The Top of the List

 

This week’s Torah reading includes a detailed list of Israel’s holy days—Passover, Shavuot, and so forth. “These are the Lord’s fixed times,” God tells Moses, “which you shall proclaim as sacred occasions” (Leviticus 23:2).  But the very first name on this list is not one of those annual festivals, but Shabbat, which occurs once every week. Why should it be listed as if it belongs on this list—in fact, as the very first item on that list?

 

Different explanations have been  offered, but perhaps the simplest one lies in the very fact that Shabbat keeps coming around again, week after week. This frequency might seem to diminish its specialness—indeed, its very sanctity—in peoples’ minds. Precisely for this reason, it seems, the Torah  has listed Shabbat at the very top of Israel’s list of sacred days. “Even if the Sabbath recurs once every week,” the Torah seems to say, “don’t let this diminish its holiness. It is still at the top of the list.”

 

A hint of this idea may be found in the blessing (kiddush) that is recited in Jewish homes every Friday night. Two obvious connections are mentioned in the kiddush of Friday night. The first is the connection between the sabbath and the Creation of the world: God created the world in six days, the Torah says, and He rested on the seventh day. Accordingly, we too rest on the sabbath. The other obvious connection ties the sabbath to the exodus from Egypt. Thanks to the exodus, the descendants of those who had been enslaved are now able to rest on the sabbath as free men and women.

 

 But apart from these two comes the very fact that this kiddush is recited week after week, at the top of this list of holy days. Even if it comes around again, week after week, it never ceases to top the list of the Torah’s sacred days.

 

Something to keep in mind this Friday night.

 

Shabbat shalom!