Rest is a recurring theme in my work, and for good reason – it’s one of the most undervalued concepts in our society, but it is absolutely vital for good health, both physical and mental. 

One of my favourite books is the manifesto Rest is Resistance, by Tricia Hersey, also known as the Nap Bishop. It is written very much from the perspective of a Black USAmerican woman, the workhorse of that economy, but it has value for all of us. The idea that rest is a privilege to be earned rather than a basic human right is incredibly pernicious. It has built empires and destroyed lives. There’s a song that goes Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun … and that tells you pretty much all you need to know about rest. 

A cult of productivity has developed over the last several hundred years, with the ascension of extractive capitalism. The idea is that we are only worthy inasmuch as we produce – always working, always busy, always creating. If we have to stop, it’s only to recuperate so we can work even harder, and it’s kind of shameful to admit that we need it.

Jewish tradition has always emphasized the importance and value of rest as its own good, not just something we have to do in order to work more. We are told that we have six days every week to create and build and do all the things we need to do, and on the seventh day, all of that must cease, in honour and remembrance of Creation and the first Shabbat. We also have the concept of “shmitta” – letting go. Once every seven years, the land was to be left fallow, all debts were to be cancelled, everything and everyone was to take a break from the constant grind. Once every fifty years a Jubilee was declared, and all lands that had been sold went back to their original owners – can you imagine that in our colonised world? At the very least, it was a radical redistribution of wealth, which might sadly bring our billionaires down to their last few millions. 

We don’t know whether this utopian vision, as articulated in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, ever came to fruition. It certainly had to be modified in a more urbanised economy, especially the cancellation of debts. But it is worth considering, in our own personal practice, whether it is OK to let go and rest now and then, without guilt, without justification. We deserve rest, and we deserve not to be ground into dust by the machine of the economy. We all deserve better.