The Jewish Sabbath
“Celebrating Havdalah (ending the Sabbath),” Barclona Hagadah, detail
(Add MS 14761, fol. 26r), c. 1325-1350.
British Library, London.
(Listen to an audio version of the blog post below!)
As Advent begins the Christian liturgical year, so Rosh Hashanah begins the Jewish new year. This year (2022) Advent begins on Sunday, November 27th; Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset on Sunday, September 25th. As I mentioned in the previous blog, this “liturgical cycle” is the heartbeat of the Jewish community’s relationship with God, and it forms the “DNA” of the Christian liturgical cycle. If we are to be “educated readers of scripture,” it is important that we understand the rhythm of the Jewish religious year; moreover, if we’re to be in a right relationship with our Jewish brothers and sisters, it is important that we understand their lived relationship with God and how that relationship is mirrored in our own Christian lives.
The Bible discusses Jewish festivals—or holidays—in several places. A short holiday calendar appears in Exodus 23: 14-18 and 34: 18-25, with a fuller statement in Deuteronomy 16: 1-16. These passages speak only of the three pilgrimage festivals: Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Weeks and Feast of Booths. Leviticus 23 adds the Feast of First Fruits; the Feast of Trumpets—later called Rosh Hashana; and the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur. Leviticus 23 offers the most complete list of festivals. Numbers 28: 1 - 30: 1 supplements it, giving a detailed schedule of the sacrifices performed on each occasion. Passover is presented in-depth in Exodus 12-13 and Yom Kippur in Leviticus 16.
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Sabbath (Leviticus 23:3)
Although technically not a festival, the Jewish Sabbath—or Shabbat—stands at the head of Jewish religious observance, providing a point of reference for all the other festivals (literally, Shabbat means “rest”). Shabbat begins at sundown on Friday night and ends on Saturday night when the first three stars appear in the sky. (The Jewish day always begins at sundown, reflecting Genesis 1: 5: “And there was evening and there was morning—the first day.”) The Sabbath emphatically is not on Sunday! Shabbat is rooted in Genesis 2: 1-3. By observing it, one fulfills the fourth of the Ten Commandments:
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the stranger living within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
(Exodus 20: 8-11)
Shabbat has two basic purposes. First, by observing it, one honors God: he rested on the Sabbath, and he asks his people to do the same. And second, by observing it, one expresses the freedom and dignity of the human person: we are not to be enslaved by our work.
Celebrating Shabbat has profound meaning for a Jewish family. Unlike Christianity, which is centered in the Church, Jewish life is centered in the home. Shabbat reflects this subtle but important difference. Preparation for Shabbat begins on Friday afternoon and involves cleaning the house, shopping for dinner (and buying hallot, two round, braided loaves of bread), bathing and putting on clean clothes, setting the Shabbat table (with a clean, white tablecloth, china, kiddush cup(s), fresh flowers, and a tzedakah box—a container for money, which is collected before the Sabbath begins and is later given to the poor). At sundown the family and guests gather around the dinner table. The Shabbat service includes nine elements:
Candle Lighting.
Shabbat begins when the woman of the house lights the candles. With her head covered she circles the flames with her hands three times, symbolically bringing the warmth and light of the Sabbath to herself and to those gathered around the table. After a pause, she says the blessing. Everyone at the table then wishes each other “Shabbat Shalom,” with hugs, kisses and handshakes.
Singing Shalom Aleikheim (“Peace be with You”).
This is a traditional song welcoming the Sabbath and guests at the table.
Blessing the Family.
The man of the house first blesses the children by placing his hands on their heads and saying the traditional blessing for sons: “May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh,” and for daughters: “May God make you like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.” This is followed for all children by the blessing from Numbers 6: 24-26, “May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his face toward you and give you peace.” The father also usually hugs each child and whispers something personal to each one. The husband then blesses his wife with a selection from Proverbs 31: 10-31, which praises the “Woman of Valor”; the wife then blesses her husband with a reading from Psalm 112, “Happy is the Man.” Some families use readings from the Song of Songs for the family blessing. The blessing closes by including all at the table: “May the Merciful One bless all of us together with the blessing of peace.”
Singing the Kiddush Prayer.
Wine is poured in the Kiddush cup (Kiddush is from kadosh, “holy”); each adult at the table has a kiddush cup, though the head of the household may have a special one that has been passed down through generations or that has been bought in Israel. All stand, and the head of the household begins by raising his cup and saying. “With the permission of friends . . .” He then recites the words from Genesis 2: 1-3, the blessing over the wine, and the prayer that sanctifies the day.
Washing the Hands.
This is a ritual washing, much as a priest does as he moves into the Liturgy of the Eucharist during a Roman Catholic Mass. A special pitcher and basin is used. Washing is done in silence, in anticipation of the blessing of the bread. Everyone at the table washes.
Blessing the Bread.
Two loaves of hallah are used, symbolic of the double portion of manna that fell on Shabbat during the Exodus. Hallah means a round loaf or cake. It is braided and often filled with raisins. The loaves are kept covered with a cloth until the blessing. This is symbolic of the manna being covered by dew until morning. (A popular explanation for children says that the hallot are covered so they won’t get jealous during the blessing of the lights and wine!) As each person at the table holds the hallah, they say the blessing: “Praised are you, Adonai, our God, ruler of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.” Then everyone pulls the hallah apart.
Eating the Meal
There is no prescribed Shabbat meal, although many Jewish families include traditional gefilte fish, chicken soup or meat. It is important that the meal be festive, not the usual food served during the week; the meal need not be expensive. The Shabbat meal is a time of fellowship with family and friends and should reflect such a joyous and happy occasion.
Singing after the Meal
There are many traditional Shabbat songs, and the meal concludes with a hearty round of them.
Blessing after Food.
Christians say grace at the beginning of a meal; we thank God “for what we are about to receive.” Jews also pray at the beginning of the Shabbat meal (blessing the lights, wine and bread, as well as those gathered around the table), but the major blessing comes after the meal is finished. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people that God will bring them into a new land, a land of milk and honey. And then he says,
When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
(Deuteronomy 8: 10-14)
The prayer that closes Shabbat dinner flows from these verses and stresses four themes: 1) the blessing for food; 2) the blessing for the land; 3) the blessing for Jerusalem; and 4) the blessing and remembrance of God’s goodness. The four themes form a “salvation history” of the Jewish people, affirming God’s positive role in nature, Israel, the temple in Jerusalem, and the positive outcome of history at the end of time. The prayer closes with:
May the Merciful One give us as an inheritance a day that is completely Shabbat, and rest in life everlasting in the world to come. Then shall we receive blessing from Adonai and justice from the God of our deliverance. May we find favor and good understanding in the eyes of God and people. He who makes peace in his heaven, may he make peace for us and for all Israel and let us say. Amen.
After dinner, many Jewish families go to synagogue, or they may wait until Saturday morning. Shabbat services on Saturday last about three hours; they are shorter on Friday evening.
As Christians look back with warm memories to Christmas with family and friends, to crackling logs in a fireplace, hauling home the Christmas tree, and the smell of nutmeg and cinnamon, turkey and stuffing, so does a Jew hold warm memories of Shabbat, of candles and white tablecloths, china and flowers, songs and laughter, and the smell of chicken soup and warm bread. Celebrated weekly, Shabbat rests at the heart of Jewish life as the Mass rests at the heart of Roman Catholic life: each week leads into it and each flows out of it. Both include common elements: blessing over the wine, blessing and breaking of the bread, song and prayer, and fellowship with God and man. In the early Church the Eucharist was celebrated in exactly this way—as part of a larger meal. Only later did it become ritualized, as it is today. To understand the Jewish festivals listed in Leviticus 23, one must view them against the experience of Shabbat in the Jewish family and community. Appropriately, then, Leviticus 23 begins with Shabbat, and then it moves into the festivals themselves.
Next up we’ll examine the spring festivals: The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover), the Feast of First Fruits and the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost).