Judith Shulbevitz has some silly things to say about the American lack of Sabbath observations. Because she feels better after observing a religious day of rest, and because Americans used to do so, therefore we should all do so.

She's opposed to what she labels the "erosion of social time", and declares "Customs exist because they answer a need". Oh, yeah? I declare that some customs are observed simply because that's the way we've always done it.

Then she claims that "Most people mistakenly believe that all you have to do to stop working is not work." Why is that a mistake? Because it used to be "much more complicated". Her other authority, tradition aside? The Cat in the Hat!

Also, according to her, the Sabbath is worthy because it's the ultimate source of labor legislation. I see. Because she associates it with something good, in itself it's good.

Then on religion:

Religious rituals do not exist simply to promote togetherness. They're theater. They are designed to convey to us a certain story about who we are without our even quite noticing that they are doing so.

Maybe for you. But some of us know who we are, and we don't need religious mumbo-jumbo to tell us. So in secular terms, she recommends the Sabbath to "anyone who wishes to lift himself out of the banality of mercantile culture". (Well thanks for that "himself", anyway.) I don't see why people can't do that every day of their lives: I do. And she's not a total fool about religion:

I confess, though, that I have a hard time imagining a Sabbath divorced from religion: who would make the effort to honor the godly part of himself if he didn't believe in a deity, no matter how ecumenical?

Still, even though she concedes it's difficult to see the Sabbath prospering with society's speeding-up, and she realizes we can't call for legally mandated Sabbaths, she still has the gall to declare:

Do I think everyone else should observe a Sabbath? I believe it would be good for them, and even better for me, since the more widespread the ritual, the more likely I am to observe it.

Even before post-modernism, this is the typical kind of half-baked thinking that passed for rational thinking in the colleges of liberal arts.