SABBATH TIME
June 2006

The fourth commandment tells us to "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." In an age when we prefer to post the ten commandments rather than keep them, this is perhaps the most abused of God's commandments. One might argue about the relevancy in modern culture about some of the Deuteronomic laws such as the injunctions against eating pork and shellfish, the requirement to stone disobedient children, or the stipulations under which you may sell your daughter into slavery, the requirement to hold the sabbath holy seems not only reasonable, but necessary.

During the past century we have seen the erosion of sabbath-keeping as commercial enterprises seem to provide us with more opportunities to spend; schools, which do not have enough time during the week for extra-curricular activities, schedule music and sports events on Sundays; and the general busyness of life fails to take a break from its endless cycle of perpetual motion.

Every once in a while I will attend worship at a synagogue where the greeting of the worshipers is "shabat shalom," or "sabbath peace." The root of the Hebrew word shabat is to cease, to stop completely, to be at peace or at rest from that which occupies your time the rest of the week. (One of the things I enjoyed about working in Jerusalem is the three-day weekend, since Friday is holy to the Muslims, Saturday to the Jews, and Sunday to the Christians. It was also somewhat annoying since most stores and government services also shut down.)

One can push sabbath observance to the point of absurdity as the Pharisees did when they admonished Jesus for healing and his disciples for harvesting (they plucked heads of grain while walking through a field). The importance, as Jesus pointed out, was that the sabbath was set aside for rest and recuperation, not as an obstacle to the enjoyment of life. The practical approach is to disengage from what you have been doing and do something else.

The Jewish Sabbath begins with a ceremony called the Kiddush, the sanctification of this special time. At sundown two candles are lit representing the commands to "observe" and "remember." It is the observance of God's special gift of holy rest and a remembrance of God's grace through all our days.

Dr. Harry L. Serio