“Time is eternity in disguise.” This sentence sent me soaring into the wonder of life as God’s gift to us. Abraham Joshua Heschel’s The Sabbath is simple, yet profound. With a deep reverence for God and Torah, and with a quest for true spirituality, Heschel leads the reader into the sacredness of time (versus things). The first use of “holy” in Genesis applies to time, to a day, the Sabbath. Heschel’s discussion of space and time is worth the reading of the book.

Heschel lived inside the First Covenant’s Story. As a wide-eyed participant in that Story, Heschel is able to present the Sabbath, not as a command to be kept, but as a priceless gift to be received. In all my years of theological training and biblical study, I have never been offered this vision of the Sabbath. I’ve been conditioned to be fascinated with the first six days of creation, and to view the seventh day merely as the end of creation. Yet, at the end of the six days God said “good” and “very good,” but on the seventh day God said “holy.” Why? Heschel unpacks the why. Sometimes it seems we Protestant Christians play with biblical ideas as pre-schoolers might play with diamonds, having no clue as to their deep value. For me, Sabbath is one of those ideas.

Granted that in Jesus’ day, Jesus generated a lot of conflict around Sabbath laws. Those “laws” were like ugly mildew smothering something very precious to God, to God’s people and to Jesus. Heschel helped me understand why Jews are so fascinated with and protective of Sabbath.

My task now is to assimilate Heschel’s profound teaching into the teachings of Jesus and Paul. One thing I won’t do is trivialize the Sabbath or treat it as just another 24 hours in the week.

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