I love this Shabbat reading, which I’ve adapted from Siddur Likrat Shabbat. I hope you find it meaningful as well.
A great pianist was once asked by an ardent admirer: “How do you handle the notes as well as you do?” The artist answered: “The notes I handle no better than many pianists, but the pauses between the notes—ah! That is where the art resides.”
In great living, as in great music, the art may be in the pauses. Surely one of the enduring contributions which Judaism made to the art of living was the Shabbat, “the pause between the notes.” So if you are looking to restore to your life a sense of serenity and sanctity, why not try Shabbat? Not as a day of limits and “I can’t,” but rather as a way of pausing and reflecting. I promise you, the notes (all of the things on your to-do list) will still be waiting. But perhaps you’ll handle them with greater artistry. Shabbat Shalom!
