Waiting for the Weekend

 

Waiting for the Weekend

Witold Rybczynski

Penguin, 1991

ISBN: 0-14-012663-5

(Amazon)

Read by the author in 2023, purchased for $5.57

"On Shabbat [the Levites in the Temple] would recite 'A psalm, a song for Shabbat day.' (Psalms 92) A Psalm, a song for the future, for the day that will be entirely Shabbat and rest for everlasting life." (Mishnah Tamid 7:4:7) 

This was an extremely appropriate book to read over a Shabbat (!) on which we read Ecclesiastes (!!). Typical of Rybczynski's writing, it is full of fun facts and bits of knowledge. This includes stories about Montreal, where my own grandfather had to navigate his own weekends and Shabbat observance. However, the book also explores the meaning of a weekend, how this concept has evolved, and how it differs from culture to culture. The author is not especially knowledgeable about Judaism and at times makes minor errors in his references on the subject, but nonetheless the lessons he has to teach are certainly applicable and relevant to any understanding of the Shabbat. For example, there is a question whether a day off is a day when one is not required to work, of a day when one is required not to work. The Shabbat is clearly the later, in contrast to the American weekend. 

One of the main themes of the book is the relationship between work and leisure. Do we work so that we are able to have vacation, or do we vacation to be better able to work? Or is neither the case, and we are simply spinning our wheels, vanity of vanities? Another exploration involves the ties between entrepreneurs and leisure activities. While we sometimes bemoan the commercialization of hobbies and pastimes, Rybczynski argues that many of these activities originated as ways to make money. Cricket, horseracing, and movies only developed as ways to make money, but ended up being common weekend activities. "The modern idea of personal leisure emerged at the same time as the business of leisure. The first could not have happened without the second." 

Rybczynski devotes one chapter to the concept of the week. Judaism holds that a seven-day week stems from Creation, a point Rybczynski mentions almost in passing. Unlike the year and the month, a week has no astronomical basis, and different ancient societies broke up time into sub-month units in different ways. Another section deals with the weekend in modern Israel, arguing that Israel still maintains a six day work week largely because of a desire to reserve Shabbat as the only acceptable type of weekend.  

Overall, this book was a treat to read and very enjoyable, though of limited architectural pertinence.