Every Christian, no matter how separated by land, culture and time, shares a strong conviction: we believe God’s presence is experienced in our lives, indeed in human history. We believe God invites us to respond to his love with faith and integrity. This divine call communicates life by revealing a presence that permeates our existence, a friendship that expresses his will, an inspiration that manifests his wisdom. In a similar way that Scripture is “God’s Word in human words”, so our existence should become “God’s Will in human actions”. The greatest burden is not religious obligation, but rather its very absence, that invariably condemns the spiritually bankrupt to the clutches of materialism. Despite prophetic exhortations, ancient Israelites also sought their pleasure on Sabbath. They forsook religious duties by defiantly devising clever ways around the demands of their faith – the clash between worship and egotism had begun.
Ancient rabbis took great pains to enforce religious participation. However, violators went to even greater lengths to achieve their objectives. At first, it wasn’t sufficient to merely prohibit work, because some would say they carried tools for future jobs. Then, it wasn’t enough to prohibit carrying burdens, as cheeky fellows would claim items weren’t heavy, or were portable, or were edible, or that money wasn’t a burden. Excuses became so creative that even rings had to be banned, because people deposited them as cash collateral to be redeemed in the week. Incredibly, there came a time when beggars and tramps were expelled from streets on the Sabbath to avoid giving people pretexts to carry money for alms-giving. It became apparent religious obligation was captive to a shameless ingenuity that aimed to systematically flout people’s duties towards God and community – already the spirit of the law had been distorted.
In the course of time, the height of ridicule was achieved with a record-breaking bagel. People realized that the prohibition to carry burdens only applied to public spaces, not to private ones. Consequently, villagers on nearby streets conceived a cunning plan. Each household contributed a pinch of flower to bake one bagel. That bagel was hung at the main junction with long pieces of string stretching out to define an extended “private home.” There, at last, anyone could carry on with business as usual. This practice turned public streets into private grounds and religious prohibition into a mockery. Since there is no end to human scheming, we are reminded that if we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the constraints of the Law. Therefore, it’s incumbent upon us to actualize a single, supreme commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind … and love your neighbour as yourself!”
