Rabbi Mordechai Becher is a world-renowned speaker and scholar, and I’m proud of being able to call him a friend. Since he is being called to speak worldwide, he is constantly traveling. One Shabbat he was staying on the seventh floor of a ten-story high-end hotel. As an observant Jew Rabbi Becher wouldn’t use the elevator to go from one floor to another, instead he used the stairs. Apparently, the protocol director of this glitzy hotel deemed it inappropriate for staff to mingle with guests. When Rabbi Becher was using the stairs, he would find it crowded with waiters and staff going up and down.

One of the staffers, seeing Rabbi Becher using the stairs, asked him, “Excuse me Sir, you look like a guest, why don’t you use the elevator?” Rabbi Becher turned around and responded, “Well, it’s the Shabbat today, the Jewish rest day”. The staffer stared at Rabbi Becher as beads of sweat roll down her brow. Instead of asking the obvious question, “How one rests by using stairs instead of an elevator”, she chose to keep it as an odd cross-cultural moment and went on to mind her business.

Shabbat, as it’s called by many, or Shabbos as others call it, is commonly known to be a rest day, but really it encompasses more than resting. It is a day of cessation of doing any creative work. Any work that would transform an object from one mode to another is considered work. Some examples: picking fruit from a tree transforms the fruit from a living and growing organism into an object that is food for humans. Baking transforms a dough or batter into bread or cake. Sowing, building, painting, slaughtering, skinning, writing, erasing, kindling a fire, are all forms of either transforming an existing object or creating something new.

God created the world in six days as described in Genesis. Included in the world, G-d created a very unique creature, the human, who is the only creature who is able to create and transform. This is one of the things in what humans are in “in the image of G-d.” On Shabbat, God ceased to create, so do we cease to create and change and by that we ingrain in ourselves where we come from and remember and think about the Creator of the world.

At the end of the sixth day, the bible says, “G-d saw all that He made and behold! It’s very good!” Shabbat is a time to reflect on and celebrate the good we have in our lives. In every life situation, there is some goodness; yes, all week long we try to fix and make a better life for ourselves, but Shabbat is the time to take a step back and enjoy the good we do have.

Rabbi Becher didn’t use electricity because operating electricity transforms a non-working device into something that works and becomes useful to humans. That is considered creative work. Whereas walking stairs is not creative work, hence it is permitted. Shabbat is not included in the seven universal commandments, so Jews do not think about other people who are not keeping it as doing something wrong at all whatsoever. 

As Rabbi Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of Britain, put it, “Shabbat is the day we stand still and let all our blessings catch up with us.”

Can Shabbat be understood together with the contemporary scientific view of the world? To be discussed in the coming few installments. I’m looking forward to sharing!

Wishing you Shabbat Shalom and a wonderful weekend!

Let me know your thoughts…

Email me: moshe@mosheunger.com