大象传媒

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Julia Neuberger.

Good morning, and shabbat shalom to those of you observing the Jewish Sabbath.

It鈥檚 been a tough few weeks for staff in the two hospitals I chair. COVID has been rife, and staff have been off sick or isolating, whilst beds have been full and the numbers coming in with COVID have risen. Staff are thinly stretched, and exhausted, and that鈥檚 been the case on and off since March 2020, when all this started. There are short down periods, and then it all starts all over again.

I have enormous admiration for our teams of staff. They are working so hard night and day, and their resilience, and consistent kindness to frightened people, never ceases to amaze me. But I have never been more aware of the need for a day of rest than I am now. Shabbat shalom, we say. Sabbath peace.

Jews believe that it was the ancient Israelites, forerunners of the Jewish people, who invented the first weekly day of rest. Some think there may have been something a bit similar in the Assyrian empire, but no-one really knows, and it didn鈥檛 insist on rest for everyone. For what鈥檚 remarkable is that Shabbat applied not only to Israelites, but to anyone who worked for them, even if from another tribe. And it applied to the animals too. Every living creature deserves a day of rest.

The only problem is that a single day of rest isn鈥檛 long enough if you鈥檝e been working flat out for months. You need longer. But the principle is right. Human beings, and animals, need rest to set their minds at peace and to give their bodies time to recalibrate. All of us creatures need time off, a day- or more- of rest. It re-energises us and it relaxes us. Shabbat shalom, and rest well. Take that day off, if not more, and celebrate it. It鈥檚 a wonderful thing.

Amen.