How The Gift of Rest was written was much more interesting to me that what was written in it. In a short and simple style, Senator Lieberman goes through the entire process of Shabbos, starting from preparing during the week through Havdalah. As someone who has been practicing Shabbos for basically my entire life, much of the book was reading through what I do every week. Even though I knew all the practical things that were said throughout the book, I found it valuable in a very different light. Lieberman passionately goes through each part of Shabbos, focusing on what he deems as the most important benefits and values. While he does go into many specifics in the rituals, they are clearly not his focus. What can everyone learn from a day of rest?, is his main question. "For me, Sabbath observance is a gift because it is one of the deepest, purest pleasures in my life. It is a day of peace, rest and sensual pleasure." This statement truly pervades the entire book. He writes as a simple Jew, finding great meaning in all that he does on this day, be it established ritual, or reading a novel. There are some things he focuses on that are not surprising considering this. He spends a significant amount of time discussing socializing times, including meals, and the kiddush club. While he does talk about how he feels bad going to it because it requires leaving in the middle of the service, he discusses at length the ability of Shabbos to bring people together. Because of this feature, The Gift of Rest is a valuable read for Jews of all types, albeit for different reasons. For the religiously uneducated Jew it is a valuable resource in its own right to know how to observe the Shabbos. For all, it is very nice reading of the value of the day. Specifically with the laws of Shabbos, it is very easy to get caught up in the specifics of the melachot. Of course, the study and application of the laws are vitally important to the day. This, however, does not exclude the spirit that Senator Lieberman speaks of in length. There are a couple other fascinating features of the book. One might have expected, as I did, the book would be replete with great stories from all the years in office. Although he does express a couple, it is certainly not a focus of the book. He uses his stories as a way of showing how Shabbos has positively effected his life and in the same way can effect his reader, be they Jewish or not. What this book showed to me is how truly far we, as a people, have progressed in America. Not only is a Jew in high office, not only is he religious, but he is willing and able to be forthright about his religiosity, even publishing it to the general public. Lastly, it surprised me how straightforward he was willing to be about his own faults. He admits to the hubris he had always had as someone with so much power in the government. It is the fact he had to be cut off from work one day a week that made him realize that the world goes on without him, a humbling sentiment. Also, Lieberman is not shy to say that he went through a faze in college where he was not religious. He easily could have kept his image as a perfectly religious Jew. Instead, he uses his mistakes of the past to show the reader what he has learned from Shabbos.
