Frum: Shabbat


     Welcome now to the pursuit of frum, of piousness. (there' s really no good English translation of frum). If you're Jewish, this is where you begin. If you're a Gentile, beginning the ger Tzaddik plan, then this is your first step. Shomer Shabbat, one who keeps Sabbath, is a difficult process at first, and will take you the entire year to work yourself into it. Many people who fail in the Torah Observance walk is because often they try too much too soon. Take it slowly! You've got a year.

We'll concentrate on Shabbat, or the Sabbath on these pages. To do this we'll employ a Midrash (Search). If you remember, I previously spoke about the Jewish method of Scriptural study: PaRDeS, Pshat, Remez, Drash, and Sod (Plain sense, hint, search, and secret). The acronym, by the way, means Garden, and is a common starting point of Midrash. To give a brief example of how non-Messianics study Mishnah and Talmud, let's look at this week's focus: The Sabbath.

What is the Sabbath, what does scripture say about it, when does it start and end, and what makes it different from every other day? Well, to start with, Shabbat is not just the day we worship on. Some Christians, when confronted with Shabbat, will respond, "Well, I believe we should worship God every day." Good! I do too. But Shabbat is not just about worship!

B’reshit 1:5 5God called to the light “Day,” and to the darkness He called: “Night.” And there was evening and there was morning, one day. [Yom Echad]

This verse teaches us that the day begins at sunset, the beginning of evening (Layil). From sunset to sunset we measure our days, as written in the commandment about Yom Kippur:

Vayikra 23:32 32It is a day of complete rest for you and you shall afflict yourselves; on the ninth of the month in the evening — from evening to evening — shall you on your rest day.

Now, what about Sabbath?

Commandment 87 Sh’mot 23:12 12Six days shall you accomplish your activities, and on the seventh day you shall desist, so that your ox and donkey may be content and you maidservant's son and the sojourner may be refreshed. Commandment 91 Sh’mot 20:8      8Remember the Sabbath day, to sanctify it.1 9Six days shall you work and accomplish all your work; 10but the seventh day is Sabbath to HASHEM, your God; you shall not do any work — you, your son, you daughter, your slave, your maidservant, your animal, and your convert within you gates — 11for in six days HASHEM made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day. Therefore, HASHEM blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.

Commandment 91 tells us to remember the Sabbath, meaning all mankind knew about the Sabbath before Sinai, but most of the world had chosen not to keep it. In years of not keeping it, no mention was made of it, and generations grew up not knowing it. After redeeming the Jewish people, one of the first commandments was to remember the Sabbath. And what were they to remember?

1. The Sabbath is on the seventh day (not the first)
2. No work is to be done, not by man, nor animal, nor servant, nor convert.

Commandment 304 Vayikra 19:30 30My Sabbaths shall you observe and My Sanctuary shall you revere — I am HASHEM. Commandment 568 Sh’mot 20:9-10 9Six days shall you work and accomplish all your work; 10but the seventh day is Sabbath to HASHEM, your God, you shall not do any work — you, your son, your daughter, your slave, your maidservant, your animal, and your convert within your gates — Commandment 90 Sh’mot 16:29 29See that HASHEM has given you the Sabbath; that is why He gives you on the sixth day a two-day portion of bread. Let every man remain in his place; let no man leave his place on the seventh day. Commandment 89 Sh’mot 35:3 3You shall not kindle fire in any of your dwellings in the Sabbath day.2

Now we see that on Sabbath, you must

1. not leave your house except to go to synagogue
2. not kindle any fires and
3. reiterates that no-one is to work on the Sabbath day, not even children.

What exactly constitutes work on Sabbath? Interestingly enough, there are "forty less one" methods of work, the same number of lashes one can be given.

Tractate Shabbat 49b R. Jonathan son of R. Eleazar said to them, Thus did R. Simeon b. R. Jose b. Lakonia say: They correspond to [the words] 'work' [melakah], 'his work' [melakto], and 'the work of' [meleketh], which are [written] thirty-nine times in the Torah.

Work, melakhah, is mentioned 39 times in the Torah. Ha'Aleh (And these) adds to 39 (D’varim starts with Ha'Aleh D’varim, "And these Words..."). This is another confirmation of the 39 Melakhah. There were 39 steps leading into the Temple, between all three courts. 39 was the maximum number of stripes permitted in a scourging.

(Mishnah 7:2) — "The primary labors are forty less one, [viz.:]

Sowing	Ploughing	Reaping
Binding sheaves	Threshing	Winnowing
Selecting	Grinding	Sifting
Kneading	Baking	Shearing wool
Bleaching	Hackling	Dyeing
Spinning	Stretching threads	The making of two meshes
Weaving two threads	Dividing threads	Tying [knotting]
Untying	Sewing two stitches	Tearing in order to sew two stitches
Capturing a deer	Slaughtering a deer	Flaying a deer
Salting a deer	Curing a deer's hide	Scraping a deer's hair off
Cutting a deer up	Writing two letters	Erasing in order to rewrite two letters
Building	Pulling down	Extinguishing
Kindling	Striking with a hammer	Carrying out from on domain to another

these are the forty primary labors less one.

From sundown on the sixth day of the week to sundown on the seventh day of the week, these Divine Instructions are to be kept.

Sh’mot 16:23 23He said to them, “This is what HASHEM had spoken; ‘tomorrow is a rest day, a holy Sabbath to HASHEM. Bake what you wish to bake and cook what you wish to cook; and whatever is left over, put away for yourselves as a safekeeping until the morning’”

Since we are commanded to prepare for the Sabbath, to avoid breaking the other commandments, this is why Jews light Sabbath candles, in preparation of the Sabbath.

Lighting Shabbat candles is a mitzvot of rabbinic origin which was instituted to create a spirit of domestic peace, harmony and celebration in honor of the Shabbat. Halachah forbids the lighting of fire on Shabbat and the rabbis were concerned that without light, stumbling around in semi darkness was not conducive to creating a spirit of peace and enjoyment for the Shabbat. Therefore they made it a religious obligation to light candles just before the commencement of Shabbat.

In the age of electric lighting and electric timers, its purpose is more ceremonial than functional, but the ritual of the lighting is just as important in creating the desired Shabbat atmosphere in the Jewish home as the functional aspect once was. Maintaining the ritual serves to remind us of a valuable lesson: that we should never lose sight, in the minutiae of the observances and restrictions associated with keeping Shabbat, of the fact that its primary role is a celebratory one in which both physical and spiritual refreshment is the order of the day.

Conclusion: To keep the Sabbath, you should prepare on Friday, by making sure you have enough food and drink to last you the 25 hours or so. You might want to light Sabbath candles with the appropriate blessing just before sunset — and then relax! it's meant as a family time, a time to enjoy life and bless HASHEM for all the things He's done for us. Sabbath will be over on Saturday evening, when you can see at least three stars in the sky (memories of Abraham...). Things to do on Sabbath: Commandments 569 & 21 together show that you should leave your house only to go to a synagogue. While at home, you could:

	Read and/or study
	Have a family time, talking about the past week
	Socializing with friends or family
	Take a nap, and sleep late!
	Play games (that don't entail work)
	Join a Sabbath study group at someone's house

Above all remember:

Mark 2:27 27And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”

THIS is HASHEM 's day. Enjoy it and Him.

Copyright © 1998-2009 Yavoh Ministries
Web Author: Azayel ben Hillel
Date Last Changed: Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Email Address: heiscoming@cox.net