Want to Reclaim Your Week? Start With Shabbat

The human being, created in the image of Hashem and endowed with wisdom, understanding, justice, and kindness, is often worn down by the race of life.

The demands of the everyday take their toll. The worries of making a living, the battles of the moment, the weight of responsibility. All of these narrow our inner vision and quiet the heart. In the midst of this confusion, when the ear is too closed to hear Hashem’s call, “Ayeka?”, another voice arrives. Gentle, yet firm.

It is the voice of Shabbat.

When Life Becomes Too Heavy

When a person is immersed entirely in survival, in chasing and striving, the soul slowly fades into the background. Life becomes a sequence of tasks and pressures. Even a person of faith can find himself unable to hear the Divine call that seeks him.

At that moment, Shabbat enters.

The angel of Shabbat descends and places us before a simple truth. You were not created only to keep up, to chase, to toil, and to worry. Your soul was created for more.

Shabbat invites a person to come home. Home to oneself. Home to a rest that resembles a small Garden of Eden within this world. It reminds us that we are not machines built for endless productivity, but divine souls in need of rest, elevation, and a true encounter with goodness.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch on the Call of Shabbat

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch expresses this idea powerfully in his book Matana Tova.

“The human being, created in the image of Hashem, with wisdom and understanding, with justice and judgment, with kindness and mercy, so that he might rejoice, like Hashem, in his deeds, lies under the burden of momentary life. He groans, harnessed to the yoke of earthliness, seeking food in impatience and by the sweat of his brow. His ear is shut to hear the voice of Hashem, who seeks him and calls to him: ‘Ayeka?’”

Rabbi Hirsch continues with a striking image.

“And behold, a messenger is sent to you from Eden. The angel of Hashem, Shabbat, descends to you and calls: ‘In the name of Hashem, stop!’”

Shabbat speaks to the deepest part of the human soul.

“You are not permitted to care only for your bread and the bread of your household. If you always stretch out your hand only to prepare provisions for yourself, if you move your feet only to seek prey, if you weary your mind only for a piece of bread, you have sinned against your soul and the souls of your household all your days."

“Is there no spirit within you? Is there no living soul in your nostrils? Do you not have a heart and a soul created to rise from this passing, perishable world to eternal life? Have you decreed destruction upon your soul, nourishing and adorning only your body?"

“Enough of your labor. Hashem commands you: you are not permitted to work today. And if it is Hashem’s command, then you have the greatest assurance that you are not compelled to work today. Six days you have faithfully attended to your affairs. Enough."

“Now, if you have not denied Hashem and if your soul is precious in your eyes, cease from your work a little. Come with me to your home and to your Garden of Eden.”

Returning to Who We Truly Are

The gift of Shabbat, Rabbi Hirsch teaches, is the opportunity to return to our true identity.

Even a small pause can restore the soul. A single day of rest reminds us that our lives are larger than our labor, that our worth is not measured by output, and that meaning is not found only in effort.

All that is required is to answer the call. To make space for holiness. To allow rest, joy, and depth back into our lives.

From this seventh day flows the blessing of all the others.