Jewish Sabbath / Shabbat
Jewish sabbath
Shabbat Shalom
3 articles have been written about the Sabbath:
and this one A Jewish Sabbath / Shabbat
This article covers a Jewish Sabbath that is more tradition bound in rabbinic traditions, whereas the article Sabbath and the number 7 covers a deeper, more true and Jesus like style, I would say with a smile.
A new day starts in the Bible at night. Look at Genesis 1; It was evening and it was morning, it starts with evening. We see that the world is darkness and chaos until God comes with his light. It all started by being dark.
Every day starts with it being Evening/darkness and then it becomes day/light.
Even for us today, a new day starts when the clock strikes 00:00, but most of us probably only say it’s a new day when we see the sun rise.
What does a Jewish Sabbath look like?
It might sound great to have a day off, but to a jew it can also be a bit frustrating, cause it involves a great deal of preparation.
On Friday afternoon, work is being done at high pressure to prepare for the preparations before sunset. You have to finish the cooking, feed the animals and do the last minute shopping before the shops are closed for the Sabbath. You are not allowed to drive a car, use the phone, turn electrical appliances on or off and you are not even allowed to tear toilet paper from the toilet roll, so that must be done in advance. The extreme is that if you have forgotten to turn on your kosher switch, which is a device that automatically turns electricity on and off for you. Then you have to find a goy who is not a Jew who is willing to come home and push the button. All because you are not allowed to work on a sabbath.
A Sabbath starts in the evening 18 minutes before sunset, around 18.00 in Israel.
• 18 minutes before the sun sets, 2 candles are lit, which is most often done by the a female or mother of the house, while she says a blessing.
• Then the father pours wine into the Sabbath cup, says a blessing and everyone takes a sip. The wine represents the joy of the Sabbath.
• A blessing is said over 2 Shabbat loaves, which are 2 braided challah loaves. The bread should remind of the double portion of manna that the Israelites were able to collect in the desert the day before the Sabbath.
• The father breaks the bread and distributes it to everyone, while wishing each other Shabbat Shalom.
• Then the father blesses the children of the house and his wife. The next 24 hours are spent singing, eating and praying.
• On friday or Saturday or both they go to synagogue to listen to the Torah (Deuteronomy) and the books of the prophets read aloud. They probably hear a scripture about loving God and serving your neighbor.
• Then they go home and have another meal with family and friends. When the sun goes down, it’s a new day. A new week lies ahead, which is full of new tasks and opportunities.
Why was the Sabbath so important for the Jews to observe?
The Sabbath in the Old Testament?
Sabbath it is one of the 10 commandments and it is repeated 3 times in the Torah, the 5 Books of Moses, with their differences in the books and yet coherent.
The Sabbath is a covenant sign, just like circumcision. see Exodus 31:12-17 and Deuteronomy 5:15
A sign that shows, that this people are set a side to God and belongs to him.
It is something to think about, that it is the 3 commandment, it was of great importance for God!
Ex. 20:8-11 On 6 six days, God created the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh he rested, and blessed the sabbath day ad made it holy. He didn’t go to sleep, but more the picture of; He sat down on his throne to rule and reign over his creation. He then enjoys his creation and has fellowship with it. Made it holy means; it has been put aside to God.
From rabbinic traditions, it is said that as psalm 90:4 says that every thousand year is like a day in Gods eyes, its being interpreted backwards as in a day in creation is like a thousand years in heaven. This will mean that the story of this world will last for 6000 years and then completion and fullness will come on the 7ooo millennium. The messianic kingdom. As I am writing this we are in the Jewish year of 5787.
When the Sabbath is a special sign between Israel and the Lord, it is connected with the fact that He sanctified His people by saving them from slavery in Egypt. Israel must observe the Sabbath to remember how God intervened for salvation. It will be a small weekly Passover day. We look back at how God rescued his people, and put them in a land of rest, but in the same time look forward to a future of what the promised land is a picture of. The messianic kingdom!
One facet of the Sabbath is that when we are enslaved to our work for 6 days, the seventh day is a time to celebrate our release from slavery, so that we can rest with God.
The 7-day week with the Sabbath becomes the basic image of God’s plan of salvation. Sabbath rest is what the promised land is a picture of, where God is our king, provider and protection. Our Salvation! Sabbath rest is Gods Kingdom!
Both Sabbath rest and the year of Jubilee proclaims, that the land and the people belong to God. It is Gods kingdom people.
Sabbath is also written together with the 7 feasts of God in Lev. 23:1-5 The feasts are repeated in a yearly circle, but the sabbath happens every week.
There is a connection between the Sabbath and the feasts, it is like a weekly reminder of all the feasts combined in one day. And that the feasts are a larger picture for it self, zoomed in on, on its own, and then all the feasts put together tells one story.
Sabbath rules
There was a lot of focus on what you could and couldn’t do if you were to make sure you kept the Sabbath. Many detailed rules, and great disagreement between the different congregations. The Qumran congregation seems to have even stricter rules than the Pharisees and Sadducees accepted. The oral tradition of the Pharisees spoke highly of what the Old Testament understood as the Sabbath.
A way to explain the many rules could be understood in this way. If you were not allowed to eat the oranges I put in my refrigerator, I would simply make a rule that said; you are not allowed to open my refrigerator. Now you have 2 rules, but you were simply not to eat the oranges, so why now can’t you open the refrigerator? The rules were made to make sure you wouldn’t brake the first one. And it is said that the many rules were made to make sure no broke the rules to begin with. So many rules, extremely many, the book of the Torah has 613 “laws” and seen by many as a rulebook instead of what the name Torah actually means, which is instructions. Now entangled in rules the essence of who God is, is now changed with the focus of making and not breaking laws.
It is a large part of Jewish identity and a gift, a celebration, a day of joy from the perspective of many Jews. After the fall of the Temple, the Sabbath and the synagogue again became the major focal point in Judaism, which did not accept Jesus as the Messiah.
However, the Sabbath is completely different from Jesus’ perspective and he does away with all the many man-made rules the Sabbath was entangled in, but not the Sabbath itself.
Read: The Sabbath and the number 7 to see what the Sabbath is to Jesus!
The Sabbath has community at its center
Fellowship as a focus
Community with God
Community in the family
Community in the congregation
Tradition says that no one should therefore sit alone on a Sabbath evening. The celebration of the Sabbath is intended as rituals that should live this message into each new generation through all the senses.
A secular Jew put it this way more than 100 years ago;
More than Israel has preserved (kept) the Sabbath, the Sabbath has preserved Israel.
