Sabbath

A Sabbat or sabbath is generally a weekly day of rest and/or time of worship that is observed in any of several faiths. The term derives from the Hebrew shabbat (שבת), "to cease", which was first used in the Biblical account of the seventh day of Creation. Observation and remembrance of the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments (the fourth in the original Jewish, the Eastern Orthodox, and most Protestant traditions, the third in Roman Catholic and Lutheran traditions). Many viewpoints and definitions have arisen over the millennia. The term has been used to describe a similar weekly observance in any of several other faiths; the new moon; any of seven annual festivals in Judaism and some Christian traditions; any of eight annual festivals in Wicca (usually "sabbat"); and a year of rest in religious or secular usage, originally every seventh year.

Jewish tradition

The Jewish weekly Sabbath and High Sabbaths are also observed by a minority of Christians.

Weekly Sabbath

The original Sabbath (shabbat, shabbos, shabbes, shobos, etc.) is a weekly day of rest for everyone, now observed from sundown on Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night. Most Sabbath-keepers regard this seventh-day Sabbath to have been instituted as a "perpetual covenant [for] the people" (Exodus 31:13-17), a sign in respect for the day during which God rested after having completed the Creation in six days (Genesis 2:2-3, Exodus 20:8-11); Isaiah extends the term to include even corrupted rest-day traditions (1:13). (Some prominent rabbis believe the Sabbath was originally kept according to the four phases of the moon, every seven or eight days.) Sabbath desecration was officially punishable by death (Exodus 31:15); thirty-nine prohibited categories of work are listed in Tractate Shabbat (Talmud). Customarily, Shabbat is ushered in by lighting candles shortly before sunset, at halakhically calculated times that change from week to week and from place to place. Several times a year, the weekly Sabbath is designated as one of the Special Sabbaths, such as Shabbat Teshuvah, the Sabbath of Repentance prior to Yom Kippur. (In a distinct minority, some European Reform Jews have moved Sabbath observances to Sunday.)

Sabbath as week

By synecdoche (naming a part for the whole), the term "Sabbath" also came to mean simply "week" in Jewish sources by the time of the Septuagint. Jesus's parable of the Pharisee and the Publican describes the Pharisee as fasting "twice a week" (dis tou sabbatou), literally, "twice of the Sabbath".

Annual Sabbaths

Seven annual Biblical festivals, called by the name shabbaton in Hebrew and "High Sabbath" in English, serve as supplmental testimonies to the plan of the weekly Sabbath. These are recorded in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy and do not necessarily occur on the weekly Sabbath. They include the first and seventh days of Unleavened Bread or Passover (Pesach); Pentecost (Shavuot); Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah); Atonement (Yom Kippur, the "Sabbath of the Sabbaths"); and the first and eighth days of Tabernacles (Sukkoth).

The modern Hebrew term shabbaton or shaboson also means a retreat or program for education, and usually celebration, that is held on a weekly Jewish Sabbath or over a weekend with special focus on the Sabbath.

Seventh-year Sabbath

The year of Shmita (Hebrew: שמיטה, literally "release"), also called the Sabbatical Year, is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah for the Land of Israel. During Shmita, the land is left to lie fallow and all agricultural activity—including plowing, planting, pruning, and harvesting—is forbidden by Torah law. Other cultivation techniques—such as watering, fertilizing, weeding, spraying, trimming, and mowing—may be performed as preventative measures only, not to improve the growth of trees or plants. Additionally, any fruits which grow of their own accord are deemed ownerless and may be picked by anyone. A variety of laws also apply to the sale, consumption and disposal of Shmita produce. A second aspect of Shmita concerns debts and loans: when the year ends, personal debts are considered nullified and forgiven. In similar fashion, the Torah required a slave who had worked for six years to go free in the seventh year.

Christian tradition

In Christianity, both those who observe the seventh day as Sabbath and those who observe the first day as Sabbath lay claim to the names "Sabbatarian" for themselves and "Lord's Day" for the Sabbath, each group believing its position to be taught by the Bible; similarly for others who hold to a strong Sabbath principle.

First-day Sabbath

In the majority of Christendom (Roman Catholicism and much Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism), "Sabbath" is a synonym of "Lord's Day" (Sunday), which is kept in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ. It is often the day of rest, and usually the day of communal worship. The Lord's Day is considered both the first day and the "eighth day" of the seven-day week (or, in some calendars, Sunday is designated the seventh day of the week). Relatively few Christians regard first-day observance as entailing all of the ordinances of the Jewish Sabbath. The related Latter Day Saint movement generally follows the stronger Christian Sabbatarian traditions, avoiding shopping, leisure activities, and idleness on the first day, and avoiding work unless absolutely necessary. Sometimes the Lord's Day is observed by those who believe the Sabbath corresponds to Saturday but is obsolete; and in Oriental Orthodoxy, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has observed both a Sunday Lord's Day and a Saturday Sabbath for several centuries. As another minority view, some modern Christians uphold a Sabbath but do not limit its observance to either Saturday or Sunday, instead advocating rest on any chosen day of the week, or advocating the Sabbath as instead a symbolic metaphor for rest in Christ.

Seventh-day Sabbath

In several Christian denominations, the Sabbath is kept in similar manner as in Judaism, but observance ends at Saturday sunset instead of Saturday nightfall. Seventh Day Baptists have found the Sabbath an important part of their beliefs and practices since the mid-17th century, also informing the doctrine of the similar but larger Seventh-day Adventist group in the mid-19th century. They and others believe that keeping the seventh-day Sabbath is a moral obligation arising out of the Ten Commandments that honors God as Creator and Deliverer. They also use "Lord's Day" to mean the seventh day, based on Scriptures in which God calls it "my day" and "of the LORD". Adventists originally formally identified the problem of defining Sabbath worldwide on a round earth; some seventh-day Sabbatarians make use of the International Date Line, while others (such as some Alaskan Adventists) observe Sabbath according to Jerusalem time instead of local time. Many of the Lemba in southern Africa, like some other African tribes, are Christians yet claim common descent from the Jewish people, keep one day a week holy like the Jewish Sabbath, and have many beliefs and practices linked to Judaism.

Monthly Sabbath

The new moon, occurring every 29 or 30 days, is an important separately sanctioned occasion in Judaism and some other faiths. It is not widely regarded as a Sabbath, but some native messianic Pentecostals, such as the New Israelites of Peru, do keep the day of the new moon as a Sabbath of rest, from dusk to dusk. Their new moon services can last all day.

Annual Sabbath

In South Africa, Christian Boers have celebrated December 16, now called the Day of Reconciliation, as an annual Sabbath (a holy day of thanksgiving) since 1838. Commemorating a famous Boer victory over the Zulu, the anniversary and its commemoration are intimately connected with various streams of Afrikaner and South African nationalism.

Millennial Sabbath

Since Hippolytus of Rome in the early third century, Christians have often considered that a thousand-year Sabbath, expected to begin six thousand years after Creation, might be identical with the millennium described in the Book of Revelation. This view was also popular among 19th and 20th century dispensational premillenialists. The term "Sabbatism" or "Sabbatizing" (Greek sabbatismos), which generically means any literal or spiritual Sabbath-keeping, has also been taken in Hebrews 4:9 to have special reference to this definition.

Other traditions

Buddhism

The Uposatha has been observed since Gautama Buddha's time (500 BC), and is still being kept today in Theravada Buddhist countries. It occurs every seven or eight days, in accordance with the four phases of the moon. Buddha taught that Uposatha is for "the cleansing of the defiled mind", resulting in inner calm and joy. On this day, disciples and monks intensify their practice, deepen their knowledge, and express communal commitment through millennia-old acts of lay-monastic reciprocity.

Islam

Jumu'ah (Arabic: جمعة ), also known as "Friday prayer", is a congregational prayer (salat) that Muslims hold every Friday, just after noon, in place of the otherwise daily dhuhr prayer. The Quran states: "O ye who believe! When the call is proclaimed to prayer on Friday [the Day of Assembly], hasten earnestly to the Remembrance of Allah, and leave off business [and traffic]: That is best for you if ye but knew" (62:9). It is an obligation for men (and is recommended for women) to perform jumu'ah in congregation (jama'ah) at a mosque (or else to pray a regular dhuhr prayer).

Unification Church

The Unification Church has a regular day of worship on Sunday, but also has a Family Pledge service every eight days on the day of Ahn Shi Il, considered as a Sabbath that cycles among the weekdays. The Family Pledge, formerly recited at 5:00 a.m. on Sundays, was moved to Ahn Shi Il in 1994. The pledge recited at this event includes eight verses containing the phrase "by centering on true love".

Wicca

The annual cycle of the Earth's seasons is called the Wheel of the Year in Wicca and neopaganism. Eight sabbats (occasionally "sabbaths") are spaced at approximately even intervals throughout the year. Samhain, which coincides with Halloween, is considered the first sabbat of the year.

An esbat is a ritual observance of the full moon in Wicca and neopaganism. Some groups extend the esbat to include the dark moon and the first and last quarters. "Esbat" and "sabbat" are distinct and are probably not cognate terms.

European records from the Middle Ages to the 17th century or later also place Witches' Sabbaths on similar dates to the sabbats in modern Wicca, but with some disagreement; medieval reports of sabbat activity are generally not firsthand and may be imaginative, but many persons were accused of, or tried for, taking part in sabbats.

Secular

From the Biblical Sabbatical Year came the modern concept of a sabbatical, a prolonged, often one-year, hiatus in the career of an individual. Such a period is often taken in order to fulfill some goal such as writing a book or traveling extensively for research. Some universities and other institutional employers of scientists, physicians, or academics offer a paid sabbatical as an employee benefit, called "sabbatical leave"; some companies offer an unpaid sabbatical for people wanting to take career breaks.

Another secularism is the colloquial use of "Sabbath" as a simple synonym of "Saturday", which is a simplification of its use in religious contexts, where the two do not coincide.

Secular use of "Sabbath" for "Sunday", by contrast, while it refers to the same period of time as the majority Christian use of "Sabbath", is often stated to refer to different purposes for the rest day. In McGowan v. Maryland (1961), the Supreme Court of the United States held that contemporary Maryland blue laws were intended to promote the secular values of "health, safety, recreation, and general well-being" through a common day of rest, and that this day coinciding with the majority Christian Sabbath neither reduces its effectiveness for secular purposes nor prevents adherents of other religions from observing their own holy days. The Supreme Court of Canada, in R. v. Big M Drug Mart Ltd. (1985) and R. v. Edwards Books and Art Ltd. (1986), found some blue laws invalid for having no legitimate secular purpose, but others valid because they had no religious purpose.

Among many calendar reform proposals that eliminate the constant seven-day week in exchange for simplified calculation of days of the week and other calendrical data, some retain Sabbatical influences. The International Fixed Calendar and World Calendar both consist of 364-day years containing exactly 52 weeks (each starting on a day designated as Sunday), with an additional one or two intercalary days not designated as part of any week (Year Day and Leap Day in the International Fixed Calendar; Worldsday and Leapyear Day in the World Calendar). Reform supporters sought to accommodate Sabbatical observance by retaining the modified week and designating the intercalary days as additional Sabbaths or holidays; however, religious leaders held that such days disrupt the traditional seven-day weekly cycle. This unresolved issue contributed to the cessation of reform activities in the 1930s (International Fixed Calendar) and again in 1955 (World Calendar), though supporters of both proposals remain.

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