1. Shabbat in Israel
2. The Sabbath in the Hebrew Scriptures
3. The Ten Commandments
4. Traditional Jewish Observance
5. Applications for Our Lives
6. The Sabbath in The Brit Hadashah - The New Testament
7. Bibliography

Shabbat in Israel

Some of our family's most precious memories of our visits to Israel are centered in those special times between sunset Friday and sunset Saturday ...Shabbat....unique to Israel and to the Jewish people.

As the sun begins to set on Friday evening, a beautiful silence seems to settle over the land. Buses and cars stop running, all Jewish businesses close and the land itself seems to gently enter into the Sabbath rest. Families stop in the midst of their busyness to fellowship with the Lord and with each other.

There is a lovely story which underlines the importance of this day when time seems to stand still. The Almighty, in offering the Torah to the Jewish people, tells them that if they are willing to accept and observe the Torah, He will give them a precious gift. "What is this gift?" They ask. "Olam Ha Ba....The World to Come," replies the Lord. "And what is the world to come like?" The Lord then tells them that the Sabbath is a little taste of the world to come.

The Sabbath is a special time for the Jewish people because it is a regular pause in time when the demands and pressures of life can be set aside and everyone, rich or poor, can receive a little taste of eternity.

The book the "Gates of the Shabbat" contains a beautiful illustration of this.

" A great pianist was once asked by an ardent admirer, "How do you handle the notes as well as you do?" The artist answered, "The notes I handle no better than many pianists, but the pauses between the notes...ah! That is where the art resides."

In great living, as in great music, the art may be in the pauses. Surely one of the enduring contributions which Judaism has made to the art of living is in the Shabbat, "the pause between the notes." And it is to the Shabbat that we must look if we are to restore to our lives the sense of serenity and sanctity which this 'pause between the notes' offers in such joyous abundance. (Likrat Shabbat)

The Sabbath in Hebrew Scriptures

The first mention of the Sabbath is found in Genesis, the book of beginnings. Genesis 2:1-3 tells us:

"The heaven and the earth were finished and all their array.
On the seventh day God finished the work which He
had been doing and He ceased on the seventh day from
all the work which He had done. And God blessed the seventh
day and declared it holy, because on it God ceased from all
the work of creation which He had done."

If God felt it necessary to stop working and rest, how much more important is it for us, His creation, made in His image, to follow His example.

At this point in time there were no Jewish people. God was blessing the seventh day for all mankind. The word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew world 'shavat' meaning, 'to cease'.

The Ten Commandments

Exodus 20:8-11 is the next time the day is mentioned and it is here addressed specifically to the Jewish people.

"Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
Six days you shall labour and do all your work but on the seventh
day it is a Sabbath to the Lord your God: you shall not do any work ...you,
your son or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle,
or the strange who is within your settlements. For in six days
the Lord made heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them,
and He rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed
the Sabbath day and hallowed it."

The Jewish people are told here to REMEMBER (zakor) the Sabbath day.

In Deuteronomy 5:12 they are told to OBSERVE (shamor) the Sabbath day.

It is not enough to have intellectual and theological knowledge of the Word of God, but it must become part of every day life and relationships.

Other Scriptural References

Exodus 31:13,16	Sabbath is a sign of the covenant
Exodus 16:4-36	Manna was not to be gathered on the sabbath
Exodus 16:29	No unnecessary travel
Exodus 34:21	All people and animals Rest from work
Exodus 35:3	No fire to be kindled so even the wives got a rest from cooking.
Leviticus 23:1-3	The first of the set feasts of the Lord mentioned
Nehemiah 13:15-22	No buying or selling
Exodus 31:14	Penalty for not keeping the Sabbath is death
Isaiah 56:6-7	Gentiles keeping the Sabbath
Isaiah 58:13-14	Oneg Shabbat... Delight in the Sabbath
Isaiah 66:23	In the Messianic times everyone will keep the Sabbath

Traditional Jewish Observance

Ahad HaAm, a Jewish writer from the previous century, has said, "Not so much has Israel kept the Sabbath, but the Sabbath has kept Israel". Even in times when persecution was rife and synagogues were closed, the Jewish people have been kept as a people apart by the ordinance of the Sabbath because it is not centered in synagogues or dependent on the rabbi, but it is centered in the home, with the father and mother teaching their children and praying for them around the dinner table.

It is a weekly coming together with the father's blessing of his wife and children symbolising the joining of one generation to the next in relationship with one another and faith in God. The strength of the Jewish people through times of exile and persecution has been that their faith in God is lived out through daily family life and relationships rather than institutional Judaism. In Hebraic thought all of life is sanctified or consecrated to God and the following scripture emphasises this point.

Hear O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your might.

Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day.
Impress them on your children. Recite them when you stay
at home and when you are away, when you lie down and
when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and
let them serve as a symbol on your forehead. Inscribe
them on the door posts of your house and on your gates.

(Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

In Jewish tradition the home is sanctified (set apart) for prayer, bible study and serving community needs. Each home is to be a reflection of God's glory on the earth. The dinner table is likened to the altar and provides important times of communication and teaching. The religious festivals of Pesach, Succot and Shabbat all contain times when the family shares a meal together. The home is the place where faith in God is taught. The synagogue and the Jewish day school are regarded as parent helpers, NOT the most important influence in a child's life. The Hebrew word for parent (horeh) comes from the root , `to teach, direct or instruct' and it is in a happy home that this is best achieved.

The Jewish traditions prohibit people from engaging in any work which alters their environment and so encourages them to think that they are in total control of their own destinies. Taking one day off a week, no matter what the circumstances, serves as a reminder that it is God Who controls life. For six days people try to dominate the world (Genesis :28), but on the seventh day comes the opportunity to dominate oneself and find rest in God.

The Hebrew world for holy is `kadosh' and it carries within its meaning the sense of separation and difference and this is outworked through sabbath observance by making the day different from all other days of the week.

The preparations for the Sabbath begin earlier in the week. The woman of the house has her shopping done and the house clean and the meals planned so that she, too can rest on the Sabbath. This takes organisation but is well worth the effort if it means that everyone in the family can take time out together.

As the Sabbath approaches, the table is set with the best tableware, including two candlesticks, and the food is prepared. It is the woman's role to light the candles, which signify Remember and Observe (Hear and Do) and a blessing is said:

Baruch Atah Adonai Elohenu Melekh Ha Olam, asher Kidshanu
b'mitsohtav v'zivanu l'hadleek ner shel Shabbat.

Blessed are Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe,
Who has set us apart by your commandments and has
commanded us to kindle the Sabbath lights.

The father then says the Kiddush, the blessing over the wine and the blessing over the Challot, the two plaited loaves of bread which are a reminder of the double portion of manna which the Lord provided for His people every Friday so that they would not have to gather it on the Sabbath. People do not have to work for seven days to have enough, the Lord provides sufficient from working for six days, to allow time out on the seventh. Psalm 127 is a reminder that, "it is vain to rise up early and take rest late, to eat the bread of anxious toil; for He gives His beloved in sleep." The Challot are covered with a cloth to represent the dew which fell with the manna. When the family shares the bread and the wine, the bread is broken, not cut, to symbolise the time when the Messiah comes and there will be no more war. The bread is dipped in salt as a reminder of the sacrifices at the Temple. The wine is also a symbol of joy associated with God's faithfulness in providing each day's needs.

The father recites the following blessings:-

Baruch Atah Adonai Elohenu Melekh Ha Olam,
bora p'ree hagafen

Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe
who creates the fruit of the vine.

Baruch Atah Adonai Elohenu Melekh Ha Olam,
ha motze lekhem meen ha'aretz.

Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe,
brings forth bread from the earth.

The father then blesses his children and his wife, reading from Proverbs 31.

There is great power in this act of faith as the father speaks words of blessing and encouragement over his children. The Bible records both Isaac and Jacob's blessings over their children.

Synagogue services are conducted on Friday evenings or Saturday mornings and the family attends together. The focus of the day is time spent with family and friends, and in prayer and bible study.

Saturday evening brings the Havdallah, the separation service, and as the plaited Havdallah candle is lit, the words from Isaiah 12:2 are recited,

"Surely God is my salvation." This has special significance for Christians as the Hebrew word for `salvation' is `Yeshua'. As the wine is poured into the glass it is allowed to overflow, as an expression of the hope that the following week will hold many blessings.

The spice box (the bisameen) is passed around as a symbol of the sweetness of the sabbath which is passing. As the cup of wine is shared the candle is extinguished by dipping its wick in the wine.

Applications for Our Lives

Since the word Shabbat means to cease, we understand that God in His infinite wisdom knows we need to take time out on a regular basis to be renewed physically, spiritually and emotionally.

The western world in the twentieth century is one in which constant activity is revered and many people feel guilty if they are not always doing something. There has been `no pause between the notes'. Not stopping to take time out regularly may well be a cause of many pastors' burnout in these days.

Taking time out from work, whether it is paid, or in the case of wives and mothers, housework and cooking, helps us to keep things in right perspective. God, family and friends become the focus of a Sabbath day where the washing and the lawn mowing can wait till tomorrow and work of all kinds is put aside.

This is not LEGALISM but LIBERATING!

With shops open every day and many women juggling the demands of full or part time work with being wives and mothers, it is important to discipline ourselves to take a day a week to just stop and be still. Without time out to rest and be renewed, strength and creativity will eventually fail and we will go stale in all our endeavours.

How much the Lord must delight in those who take time to enjoy His creation, stopping to look at the blueness of the sky, to smell the perfume of a flower or listen to the singing of birds. How He must rejoice when one of His children takes time just to enjoy His company, instead of rushing to prayer with a shopping list of needs and wants like a greedy child at Christmastime.

Relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children will also be enriched by consciously taking time to be with each other, free from rush and schedules. These special times provide the opportunities spoken of in Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

Making a regular habit of taking time out to rest and concentrate on relationships is not putting oneself `under the law', but freeing oneself from bondage to what our culture erroneously considers most important, so that we can concentrate on what is REALLY important. In doing this, one discovers, not legalism, but delight and freedom!

The Sabbath in the Brit Hadashah - The New Testament

Yeshua and His disciples were observant Jews who kept Shabbat. Yeshua is depicted in Luke 4:16-21, attending a Shabbat service at the synagogue. Following synagogue custom, he was asked to read the haftorah portion from the prophets and it is of no small significance that the set reading for that day was from Isaiah 61. He then used the privilege allowed to the reader of the haftorah to expound the Scripture to tell the congregation that the prophecy He had just read was fulfilled in him.

We find mention of the early church keeping the Sabbath in Acts 13:13 and 18:4. Sunday has never been called the Sabbath in Scripture. It was always called "the first day of the week"," a name still used in Israel today, where each day is named in terms of its relation to the Sabbath day, For example:

Sunday is Yom Rashon, first day after Shabbat Tuesday is Yom Sheni, third day after Shabbat etc.

In 321, Sunday, the day of the sun, was decreed the official day of rest throughout the Roman Empire by Constantine. It had been Increasingly difficult for both Jews and Christians to worship on Saturday after 135ad as the Emperor Hadrian had made all observance of Jewish traditions, including worshipping on the seventh day, unlawful.

There are several scriptures which are used to build the doctrine that, with the coming of Yeshua, God's blessing was removed from the seventh day and placed on the first day. It is of great importance that all Scripture be interpreted in the light of other Scriptures and also with regard to the culture and customs of the country and time it was written in.

In Matthew 5:17-19, Jesus tells the people,

"Don't think that I have come to abolish but to complete.
Yes indeed, I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away,
not so much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah or the prophets.
I have not come to abolish but to complete. Yes indeed,
I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a
yud or a stroke will pass from the torah - not until everything that
must happen has happened. So whoever disobeys the least
of these mitzvot (commandments) and teaches others to do
so will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven."

All other Scriptures relating to the keeping of Torah (Law in other translations), must be interpreted in the light of this scripture as Jesus does not contradict himself.

Mark 2:23-27 depicts yeshua and his disciples walking through some wheat fields on the Sabbah. The disciples break off some ears of wheat as they walk and are accused by the Pharisees of breaking the Sabbath tradition of doing no work. Yeshua reminds them that Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. He is not saying here that the keeping of the Sabbath was no longer necessary, otherwise He would have been going against His own words that He did not come to destroy the Torah but to fulfill it (Matt 5:17). Rather, He was reminding the Pharisees, just as He would remind many sincere churchgoers today, that God is interested, not so much in the keeping of an external set of rules (salvation by works), but in the attitude of our hearts. In reminding them of this, He was actually quoting a thought from the Midrash, the teaching of the rabbis about the Torah, that the sabbath was given for man and heis not to become its servant. God gave the Sabbath as a gift to humankind because He knew we needed the rest and renewal it brings and also because it helps us keep life and its demands in perspective.

Another scripture mentioned in relation to the Sabbath is Romans 14:4-11. Here Paul is again dealing with heart attitudes. By this stage the church was made up of Jewish believers who kept Shabbat on the seventh day and Gentile believers who did not.

Paul encouraged them not to be judgmental or critical of each other. This scripture is very relevant today as some Christians are rediscovering the Biblical Hebraic roots of their faith and desiring to bring these discoveries to life in their daily experience. Such Christians must be careful not to develop an attitude of superiority towards anyone who does not agree with them and other Christians who are happy with their Christian traditions must also be carful to keep a right attitude towards their Israel loving brothers and sisters. Yeshua said,

"By this will all men know that you are my disciples,
by the love you have one for another."

Yeshua told the Pharisees to go and learn that God desires mercy rather than sacrifice. God is more interested in our heart attitudes of compassion and respect and acceptance than in the keeping of religious rituals and is looking above all for a heart of love for God and each other.

Colossians 2:16-17 is another scripture which underlines this point.

"So don't let anyone pass judgment on you in connection
with eating and drinking or in regard to a Jewish festival or
Rosh Chodesh or Shabbat. These are a shadow of things
that are coming, but the body is of the Messiah."

The Jewish New Testament Commentary, in commenting on these verses has this to say concerning verse seventeen...

These are a shadow of things that are coming, meaning the good things that will happen when Yeshua returns, or alternatively, "These are a shadow of things which were yet to come," meaning the good things that happened when Yeshua came the first time when kashrut (the laws concerning food) and the festivals were commanded.

These are a shadow.... Most English versions (the NIV is a welcome exception) deprecate the Jewish holidays by gratuitously adding the world `only' or an equivalent.

These are only a shadow of things to come." But Paul values Jewish practises; he himself observed them all his life (Acts 13). If one is going to add to the inspired text, the word to add is `definitely' or `indeed'. These are definetely a shadow of things to come" The festivals do indeed have value, since they remind Jews of God and what He has done. They are a way of bringing the Jewish people closer to Himself."

In looking at the above Scriptures, we need to remember that Yeshua and his disciples, and all of the early church were observant Jews (Acts 21:20). There was no question of them not keeping the traditions of the Sabbath. There is one mention in Scripture of believers meeting on "the first day of the week" (Acts 20:7) and this was probably Saturday evening, as all Jewish days were, and still are in Israel today, reckoned as starting in the evening, in line with Genesis 1, "there was evening and there was morning , the first day etc."

The Havdalah service in synagogues, following the same traditions which were in existence in Jesus' day, is held in the evening, at the end of the Sabbath, or on the "first day of the week". Sunday was a work day and there would have been no time to hold services then.

We have much to learn from the Jewish keeping of the Sabbath. This study is not a criticism of the church's tradition of Sunday worship or a suggestion that those who keep Sunday as their special day to the Lord are somehow less `spiritual' than those who are attempting to set aside the seventh day. Let us rather, with an attitude of humility and respect, learn from our Jewish brothers and sisters and, starting right where we are, seek to incorporate the truths associated with Sabbath rest into our lives.

For some, that may mean making a greater effort to make Sunday their day set apart for the lord. For others, the seventh day may be that day, but they may still wish to join with other believers for Sunday church. The most important thing is that we make the principles which Shabbat has to teach us a part of our lives.

Many Christians throughout the world are rediscovering the Jewish roots of their faith and wanting to make these discoveries a part of their daily Christian walk. The Biblical feasts, the keeping of the Sabbath, the Jewish understanding of living as a community of faith are all taking on deeper meaning for many. They are part of the company of believers who make up the ten men from very nation who will take hold of him who is a Jew and say, "Let us go with you for we have heard that God is with you."

They are not trying to pretend to be Jews, rather they are seeking to express their faith in God according to the understanding He is giving them.

The dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile is being broken down, making the one new man that Paul spoke of closer to reality in our day.

 

Bibliography

Pearl, Chaim:	Guide to Jewish Knowledge, Jewish Chronicle
Brookes, Reuven:	Publications, London, 1956
Kolatch, Alfred:	Jewish Book of Why, Jonathan David Publications, New York, 1981
Kasden, Barney:	God's Appointed Times, Lederer Messianic Publications, Baltimore 1993
Wilson, Marvin R	Our Father Abraham, WB Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1989
Peli, Pinchas	The Jewish Sabbath, Schocken Books, New York, 1988
The Jewish New Testament and Commentary, translated by David Stern, Jewish New Testament Publications, Jerusalem, 1979
The Torah, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, edited by Gunther Platt, 1981