Get Some Rest – Self-care is Important

Posted on March 11, 2026

By Hazzan Jacob Sandler.

Today I’m looking forward to a very full weekend. Friday night we have Rinat Shabbat and Sunday at 4pm is the “Hazzan Sandler & Friends: Celebrating 5 Years” concert. So much opportunity to be together in prayer and song. And in between, we have Shabbat.

Our parasha begins:

“Moses then convoked the whole Israelite community and said to them:

These are the things that GOD has commanded you to do:

On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a sabbath of complete rest, holy to GOD; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.

Moshe “Communifies” the whole community to remind them of the importance of Shabbat — especially when it comes to building the Mishkan, which they’re about to do! One might think that a task so holy as building a space for us to connect with God would supersede our need for rest. That is a human impulse. But God knows that there is no task so holy or important that we should forfeit the gift of rest. The only exception, of course, is saving a life which is indeed more important than individual or communal rest.

In all candor, it has felt pretty nonstop here at Beth El since my last big vacation in the winter. Since January, we have had 7 b’nai mitzvah, youth shabbat, Shabbat Shira, the beginning of the B’nai Mitzvah Date assignment process, Purim with its megillah, videos, seudah and spiels, and of course this weekend with Rinat and the concert. And those are just the big items in my immediate purview. To look ahead at Passover, Yom HaShoah, Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzma’ut, all the end of the school year festivities, and our big annual event — let’s just say, it can be easy to get overwhelmed.

I think each of us can get caught in the trap of feeling like all our responsibilities are paramount. And in fairness, tending to our relationships, doing our job, balancing our budgets, keeping our spaces in order, volunteering, and all the other errands we do are important! I’m told it’s called “adulting” and it’s quite the balancing act. But Hashem gave us the gift of Shabbat to insist that we take time to rest. I’d extend that to say, we all need to carve out some time for self-care. In fact, Shabbat reminds us that God rested after six days of creation. If God was deserving of rest after creating the entire universe, surely we humans would need to. It should be intuitive that rest and self-care are key ingredients in any task worth doing.

But the Torah is there to remind us of these truths precisely because they’re not as intuitive as one might hope. So, whatever your self-care practices are (e.g. a workout, a TV show, a shower, a nap), do be sure to remember that you are a priority. The Torah says, those who do work on Shabbat will surely die. I know enough people who aren’t shomer Shabbat and still alive to know that can’t be taken literally. But, I do think it’s a warning of the natural consequences. If we don’t prioritize our rest and self-care, we will surely experience burnout. In the words of Billy Joel, “Do what’s good for you, or you’re no good for anybody.” The work will always be there, and if we prioritize self-care in the balancing act, we’ll be here a good long time to get it all done.

Shabbat Shalom and see you Sunday!