For instance, do you turn off your computer, your iPad, your smart phone, and all of your other electronic communications devices before Shabbat candlelighting and keep them off until after Havdalah the next evening?
I may be asking a lot of people, including myself. After all, most of us, including our Messianic Jewish brothers and sisters drive to shul and perform other acts that would be considered "breaking the Shabbat" in an Orthodox context. While "keeping the commandments" usually requires building up set of habits and behavioral patterns over the span of years or even decades, as human beings, we usually reach a "comfort zone" of Shabbat activities and then stay there. In other words, we don't try to get closer to the goals we originally set for ourselves when we first made a commitment to a Sabbath's rest.
I bring all this up because I received a prompt from the Sabbath Manifesto site announcing that the Shabbat starting at sundown on March 4, 2011 is the National Day of Unplugging.
Think of it as a challenge to help improve your Sabbath rest. Could you completely unplug from all of your electronic communication devices for over 24 hours? Could you sign out of your email, stop tweeting and Facebooking, turn off your cell, and log off your computer?
Are you getting the shakes? No Internet or electronic communications for approximately 25 hours. That's harder for some people than not eating for the same amount of time (remember Yom Kippur?).
The idea isn't to deprive you in any way, but to help you reclaim your lives and insert more friend and family face-to-face interactions. This allows you more time to "smell the roses", so to speak, to study the Word of God, to fellowship with like minded people of the faith, to do all of the things the Shabbat was designed for. This isn't restriction; it's freedom from a sort of tyranny what we allow to control us the other six days of the week.
If you keep the Sabbath but would like to keep it better, there's hope. If you are a Jew, a Christian, or anyone who'd like to live without phone calls, texting, tweeting, IMing, and emailing for just one day, in order to experience what the rest of your life is like, take the National Day of Unplugging 2011 challenge. If you keep the Shabbat, but not this deeply, you could experience greater rewards of rest and peace. If you don't typically take a rest day from your electronics, give it a try. You may find a freedom you never knew existed.
On the seventh day God finished the work that He had been doing, and He ceased on the seventh day from all the work that He had done. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because on it God ceased from all the work of creation that He had done. -Genesis 2:2-3
The road is long and often, we travel in the dark.
8 comments:
In my gentile attempt to honor the Sabbath we have been observing a techno-sabbath for quite some time. The only thing you metioned that we do not do is the cell phone to communicate. The quiet of the house is so restful. We love it and I would highly encourage everyone to observe the nation day of unplugging.
Can't... leave.... computer...help
Can't... leave.... computer...help
LOL. I know the feeling. :)
do orthodox Jews have to reset their alarm clock every week?
I don't think Orthodox Jews unplug their clocks, they just turn off the alarm before Shabbat and turn it back on afterward. My guess, anyway.
these are mysteries we may never solve james.
While I agree in principle and try not to use electronics unnecessarily, Shabbat - ironic, isn't it - is usually the only day of the week I do go on the internet. The reason being there is no Messianic congregation of any sort within less than 4 hours' drive. My husband isn't one either, although he has agreed to let me have the Sabbath "off" at home. So this is the only time and place when I get to study uninterrupted, read the Torah commentary, articles like yours etc. and experience my sad, lonely imitation of "fellowship" and "community."
(I do have genuine Christian friends for whom I am deeply grateful and who help my walk to some degree, but it's just not the same. They totally don't get anything of this bent or even this deep.)
Shira
Shabbat observance by non-Jews in "the movement" is a problem for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is lack of support from the larger world around us. Many times, our families do not agree with our desire to have a Sabbath rest and it's tough to enforce the Shabbat when you are only one person and the needs of your family are different.
Probably the perfect environment for Shabbat is a Jewish population and setting where every activity is geared for the Sabbath. Your family supports you, your friends and neighbors support you, and even businesses and organizations support you, because they are all Sabbath-observant. Even in a non-Jewish environment, if you live in a Jewish family or a family that agrees to a Sabbath rest, you can effectively isolate yourself from everyone outside your home for a day and focus on the mitzvot.
In your situation, you can only do the best you can. While a complete cessation of "work" activities is desirable, it's not always practical. God knows your heart and He knows your situation, so please take comfort in that. If the Internet is the tool by which you study the Torah and God on Shabbat, then it's what you need to use.
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