The Shabbath

Shabbat

Shabbat is the Jewish day of rest and falls on the seventh day of every week. Observing Shabbat is the fourth of the Ten Commandments:

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, not thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Remembering, observing and taking pleasure the Shabbat is a commandment; hence, sorrow and distress should be avoided on the one hand and, on the other, no labor should be carried out during the Shabbat. The Bible speaks of lighting fire and going beyond the limits of the settlement. The Mishna expands and elaborates the labors forbidden on the Shabbat into thirty-nine different types, called the Labor Principles. The Labor Principles are labors that were performed during the building of the Tabernacle and were therefore forbidden on the Shabbat. Furthermore, preparing all manner of necessities on the Shabbat for a regular weekday is forbidden, in order to preserve the special status of the Shabbat.

Shabbath Candlesticks from Israel

Shabbat is not only a day of rest, but also a day of holiness and grace, as it is said:

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it

And indeed, neshamah yeterah (an ‘additional soul’), grace and sanctity should be added to the physical rest, to make this day markedly distinct from every other day of the week.

The Romans and Greeks derided the Jews over their Sabbath and maintained that they were a lazy people. The first century Roman historian Gaius Cornelius Tacitus asserted that “Their (the Jews’) hearts were seduced by laziness and they assigned to laziness the seventh year (fallow year) as well”.

When Jewish philosophers attempted to explain the value of the Shabbat they claimed that the purpose of this day was to gather strength for the days of hard labor. However, it can be stated with some certainty that in Jewish philosophy the Shabbat is not a means but an end in itself, the acme of the Jewish experience. One of the greatest Zionist philosophers, Ahad Ha’am, said: “More than Israel has kept the Shabbat, the Shabbat has kept Israel”. And indeed, during all the hardships they endured in the Diaspora, the Jews continued to observe the Shabbat and the Holy Days.



As the Shabbat commences, three of the seven species are blessed:

pure oil (olives) – the Shabbat candles that are kindled and blessed by the mother of the family,
new wine (grapes) – the kiddush of the wine by the father of the family, and
wheat – the blessing over the challa.

Handcrafted Challah Covers

[

The inauguration of the Shabbat is marked with the kiddush, and the termination of the Shabbat with the havdalah (separation). When reciting the kiddush, two challot, called Lechem Mishneh (Double Bread), are placed on the Shabbat table and covered with a special Challah Cover.

There are two reasons for using a Challah Cover: first, because the manna “lay as if in a box”, protected top and bottom by a layer of heavenly dew, the Lechem Mishneh is placed with the table cloth beneath it and the Challa Cover above. Second, because the wheat has to be blessed first, and only then the fruit of the vine, since wheat is mentioned before the grape in the verse that lists the seven species. However, due to the interdiction of beginning the meal before the kiddush, the challahs are covered so as not to embarrass them, as if they were not on the table. The Shabbat Eve kiddush is followed by washing of the hands before the meal. Then the head of the family removes the Challah Cover from the challas, places his hands on them, marks with a knife where he intends to slice the hallah, recites the HaMotzi blessing over bread, slices the halla and hands a piece to each member of the family.

From: Yahadut – Halachah Lema’aseh by Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Masada Publishing.



There are three customary meals during the Shabbat: Shabbat Eve, following morning prayers on Shabbat and towards evening on Shabbat.

The Kabalat Shabbat (welcoming the Sabbath) prayer and Lecha Dodi prayer on Shabbat Eve, and reading the Torah portion of the week on Shabbat morning have been added to the Shabbat prayers in the synagogue. We take our leave of the special day with the Melaveh Malkah meal at the conclusion of the Shabbat and the havdalah.

In the days of the Maccabees the well-known rule was added: “Saving a life supercedes the Shabbat” – indicating the importance of protecting and saving a life despite the holiness of the Shabbat.

Shabbat is a holy day of rest for the Jewish people, the day on which God concluded his work and rested, as it is said in the Book of Genesis 2:1-3:

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.


The fourth of the Ten Commandments in the Book of Exodus and the Book of Deuteronomy is dedicated to the Shabbat. (Exodus 20:8-11; Deuteronomy 5:12-15).

The commandment to rest applies to any person associated with the Jewish people, including menservants, maidservants and strangers, and indicates a strong element of social justice and equality. The reasoning in the Book of Exodus is universal: the conclusion of the Creation. In contrast, the reasoning in the Book of Deuteronomy is national:

And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt.

The Torah is strict about observing the Sabbath and refraining from work, as it is said in the Book of Exodus 31:14:

Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

The verses devoted to the laws of the Shabbat in the Torah, Prophets and the Hagiograph are relatively few. In contrast, the oral law in the Mishnah, the Talmud and Midrashim considerably expanded the Shabbat laws, and it has been said of this: “Mountains hanging on a thread”, mountains of judgments, laws and customs lean on a handful of verses in the Bible.