The Sabbath: A palace in timeLiving in Iowa, Dublin and Nashville, I have had plenty of explanatory conversations about Shabbat. When people want to have plans on Friday night, or wonder why I don’t go to football games on Saturday morning, or just want to know why I won’t turn on the bathroom light on occasion, I end up having to explain Shabbat beyond the standard, “It’s a day of rest.”

In situations like this, one can always turn to Jew FAQ, which provides easy-to-understand explanations of all kinds of Jewish traditions and laws on levels from the basic to the more advanced. If you feel comfortable sending someone to the Jew FAQ explanation, it’s excellent.

But here’s what I usually say:

On Shabbat, we refrain from doing anything that’s creative. Because we’re honoring the creation of the world, and the rest that followed it, we ourselves rest, and stop from our generally creative habits. We don’t write. We don’t draw. We don’t cook, or play music. We also don’t do some things that wouldn’t necessarily seem creative, but that are on a technical level. For instance, driving a car is creative in that sparks are created in the engine. Turning on a light creates a circuit.

But Shabbat isn’t about refraining from creating so much as it is about resting and taking some time to be rejuvenated. Talk to people who have kept Shabbat for a while and they don’t complain about all the things they can’t do: watch TV, cook dinner, go online, listen to or play music. They’ll likely talk about how refreshing and relaxing the day is: how they get to take a nap, spend time with family and friends, play board games and eat a good meal with fun and interesting people. Shabbat seems restrictive on first analysis, but most people who observe Shabbat don’t see it that way.

For further reading on the rockin’ qualities of Shabbat, check out the amazing (and quite short) book by Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath. It’s a quick read, but really intense, and a wonderful introduction to Heschel’s work.

ChallahThe golden braids and shiny brown crust of challah loaves are unmistakable. The sweet, eggy bread is customarily eaten on Sabbath and Jewish holidays (except Passover). Braided loaves are most common since they are eaten weekly on the Sabbath. But on Rosh Hashanah, round loaves symbolize the cyclical nature of the year. Check out MyJewishLearning.com for more information on the significance of challah’s many shapes.

Challah comes in many flavor varieties, too. It's sometimes sprinkled with sesame or poppy seeds or dotted with chocolate or dried fruits. Regardless of additions like these, the basic sweet, eggy taste, yellow color and cake-like texture define this special bread. Click through our challah handbook for recipes and more:

Pickled’s Challah Handbook

• Q&A: Challah Saleswoman Jane Moritz
• Traditional Challah Recipe
• Two Takes: Vegan Challah Recipe

Click here to return to the Rosh Hashanah dinner table for more symbolic dishes.

A riot in Palmdale, California.
Pandemonium on the streets of Boston.
Hundreds of people camping out for days outside toy stores to be the first on the block to own a new $500 video game machine.

You missed out? Couldn’t find your tent?
Playstation Bonanza
That’s OK, now that's it's June, the price of these stocking-stuffers has come down to the $400-500 range. Some of those campers were entrepreneurs who are reselling their machines on ebay. I personally saw markups of $7-10,000, and at least one machine sold for $31,000 (makes you wonder why Sony decided to sell them at a $300 loss....)

When a person has a craving, it seems, he will do almost anything to satisfy it.

Question: What is the solution to this madness?

There is a Jewish antidote to this human condition. You’ve heard of it, it’s called Shabbat or Shabbos.

If you ask at your Friday night dinner table if anyone knows what Shabbat means, I'll bet that most people will say “day of rest.”

That’s sort-of right.....

The Hebrew word Shabbat actually means STOP (or “day of stopping”).

That is, in order to combat the material frenzy of this world we live in, once a week just....stop.

Stop running around.

Stop jumping up every time the phone rings.

Stop checking your email every ten minutes.

The pace of life can be so frenetic that we feel guilty taking a break. So I hereby give you permission to....stop!

Here’s how to do it. Ask yourself and everyone at your table: what’s one thing that you could stop doing for 24 hours that would take your mind away from the weekly rat race?

An investor wrote me that he stopped reading the financial section on Saturday morning. It works for him. For one day, he stops thinking about earning money. He has in fact liberated himself from a certain kind of slavery.

So ask yourself and your friends and family: what’s one thing that you do all week that you would like to liberate yourself from? (Please let me know what you come up with.) Then give yourself and each other permission to stop doing that activity for 24+ hours, a few minutes before sunset Friday until a few minutes after sunset Saturday.

Shalom means harmony. Shabbat Shalom means the harmony of mind you get when you allow yourself to stop.

What is one thing that you have a hard time stopping, that you know it would be good for your soul to take a break from once a week? Please share below.

Over at the religion blog for the Times of London, Ruth Gledhill has a fascinating post about SPCK bookshops. The SPCK is a trust that, according to their website

is actively engaged in identifying, acquiring and supporting redundant churches throughout Britain. Its purpose in doing so is to provide them as a place of worship for new or existing Orthodox Christian communities of all stripes: Greek, Russian, Romanian and other Orthodox bishoprics. Saint Stephen is not a church, para-church, religious sect or denomination. It is a trust which aims to save church buildings so they can be used for their founders’ intent: worship of the Holy Trinity according to the praxis of England’s Christian Orthodox heritage.

Young Man, There's A Place You Can Go: But the SPCK isn't it
Um, okay. Sounds fine, I guess. SPCK bookshops are just stores that sell Bibles and Christian books and church supplies (hymnals and stuff, I guess?). So here’s what Gledhill has to say:

More amusing leaks from SPCK, where staff have been given a strong theological Christian argument for why they must work on Sundays. And on Bank Holidays. And, incredibly, even Good Friday! I think this is the first time I've heard of a Christian organisation telling its staff they actually must work on Sundays. Normally they're on the other side of the argument. But apparently, staff at the St Stephen the Great bookshops must be there on Sundays and holy days to fulfill their vital mission of selling bibles and other literature to the faithful who flock to the churches and cathedrals in which the bookshops sit. The argument of the heads of the company comes from the Council of Laodicea, which said that for a Christian to try to take the Sabbath off was to be guilty of Judaising. Willing and happy Judaiser that I am, I post this up on Friday afternoon before disappearing to have my sacrosanct Saturday off. I wish you all a joyful 'shabbat shalom'.

(Emphasis mine)

I love it when people try to say that resting on the Sabbath is bad for business. But when they say it’s bad for religious business, I just get confused. The Sabbath is not supposed to be about business, guys. Seriously. And the people using your stores to buy stuff for their churches and their worship are mostly in Church on Sunday mornings. Yes, you might get a few people in the store on Sunday who can’t come on any other day, but are they worth sacrificing your principles? I mean, I assume one of the Ten Commandments carries some weight for you “Orthodox” guys, right?

Let’s “Judaise” a little this Shabbat, shall we? Don’t buy anything during the 25 hours of the Sabbath just to show the SPCK who’s boss.