“Just as Israel has kept the Sabbath, so has the Sabbath kept Israel.” Ahad Ha’am

What does that mean? That observing Shabbat has helped the Jewish people survive.

Who was Ahad Ha’am? He was an early Zionist and not especially religious or observant but he knew the power of Shabbat and its ability to allow people to regroup, renew, refresh that is so important to all of our survival. It is like the Midrash teaches:

“Moses saw that they had no rest, so he went to Pharaoh and said: ‘If one has a slave and he does not give him rest one day in the week, the slave will die. These are your slaves—if you do not give them one day a week, they will die.’ Said Pharaoh: ‘Go and do with them as you say.’ So Moses ordained for them the Shabbat day for rest.” (Shemot Rabbah 1:32)

But Shabbat is more than survival. There is an argument recorded in the Talmud between Caesar and Rabbi Joshua ben Chananya. He wanted to know why he should bother to give the Israelites a day off a week. Then he asked, “Why do Shabbat foods smell so good? Said he to him: We have a special spice, ‘Shabbat’ is its name . . .” (Talmud, Shabbat 119a)

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel in the mid-twentieth century called Shabbat a palace in time and a foretaste of the world to come.

And perhaps that is the place to start this sermon, which I offer in memory of Ron Raglin, assistant superintendent of U-46. Several weeks ago, there was a call for Chicago rabbis to work Labor Day into our sermons this weekend as Chicago Public Schools is in a heated contract negotiation. I sent the email to Tony Sanders, CEO of U-46 to tell him what I was planning to do. I had no idea how much time I would be spending with Tony this week. But this I am sure of, if Shabbat is a foretaste of the world to come, with a special spice, then Ron is enjoying the real thing. So for Ron…

This weekend we celebrate Labor Day. A national holiday for our workers. A chance to pause and reflect on the role of work and rest in our lives. A last burst of summer before people return the more rigorous schedules that after Labor Day brings. One more burger on the grill. One last vacation weekend. One last family reunion.

And yet…more and more people have to work over Labor Day. Remember to thank:

• Your grocery store clerk—if it isn’t a self-check out lane,
• Your hair dresser, mine is working today, Sunday and Monday, the boss might close at 5 instead of 7 so people can have a barbecue or a picnic.
• Your Barista
• Police, fire, hospital employees all have to work this weekend.
• I’ll remember to thank the grave diggers and the rest of the grounds crew, the sound crew and the janitors.

Some who work over a holiday will get time and a half. Others will see no increase in their pay. Some will trade Labor Day for Christmas or Thanksgiving. But the essential services we have come to depend on will continue to function right through Labor Day. As a police chaplain, I pray for an uneventful weekend, although I am not on call this weekend as a chaplain.

The roots of Labor Day go back to some very important events in our nation’s history. Ones that are even later than 1776 for those of you who think I only know colonial New England history. The roots, I knew, go to Lawrence, MA and the Bread and Roses Strike.

As a life long learner, I learned that there was a connection to Chicago:

The first mention of “Bread and Roses” appeared in the American Magazine in September of 1911. Helen Todd described a group of women from the Chicago Women’s Club, organizing an automobile campaign, remember those were new then, around the State of Illinois, to campaign for the right of women to vote. The women were Catherine McCulloch, an attorney, Anna Blount, a physician, Kate Hughes a minister (you better watch those clergy!) and Helen Todd, a state factory inspector, and Jennie Johnson, a singer.

Rose Scheiderman, a nice Jewish girl, worked tirelessly to improve wages, hours, and safety standard for American working women. Hearing echoes of Pirke Avot, “Ain Torah, Ain Kemach, without Torah no sustenance, no bread, Ain Kemach, Ain Torah, without bread no Torah.”

“What the woman who labors wants is the right to live, not simply exist – the right to life as the rich woman has the right to life, and the sun and music and art. You have nothing that the humblest worker has not a right to have also. The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too. Help, you women of privilege, give her the ballot to fight with.” Rose Schneiderman, 1912.

Improved wages, safety and hours are the “bread,” the very basic human rights to which working women were entitled. But she also campaigned for “roses”: schools, recreational facilities, and professional networks for trade union women, because she believed that working women deserved much more than a grim subsistence. 

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/schneiderman-rose

Another good Jewish boy wrote a poem, entitled “Bread and Roses” that was later set to music by John Denver. John Oppenheim was not only a poet but the principal of the Hebrew High School in Minneapolis.

Bread and Roses
As we come marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill-lofts gray
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing, “Bread and Roses, Bread and Roses.”

As we come marching, marching, we battle, too, for men—
For they are women’s children and we mother them again.
Our days shall not be sweated from birth until life closes—
Hearts starve as well as bodies: Give us Bread, but give us Roses.

As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient song of Bread;
Small art and love and beauty their trudging spirits knew—
Yes, it is Bread we fight for—but we fight for Roses, too.

As we come marching, marching, we bring the Greater Days—
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler—ten that toil where one reposes—
But a sharing of life’s glories: Bread and Roses, Bread and Roses.

— James Oppenheim, 1911.^[40]

After the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, more Jews led the labor organizing effort. It led to legislation mandating factory safety standards and the 40 hour workweek with accepted and legislated breaks. The birth of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union gave rise to other unions, including the Teamsters, which at one point saved Simon’s job at UPS.

There are more Chicago connections. Emma Goldman, who amongst other things could be described as our own Medina’s stepmother, championed the rights of workers. Rabbi Emil Hirsch whose picture hangs in our social hall and rode the stage coach out from Chicago to officiate at various Jewish functions and Memorial Day, championed the rights of workers and organized labor, even risking his job at Chicago Sinai to preach on this topic when well-heeled business owners sitting in the front row were exhorted to treat their own workers better.

How does that relate to this week’s Torah portion?

This week we read of an extension to Shabbat observance. A radical way to organize society. A release or a cancelling of debts and freedom for slaves. Every seven years. In other places we are told to rest the land as well. This is the Shmita year that the Torah describes. During shmita, the seventh year, debts are cancelled, slaves are released and the land lays fallow. No plowing, planting, pruning or harvesting.

During the time that organized labor was growing in America, Shabbat observance was decreasing. It was a spiritual practice that was slipping, a steep price to pay. Shabbat was a regular work day. It is part of the reason that Chicago Sinai’s main worship was on Sunday morning, not Shabbat. “Blue laws” abounded, forbidding the opening of businesses on Sunday and in some places even mowing grass. The vestiges here in Illinois include not being able to sell liquor Sunday morning. Many Jews felt that they could not earn a living in America without working on Shabbat; others saw it as a hindrance to the dream of assimilation within, and acceptance by, American society. The Jew’s thousands-year-long tenacious hold on the Shabbat was slipping. In some congregations Shabbat clubs began to keep the Sabbath alive.

So as we approach this Labor Day, think about the role, the real leadership Jews played in fighting for worker’s rights. For ensuring that you could choose to sit in that pew today. That you have the freedom to do so. That you could enjoy Shabbat as a palace in time and a foretaste of the world to come. For me, these Jewish values translate into working for equity and justice as Ron Raglin has always fought for, equal pay for women, workers rights and a safe working environment. And a living wage, however that get defined.

And as I said at the beginning. To not forget to thank the people who work this weekend.