By contracting our outer life we expand our inner world. For 24 hours we withdraw from all tinkering and tampering. We slow down to reconnect with our loved ones, with our community, and with God. On Friday evening, at dinner after services, we have time to talk about the events of the week, about the meaning of life. With patience and love we can even manage to open the shutters that usually conceal the thoughts and anxieties of our children and peek in to see what is on their minds.
Sacred time cements the bonds of family.
Shabbat asserts afresh God's sovereignty. For all our vaunted machines and awesome power, we are but temporary residents on a glorious planet in a cosmos beyond imagination. Shabbat reminds us of our duty to care for this speck of life and consciousness in the universe, to turn it over to our children in working order, inhabitable and uplifting. We study Torah to explore the mind of God and to acknowledge that we ought not do everything of which we are capable. By living with less we enlarge our souls.