Strauss on Shulevitz on Shabbat

As we head into Shabbat, here are some reflections on Judith Shulevitz’s book The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time, sent to me by the brilliant rabbinical student Anne Strauss:

I finished reading Shulevitz's book a [few weeks ago]. I liked her exploration of Christians' Sabbath observance in America, and the history of various blue laws and cultural practices. I enjoyed the book for the most part, and the meandering style makes it plain that it's not supposed to be too serious, but I had some questions on one of her main agenda items. …

Shulevitz’s admiration for European work models left me with a bit of skepticism about her “study” of Shabbat:

“[Law professor Todd] Rakoff suggests three possible reasons for the law’s reluctance to protect non-work time. One is the imbalance of power between workers and management. Another is the outmoded assumption that workers have someone at home who can take care of such things. Both reasons seem true but remediable. Rakoff’s third explanation lays the blame on a more intractable solution: ‘cultural blindness’ about time. That is, we have a hard time seeing non-work time as anything but formless leisure, rather than time spent doing things that have to be done if society is to thrive, and done regularly and collectively…America has fewer public holidays than most industrialized nations. American workers have no legal right to take a vacation; vacation policy is determined by the employer. Most European countries require employers to give workers three to six weeks of paid vacation.”

And then she follows up: “We could start by tackling overwork. We could adopt European Union vacation policies…paid parental leave, and limits on overtime. We could emulate Germany and the Netherlands and give workers the right to reduce their hours and their pay…”

I'll just say that I'm not so sure that the European work model is really the best idea.

… I don’t think [Shulevitz’s] utilitarian arguments for keeping Shabbat – that it is good for your personal well-being, that it is good for family dynamics, that it is good for overall productivity – are the best ones. People will figure out ways to reason around those arguments. One might rationalize that a daily yoga practice, or routine weekend family brunch, or any other number of activities could achieve the same goal without actually doing the things that constitute observing Shabbat. All of the utilitarian reasons that Shulevitz lists for keeping Shabbat can be wonderful side benefits, but the primary reason we have to keep it is because God commanded us. Without that authority, we will always find excuses and ways to rationalize non-observance. … Shulevitz hints and dabbles at going below psychological, historical, and anthropological reasons for observing Shabbat, but in general it seems as though religion must, in the end, submit to scientism, rather than work with it or even challenge it.

The book has been reviewed at the Jewish Review of Books and The New York Times, as well as other places linked at Shulevitz’s site.  Strauss recommends reading Josef Yitzhak Lifshitz's "Secret of the Sabbath" ["it isn't about R&R"] in Azure for some answers to questions that she believes Shulevitz is unable to answer.

Here is a four-minute video of her appearance on “The Colbert Report,” a funny interview that ends with Colbert taking the European approach to the Sabbath to its logical conclusion: