As an Orthodox Jew who observes the Sabbath every week, while sometimes finishing up work and preparations beforehand can be stressful at times, there's no feeling like turning off all phones/laptops/etc Friday evening and leaving it all behind. There's a supreme serenity that comes with the knowledge of "I can't do anything about it, so there's no point in worrying". As soon as Sabbath starts I'm totally focused on…
I'm Jewish but not religious anymore, and I know a lot of people that keep Shabbat that talk like this. Frankly, I don't buy it. If we have a problem with detaching from technology, then, stopping all usage of it only one day a week is maybe 90% as unhealthy. It would be like saying you have a healthy relationship with smoking because you don't smoke at all for one day a week, but after that you can chain smoke 24/6.…
Exercise is good, if we get our rest in between rather than do it to excess in which case we burn out and grow weaker.
Eating is good, if it supplies us nutrients and we don't overdo it in which case we become obese and suffer health problems.
Sleep is good, if we use it to function in the world well rested and don't spend all our time in bed or it can develop into slothfulness and depression.
Leisure can be good, if we don't do it all the time otherwise we likely become parasites on others doing all the work.
Stress can be good, if its in healthy amounts that stimulate rather than destroy us.
Even using smoking as in your example. Lets accept it as bad.
Lets pretend we have a friend and he's managed to cut back to smoking less than he use to.
We have two attitudes we can take:
- Berrate him as a failure because he hasn't managed to quit (saracasm: I'm sure that will be very productive and helpful)
- Congratulate him on making an improvement and support him in his decision and effort.