In this week’s parsha (Torah portion), Ki Tissa, God speaks to Moses about Shabbat and says:
וְשָׁמְרוּ בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, אֶת-הַשַּׁבָּת, לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת-הַשַּׁבָּת לְדֹרֹתָם, בְּרִית עוֹלָם
בֵּינִי, וּבֵין בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל–אוֹת הִוא, לְעֹלָם: כִּי-שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים, עָשָׂה יְהוָה אֶת-הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת-הָאָרֶץ, וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, שָׁבַת וַיִּנָּפַשׁ
The Israelite people shall keep Shabbat, observing Shabbat throughout the ages as a covenant for all time. It shall be a sign forever between Me and the people of Israel, for in six days God made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day, God ceased and was refreshed (Exodus 31:16-17).
These words should feel familiar to many of us. We sing them every Friday night during Shabbat ma’ariv (evening) and then again on Shabbat day before kiddush. As a child, I used to love jumping and clapping at just the right moment in the upbeat melody that we sang for V’shamru (during “eh-eh-et haShabbat”). It was simply a fun prayer about Shabbat. Today, I read these words and I am especially struck by God’s experience of Shabbat and what it might teach us about our own experience of Shabbat.
God tells Moses that on the seventh day, God shavat and yinafash. The first word, shavat, means to cease or pause or stop—it’s the same word that gives us the word Shabbat. To model our Shabbat after God means ceasing the creative activities we do during the rest of the week. And the second word, (va)yinafash, is a unique word. So unique, it appears only once in the Torah in this grammatical form! This hapax legomenon comes from the root nun–peh–shin. The noun form, nefesh, has many meanings (breath, life, soul, human being), similar to the Greek word psyche or the Latin spiritus. The basic, more common verb form means simply to breathe.
But because it only appears once in this particular form (niphal, in case you were wondering), our commentators ask, what does va’yinafash actually mean? It must mean something different than to breathe, otherwise it would have been in that form.
Today, translations of va’yinafash to English vary. God refreshed. God took a breath. God paused for breath. God was restored. God rested.
Rashi, a medieval commentator and rabbi, translates va’yinafash as “God rested,” which is how the Targum Onkolos, the Aramaic translation of the Torah, interprets the word. After God stopped laboring away at creating the world, God rested. But lest we think that God gets tired, Rashi quotes Isaiah 40:28:
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Eternal is God from of old,
Creator of the earth from end to end,
Who never grows faint or weary,
Whose wisdom cannot be fathomed.
We know that God, the creator of the world, does not tire or grow weary. So why does God use the language of va’yinafash? Rashi answers, it is because God speaks in language for humans to understand.
God understands that God’s experience of Shabbat becomes a model for our own experience. Because we humans grow tired and we need to rest after pausing our work, God uses the language of va’yinafash to remind us that resting is its own action. It would be easy to read this text and say that as a result of pausing from work, we simply become refreshed—that from shavat, yinafash automatically happens. But I would suggest, as we enter into this Shabbat of unplugging, that we consider this rest as its own, separate action.
God ceased and God refreshed. How many Shabbatot have I spent not working on a technical level, but in a total state of unease, and ended Shabbat feeling not refreshed at all? (Many!) It’s not enough to not work to do Shabbat. We also have to take a breath, to do that which makes our soul feel alive, and to not expect that those things will automatically happen just because we’ve stopped working. We need to actively choose to rest and to infuse our souls with energy.
One of the ways we can try to do that is to unplug from technology. I know that the way that I use technology, at least my habitual ways, keeps me from truly resting and renewing. I check my phone all day long. Sometimes when I’m outside, I find myself checking my phone instead of noticing the wind on my face or the smells of trees and earth. Sometimes I check my phone instead of paying attention to my loved ones around me. I know that I can definitely use a little more unplugging, and I’m sure most of us can.
What would unplugging allow you to do this Shabbat to invigorate your soul? For this Global Day of Unplugging, our invitation is to unplug for the whole entirety of Shabbat—all 25 hours! But regardless of whether you can unplug from all of your technology this Shabbat or just partially, or even if you can only unplug for a few hours, decide how you can redirect the energy you normally direct towards your technology. What else can you do with that time? What would make you feel more alive, more full, more connected?
Whatever you decide, may this be a Shabbat of invigorating your soul.
May those who are ill find refuat ha’nefesh, healing of the spirit, and refuat ha’guf, healing of the body.
May all the hostages come home to their families and friends.
May those who are working for peace be granted strength and courage to continue their sacred work, and may we soon see peace and dignity for all.
Shabbat shalom,
Leah Carnow