Shabbat as Crip Time: Viewing Menucha Through an Autistic Lens

Thinking about Shabbat as crip time involves what Alison Kafer calls “a reorientation to time.” For Autistics the Day of Rest provides what Heschel calls a day to “reclaim our authentic state . . . in which we are what we are . . . it is a day of independence of social conditions.” This paper will examine Heschel’s premise through the lenses of Critical Disability Theory, Crip Theory, Critical Autism Studies, and Neuroqueer Theory to explore the meaning and practice of Shabbat as disability justice from an Autistic perspective. As Heschel frames Shabbat, it is a time away from socially constructed enabled time in which neurodivergent people are dis-abled. For an Autistic person who is dis-abled in neurotypical time, Shabbat time then becomes crip time which is both a liberatory practice and a space where “social conditions” are no longer dis-abling for the neurodivergent.