Dvar Torah on Parshat Mishpatim

As I write this, we here in Israel have just gone to the polls to elect a new government. One of the many issues which has emerged in the campaign is, somewhat surprisingly, Shabbat. Tommy Lapid's secular Shinui party has campaigned on a platform that calls for an end to the prohibition, which is currently in force in most cities in Israel, against public bus service on Shabbat, as well as the opening of shops and other businesses on the day of rest. From the opposite side of the political fence, Agudat Yisrael, the veteran Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox party, has adopted the name "the party of Torah and Shabbat observance", in an attempt to emphasize its commitment to the status quo in terms of Sabbath observance in the public domain.

What exactly is the importance of Shabbat? What is its purpose, its point? Is the Jewish State doing the right thing when it respects the Sabbath in the public domain by closing banks, offices, and businesses, outlawing public bus service, allowing no activity in the army which is not absolutely necessary, and closing many malls and shopping centers? Is Tommy Lapid, and those who agree with him, right in seeing this policy as discriminatory to secular and non-Jewish Israelis? Should more supermarkets be allowed to open on Shabbat? Banks? Restaurants?

Although there are two well-known, classic reasons given for Shabbat rest - to remember the six days of creation and, by extension, the Creator, and to give us all a day of rest and renewal, I would like to focus on a third reason, which appears in this week's parsha, and which seems to me to suggest a very interesting and relevant answer to the questions above:"Six days shall you do your work, and on the seventh day you shall desist, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your handmaid and the stranger can refresh their souls." The text clearly indicates that on the seventh day we are told to refrain from work "so that" those who work for us can get a day off. The verse is addressed to the people who run society; people who own things, people with servants, and livestock. The clear meaning of the verse is that those people to whom the Torah is speaking, who stand at the center of the social matrix, and whose needs and desires dictate the economy, the social agenda, the day-to-day rhythm of that society, must stop working, must halt their ongoing economic activity, not so that they may rest, not so that they may remember the six days of creation and, by extension, the creator of the universe, but, rather, for the good of those who work for them, those whose activities and actions, whose very existence is defined by their obligation to serve their owners - "...so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your handmaid and the stranger can refresh their souls."

The Torah feels that if the leaders of society, those who own everything and run everything, were allowed to pursue their economic goals every day, whenever they wished, then those who work for them, who do the actual labor which fuels the economic engine owned by these people, would never be given an opportunity to not work, to rest. Here in Israel, where most, but not all, stores and businesses are closed on Shabbat, and the buses and trains don't run, those of us who argue for the perpetuation of the status quo tend to quote this and similar verses in order to show that a universal day off is actually the only way to guarantee that the weakest elements of our society will not be treated like machines, and forced to work seven days a week. The Torah here is telling us that if those who manage and benefit from the labor of others are permitted to have their desire for profit dictate the way society relates to labor, and that we therefore, in order to maximize profits, allow shops, factories, and businesses to be open seven days a week, it is precisely the poorest members of our society who will be forced to work every day of the week, never having time with their children, never sharing a day off with their family, never able to "refresh their souls". A seven-day work-week, the Torah is here telling us, will lock those who are driven by their own basic economic needs to serve the more baroque, luxuriant ones of the upper classes in a never-ending, inhuman grind of servitude. It is they, the single mothers, the new immigrants, the "stranger", who will be forced by economic necessity to work at a cash register or a gas pump on the only day of the week when their children are off from school, so that the owners of the mall or the gas station at which they work can maximize their profits, and, at the same time, exercise their democratic right to go shopping with the money that has accrued to them through the labor of others.

In this verse, the Torah is telling the stronger members of society that they must call a halt to their economic activity, even though they may enjoy it ("shopping isn't work", "driving out to the beach isn't work", "going to the movies isn't work", "counting money isn't work - it's fun"), so that those who work for them in order to make these activities possible - both by supplying them with the money they need to pursue their leisure activities as well as by pumping the gas, manning the cash registers, and carrying the beach chairs needed for them to enjoy those activities - will themselves be able to rest, to renew themselves, to refresh their souls. According to this verse, the reason for Shabbat is not 'religious' - to remember the creator and his creation - nor is it to give us, the strongest, wealthiest element of society, a day of rest (which we don't really need that badly). Rather, Shabbat is an attempt to force the upper classes of our society to give its weakest elements, those who really need this gift, and who could never afford to buy it (by taking a day off from work) the benefits of a Shabbat. The Torah knows that if an entire society is not forced to take a day off, inevitably, the poorest elements of that society will end up as slaves, locked in a never-ending grind of servitude and labor, denied the rest and soul-refreshment which they so desperately need. Although I have located this piece in Israel, in the context of Israel's current debate about Shabbat, the transformation of the American Sunday from an almost universal day off to a day of shopping, which took place in my lifetime, probably merits similar consideration.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Shimon Felix