SABBATH - THE QUEEN OF DAYS

  Translation: "I shall sing hymns and weave melodies, for my soul longs for You. My soul desires Your shelter, to know all Your mystery." The Rebbe taught this Niggun on Simchas Torah, 1961.   

     "...The conditioned living being has forgotten his eternal relationship with God and has mistakenly accepted the temporary place of his birth as all in all. The Lord has kindly delivered the above-mentioned scriptures in India and other scriptures in other countries to remind the forgetful human being that his home is not here in this material world. The living being is a spiritual entity, and he can be happy only by returning to his spiritual home."
     (Underline is mine.) From the purport by AC Bhaktivedanta Swami.
SRI ISOPANISHAD VERSE 11, TRANSLATED AC BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI (LINK)
    
     Recently, I have had the good fortune to spent some time with my Jewish friends at their senior village during their Friday night worship session, Shabbas. The practice has been carried on in Jewish families through the generations for over 5000 years. At sundown Friday night the work week ends and the time for direct devotional service to the Lord begins. Two candles are lit and one of the ladies recites a short prayer to welcome the devotional spirit, Shabbas. Everyone takes a piece of bread and cup of grape juice or wine in thankfulness and prayers and songs are offered to the Lord. All day Saturday is set aside for devotional practices, praying, glorifying, chanting, singing, attending temple programs to hear from the Torah etc, and no work is to be performed. 
     The Jews honor Saturday as the Queen of Days. This practice is given to them by the Lord to keep them connected with Him. The Seventh-day Adventists, a Christian sect also recognize the significance of Saturday, Queen of Days. I never understood the value of Sabbath, either Jewish or Christian tradition. My thinking was, "Why not just always serve the Lord? Why just one day for God and the rest of the week who knows what?" Anyway that was my thinking.
     In our sanga with Gauraharidas (I can't say enough in appreciation of his sincere efforts to serve the mission of Lord Chaitanya purely and with love) we have been going into more depth of realization of Srimate Radharani, the Queen of Devotion. 
     Now looking at the Jewish practice of honoring the Queen of Days I am seeing things a little differently. Shabbas is the Lord's Day, yes, that is so, but even more so it is Radharani's special Day. It is not that the work week is disconnected from God. Actually a devotee in the Jewish tradition works all week for the Lord. But Saturday is a special Day, it is Radharani's Day. A Day of devotion only. No work. 
     When we accept that Krishna really is the Supreme Lord of all time, place and circumstance, of all peoples in the past, now and in the future, any sectarian views we harbor such as "My religion is better than your religion," My guru is better than your guru," yada.. yada.. yada..disappear. And we are allowed to relish the Absolute Truth everywhere all the time. How God is making arrangements for everyone one way or another in different cultures for the path back to Him. We are allowed to recognize the essence of Love of God. The spirit of Love God wherever and whenever that devotional potency is manifest. 
     This is a source of the greatest happiness and joy.