March 8, 2013 Vayakhel-Pekudei

The Ultimate Labor Saver

"Six days shall labor be done, and the seventh day will be for you holy…" (35:2)

For as long as I can remember, one of society’s most cherished dreams has been a robot that gets all your work done for you.

In the late fifties we were regaled with fanciful concoctions of tin cans that looked like Tin-Man-rejects from "The Wizard of Oz", complete with the apron and a happy mechanical smile. In the sixties, wacky inventors produced little motorized "home-puppies" that scooted around cleaning the carpet and swept the floors. Nowadays robotics has reached amazing levels. Watching a car being assembled today is an eerie experience with nary a human in sight. (Except of course to execute the mandatory strike for shorter hours and better working conditions.)

I want to let you into a secret. The "Ultimate Labor Savor" has been in existence for over three thousand years. The trouble is that many people don’t know how to operate it.

"Six days shall labor be done, and the seventh day will be for you holy…"

The grammar of this verse is unusual. The Torah doesn’t say you can do labor for six days, rather it expresses itself in the passive, "labor shall be done."

When we keep Shabbat, G-d’s blessings rest on all our workday efforts. If you’re a creative writer for an ad agency, suddenly you’ll find a brilliant new concept that just wafts into your consciousness from out of nowhere on Tuesday morning. If you’re a cabinetmaker, all the mortises that you cut are a perfect fit. If you’re a pilot, you’ll find that there’s a break in the weather allowing you a landing-window at your destination, avoiding a three-hour delay and a few hundred irate passengers. The list is as endless as the activities of man. When we keep Shabbat properly, even if you don’t overly exert ourselves, we will find that things just seem to get done, that little bit quicker and better.

Shabbat is the Ultimate Labor Saver.