I have a tendency to end the year feeling pretty worn out. And that’s partly because I struggle to rest properly throughout the year, to build rest into a routine and stick to it. That’s how I was feeling at the end of 2022, when we originally taped this episode. And it’s certainly how I’m feeling at the end of this year, so this felt like a valuable episode to revisit. Judith Shulevitz’s wonderful book, “The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time,” draws out lessons from the Jewish ritual of the Sabbath that everyone can benefit from, regardless of whether you’re Jewish or religious at all. The Sabbath, as commonly practiced, involves taking a day a week off from work, turning off your phone and spending a lot of time with family and your community. To Shulevitz, there’s a radicalism in this ritual — a stinging critique of the speed at which we live our lives, the ways we choose to spend our time and how we think about the idea of rest itself. She sees the Sabbath as more than just taking a break from the world, but also as an act of creating a different one. I left the conversation feeling awed by how such an ancient practice can contain wisdom that feels so urgent right now. I hope you enjoy — and that at the end of this year, you find time for some true rest. Mentioned:The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua HeschelI and Thou by Martin BuberBook Recommendations:Adam Bede by George EliotThe Seven Day Circle by Eviatar ZerubavelOn the Clock by Emily GuendelsbergerThoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Guest suggestions? Fill out this form.You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Emefa Agawu. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Isaac Jones and Aman Sahota. The show’s production time also includes Rollin Hu, Elias Isquith, Kristin Lin and Jack McCordick. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Full Episode
Here at the end of the year, I wanted to share one of my favorite episodes of the show that isn't about politics. It's about something that certainly I could do a better job of, which is rest. This is with the writer Judith Shulowitz. It's about the practice of Sabbath. We talked back in 2023, but it's one of those shows that has rung in my head far longer.
From New York Times Opinion, this is The Ezra Klein Show. This episode for me today has its roots way back. And so I'm going to take a moment in setting it up. When I was in college, a rabbi I knew, he gave me Abraham Joshua Heschel's book, The Sabbath. And I love that book. I've probably read it a dozen times since.
And the reason it's mattered to me so much for so long is not just about the idea of the Sabbath. It's a critique of the way many of us, certainly me, live. A critique of the way our world has been designed. Heschel's argument is that the modern world is obsessed with questions of space.
We spend our days trying to master the spaces in which we live, building in them, acquiring from them, traversing them. And what we spend to do that is the time that we have to live. He writes, quote, most of us seem to labor for the sake of things of space. As a result, we suffer from a deeply rooted dread of time and stand aghast when compelled to look into its face.
That line has always felt true to me. It's always felt true about me. But I mostly ignored its trueness. There's stuff to do every day. Maybe what's changed recently is that I've gotten older. Maybe it's that I've had children or I'm seeing my own parents age. But I've had more trouble ignoring that trueness.
I don't think the speed at which I live, at which I move through time, at which I see the people around me living and moving through time is a speed that any of us really want. I don't think the habits that I've cultivated here are really good ones. So I've become interested in what this old practice has to say about how I live and how we live today.
Heschel has this line, six days a week, we seek to dominate the world. On the seventh day, we try to dominate the self. It's amazing how much harder that is to do. But I can't shake the question of what if I did actually spend a full seventh of my life, which is what the Sabbath is supposed to be, living at a different speed. Who would I be if I knew more than how to work and not work?
Who would I be if I knew actually how to rest? A metaphor we often use now for rest is recharging. I need to recharge. Like we're iPhones that need to be plugged in overnight so we can work again in the morning. And here too, Heschel has a critique of this. He knew it. He talked about it.
He writes, man is not a beast of burden and the Sabbath is not for the purpose of enhancing the efficiency of his work. Oof. When I was young, I went to an Orthodox Hebrew school for a couple of years and I had friends who truly kept Shabbat.
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