A Blackberry free day, a religious observance, a day spent with family, a 40 hour work week—what exactly does the Sabbath mean today? The Sabbath is not just the holy day of rest. It’s also a utopian idea about a less pressured, more sociable, purer world. Is there value in withdrawing from the world one day per week, despite its obvious inconvenience in an age of convenience? And what will be lost if the Sabbath goes away?

In The Sabbath World, author Judith Shulevitz finds insights into the Sabbath in both cultural and contemporary sources—the Torah, the Gospels, the Talmud, and the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, as well as in the poetry of William Wordsworth, the life of Sigmund Freud, and the science of neuropsychology.

Shulevitz is a literary critic and a former columnist for the New York Times and Slate. Her work has also appeared in The New Republic and the New Yorker.

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