Humans, I would venture to guess, are the only animals in the world that take vacations. After all, vacations, even the most modest of stay-at-home, curl-up-with-a-good-book-when-you-are-not-watching-the-Star-Trek-marathon vacations, are celebrations of planned and managed excess.
They are a coupling of the bounties of nature with the diligence of the human spirit.
They are, in the most profound sense, a blessing.
To be able to go away, to take a break from work, to rest and still have our daily needs fulfilled, requires anticipation and planning, graced by a gathering of excess time, effort, money, and stuff.
For us to enjoy our time off today, we needed to have had more than enough to store away yesterday.
Wars, illness, worry, poverty, deadlines, scarcity all deny the experience of vacation, for they do not allow us the luxury to pursue an abundant accumulation of good stuff.
The height of luxury is to be able to live - even for just a week or weekend - without work, without need, without worry.
How blessed we are when we can do that every year. And in Judaism how blessed we are that we can do that every week.
That is the gift of Shabbat, a weekly vacation of gathered abundance, appreciation and rest.
Both the annual and the weekly rituals are great joys; both are great blessings. The question they raise is, do we rest so we can work again; or do we work so we can rest again. Or perhaps, in the best of worlds, we do both?
May you be privileged to enjoy both this summer.
(photo of my son at a beach in Delaware)
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