Joseph I. Lieberman - The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath

Praise for
The Gift of Rest

What a wonderful book! Reading it helped me to recapture the wonder and excitement I experienced when I first became a Sabbath observer some thirty years ago. Senator Joe Lieberman and David Klinghoffer provide insights that can enrich anyones life, not just weekly but daily.

Michael Medved, nationally syndicated talk radio host
author of The 10 Big Lies About America

What a wonderful service Joe Lieberman has rendered his frazzled fellow Americans by reminding them of Gods gift of the Sabbath. The Gift of Rest has certainly convicted this too-busy Baptist to mend his ways and once again embrace a weekly day of rest.

Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist
Conventions Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission

The Gift of Rest is a charming, beautifully written inspirational gem, as well as a fascinating insiders look at how spirituality and faith intersect at the highest echelons of political power.

Jonathan Kellerman, bestselling novelist

This charming, personal, and informative book by the popular Senator Joe Lieberman is my love song to the Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, and what it can mean for non-Jews as well. This discovery and rediscovery of the Shabbat offers an intimate glimpse into the mind and heart of a decent and thoughtful person, written in non-technical prose, and which cannot fail to inspire a sensitive reader. Read it and cherish it. It will add a new dimension to your life.

Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm,
Chancellor of Yeshiva University
Rosh Hayeshiva (Head) of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan
Theological Seminary

Joseph Lieberman does not just acknowledge the Sabbath as a break from the working week. As an observant Jew he relishes and bathes in the spirit of it. While most other faiths do not embrace the formal rituals of Judaism, there is much here that we can admire and that will remind Christians of what we have lost as respect and love for the Sabbath has diminished. This is a book about faith that both informs and transforms the reader.

Cecil O. Samuelson, President of
Brigham Young University

What a beautiful book about a beautiful concepta day of rest as a gift to humanity. Senator Liebermans account of the Sabbath brought back fond memories of my own past while inspiring me to try to return to the values embodied in the Sabbath.

Alan Dershowitz,
author of The Trials of Zion

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Copyright 2011 by Joseph Lieberman

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First Howard Books hardcover edition August 2011

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lieberman, Joseph I.

The gift of rest : rediscovering the beauty of the Sabbath / Joe Lieberman with David Klinghoffer ; in conjunction with Orthodox Union.

p. cm.

1. Lieberman, Joseph I.Religion. 2. Sabbath. 3. RestReligious aspectsJudaism. 4. WorkReligious aspectsJudaism. I. Klinghoffer, David, 1965- II. Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. III. Title.

BM685.L5125 2011

296.41dc22 2010053831

ISBN 978-1-4516-0617-1
ISBN 978-1-4516-0618-8 (ebook)

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Koren Tanakh. Hebrew names from this Bible translation have been changed to English names for ease of reading. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain. Prayer book quotations are taken from the Koren Siddur. quotation is taken from Genesis Rabba by Joseph Neusner.

F OR
H ADASSAH F REILICH L IEBERMAN
my wife, soulmate, and partner
in accepting, guarding, and enjoying
Gods gift of Sabbath Rest
and for
our children and grandchildren
to whom we pass the gift

Said the Holy One Blessed Be He to Moses:
Moses, in my storehouse I have a goodly gift,
and the Sabbath is its name.

Talmud, Beitzah 16a

Chapter 1
S ABBATH E VE: P REPARATIONS , P HYSICAL AND S PIRITUAL
Friday Afternoon

Chapter 2
K ABBALAT S HABBAT : W ELCOMING THE S ABBATH
Friday Evening Service

Chapter 3
T HE S HABBAT M EAL : H ONORING G OD ,
B LESSING E ACH O THER
Friday Night at Home

Chapter 4
S UNSET , S UNRISE : I NTIMACY , H UMAN AND D IVINE
Friday Night & Saturday Morning

Chapter 5
M ORNING P RAYERS : T HE C OVENANT OF D ESTINY
Saturday Morning Prayers

Chapter 6
T HE T ORAH R EADING : R EVERING G ODS W ORD
Saturday Morning

Chapter 7
T HE G IFT OF L EISURE : H ONORING G OD WITH O UR R EST
Saturday Afternoon

Chapter 8
I NTERRUPTING THE S ABBATH: D ISCERNING THE G REATER G OOD

Chapter 9
L EAVING THE S ABBATH : M AKING W ISE D ISTINCTIONS
Saturday Evening

Chapter 10
T HE S IX D AYS OF L ABOR : W ORKING WITH A P URPOSE

I know some people will wonder why a United States Senator is writing a book about a religious subject like the Sabbath, and others will ask why a Jewish senator is writing a book about the Sabbath for Christians and people of other faiths as well as for Jews. The reason is simple: I love the Sabbath and believe it is a gift from God that I want to share with everyone who reads this book, in the hopes that they will grow to love it as much as I do.

The pioneering Zionist and Hebrew writer Ahad Haam famously remarked that, More than the Jews have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the Jews. Certainly in my personal life I have found that to be true. When people ask me: How can you stop all your work as a senator to observe the Sabbath each week? I answer: How could I do all my work as a senator if I did not stop to observe the Sabbath each week?

I am, of course, not a rabbi or trained religious scholar. You may wonder, then, about the sources I drew on in writing this book. I am a religiously observant Jew who has over the years learned from many people who are wiser and more erudite than I. Most of those people are mentioned in the text before you, as are the sources in Scripture and rabbinic law and commentary that shape my Sabbath observance and thought. When I write about the Sabbath, it is not merely my opinion that I seek to convey but the distillation of a great and ancient tradition. Jewish tradition is a fount of authoritative biblical interpretation and wisdom with origins stretching back to Abraham and Moses, who learned from God Himself. Over the course of more than three thousand years, prophets and sages have transmitted this wisdom from teacher to student, parent to child, later to be recorded in the Talmud, Midrash, and other rabbinic works.