Review of The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

When I was a Lutheran pastor, I started a congregation in Lexington, Kentucky, Word of Hope Lutheran Church.  Before we had a building of our own, we held services on Sunday mornings in a landscaping firm’s office.  Sunday evenings, a local Roman Catholic parish let us use their sanctuary for a second service.   I quickly learned that for some of our congregant’s time was more important than space.  They would come every Sunday morning to the “transformed” landscaping office for Mass.  Space didn’t matter.  It was time that mattered.  For others they would come every Sunday to the traditional space of the church even though the time was not what they were accustomed to.   For them space was more significant than time.
The truth is both are consequential.  Time and space.  Both have sacredness about them.  But the older I get time is becoming more precious than space.  Space is replaceable, even sacred space, i.e. the Cathedral of Notre Dame.  Time, of course, is not.   Once this moment passes, it is irretrievable. 
In his book, The Sabbath, Abraham Joshua Heschel, deals with both, time and space, but what impressed me the most was his reflections on the significance of time over space and how the Sabbath, whether that be from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday or on Sunday or significant time one sets aside for oneself to just savor “being” for that moment, can be a glimpse of the eternal.  And who of us could not use a bit of that inserted into the chaos that too often characterizes our everyday existence?  Even in these times when we are sheltering in place and keeping safe spaces?  Who of us does not need to be reminded from time to time that this moment right now is all that we really have and is therefore that which IS most precious for us?  And do we miss that, the shear gift of the moment, because of some regret over the past or some fear relative to the future? 
There is so much wisdom in this little book of Heschel’s (And it is just a little book, only ninety-three pages).  Even now as I leaf through it as I am writing this review, I find myself thinking, “Oh, that is so good.  That is amazing.  Wow!”  But here is just one gem:
A special consciousness is required to recognize the ultimate significance of time.  We all live it and are so close to being identical with it that we fail to notice it.  The world of space surrounds our existence.  It is but a part of living, the rest is time.  Things are the shore, the voyage is in time.
Take the book out for free at the library.  Read it.  Savor its wisdom.  Turn it back in for others.  On time is preferable.  And then buy a hardcover copy to have as your own because you will refer to it again and again, as I have whenever I lose my sense of the sacredness of the time that God has gifted me.

Reviewed by Richard Dick, Library Assistant, O’Kelly Memorial Library


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review of White Doves at Morning by James Lee Burke:

Image
In White Doves at Morning there is the wedding of two of my most favored things when it comes to reading, novels by James Lee Burke, and a period in our nation’s history that I frequent repeatedly, the Civil War. And there is the added touch that two of the central characters of the story are actual ancestors of the author, Robert Perry and Willie Burke. At the outset of White Doves at Morning we are on the cusp of the most brutal conflict in our nation’s history between the north and the south over the issue of slavery, with the latter playing a major part of the storyline through two characters, Flower Jamison, a slave herself, and Abigail Dowling, a transplanted abolitionist from Massachusetts. Like other novels by Burke there are the villains that embody the evil of that time, most notably Todd McCain, the town’s hardware store owner, and Rufus Atkins, a plantation overseer, as well as ambiguous characters like the slave holding, plantation owner, Ira Jamison, who seems to be jus
Read more

Review of A Morning for Flaminos: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke

Image
I mentioned in my review of the Harry Potter Series that it was important to read the books in order. It’s not that you wouldn’t get something good out of each if you didn’t, but one book adds to the previous ones in terms of characters and plot flow. To not read them in order would leave you in the dark about a number of things. And those gaps would only be filled as you go back and read the ones that came before. But there is another reason for reading a series in order. You find out things, important things, that make you aware of what happens in the previous books. And so when you get to the ones that came before much of the surprise is gone. You already know what is going to happen. For me this was absolutely the case relative to James Lee Burke’s lengthy series featuring the character of Dave Robicheaux. At times I felt almost omniscient, knowing what was going to happen and powerless in stopping it. After all this is a mystery series. The last thing you want to know in
Read more

THE SEA GLASS COTTAGE by RaeAnn Thayne

Image
Olivia is leaving her home and job in Seattle to take care of her mom, Juliet, who has sustained serious injuries from a fall off of a ladder at work. Olivia hopes to be back in Seattle in a few weeks. Back to her job, friends, and the life she’s most familiar with. Along with her teenaged niece, Caitlin, taking care of Juliet should be a piece of cake... supposedly. Juliet is the owner of the local home and garden center in a small coastal town of Northern California, Cape Sanctuary. Everyone for miles around knows her and appreciates all she does for her clients and friends, including the new and single fire chief, Cooper, who knew Olivia as the little sister of his best friend all through childhood and into high school, Natalie, who is Caitlin’s mom. Caitlin was born without knowing who her biological father was. No one is shown on her birth certificate. It seems that Natalie had her secrets, and Olivia is determined to find out everything she needs to know since Natalie
Read more