Workaholics be warned. The Sabbath asserts that people have the right to limit their work, thus offering "a balance to the bonds of boundless labor, an opportunity one day a week to shut down the phones and faxes and re-connect instead with family and friends—and with oneself," writes Klagsbrun (Jewish Days). The Sabbath is not just part of the weekend; Klagsbrun says it is the essence of the week, a transformative 24-hour period that transcends time and space. Its emphasis on rest and sanctity for every person offers "the finest path to spiritual nourishment" and a focus for personal, communal and universal freedom. To examine its depth, texture and meaning as a central feature of Jewish life and thought, Klagsbrun presents personal anecdotes, biblical, Talmudic, modern and classical commentators, midrash and mystical sources, Biblical scholarship and criticism, and women's perspectives. She quotes eclectically—from Philip Roth and Israeli poet Zelda to the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish. The themes she tackles include the enchantment of light, the laws of Shabbat, the importance of the number seven; women at the center of the mystical Sabbath; and the concept of the "Sabbath gentile." Though tension is inevitable in a day that treads the fine line between spiritual ideals and rigorous rules, the "liberation it offers and the limitations it imposes" together create space to "make room for time itself." This book presents a gentle introduction for anyone who, like Klagsbrun, desires a weekly mini-vacation from the "infinite cacophony, competition and commotion of the world around us." (Sept.)
