Is holiness found more in places or in time?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau teaches that people fight over holy land, but almost no one realizes that the deepest holiness is sacred time. The holiest thing in creation “is not only a where, it’s when.”
We are wired for sacred space: buy the house, design the room, find the perfect corner of the world where you can finally feel at peace. “There’s nothing wrong with that,” he says. But we have been so taken with sacred space that we completely miss the possibility of sacred time.
The first thing in all of creation ever called holy wasn’t a mountain, wasn’t a building, wasn’t a piece of land. It was a day: “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.” Before anything was built, time itself was made holy.
Six days a week we shape the world. We build, we conquer, we leave our mark. On Shabbos we stop trying to master it and step into something that was already holy before we arrived. You don’t need to travel anywhere or own anything. “Holiness isn’t a location, it’s a moment that comes back every single week, whether you’re ready for it or not.”
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In A Soul at Peace: The Holiness of Time
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
The deepest holiness is not only a place but a time: the first thing called holy was the seventh day.
Underlying need or longing
People look for the perfect corner of the world where they can finally feel at peace. Rabbi Landau says there is nothing wrong with that, but holiness also comes to you in time.
Deepest human truth
On Shabbos we stop trying to master the world and step into something already holy before we arrived. It comes back every week, and it needs no travel and no ownership.
More questions from this teaching
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