What is the Sabbath Anyway?

“Shabbat shalom!” This phrase would greet me every few minutes while walking down Jaffa Street in Jerusalem on a Friday morning. As I bought coffee and shopped for groceries in the busy market (see photo), each person I encountered wished me a “Shabbat shalom.” This greeting, standard in the Jewish community Friday morning into Saturday afternoon, essentially means, “have a peaceful Sabbath.” 

“Shabbat” (sounds like “shuh-BOT”) is Hebrew for the Sabbath (Saturday, the seventh day) the Jewish holy day of rest. The word Shabbat comes from the root word shavat meaning “to stop” or “to cease.” That is certainly what happens in Israel from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. 

On Friday afternoon, the bustling restaurants and stores shut down and the traffic dwindles. Work stops and recreation begins. Most people have a Shabbat meal with their family and welcome the Sabbath together, a central part of the communal holy day. On Saturday, religious Jewish people walk to synagogue and pray. Shabbat is a natural part of the Jewish weekly rhythm, and much more than simply a day off. 

Origins of Shabbat

Shabbat was instituted in Exodus when God brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. After the drama of the ten plagues and their miraculous deliverance from bondage at Passover, God led his people through the Red Sea into the wilderness and made a covenant with them at Mount Sinai. He gave them the Torah - the Law - which contained instructions for how to rightly relate to him and to one another. These laws, although similar to other law codes of the ancient Near East, were quite unique for their time. They set Israel apart as a special people distinct from all the nations around them. 

The Law also gave a new calendar to Israel including holidays (Feasts of the Lord) like Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Shabbat is included in this list. In fact, Shabbat is considered a holiday once a week! “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you” (Ex 20:8-10). 

Shabbat was an integral part of God’s covenant relationship with the nation of Israel. He instilled a new identity in his people during their long wilderness sojourn before bringing them into the Promised Land. The Shabbat created a built-in reminder that they were no longer slaves - they were redeemed as a free people, made in the image of God.

Shabbat goes back much further than the Exodus. In fact, it is built into the very foundation of the world!“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). God created the world in six days, and on the seventh day he rested. I imagine Moses writing and telling this creation story to the Israelites, reminding them that just as God rested on the seventh day, they too ought to rest. “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Ex 20:11).

Interpretations of Shabbat

Today there are vastly different perspectives on Shabbat within the Jewish community. The majority of Jewish people around the world are either secular or traditional, meaning that they might attend a Shabbat dinner or not think about Shabbat at all. About 25% are Orthodox or observant, and they keep Shabbat much more conscientiously.

Interpretations of the Torah and debates on its application have expanded over the centuries. Rabbis have long argued about what “you shall not do any work” actually means. Though the scripture only lists a few specific activities that were prohibited, the rabbis came up with 39 different categories of “work,” with hundreds of various subcategories. 

For example, the scripture says, “You shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.” (Ex 35:3). In the modern world this has been extended to prohibit driving a car on the Sabbath - starting an engine resembles kindling a fire because it creates a spark! So does turning on lights or using electronic devices. In Jerusalem, there are “Shabbat elevators” that stop on every single floor so that one doesn’t have to push a button! 

As you can imagine, this can become incredibly burdensome. Rabbis must even make laws to create loopholes within laws. These debates began well before the time of Jesus, and we see them depicted in the gospel accounts. 

Jesus and Shabbat

In the first century, the religious Jewish leadership was making a “fence around the law,” creating extra laws as a safeguard so that it would be difficult to break the Sabbath. Jesus certainly kept the Sabbath day as holy, but he strongly confronted the Pharisees over these man-made laws that they were imposing on the people. Jesus said, “They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them…” (Matt 23:4) He emphasized the heart of the Sabbath command, which was to bless people, not to burden them: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).

All of the first followers of Jesus were Jewish. They would certainly have continued to keep Shabbat as the day of rest. That was their culture and spiritual heritage. Believers also began gathering on Sundays to break bread (Acts 20:7) in honor of the resurrection. Later on, Emperor Constantine (321 AD), who sought to strip Christianity of its Jewish roots, officially declared Sunday as the Christian day of rest. We also have him to thank for why we celebrate Christmas and Easter and not Hanukkah and Passover. This is a discussion for another time! 

The Heart of Shabbat

Jesus not only kept the Shabbat, but he was and is its truest fulfillment (see Hebrews 3-4). Therefore it would be foolish not to glean wisdom from the principles of Shabbat. God wove Sabbath into the fabric of creation. As the philosopher H.H. Farmer once said: “When you go against the grain of the universe, you get splinters.” After the six days of creation God rested on the seventh day. This seventh day was never meant to end – it was intended to continue as the default of mankind. 

Jesus, “the Lord of the Sabbath” (Matt 12:8), always brought people to the heart of the matter. The truest meaning of Shabbat reminds us of God’s rhythms and his calendar. We are not citizens of this world, but we belong to a different kingdom and timetable. Shabbat makes us “cease” from our busyness. It is the great equalizer, reminding all people, irrespective of gender, age, or socioeconomic class, that we are much more than what we produce.

At this point you may be asking yourself, “As a Christian, should I be keeping the Shabbat?” It is a great blessing to take a day out of our week to “stop” and make space for rest and for God, especially in our hectic world with mobile devices and a 24-hour news cycle! There are not specific rules for practice for us as believers, but Shabbat is a principle that we believe should be valued by all who follow Jesus. To learn more about Shabbat and for some ideas on how to practice it in your life, check out the book Christ in the Sabbath by Rich Robinson, available on our website.