Be Pleased with our Rest רְצֵה בִמְנוּחָתֵנוּ

 בס"ד

At Mount Sinai G-d directly commands the nation of Israel to cease on the seventh day from the productive work they engage in during the week. The seventh day is giving a special name, Shabbat שבת, which means cessation. They are also encouraged to imitate God by resting ויָנַח on the seventh day (see Exodus 20:8-11). In the book of Deuteronomy Moshe reviews this law and uses Egyptian slavery as an example of what Shabbos is not (see Deuteronomy 5:16). 

In the special prayer for Shabbat, found in the Amida, we ask that our rest be favorable before the Almighty, and that the rest of Israel should be a sanctification of God's name. The paragraph inserted for Shabbat into Grace after meals requests that there should be no aggravation, sorrow, or groaning on the day of our rest. Psalm 92, which is specifically labeled for Shabbat, encourages the appreciation of God's handiwork and His kindness, and also to contemplate that evil is transient while the righteous remain youthful and vigorous.

When Shabbat is listed as a statute, the Chumash uses three languages of rest תִּשְׁבֹּת, יָנוּחַ, and וְיִנָּפֵשׁ (see Exodus 23:12). תִּשְׁבֹּת would be the most passive. What it means is to cease from the daily grind and rat race. Jewish religious thought reckons it as a virtue not to talk about work or even think about it on Shabbat. יָנוּחַ, the language of rest, is a bit more active as it implies peace, quiet and tranquility. Some synagogues, notably Chabad, hold morning services comparatively late, allowing a person to take a beauty rest, and it is customary to take a nap on Shabbos. וְיִנָּפֵשׁ is the most active and often refers to refreshment and invigoration. It is a form of a word for soul, specifically the one that provides the life force for the body.

 

On the phrase, “in order to rest your ox” (Exodus 23:12), Rashi comments let the animal rest by permitting it to pull up and eat grass from the ground as he pleases. Or perhaps it is not like that, rather tie it to the stall so it does nothing. However this is not rest on the contrary it is pain.

 

Among the messages of Shabbat is knowing how to rest. It includes doing the things that you enjoy and in the way they want to do them. What may be most important is becoming savvy about identifying a sense of tranquility which leads to invigoration. Part of it is distancing a person from stress as well as the mundane tasks done to earn money. An aid is being conscious of the beauty in the world that a person feels comes from above. A consolation is seeing the transience of evil and the permanence of good.

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