In this issue, we shall have for our consideration the observance of the sabbath which was the most fundamental reality of the Jewish faith and their religious life. We read in the Gospel that Jesus, on several occasions, came into conflict with the Pharisees and the Lawyers regarding the observance of the sabbath. They accused Jesus of breaking the laws and regulations in connection with the sabbath. Jesus gave an answer to all those charges and told them what exactly should be the essence of the sabbath observance. We read in the Gospels the clear and strong words of Jesus in regard to this matter. "The sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the sabbath. So the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath" (Mk 2:27-28).

The observance of the sabbath was the chief factor in the religious belief of the Israelite people. Celebrated every week, the sabbath was the most sublime ceremony of their religious life. The sabbath was God’s day. A day of complete rest, joy, peace and purification. The Jews take pride in the fact that it is they who gave the world the practice of setting aside one day of the week as a holy day for rest and rejoicing. Until then people used to work throughout the year with no rest whatsoever.

By making the seventh day of the week, a holy day of perfection, rest and joy and investing it with religious significance and enjoining observances and regulations to be followed, the sabbath became a most important occasion. It was considered as the greatest gift given by God to his chosen people Israel. It is generally believed that the word sabbath carried the meaning of refraining from work and taking rest.

The fourth of the ten commandments given by God to the Israelites through Moses on Mt Sinai was about the observance of the sabbath. Associated with the ten commandments, are two accounts in the Bible in the book of Exodus, chapter 20, verse 8-11 and Deuteronomy chapter 5, verses 12-15. But in each of these, a different reason is given for the observance of the Sabbath. "Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work-you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your live stock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it" (Ex 20:8-11). There the reason for observing the Sabbath, is the great creative act of God. But in the book of Deuteronomy, the basis for this observance is God’s salvific act. "Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day" (Deut 5:15). In the first part it is God’s creative act and in the second it is his salvific act that is taken as the fundamental reason for the same. Both these reasons can be taken as mutually complementary. In the book of Genesis, God began his work of creation by creating light. After completion of this work, on the sixth day he created man as the crown and perfection of all his work. "And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation" (Gen 2:2-3). Since God rested on the seventh day and purified it, every Jew and the whole nation work for six days and rest on the seventh, thus participating in God’s creative work and his rest on a day he sanctified.

Similarly, Jacob’s sons lived in Egypt as slaves. All those years they were forced to work as slaves without any respite. God delivered them and led them to freedom. The sabbath became the remembrance of the slavery, the tribulations and the eventual deliverance and blessings God bestowed on them. Thus the sabbath was a re-enactment of the celebration and remembrance of God’s creative and salvific work.

Sabbath, the seventh day, was not only a day of rest. It also became eventually a day of celebration, a day set apart, a day of purification, rejoicing and exultation.

It was a day of worship and praise of God and thus of spiritual, mental and physical well-being, a day of rejuvenation and of great celebration and joy. The sabbath is a day of sanctification of prayer, a day of deep and loving encounter between God and his people.
 
Every sabbath observance is a symbol, sign and foretaste of the eternal sabbath yet to come at the end of our life. For after completing our life and our work, we enter a state of perpetual rest, joy and salvation. That is the sabbath of eternal life.

As the sabbath was a special day of celebration, there were strict rules governing its observance. The Jews observed them meticulously and with great fervour. There were special prayers, sacrificial offerings and other rites of worship. It was a great day that led the people to God. The people, therefore, assembled in the Temple. Besides the usual burnt offering and its drink offering, two male lambs a year-old and without blemish had to be offered as burnt offering along with grain offering, with flour mixed with oil (cf Num 28:9-10). Moreover, the 12 loaves kept on the golden table in the holy place were replaced on the sabbath.

The sabbath began on Friday at sunset and came to an end at sunset on Saturday (the Jews counted the day from sunset to sunset). At sunset on Friday a trumpet was blown from the Temple to announce the start of the sabbath. All work and business were stopped and the people began the celebration of the sabbath.

The regulations were strict. Besides the several rules and prescriptions and prohibitions, all kinds of work were banned. Cooking, kindling the fire, baking, steaming, grinding and drawing water were not allowed. Food for the sabbath day would be kept ready on Friday afternoon. The dishes could be washed only after the sabbath. The prescription not to light even a match stick is followed even today by orthodox Jews who attach a time switch to their electric lights. The bulbs are on and go off automatically. All sorts of work connected with farming, ploughing, digging, sowing, harvesting and threshing, collecting fuel, lifting weights, carrying any little thing of weight in one’s pocket, were not permissible.

So were climbing trees, hunting, killing, inviting, picking olives, treading the wine press and clapping hands. Travelling was prohibited except for a distance covering 2000 steps (1 kilometer approximately). This was called the distance of a sabbath day (cf Acts 1:2). Trade, commerce, business transaction and anything connected with it, were also taboo. Such were the numerous rules enjoined on the Jews.

Culpable flouting of these rules was punished by death in the early days, replaced later by being ostracized from society.

Though all kinds of works were disallowed, the Jews had to make the sabbath a day of rejoicing. Food and dress were of the best kind. Fasting and mourning were not allowed. Inviting guests for meals was most welcome.

However, certain works were permitted: offering of sacrifices and all the work connected with them in the Temple. (Slaughtering animals, skinning them, washing and cutting the flesh into pieces, salting it, piling the fuel, kindling the fire and roasting the animal for sacrifice). Circumcision of infants, if it fell on the sabbath, was also allowed.

Besides, to save one’s life if one fell into danger, everything possible could be done. And so was fighting to save the country. In Jesus’ time the people were almost trapped in such an oppressive system of rules and life became devoid of any inner significance. It was such a society that Jesus had to face and so he often came into conflict with the Pharisees because many of the works he did were at variance with the rules prescribed. So we read in the Gospels.

One sabbath day, the disciples plucked and ate the wheat grain out of sheer hunger as they crossed a field. The Pharisees at once picked on Jesus. The disciples plucked the grain, rubbed it with their hands, blew off the chaff—actions similar to harvesting, threshing and winnowing. Jesus counters those changes by citing the example of priests who offer sacrifices on the sabbath and of David and his courtiers who, desperate with hunger, entered the Temple and ate the bread of presence set aside exclusively for the priests (cf Mt 12:1-8).

Since medication was prohibited on the sabbath day, the miracles of healing performed by Jesus were attributed to him as infringement of rules. When Jesus healed a crippled woman bent over in the synagogue, the synagogue leader became indignant and told the people"There are six days on which work ought to be done, Come on these days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day"(Lk 13:10-17). Here Jesus shamed his opponents by mentioning the fact that they would certainly untie an ox or donkey from the manger, to give it water on the Sabbath. After being healed by Jesus, the paralytic lying near the pool of Bethsaida, took up his mattress and walked. That too was on a sabbath day. St John describes the charge the Jews levelled against him for carrying a burden, which was not permissible on the sabbath (cf Jn 5:1-18). On this occasion, too, Jesus answers their allegation speaking of his Father who is still working . And so does he!!

The most telling declaration of Jesus about the Sabbath is the statement "The sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the sabbath. So the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath" (Mk 2:27-28). Here we see that Jesus, who does good to men and saves them, is also the fulfilment of the sabbath laws.

The celebration of the Pasch, which is the background of the Eucharistic sacrifice, and the manner in which Jesus became the Paschal Lamb on the cross, will be dealt with in the next issue.