It’s Friday afternoon, and a sense of expectancy is building in Jewish minds throughout the world. Jewish homemakers bustle about cleaning, preparing a meal and setting a beautiful table. In workplaces, Jewish men and women anticipate the mental shift they’ll experience in just a few hours — no more pressure from deadlines, work problems, meetings or striving to please bosses and clients.
You may say, “Well, doesn’t everyone feel this way about Friday? The weekend’s coming when they can leave the workweek behind.” Ah, but there’s something different about Friday in the Jewish mind. For us, Friday afternoon is the threshold of much more than the weekend.
Friday night begins Shabbat. The ceasing. Our weekly rest. Shabbat is the Hebrew word for the Sabbath, and Jewish people also call it Shabbos. Shabbat, Shabbos, the Sabbath — they all refer to the same day of rest that we find in Scripture.
Shabbat is about more than merely not working. It’s more than having free time. It’s a time we welcome in with intentionality, purpose, and the warmth of centuries-old traditions.
Life today runs at a breakneck speed that seems only to get faster. We live in an age of timesaving tips and pre-prepped meal kits — designed to help us pack more into our days than at any other time in history. There’s work to do, progress to make, and achievements to accomplish! We take ourselves or our children from one activity to another to not miss out on opportunities, many of which genuinely enrich our lives. The thing is, there’s just so much available to us nowadays.
We understand intellectually that we need rest and can feel its effects when we’ve experienced it. We’re refreshed mentally, physically, and emotionally. Even so, sometimes, it’s hard to let ourselves pursue it. Stopping work is one thing; not worrying about the work that isn’t getting done is another. When we brush our hands together and say, “There, now. That’s done,” it relates only to a particular project. The feeling of accomplishment is often short-lived as another responsibility lies waiting. No, we will never run out of work. There will always be more than we can get done in a day, a week, or a lifetime.
As vital as rest is to us, attaining it doesn’t come naturally. The truth is, most of us don’t know how to rest.
Enter Shabbat.
Amid the frantic pace of 21st-century life, Jewish obedience to a God-commanded weekly day of rest holds strong, having steadfastly endured, week after week, throughout the centuries.
From the outside looking in, Shabbat may appear constrictive, a rule of law that dampens our enjoyment of life. However, those who keep it faithfully recognize that rather than restrictive, Shabbat is a gift.
And with today’s lifestyles, we need Shabbat’s rhythm of rest more than ever.
The Gift of Shabbat
Shabbat is a gift that offers us the stability of a regular, intentional time when we step out of the fray and hide ourselves in the haven of the Lord’s gift of rest.
Shabbat is a weekly reset. For 25 hours, from just before sunset on Friday evening to just after nightfall on Saturday, we suspend our regular routines and welcome the rest God commanded.
It is a time of refreshment and renewal, a time to engage with the Lord, family and friends. It is a gift from God that we welcome as a beloved friend. It recenters our perspective, reminding us that God is King of the universe, Lord of all, and Lord of our lives. It prompts us to recall that He is the source of our strength and hope. He is our provider, worthy of our praise and trust.
If observing Shabbat is new to you, allow us to meet you at the doorstep with a broad smile and a hearty “Shabbat shalom!” wishing you “Sabbath peace!” We are delighted you’re here. As we throw an arm around your shoulder, we invite you to join us in a sacred tradition, one that comes from the Lord Himself — one that is designed to fill a deep need in you, return your focus to Him, and steady you with a weekly rhythm of restoration for body, soul and spirit. We invite you into what has been a Jewish act of obedience to the Lord since the Exodus and the 10 Commandments. However, the concept of Shabbat goes even further back than that.
The preceding is an excerpt from Shabbat: A Sacred Rhythm of Rest by Jewish Voice Ministries International.
