By Stan Goodenough
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. (Genesis 2:3)
As we read above, the Bible tells us that, after the six days in which He created the world, the LORD God rested, declaring the seventh day holy, set apart as a day of rest.
For historical reasons, many of them with roots deeply embedded in the antisemitism that beset the early centuries of the Church era, Christians chose to designate the first day of the week as their day of rest, and to this day 99.9 percent of all Christians see Sunday as the Sabbath.
The Bible calls the seventh day not, the “Jewish Sabbath,” but “the Sabbath of the LORD.” It is enshrined as one of the Ten Commandments.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God.” (Exodus 20:8-10)
Jewish tradition sees the Shabbat begin at sunset on Friday evening and end 25 hours later. In practising Jewish homes, all work ceases over this period. Along with the biblical instructions on keeping the Shabbat, a number of traditional restrictions apply which are observed to varying degrees in different households.
The Shabbat is welcomed in with a small ceremony during which the mother blesses the LORD as she lights two candles, the parents bless their children, and the father blesses and shares wine and bread among the family members. Much of the Sabbath day is spent in the synagogue, the rest typically in homes with family and friends.
A special service known as the Havdalah marks the end of the Sabbath at around sunset on Saturday and the beginning of the new working week.
© Israel My Beloved
