The Sabbath: A Sanctuary in Time - Essay Example

The Sabbath: A Sanctuary in Time Inherent in the culture of Judaism is the consecration of time. A Jewish normal year has 354 days. Among these days are holidays which Jews consider holy. Higher than these holidays is the holiness of the weekly Sabbath. Among Sabbaths, Jews consider the Day of Atonement as the holiest; it is the Sabbath of Sabbaths. Yet, the weekly Sabbath has been one of the most significant contributions of the Jewish people to civilization. Judaism, according to Heschel (1951), “is a religion of time, aiming at the sanctification of time… Every hour is unique and the only one given at the moment, exclusive and endlessly precious.” In the ancient world, prior to the development of the Israelite Sabbath, there was no fixed day of rest. In Mesopotamia, now Iraq, where the lunar calendar was in use, the 7th, 14th, 21st, and the 28th day were considered unlucky, thus, certain activities were not scheduled on these days because they feared that the endeavor would fail. However, the concept of a fixed day of rest was introduced by the Hebrews to the ancient world sometime after their departure from Egypt. The biblical Sabbath (Saturday), which was first instituted in Mount Sinai, is the only holiday found in the Ten Commandments. The development of the concepts of the Sabbath has been considered a divergence from those before it. And this concept of rest and worship has been adopted by both Christian and Moslem traditions. Christianity chose Sunday as its Sabbath, and Islam chose Friday for theirs (Goodman, 1997). The purpose of the observance of the Sabbath, as Jews believe, is to remind the Hebrew people of two very important events in their history. These are the creation of the world (Exodus 20:11), and their deliverance from slavery in Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:15). Both highlight the Jewish religious belief of the existence of God who cares for his people. The Sabbath involves two interrelated commandments: to remember (zachor) the Sabbath, and to observe (shamor) the Sabbath. Remembering (Zachor) the Sabbath “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor and do all your works, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God: you shall not do any work, you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your gates. For in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them, and God rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11). In remembering the Sabbath, Jews focus on the significance of the day as a commemoration of creation. By resting on it, they acknowledge that God is the creator of heaven and earth and all living things. By resting on the Sabbath, Jews emulate God’s example by refraining from work on that day. Observing (Shamor) the Sabbath When the Ten Commandments are repeated in Deuteronomy 5:15, the Sabbath is to be observed as a remembrance, “that you were as slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God, freed you with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” Here the Sabbath is commanded to be observed in commemoration of the freedom of the Hebrews from their slavery in Egypt. The Jewish Sabbath is one of the best known yet poorly understood of all Jewish observances by the outside world. Most know the Sabbath as the day of the week on which Jews are forbidden to work. Some non-Jews think of it as a day full of restrictions which gave them the impression that the Sabbath is of oppressive. However, from a Jewish perspective, the Sabbath is not about rules; it is not about a set of do’s and don’ts, but about joyful celebration and relaxation. It is a day of joy which had been eagerly awaited throughout the week, a time when Jews, for a moment, can set aside all of their weekday concerns, and devote themselves to spiritual enrichment as they rest. It is the day when they relax, be with their family, study and reflect. For the Jews, this rest on the seventh day is all about freedom. In ancient times, leisure was limited to certain classes; slaves did not get days off. By resting on the Sabbath, Jews are reminded that they are free. During the week, Jews are slaves to their jobs, to their creditors, to their need to provide for themselves; on the Sabbath, they are freed from these concerns, much as their ancestors were freed from slavery in Egypt. In an account by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1951), when the Romans met the Jews in Alexandria, they noticed the Jewish strict adherence to the law of abstaining from labor on the Sabbath; the Romans only reaction was contempt. According to the opinion of Juvenal, Seneca and others, the Sabbath is a sign of Jewish indolence. In defense, Philo, the spokesman of the Greek-speaking Jews in Alexandria, says, “On this day we are commanded to abstain from all work not because the law inculcates slackness. Its object is rather to give man relaxation from continuous and unending toil and by refreshing their bodies, with a regularly calculated system of remissions to send them out renewed to their old activities. For a breathing spell enable not merely ordinary people but athletes also to collect their strength with a stronger force behind them to undertake promptly and patiently each of the tasks set before them.” Another aspect of the Jewish Sabbath observance that is grossly misunderstood is the work that is forbidden on the Sabbath. Most think of the word “work” in the English sense of the word: physical labor and effort, or employment. What may fall under this definition is turning on a light may then be permitted, because it does not really require effort, but a rabbi would not be allowed to lead a Sabbath services, because leading services is his regular employment. Jewish law prohibits the former and permits the latter. Many people therefore are confused with the Jewish sense of work. The problem lies not in the Jewish Torah or in their interpretation of their law, but in the English definition that people are using to define work. The Torah does not prohibit “work” in the English sense of the word. The Torah prohibits “melachah” which is usually translated as “work,” but does not exactly mean the same thing as the English word. The Torah does not specify what comprises work (melachah). The Rabbis noted the command to keep the Sabbath and venerate God’s sanctuary in Leviticus 19:30. Since the “Sabbath” and sanctuary are mentioned in the same verse, the Rabbis concluded that those labors which were required in the construction of the tabernacle were the very work prohibited on the Sabbath. Melachah generally refers to kind of work that is productive and creative, or that exercises control or dominion over one’s environment. The word may be related to “melech” or king. The word melachah is not often used in scripture outside of the context of the Sabbath and holiday prohibitions. The only place where the word is used again is in the discussion of the building of the tabernacle and its vessels in the wilderness, Exodus 31:35-38. Notably the prohibitions suggest that the work of building the sanctuary had to be stopped for the Sabbath. From this, rabbis concluded that the work prohibited on the Sabbath is the same as the work related to the building of the sanctuary. The Rabbis found 39 categories of forbidden acts, all of which are types of work that were needed to construct the sanctuary. Among them are plowing, sowing, reaping, sheaf making, threshing, winnowing, selecting, sifting, grinding, kneading, baking, sheep-shearing, bleaching, combining raw materials, dying, spinning, separating into threads, tying a knot, untying a knot, sewing, tearing, trapping, slaughtering, skinning, tanning, scraping pelts, marking out, cutting to shape, writing, erasing, building, demolishing, kindling a fire, extinguishing a fire, the final hammer blow (of a new article), carrying from the private to the public domain or vice versa (Kaden, 2003). The Sabbath observance, as with other Jewish holidays, is based and anchored on time. They mark days for remembrance. The remembrance of creation and observance of the seventh day, the remembrance of the time of slavery and departure from Egypt were all in remembrance of special events that occurred in time. According to Heschel (1951), “Judaism teaches us to be attached to holiness in time, to be attached to sacred events, and to learn how to consecrate sanctuaries that emerge from the magnificent stream of a year. The Sabbaths are our great cathedrals, and our Holy of Holies is a shrine that neither the Romans nor the Germans were able to burn, a shrine that even apostasy cannot easily obliterate: the Day of Atonement. According to the ancient rabbis, it is not the observance of the Day of Atonement but the Day itself, the ‘essence of the Day,’ which, with man’s repentance, atones for the sins of man.” References Goodman, Robert. Teaching Jewish Holidays: History, Values, and Activities. Denver, Colorado: A.R.E. Publishing, Inc., 1997. Heschel, Abraham Joshua (1951). The Sabbath. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1951. Kadden, Barbara, and Bruce Kadden. Teaching Mitzvot: Concepts, Values and Activities. Denver, Colorado: A.R.E. Publishing, Inc., 2003 Read More