Friday 20 April 2012

Background

The centrality of the Shabbat (the Sabbath) to the people ofIsrael is emphasised in this passage. At the heart of the Jewishtradition is the practice of Shabbat. The Jewish Prayer book, TheSiddhur, says there are three reasons for celebrating Shabbat:

• to remember the liberation from slavery and God's command andprovision that allows the people to rest in the desert as seen inthis passage;
• to remember the creation by God of the universe and that Godrested on the seventh day;
• to have a foretaste of the age to come.

At the root of Shabbat practice is a drawing closer to Godand a spirituality that celebrates the blessing that God has placedupon the people Israel and the hope of the transformation of theworld through the age to come.

There is also a vision of equality at the heart of Shabbatpractice as no one must work and all are required to rest: henceits connection to the hope of the age to come when God's kingdomwill be seen on earth. The practices recommended by the rabbis forShabbat are interesting in that they emphasise not only study andspiritual practice, but also family and relationship. It is anopportunity not to escape from this life but to nourish and cherishall that is truly important in our lives - our relationship withthe divine and our relationships with one another.

Christians of course celebrate the day of Resurrection on thefirst day of the week. But we need to learn from Judaism about theimportance of the spiritual practice of Sabbath living. As MarvaDawn has written in Keeping the Sabbath Wholly (Eerdmans,1989):

"Sabbath ceasing means to cease not only from work itself,but also from the need to accomplish and be productive, from theworry and tension that accompany our modern criterion ofefficiency, from our efforts to be in control of our lives as if wewere God, from our possessiveness and our enculturation, andfinally, from the humdrum and meaninglessness that result when lifeis pursued without the Lord at the center of it all."

To Ponder

How do you live Shabbat in your life?