. to work 24/7. To some degree, Ms. S. lays undifferentiated time to the demands that have led to the desuetude of "blue laws" in the USA which distinguished work time from Sunday time.
The result is that we are unpinned from the Sabbath practices of the Puritans -- of which Ms. S. sees the communal importance -- and slowly catapulted into the world of "total work." That is, there is no day any longer in which the entire community takes its rest in whatever way -- worship, study, sports, picnics, etc. In other words, we cannot gather everyone that we would wish into communal/friendship/family activity or simple companionship.
Ms. S. makes me ask whether loss of Sabbath has led to loss of unity and fellowship even in the secular world. This is an important question at a time when partisanship and anger hold sway. And for this question, I owe Ms. S. deserves my gratitude.
The result is that I mainly remember "lessons" that I think are truly valuable. One is the attachment of Judaism or at least parts of it to the details and minutiae of daily life. This seems odd until one realizes that everything that exists or that one does is attached to God. This is perhaps the point of parsing Scripture in the Talmud -- not to mention the deep pleasure of commenting on Scripture, then commenting on the comments, and then commenting on the comments to the comments! One could spend one's whole life absorbed in this beautiful landscape that stretches both intellectually and across generations.
Another lesson is what I would call the debasement of time in our world. Keeping the Sabbath requires regular timekeeping so that one does not miss out on the day of rest. What has happened, according to the author, Ms. Shulevitz, is that we now have undifferentiated time due in some part to flex time work, to online work, to the demands of commerce for salespeople et al. to work 24/7. To some degree, Ms. S. lays undifferentiated time to the demands that have led to the desuetude of "blue laws" in the USA which distinguished work time from Sunday time.
The result is that we are unpinned from the Sabbath practices of the Puritans -- of which Ms. S. sees the communal importance -- and slowly catapulted into the world of "total work." That is, there is no day any longer in which the entire community takes its rest in whatever way -- worship, study, sports, picnics, etc. In other words, we cannot gather everyone that we would wish into communal/friendship/family activity or simple companionship.
Ms. S. makes me ask whether loss of Sabbath has led to loss of unity and fellowship even in the secular world. This is an important question at a time when partisanship and anger hold sway. And for this question, I owe Ms. S. deserves my gratitude.
March 7, 2021
I didn't find this very moving or anything, or that it had strong argument, but the history parts were pretty interesting. Like the Soviet experiment with a 5-day week, how Sunday became the Christian day of rest, and seventh-day sabbatarianism. Yeah there was actually maybe more about Christianity in here than the Jewish sabbath, which was kind of odd.
April 3, 2024
I found it too often meandered without much direction. But overall I found it interesting.
February 19, 2013
I definitely could have used to read reviews of this book before beginning it or I may have learned it was not what the book description on the library's ebook service led me to imagine. I was expecting a piece on Shabbat written by a jewish woman to be more spiritual and more oriented toward the personal spiritual growth; however this book is more of a history of the concept of a day off, the concept of sabbath, with an anthropological or sociological look at the people celebrating the sabbath. In the book she admits a possible disbelief in God. She claims to "somewhat" follow the sabbath, but also claims that "I still like the idea of the fully observed Sabbath more than I like observing it. ... Being commanded means that customs come upon us from the outside, like the language that we learn from our parents, and from the inside, like the still small voice of conscience. What others call God, I call ritual."
Judith Shulevitz does provide a very interesting history of the Sabbath although she clearly doesn't ascribe to the Jewish beliefs while still calling herself Jewish; she also makes some broad untrue generalizations which bring the integrity of the rest of the work into question. The only one I managed to highlight was "it's nonsensical to proscribe activities, such as the purchase of alcohol, that nobody frowns on anymore" - it may be that drinking alcohol on Sundays is indeed common and widespread, but that does not mean that "nobody" frowns on it. Perhaps only a minority, but these kind of general statements make me wonder what other general and untrue statements she made about things I was less knowledgable about.
Judith Shulevitz does provide a very interesting history of the Sabbath although she clearly doesn't ascribe to the Jewish beliefs while still calling herself Jewish; she also makes some broad untrue generalizations which bring the integrity of the rest of the work into question. The only one I managed to highlight was "it's nonsensical to proscribe activities, such as the purchase of alcohol, that nobody frowns on anymore" - it may be that drinking alcohol on Sundays is indeed common and widespread, but that does not mean that "nobody" frowns on it. Perhaps only a minority, but these kind of general statements make me wonder what other general and untrue statements she made about things I was less knowledgable about.
January 19, 2011
I love books that take our rituals out of context, examine them and then return them, neatly dusted, spiffed up, to a more primo space on the shelves. I read this, a little oddly I guess, when I read Hamlet's Blackberry, and both inspired me to think harder about one of my favorite topics: being present in my life. I find myself consciously taking more breathers from everything from my phone and email to invitations and outings, and looking to create more rituals and mire quiet, removed time.
Of course, I'm typing this on my iPad.
Of course, I'm typing this on my iPad.
January 13, 2021
The Sabbath World is a captivating and meandering journey on the meaning of the Sabbath through historical, religious (both Jewish and Christian), philosophical, sociological, personal, and public policy lenses. It was a contemplative read, easy to enjoy in snippets, and profound. I enjoyed its comprehensiveness and thoughtfulness as well as the author’s sharing of her personal views and habits. I highly recommend it.
Want to read
September 10, 20234000 weeks
February 6, 2025
Part research paper, part memoir, Shulevitz details a historical and personal evolution of the sabbath and why it's basically impossible to observe in modern society. I enjoyed her interview on the Ezra Klein podcast so much I got her book, and was a little disappointed to discover I read her tone as somewhat affected.
Part One: Time Sickness
- Our relationship with time has changed with industrialization and globalization. We perceive that we work more than we actually do, and feel beholden to the clock.
- Sabbath is not about cramming as much as you can into a window of time. It's about task-oriented timing, instead of time-oriented tasking.
Part Two: Group Dynamics
- Sabbath works best when everyone does it. It puts up cultural boundaries and forges community spirit.
- Everyone stops work at the same time.
- It happens regularly.
- There is a festive spirit (music, alcohol, food).
Part Three: The Scandal of the Holy
- To make sabbath "holy", do something special that you save for that day.
- There's an unpleasant history of martyrdom around preserving the sabbath.
- Humans dominate the world six days a week; the seventh gives the world a break from us.
- What is banned? work (creation), but not labor (survival) and action (politics, religious discussion).
"Holiness scandalizes, as well it should. It's the very incarnation of unreason. Once Isaac Newton convinced us that time was a mathematical quantity, wholly measurable, infinitely divisible, and expressible in numbers, and economists showed us that time could be a commodity, exchangeable for money, we were bound to find implausible the notion that certain times were holy while others weren't. How could some points on a graph be charged with supernatural power while others rest inert? Where, precisely, would the holiness lurk? If it can't be measured, how do we know it exists?" (61)
Part Four: The Flight From Time
- Jesus dropped the Sabbath.
- Sundays became special for Christians possibly because Jesus was resurrected on a Sunday.
- That Christians didn't strictly observe a Sunday Sabbath distinguished them from Jews.
"Possession by a demon is a chronic condition and therefore something one should wait until the Sabbath is over to address." (91)
Part Five: People of the Book
- The fourth commandment tells Christians to keep the Sabbath.
- People have argued over what the Bible actually says about how to do that. Saturday or Sunday? What counts as "work"? What is the purpose? To experience death (Puritans), renew creation (Kabbalists), study the Word?
- Punishment is a part of ensuring everyone participates so that no one falls behind by closing their businesses. The Puritanical Sabbath laws became secularized as "blue laws" in New England.
Part Six: Scenes of Instruction
- The Sabbath is meant to instruct and pass on cultural heritage (knowledge, moral edification, behavioral example, ritual training, how to relate to parents and authorities).
- Anti-Sabbatical reactions to strict American and English Sundays.
- Sunday school started as a way to give the poor some education, particularly literacy.
- The Romantic Sabbath—a pastoral time to commune with nature. (Nature is God's true abode, we should exist like babies and live in the moment. Religious experience is equated to the poetic experience.)
"Nothing could be mistaken for conclusive. Everything that had been argued could be defrosted and argued again." (160)
"'What, then, was this happiness, and in what did this joy consist?' asked Rousseau. Part of it was the relief of not having to live up to expectations, part of it was the delight of investigating flowers and plants, and part of it was giving himself over to reverie. But part of it had to do with a novel yet very old sense of time, time experienced as he imagined babies experience it, as plenitude and sensation and living in the moment." (176)
Part Seven: Remembering the Sabbath
- The traditional Sabbath is a thing of the past.
- A 40-hour work weeks, as opposed to 72, makes rest less necessary.
- Fewer stay-at-home wives means more shopping is done on weekends.
- Phones make constraining times seem bizarre.
- The social expectation is that you're easy to get hold of.
- We are digitally "together" more often, making a time to build community feel less urgent.
- A utilitarian reason to keep the Sabbath is that it makes everyone happier.
- A humanistic reason is that leisure can be considered the "highest good". (Aristotle)
- Unfortunately, our current society can bring Sabbath back for the few, not the many, who work strange hours or staff the leisure activities.
"honor life beyond duty and the imperatives of the marketplace" (211)
Part One: Time Sickness
- Our relationship with time has changed with industrialization and globalization. We perceive that we work more than we actually do, and feel beholden to the clock.
- Sabbath is not about cramming as much as you can into a window of time. It's about task-oriented timing, instead of time-oriented tasking.
Part Two: Group Dynamics
- Sabbath works best when everyone does it. It puts up cultural boundaries and forges community spirit.
- Everyone stops work at the same time.
- It happens regularly.
- There is a festive spirit (music, alcohol, food).
Part Three: The Scandal of the Holy
- To make sabbath "holy", do something special that you save for that day.
- There's an unpleasant history of martyrdom around preserving the sabbath.
- Humans dominate the world six days a week; the seventh gives the world a break from us.
- What is banned? work (creation), but not labor (survival) and action (politics, religious discussion).
"Holiness scandalizes, as well it should. It's the very incarnation of unreason. Once Isaac Newton convinced us that time was a mathematical quantity, wholly measurable, infinitely divisible, and expressible in numbers, and economists showed us that time could be a commodity, exchangeable for money, we were bound to find implausible the notion that certain times were holy while others weren't. How could some points on a graph be charged with supernatural power while others rest inert? Where, precisely, would the holiness lurk? If it can't be measured, how do we know it exists?" (61)
Part Four: The Flight From Time
- Jesus dropped the Sabbath.
- Sundays became special for Christians possibly because Jesus was resurrected on a Sunday.
- That Christians didn't strictly observe a Sunday Sabbath distinguished them from Jews.
"Possession by a demon is a chronic condition and therefore something one should wait until the Sabbath is over to address." (91)
Part Five: People of the Book
- The fourth commandment tells Christians to keep the Sabbath.
- People have argued over what the Bible actually says about how to do that. Saturday or Sunday? What counts as "work"? What is the purpose? To experience death (Puritans), renew creation (Kabbalists), study the Word?
- Punishment is a part of ensuring everyone participates so that no one falls behind by closing their businesses. The Puritanical Sabbath laws became secularized as "blue laws" in New England.
Part Six: Scenes of Instruction
- The Sabbath is meant to instruct and pass on cultural heritage (knowledge, moral edification, behavioral example, ritual training, how to relate to parents and authorities).
- Anti-Sabbatical reactions to strict American and English Sundays.
- Sunday school started as a way to give the poor some education, particularly literacy.
- The Romantic Sabbath—a pastoral time to commune with nature. (Nature is God's true abode, we should exist like babies and live in the moment. Religious experience is equated to the poetic experience.)
"Nothing could be mistaken for conclusive. Everything that had been argued could be defrosted and argued again." (160)
"'What, then, was this happiness, and in what did this joy consist?' asked Rousseau. Part of it was the relief of not having to live up to expectations, part of it was the delight of investigating flowers and plants, and part of it was giving himself over to reverie. But part of it had to do with a novel yet very old sense of time, time experienced as he imagined babies experience it, as plenitude and sensation and living in the moment." (176)
Part Seven: Remembering the Sabbath
- The traditional Sabbath is a thing of the past.
- A 40-hour work weeks, as opposed to 72, makes rest less necessary.
- Fewer stay-at-home wives means more shopping is done on weekends.
- Phones make constraining times seem bizarre.
- The social expectation is that you're easy to get hold of.
- We are digitally "together" more often, making a time to build community feel less urgent.
- A utilitarian reason to keep the Sabbath is that it makes everyone happier.
- A humanistic reason is that leisure can be considered the "highest good". (Aristotle)
- Unfortunately, our current society can bring Sabbath back for the few, not the many, who work strange hours or staff the leisure activities.
"honor life beyond duty and the imperatives of the marketplace" (211)
March 9, 2021
Amid the Borgesian quantity of theoretical & autobiographical plot lines in this wonderful history of (and call for) the day of rest, contemplation, and gathering, readers will find a social history of time 2/
In a nutshell, the evolution of sociality is also the history of clocks and social coordination: coordination of schedules, rituals, rites of passages, activities, body clocks, thought, physiologies, brain waves… 3/
From the seasonal clock of agrarian schedules (c.f., Jewish Holy Days) to the industrial assembly line, human history is one of increased — at times too tight — coordination 4/
The post-industrial age is one of gradual temporal disintegration; disintegration of collective schedules, tribes, families, systems of meaning. 5/
Writing in 2010, Shulevitz introduces ‘mobile time’ as arising with the cell-phone. Work and play schedules become looser again: more individualized, cancellable and revisable in real-time 6/
Shulevitz wondered if the freedom of mobile time would yield more social connections [the technical term for this is ‘relational mobility’] 7/
We know, a decade later, that the chaos of choice in the Age of Mobile Time made most of us lonelier, flakier, more anxious, and distrustful of anything collective 8/
We can think of the ‘post-truth’ regime of Collective Disbelief in Everything as the logical progression of mobile time. The total epistemic ruptures around the COVID crisis and the zoomification of everyday life are the final blows
In a nutshell, the evolution of sociality is also the history of clocks and social coordination: coordination of schedules, rituals, rites of passages, activities, body clocks, thought, physiologies, brain waves… 3/
From the seasonal clock of agrarian schedules (c.f., Jewish Holy Days) to the industrial assembly line, human history is one of increased — at times too tight — coordination 4/
The post-industrial age is one of gradual temporal disintegration; disintegration of collective schedules, tribes, families, systems of meaning. 5/
Writing in 2010, Shulevitz introduces ‘mobile time’ as arising with the cell-phone. Work and play schedules become looser again: more individualized, cancellable and revisable in real-time 6/
Shulevitz wondered if the freedom of mobile time would yield more social connections [the technical term for this is ‘relational mobility’] 7/
We know, a decade later, that the chaos of choice in the Age of Mobile Time made most of us lonelier, flakier, more anxious, and distrustful of anything collective 8/
We can think of the ‘post-truth’ regime of Collective Disbelief in Everything as the logical progression of mobile time. The total epistemic ruptures around the COVID crisis and the zoomification of everyday life are the final blows
February 26, 2020
This is the author's personal history of the Sabbath (she is Jewish) and a history of the Sabbath as practiced by Jews and Christians through time, up until the abolition of the "blue laws" that kept many businesses closed on Sundays. I like the author's idea that we could all benefit from a sabbath-like respite from work, public concerns, and the ubiquitous connectivity that make our lives so nonstop and undermine aspects of society and community. I wish that the author had taken a more religious view of the Sabbath--if she really believes that there is a God and that He instituted the Sabbath for His own purposes, including our well-being, I missed it. As with most books about religion, I wish the author had included the Sabbath beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where the Sabbath is a living belief and practice, although for many of us not particularly a day of rest (and also not a day of shopping, recreation, or eating out). But they say a change is as good as a vacation, and it is healthy to have a day where the focus is on worship, family, and connection to God and our neighbors. This book is worthwhile in some aspects and not so much in others.
August 23, 2020
This book was surprising, and took on added depth, over the months it took me to read it. Touted perhaps as a spiritual journey, it's much more an intellectual pursuit of knowledge about the Sabbath. I got half way through and then book club got indefinitely postponed; when I picked it up to finish it (and then go back and re-read up to where I'd started this week) it read very differently. Part of this, no doubt, is that my sense of Sabbath has radically changed. The elements that mattered to me (more than I'd realized) were no longer possible, dependent as they were on people gathering together. And being denied those activities --celebratory meals, religious services -- coupled with always being home/rarely leaving the house made me focus and reframe what and how the Sabbath is to be set aside. That the idea of a Sabbath has been so transformed by various Christian denominations, and codified into laws in many countries in the world, gives one pause, and articulates the need or desire for it. An enforced rest, whatever that might be, can be constructed, and contrued, in a positive way.
November 13, 2024
Shulevitz writes a deeply-researched history of the Jewish Sabbath, and the Christian one as well, as she contemplates what it is like in modern times to observe (or try to) the Sabbath. I found the last two chapters spoke to me more than the beginning of the book, and I especially liked her summary. The Sabbath (that on Saturday and that on Sunday) "bears testimony to that which...can only be re-experienced: men and women mute with the disjunctions of exile and the awkwardness of living in a time that does not feel like theirs and mournful with the wish to find a home, if not in space, then in time. And because the Sabbath, Sunday as well as Saturday, is a day those men and women kept, and not a conversation they had, the men and women who came after remembered it. And when they too, felt discomfited by their world, they were able to do something about that feeling and assuage their pain a bit."
January 25, 2023
When I read in the early pages of Ms. Shulevitz's involvement in "psychotherapy," my blood ran cold. I figured it's just another writer who fills emptiness with religion. But I became more engaged as I resumed reading. It's educational, for one thing, though her interests seem to be in rather conservative religious expression (though Puritanism wouldn't have been considered conservative in its time).
As an Episcopalian, coming from a tradition of horse-racing and card-playing on the Sabbath, her approach felt exotic at times, as if I were reading the Bhagavad Gita or something of that ilk. Still, I admire her steadfast efforts to preserve the Sabbath in her own family, and her beliefs and practices are absolutely worth reading.
As an Episcopalian, coming from a tradition of horse-racing and card-playing on the Sabbath, her approach felt exotic at times, as if I were reading the Bhagavad Gita or something of that ilk. Still, I admire her steadfast efforts to preserve the Sabbath in her own family, and her beliefs and practices are absolutely worth reading.
June 5, 2023
A good book to illustrate the limits of a secular exploration of religion. Well executed, but much of the meaning to be gained from the strange history of the Sabbath is contingent on buying into, well, god, holiness, the mystical worthwhileness of spending tons of time on these things, etc. Without that it sometimes comes off as trivia. Not a criticism and not the fault of the author.
Nonetheless, fascinating to see how the Sabbath has served political and civic ends for essentially its entire existence. And that carries through: if you're going to do it now, you better find some group to do it with you, otherwise you're just dieting/bingewatching/whatever. It's a practice that cannot exist without co-conspirators.
Nonetheless, fascinating to see how the Sabbath has served political and civic ends for essentially its entire existence. And that carries through: if you're going to do it now, you better find some group to do it with you, otherwise you're just dieting/bingewatching/whatever. It's a practice that cannot exist without co-conspirators.
February 7, 2022
I expected to get a lot more out of this book than I did. Read like a textbook more than a spiritual autobiography. It was dense and rambling and hard to follow. The last chapter was the best chapter. I do feel like I have a better and deeper understanding of the sabbath but... I don't know if reading this book was really worth the energy. Might be a different story if you're more well versed in theology and philosophy than I am.
January 22, 2023
I learned about this book from an interview with Shulevitz on the Ezra Klein Show, and one of the things I was most struck by was the way Ezra kept talking about shabbat in individualist terms and Shulevitz kept bringing things back to the ways shabbat requires and enforces a far more communitarian and solidaristic ethos. That idea -- that rest requires work to exist, and that it both needs and creates a community -- is a delightful one, and it made this book a delightful read.
January 9, 2025
Many of us know that taking time away/out is beneficial for our health and happiness (and for that of the planet), but HOW do institute this practice? Is it an impossible goal? Shulevitz answers this with practical suggestions and stories from her experience in adopting this habit. The answer: it will be different depending on you and your situation and it doesn't have to be a complete or perfect Sabbath for their to be definite rewards.
August 5, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed this religious and cultural history of the Sabbath Day. Sure, it's interlaced with anecdotes from the author's own experience, but if I wanted a cold-cut history, I'd read some academic literature.
If nothing else, the book causes one to think about the role, purpose, and benefits of a "Sabbath" (and the many ways a Sabbath can be defined).
If nothing else, the book causes one to think about the role, purpose, and benefits of a "Sabbath" (and the many ways a Sabbath can be defined).
May 13, 2023
I wanted to like it more. The author came across as ambivalent about the form of the book. Is it autobiography or academic history, sociology, religion, psychology? I learned some things but it wasn’t easy reading. Aahhh…as I write this review it occurs to me the style in which she approaches the subject is very talmudic, raising more questions than providing answers?
March 10, 2024
This book...confused me. I was disappointed overall and found it hard to engage with the material. Some of Shulevitz's anecdotes were interesting, but most of the book was tedious and/or boring. I found it a slog and was only skimming the text by the end.
April 24, 2024
I didn't finish before it was time to return this on to the library. I did however, really enjoy the perspectives she shared on the Sabbath. I have some "holy envy" for the way Jewish families and communities gather around this time and space set aside to come together in worship.
March 12, 2025
A book about sabbath unlike any I have read. I could not predict where the next chapter would lead. It was great! Academic, exhaustive, primarily from Judeo-Christian perspectives, but also secular sabbaths.
May 4, 2025
I found the history fascinating and her own spiritual journey was interesting but I am skeptical at how quickly she dealt with Islam. I thought the writing flowed well and enjoyed the meandering pace and journey. Hard one to rate.
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June 29, 2025Accidentally left behind and didn’t finish last chapter but really enjoyed this. Despite not identifying as religious I found most of the history interesting and liked reading about how the Sabbath / seven day week tie into our working world and fast paced environment today
March 20, 2018
Not quite what I thought it would be. Intermittently interesting though.
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