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It is truly interesting when we get behind the current Jewish traditions concerning the sabbath. We will, in this article, view the sabbath not as a static institution which came down more or less unchanged throughout the centuries, but rather as a manifestation of a constantly evolving process, and we are going to interpret the sabbath, as well as the other Jewish holy days in the light of that whole process in future articles. In other words we are going to consider the sabbath as well as the other Jewish holy days as parts of a continuing attempt to articulate certain broad universal truths, and we shall seek to discover, behind the varying forms of expression, just what those truths are and how they not only related to us today but how we can incorporate them into our lives and be enriched by them today.
We shall do this principally two ways. First, we shall endeavor to trace the actual evolution of each sabbath and festival, going back even beyond the Bible to its more remote and primitive stages. In such a perspective, we shall gain a clearer picture of what it really seeks to convey; we shall be able the better to recognize the permanent truth behind the changing forms, and to see more clearly how both the inner ideas and the outward expressions have been progressively crystallized and refined.
Secondarily, we shall use the comparative approach, that is, we shall compare the customs and ceremonies of the festivals with those of other peoples, not for the purpose of diverting the student with entertaining parallels, but in order to recover, behind the conventional traditional explanations, traces of earlier, more universal ideas which are nonetheless precious and pertinent for having been overborne and overswept in the onrushing tide of history.
While we shall lay stress on the uniqueness of many concepts and on the distinctive character of many transformations by the Jews concerning their holy days, we shall also point out frankly and candidly what the Jews have borrowed or adapted from their neighbors. Again we need look to a "first cause" or a "first revelation" of these "appointed times with God" and how mankind accepted and adopted them and later altered them down through history. If we look hard we can recover these original Divine Truths for ourselves today.
Firstly, this provides an effective illustration of the forces and influences which have in fact molded the development of the festivals; secondly, it is in any case scarcely credible that a people which has lived for nearly two thousand years in the midst of other peoples should have picked up nothing from them in the way of calendar customs and popular observances. To be sure in the Jewish festivals and sabbaths I know for certain that heaven and earth meet together.
The Hebrew word sabbath has passed into every European language, and there is no civilized people in the Western hemisphere to whom the institution of the weekly day of rest is altogether unknown. Although, to be sure, the seventh-day sabbath has been replaced, in Christian countries, by Sunday or the Lord's Day; that is, by the day on which the crucified Jesus is believed to have re-risen. This Sunday mode of observance is still a direct, if attenuated, heritage from the ancient Hebrew practice.
The curious thing is, however, that nobody really knows how the sabbath began; for the Biblical statement that it commemorates the rest taken by God after the six-day labor of creation is simply a fanciful attempt to rationalize and explain a an even more ancient traditional institution.
We have our theories however as to the origin of the sabbath. A favorite theory is that the sabbath originated among the Babylonians. The basis of this theory is that in certain Babylonian documents, the equivalent word shapattu is used to designate the fifteenth day of a lunar month. From this many scholars have concluded that the sabbath was originally a full-moon festival, the name being then explained from the Semitic root sh-b-t, meaning "to stop," i.e., the day when the moon comes, so to speak, to a full stop, its waxing thenceforth giving place to waning. Moreover, in further support of this theory, it is pointed out that in several passages of Scripture, "sabbath" and "new moon" are in fact juxtaposed (2 Kings 4:23; Isa. 1:13; Hos. 2:17; Amos 8:4-5) and that in Lev. 23:11,15 the former term is applied to the beginning of Passover, which happens to fall at the full moon.
Answer for yourself: Is this just a coincidence?
For all its popularity, however, this theory is extremely tenuous, for there is no proof whatsoever that the term shapattu denoted the fifteenth day of every month; all that the texts imply is that on certain specific occasions that day happened to coincide with a sabbath (in whatever sense the word be understood). Furthermore, it is difficult to see how, on this hypothesis, the full-moon festival developed into the present weekly sabbath, for the latter is entirely independent of the phases of the moon. Nor, indeed, can anything really be deduced from the fact that the words sabbath and new moon are sometimes juxtaposed in Scripture to convey the comprehensive sense of "sacred occasions." As you see this most likely is now how the sabbath started. For this may be no more than an example of the figure of speech known as merism, whereby two contrasted elements of a thing are mentioned together to indicate the whole, e.g., "officers and men" for "army." The essence of a merism is that the two parts belong to different categories; hence, the very fact that "sabbath" is juxtaposed with "new moon" might itself be an indication that the former, as distinct from the latter, did not form part of the lunar calendar.
An alternative theory sees the origin of the sabbath in the ancient system of reckoning time by pentacontads, or stretches of fifty days. According to this view, the term sabbath applied originally to the days which were added to two of these stretches in order to accommodate the system to the luni-solar year. These days were regarded as outside of the regular calendar-a kind of vacant space in time-and were therefore marked by a suspension of normal activity, the word sabbath meaning "stoppage" in this sense. In the time of Ezra, it is supposed, when the Jews returned from the Babylonian Exile, rebuilt the Temple and re-established its services, a new system was introduced: all the days in each pentacontad which happened to be divisible by seven were deemed "vacant days" and excluded from the regular count; and thus arose the weekly sabbath. As we stated before these are but "theories".
Fascinating as this theory is, we are perhaps on more solid ground if we start from the fact that the sabbath is by no means an exclusively Semitic institution. Regular days of abstention from work are a common phenomenon among primitive peoples. Records of this can be found among the ancients that lived long before the Jews and Moses and the Ten Commandments. Among several West African tribes, for example, each god has a special day of the week reserved for his worship, and on that day his own particular devotees are required to desist from all manual labor. Similarly, among the Lobs of Southwest China, a sabbath is observed every sixth day, women being forbidden to sew or launder clothes; while in Ceylon, the lunar quarters are regarded as solemn "poya-days," and all stores remain closed. The Tshi-speaking peoples of the Gold Coast keep every first and every seventh day as a sabbath; and the same usage prevails also among the Ga, who call that day dsu, or "purification." So, too, it is customary among the Loango of West Africa and among the Ibo of southern Nigeria to divide the month into seven four-day weeks and to begin each with a sabbath (nsona); while the Ewe of Dahomey (North Africa) abstain from work every fourth day. In most of these cases, the institution appears to have arisen out of purely practical considerations, for the sabbaths are, in fact, market days, when the normal routine has perforce to be suspended in the individual villages while everyone is away plying his wares at the central depot.
Sometimes, however, days of rest are determined directly by the phases of the moon. The Bapiri of Bechuanaland, for example, make a point of staying indoors at new moon; while some of the native tribes of Uganda take a week's rest on that occasion. The Kanarese of India will not plow on either new moon or full moon; and in Nepal, both of these dates rank as special holy days, when no work is permitted and no one may cook food or indulge in litigation. Among the Bahima of Southwest Uganda, the king goes into retreat at new moon; while in Thailand, new moon and full moon are considered "major sabbaths," and the first and last quarters "minor sabbaths."
From these examples, a selection out of many, it is apparent that the sabbath, or periodic day of rest, does not belong to any one particular calendarical system, nor is it everywhere inspired by a single uniform cause. It may be occasioned, in one case, by the practical necessities of market day, and in another, by superstitions about the phases of the moon. When, however, formal calendarical systems are established, they tend to incorporate and exploit the time-honored traditional institution. This, it may be suggested, is what happened in the case of the Hebrew sabbath, many of the earlier ideas and practices being taken over and absorbed when it was later accommodated to the seven-day week. The abstention from work, for example, may well have derived from the purely utilitarian consideration of a market-day sabbath, whereas the prohibition against kindling fire (Exod. 35:3) links up immediately with a practice observed elsewhere (e.g., in parts of Egypt and in Hawaii) at crucial phases of the moon and therefore stems, in all likelihood, from a "lunar" prototype. Similarly, the injunction (Exod. 31:14) that anyone who profanes the sabbath is to be put to death obviously stems from a type of observance in which it was more a day of taboos than a purely utilitarian institution; indeed, the same law actually obtains in respect to the weekly "sabbaths" observed by the Yoruba on the Slave Coast, and these are of an entirely "superstitious" character, having nothing whatever to do with such functional occasions as market days.
However it may have begun, the sabbath was developed by Judaism along entirely original lines. It became, as the Biblical law expresses it, "a token of the fact that in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He stopped (shabat) and was refreshed" (Exod. 31:17). There is more to this phrase than appears from the English translation. In the Hebrew original, the term rendered "was refreshed" is connected with the word for "breath, spirit, vital essence." What is meant, however, is not that God "breathed freely" or heaved a sigh of relief, but that in the very act of ceasing from His labors He also, as it were, "became inspirited", and took on a new vitality; and it is this combination of physical rest and spiritual replenishment that characterizes the Jewish conception of the sabbath. The day possesses a positive as well as a negative aspect: it is not merely a memorial; it is an active imitation by man of that which was done by God; and it is observed from week to week because man's life on earth is, in fact, a continuous process of creation.
The Jewish sages brought out the twofold character of the day by carefully codifying its restrictions on the one hand and by continually stressing, on the other, the necessity of utilizing the weekly pause for purposes of mental and spiritual recreation (in the literal sense of the word).
Insofar as the restrictions are concerned, the Mishnah (the codification of the Jewish Oral Law) specifies thirty-nine actions or classifications of "work" which may not be performed on the sabbath:
sowing, plowing, reaping, sheaving; threshing, winnowing, cleansing crops; grin ding, sifting, kneading, baking; shearing, blanching, carding, dyeing; spinning, weaving, making a minimum of two loops, weaving two threads, separating two threads; tying, untying; sewing a minimum of two stitches, ripping out in order to sew them; hunting a gazelle, slaughtering it, flaying it, salting it, curing, scraping, or slicing its hide; writing a minimum of two characters; erasing in order to write them; building, wrecking; extinguishing, kindling; hammering; transporting.
This list in turn underwent further refinement; and, as a matter of fact, a large part of medieval and later Jewish literature consists in the replies issued by rabbinical authorities to questions concerning the minutiae of the law.
An excellent picture of the strictness with which the sabbath was observed by Jews of more rigid cast is afforded by a document discovered, in 1896, among discarded manuscripts and damaged copies of the Law, in the old synagogue at Fostat, near Cairo. This document is the manual of discipline of an ascetic Essene brotherhood which existed in Damascus at some time between the first and third centuries of the current era. The regulations concerning the sabbath (many of which are paralleled in the Mishnah) run as follows:
On the sabbath day, no one is to speak of profane or vain matters. No one is to make loans to another. No one is to engage in litigation about property or profit. No one is to talk business. . . . No one is to go about in his field for the purpose of carrying on his normal work. On the sabbath day, no one is to go out of the city beyond a distance of a thousand cubits. No one is to eat anything that has not been prepared beforehand. . . . When on a journey, no one is to partake of any food other than that which he previously had with him in his place of encampment. . . . No one is to draw water. . . . No one is to commission a non-Jew to do his own work. No one is to wear soiled garments or garments which have been worn while working in the garden except he wash them in water and scrub them with lye. No one is to observe a voluntary fast. No one is to follow his cattle to pasture beyond a distance of a thousand cubits. . . . No one is to bring anything into or out of his house. . . . Nurses are not to take their charges out on the sabbath day. No one is to issue orders to his manservant or his maidservant or his hireling on the sabbath day. No one is to assist an animal to give birth. If an animal fall into a pit or snare on the sabbath day, no one is to lift it out; and if a human being fall into a well whence he cannot be extricated by a ladder or a rope or any other instrument, no one is to lift him out...
At the present day, the strictly "orthodox" Jew will not transact business, touch money, write, tear paper, smoke, switch on lights, use the telephone, travel or carry anything on the sabbath. Indeed, in some cases, even handkerchiefs are pinned to the garments and thereby regarded, by a legalistic subtlety, as integral parts of the clothing rather than as things carried!
Especially strict is the ban on travel and transportation. According to the Biblical law (Exod. 16:29), no man is to leave his "place" on the sabbath day. The sages, however, attempted by various legalistic devices to modify the rigors of this restriction. A number of houses, they declared, could be temporarily combined in to a single common "place" or domain, if the householders formed a kind of ad hoc "holiday club" by each contributing something to a common stock of food placed in a room accessible to all. Similarly, they eased the regulation which confined travel on the sabbath to distances within a radius of two thousand cubits by permitting people temporarily to transfer their residence from the center to the circumference of the imaginary circle. This dispensation, however, was granted only in cases where a man might wish to travel in order to fulfill a religious duty (e.g., to attend a circumcision), and to qualify for it he had, before the advent of the sabbath, to transfer a token quantity of food to the new dwelling.
In contrast to this more liberal attitude is the practice of the Samaritan community at Nablus. The Samaritans claim to be the descendants of the ancient Kingdom of Israel. Their religion is based on the Law of Moses and they reject the authority of the Jewish sages. To the Samaritans, the law means just what it says; accordingly they do not stir from their houses on the seventh day, except to attend services in the synagogue. It is said, indeed, that the Samaritan teacher Dositheus, who lived (probably) in the first century C.E., actually commanded his followers to remain in one position throughout the sabbath!
For all their legalistic precision, however, the sages were conscious always that the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath, and they insisted that any of the regulations might be, nay should be, broken immediately in case of life-and-death emergency, or of real danger to health. In support of such relaxation, they were fond of quoting the Scriptural verse: "Ye shall therefo re keep My statutes and Mine ordinances, which if a man do, he shall live by them" (Lev. 18:5).
The other aspect of the sabbath, that of mental and spiritual recreation, was brought out in the injunction that the leisure hours of the day should be devoted to study and to discourse about the Torah. The rabbinic classic Pesikta Rabbathi, compiled in the ninth century, has a fine passage exemplifying this doctrine:
Said Rabbi Hiyya, the son of Abba: The Sabbath was given for enjoyment. Said Rabbi Samuel, the son of Nahmani: It was given for studying the Torah. There is no discrepancy between the two statements. Rabbi Hiyya was alluding to the scholars who study the Torah all the week and enjoy themselves on the sabbath, whereas Rabbi Samuel was thinking of laborers who toil throughout the week, and on the Sabbath come to study the Torah.
Answer for yourself: Can you see the beauty in the above understanding of the sabbath? The secret is that there must be a balance of spiritual refreshing and nourishment along with a physical refreshing and renewing that occurs simultaneously in mankind. Such is the love of God for us that we be "whole"!
Enjoyment of the sabbath in this positive sense is, in Jewish tradition, an integral part of its observance. "Those who both observe the sabbath and call it an enjoyment," says the prayer book, "will rejoice in the kingdom of God and enjoy the riches of His bounty." The expression does not refer to ultimate rewards in Kingdom Come, nor is it a mere pious promise of "pie in the sky when you die." It means simply that those who on sabbath retreat from mundane things and consecrate the day to study of the Torah will be automatically refreshed and replenished by a growing awareness that behind the passing show of men lie the abiding verity and sovereignty of God.
There are several ways in which this more positive aspect of the sabbath finds, or has found, practical expression. One of them is the custom of meeting together in the synagogue during the afternoon in order to study the Bible (usually the weekly lesson from the Law) and various rabbinic writings, or to hear an exposition of them from the rabbi or from some visiting scholar. We as non-Jews can adapt this to our own needs and Bible study groups fit the bill nicely or just some quite time with God alone in prayer and study. I don't mean to be a "monk" and study all day but balance your day; time to devote to God and then time for yourself. I always told my students and congregators that God desires you give Him your tithe; namely, give God your "first fruits". Start the Sabbath off by giving God your first times. Start early and prepare your Spirit and Soul by giving God your first parts of the day if possible in Spiritual pursuits. Maybe you want to pray, read the Bible and the Hebrew Scriptures, or read a good book on the Bible or other spiritual helps that feed your soul. These activities are to be first and then after you sense fulfillment then arise from your place of prayer or study and then do what brings your soul joy. Maybe you wish to recreate or exercise or just whatever that brings you joy and brings positive reinforcement to your life. I will leave that up to you.
3 Jn 1:2 2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. (KJV)
Another thing that must be mentioned is the practice of concluding the introductory meal on Friday night with the singing of religious table songs (zemiroth), the central theme of which is the delight of the sabbath day. Many places provide cassettes and cds with selections of appropriate songs for the sabbath that you and your family can learn and memorize and sing on the sabbath. These songs, all of comparatively recent date, are a characteristically Jewish counterpart of the medieval monks' and students' songs. Some of them stem from the group of cabbalists who gathered around the illustrious Isaac Luria in Safed during the early part of the sixteenth century; while others are the product of the Hasidim, or Pietist movement which grew up in eastern Europe some hundred and fifty years later. In many of them, the sabbath becomes, as it were, the "toast of the evening," being adored in the manner of a queen. The sabbath is often allegorized as "the Sabbath queen" in literature and in song. In others, as in the following famous poem by Luria himself, the imagery is even bolder and God Himself is the guest, come to regale the company, in the manner of a presiding rabbi, with subtle and profound expositions of the Law and with the tales of miracles and wonders.
Both the beginning and the end of the sabbath are marked by special ceremonies. These are determined very largely by the fact that the Jewish day commences at sunset, the moment when, in ancient times, the candles or oil lamps were lit. At the beginning and end of the sabbath, this purely utilitarian act came naturally to acquire a special significance, and it thus attained the status of a religious rite.
The lighting of the candles, at least two, on the eve of the sabbath is assigned to the mistress of the house; and popular fancy supposes that neglect of this duty will be punished by death in childbirth. Shortly before sunset the housewife spreads a clean white cloth on the table and usually places the sabbath loaves (covered with an embroidered napkin) upon it. She then lights the candles and pronounces the blessing: "Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who hast hallowed us by Thy commandments and commanded us to kindle the lamp."
Answer for yourself: Is such sabbath ritual a commandment of God is this an example of the authority of the Rabbis to "bind an loose" given in the Hebrew Scriptures? Yes it it. Let me explain.
Such a commandment, to be sure, is nowhere mentioned in the Scriptures, but Judaism regards the institutions established by the rabbis and by the consensus of tradition as equally inspired by God, that is, as equal expressions of man's contact with, or apprehension of, the divine and transcendental, and it therefore gives them the status of commandments.
After pronouncing the blessing, it is customary for the housewife to spread her hands over the flame and then to place them for a moment over her eyes. The reason for this practice is disputed, but the most probable explanation is that it symbolizes an actual use of the light and thus validates the blessing; for in Jewish tradition, a blessing is not pronounced in general and vague terms but as an act of thanksgiving and appreciation for some actual and present benefit.
At the expiration of the sabbath, the ceremony is more elaborate. Known as Havdalah, or "Separating," it is performed by the master of the house after the evening prayers. The officiant takes a special candle made of two intertwining pieces of wax and yielding a double flame, a box of spices, and a glass filled to overflowing with wine or any other beverage. He then recites a formula which begins with a threefold invocation to the prophet Elijah bidding him come speedily "with the Messiah, the seed of David," continuing with a formula in which God is blessed for "separating the holy from the profane, Israel from the heathen, and sabbath from weekdays," and concluding with a separate benediction over each of the three ritual objects. When he blesses the candle, he makes a point of curving his hand and looking intently at his fingernails, and when he blesses the wine or beverage, he cups his hands over it and gazes into it in the light of the twin flame. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the candle is extinguished in that portion of the liquid which has spilled over into the saucer or silver tray, while the cup is passed in turn to all the males and children in the company. It is the Jewish tradition that women may not partake of it; indeed, a popular superstition asserts that if they do so, they will grow mustaches! I will leave that up to you to decide.
The ceremony looks both backward and forward; if it marks the end of the sabbath rest, it also marks the beginning of a new week of labor. But what that week holds in store is, of course, as yet unknown, and the ceremony therefore includes various devices designed both to divine the future and to protect from evil. To the former category belongs the practice of gazing at the fingernails and of peering into the cup. Gazing at the fingernails and interpreting shadows which light might shed upon them was, in ancient times, a common method of reading the future; and Jewish literature contains a number of references to the spirits who were then believed to appear and who are known as "the prince of the palm" or "the prince of the thumb." Similarly, the habit of seeking omens by gazing intently into water or into the contents of a cup is abundantly attested both in antiquity and in modern folklore. In Scandinavia, for example, people who had been robbed during the week used to repair to a diviner on a Thursday evening to see the face of the thief revealed in a bucket of water, and a similar method is adopted among the natives of Tahiti. Nor, indeed, should it be overlooked that in the Bible itself (Gen. 44:5), the silver goblet which Joseph orders to be hidden in the sack of his youngest brother, Benjamin, is described expressly as a vessel from which he both drank and divined.
On the other hand, the use of the spices is a measure of protection against the perils of the ensuing week. They are a kind of symbolic "smelling salts," and are intended to revive and fortify the spirit after the departure of that "extra soul" with which, so it is said, every Jew is endowed during the sabbath day.
Of the same order, too, is the invocation of Elijah; for not only is the threefold repetition strongly suggestive of a magical formula, but the fact is also that, in Jewish belief, Elijah, besides being the forerunner of the Messiah, who, it is supposed, will arrive at the close of the sabbath, is at the same time the protector par excellence against demons and "princes of darkness." He is credited, for instance, with the power of protecting expectant mothers from the assaults of the child-stealing demon, Lilith. It is therefore very natural that appeal should be made to him at the critical beginning of a new week, when, according to Jewish superstition, the devils and demons which have remained confined in hell (Gehenna) over the sabbath, are again released to work their mischief upon men.
The lighting of the candles, however, is not the only ceremony connected with the incoming and outgoing of the sabbath. Equally important, on Friday evening, is the rite known as Kiddush, or Sanctification. Properly speaking, this is simply a formal hallowing of the sabbath, in accordance with the Scriptural commandment to "remember [or, observe] the sabbath day to keep it holy" (Exod. 20:8; Deut. 5:72); and it originally consisted only in the pronouncement of a benediction praising God for granting this institution to Israel as a perpetual heritage. Later, however, perhaps as a counterblast to the Roman practice of beginning a meal with a libation to the gods, it became customary to accompany the benediction with the drinking of wine (itself duly blessed), and it is in this form that the ceremony is today observed.
The Sanctification is prefaced by the chanting of the Scriptural passage, Gen. 2:1-3 , describing how God "finished His work on the seventh day . . . and rested." Thereby, says the Talmud, the officiant spiritually retrojects himself to the moment of creation and becomes, as it were, the partner of God in that process.
Kiddush is followed immediately by the blessing over bread which precedes every meal in a traditional Jewish home. This, however, lends itself, on the sabbath, to a special embellishment. Not one, but two loaves are used, in commemoration of the double portion of manna which the Israelites received in the wilderness on the eve of the sabbath (Exod. 16:22,29). Moreover, the loaves are covered with a napkin (often ornately embroidered), symbolizing the "fine layer of dew" which covered the manna (Exod. 16:13-15).
Sabbath bread is called hallah (often spelled chollah), the term used in the Bible (Num. 15:17-21) for the cake of new dough which every Israelite was required to present as a "gift unto the Lord." Before it is baked, a portion of the dough has to be removed, in accordance with that commandment. The loaves are commonly fashioned in the shape of "twists" popularly known as berches. It has been suggested that this name derives from the old German Berchisbrod; that is, bread shaped like intertwined braids of hair which women and girls allegedly used to set out for Berchta, the demonic hag of Teutonic folklore who was believed to make the rounds on Twelfth Night. More probably, however, the name is connected with quite a different German word, viz., Berchit, which in turn goes back to the Low Latin bracelins, "arm," and denotes a type of loaf shaped like folded arms. Another form of this word (though the meaning is now somewhat different) is the familiar pretzel.
It is customary also on Friday night, at the conclusion of the service in the synagogue, for Jewish fathers to place their hands upon the heads of their children and pronounce a blessing over them. In the case of boys, the blessing runs: "May God make thee like Ephraim and Manasseh," and in that of girls: "May God make thee like Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah." Moreover, as a graceful compliment to his wife, he chants the concluding chapter of the Biblical Book of Proverbs:
A woman of worth who can find? Her price is far above rubies. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her: "Many daughters have done worthily, but thou excellest them all."
At the conclusion of the Sabbath, the most interesting feature of the service is, perhaps, the recital of the Ninety-first Psalm. That psalm is known traditionally as the "plague psalm," the name being derived from vs. 5-6.
Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night, Of the arrow that flieth by day, Of the pestilence that stalketh in darkness, Of the destruction that ravageth at noon.
At first sight, these verses look like a mere blanket formula, as in the familiar Cornish prayer: "From ghoulies and ghosties and long-legitty beasties, and things that go bump in the night, good Lord deliver us!" In point of fact, however, the reference is to specific demons of ancient Semitic folklore. The "terror by night" is the hobgoblin, and he is mentioned again in Song of Songs 3:8, where the attendants of the bridegroom (facetiously identified with Solomon) are said to be armed, as indeed they are in Oriental weddings, "each man with his sword upon his thigh," in order to ward off that demon's assaults. The "arrow that flieth by day" is the familiar "faery arrow" which, in the belief of many peoples, is the cause both of stitch in the side and of all diseases. The "pestilence that stalketh in darkness" is the demon known to the magical literature of Babylon as "he that stalks abroad at night" (mutallik mushi); while "the destruction that ravageth at noon" is a personification of the scorching midday heat which may cause sunstroke or even death. It is apparent, therefore, that this psalm originally found place in the service because it was regarded as a kind of charm against the malevolent spirits released from hell at the beginning of the week. It was, in fact, a complement to the ceremony of Havdalah; and it is significant that it also forms part of the burial service, where it serves to protect both the deceased and his survivors from the ravages of the evil spirits thought to be especially rampant at a time of death.
Answer for yourself: What are we to make today of all of this superstition?
It is easy to smile at these beliefs and to adopt a superior attitude toward them. They are, however, simply a primitive way of expressing normal and rational apprehension of the hazards and perils of an uncertain future. The belief in the extra "sabbath soul," for instance, is simply a fanciful way of saying that retreat from mundane preoccupations on the sabbath gives a man a special spiritual serenity which tends to depart the moment he immerses himself again in the humdrum routine of the workaday world. By smelling the fragrant spices he reminds himself, in symbolic fashion, that he can become immune from the contagion of that world, if, so to speak, he but absorb by osmosis the constant fragrance of holiness. Significantly enough, tile word osmosis really means "smelling," and thus provides an exact counterpart in language to the symbolism of the ritual. Similarly, the demons and evil spirits which are believed to rise from hell at the moment the sabbath ends are no more than picturesque personifications of the hazards and uncertainties which attend the beginning of each new week.
In taking over these traditional notions, however, Judaism gave them a new and deeper significance.
Lev 17:5 5 To the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they offer in the open field, even that they may bring them unto the LORD, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest, and offer them for peace offerings unto the LORD. (KJV)
Answer for yourself: What is so important in the above verse that few if any ever learn? It is here, in this verse, as the Rabbis teach, that we see that Israel was commanded by God to take the existing "rituals" modeled after their pagan neighbors and now "reinterpret" them and give new meanings to these rituals and holy days from which they had done before. This explains why the Jewish holy days has both much in common with the similar calendar times of other nations holy days as well yet also explains the unique understanding of the Jews of these "appointed times with God." What we find here is that God revealed to Israel a deeper revelation and knowledge of Himself and His message as connected to these "appointed times" and holy days given to the Jewish people.
Now it is important that you pay close attention to what is said next concerning the above passage of Lev. 17:5. The religious observance of the new moon with festal rejoicings and sacrifices belongs originally to a lunar cult as mentioned above but, as in many other cases, this festival and its rites were taken up into the religion of Yahweh-the national religion of Israel which also absorbed nature religion. At first this fact can be alarming to most people when they encounter it; especially Jews and Christians. Yet when we come to understand the progressive Revelation of the Bible we see that God will reveal to His people that they are no longer to make sacrifices to the false gods of the field like the pagans who lived around them but in keeping the "same pattern of nature worship" to which His people were exposed the sacrifices at harvest times as well as these days of "rest" were to continue as before but unlike before they are NOW to be times sanctified unto YHWH and offerings brought to Him and Him only as we see in Lev. 17:5
God understood how difficult it is to get long held primitive traditions out of people so by keeping these same harvest festivals connected with nature and the sun and the moon god would allow His chosen people to continue the "pattern" BUT the meanings of the elements and rites would be changed and then only YHWH will be the recipient of the people's worship although similar things would still be done by the people. That is why the Jewish holy days revolve around the same solstices and equinoxes as does the holy days of the ancients and other world religions today. The basic understanding of each of these pagan harvest festivals would be changed by God and redefined for the Jewish people to which we find today when we study Biblical Judaism. No longer were these pagan festivals were to be continued by YHWH'S people; instead the "form" might be familiar in that they remained in certain times of the year as before however "NEW MEANINGS" were given to replace the prior pagan understanding of these derived from primitive consciousness as associated with events in the Heaven, in Nature, and in his their own bodies as well as related concepts dealing with the matter of sex. Simply said these prior events and rituals were made "holy" and given unique and "Divine" meanings between God and His people and we turn to the Jewish people today for such understandings...and not pagan Rome which kept the same sun-worship and nature-worship that these Jews repented of and turned from. It would be Rome which would later record many such prior pagan beliefs in the New Testament and attach them to the depiction of Jesus in the New Testament.
This is what I find so fascinating when studying comparative religions; that the Jewish people refined the universal understanding of these special times with God for all the world to better come to a knowledge of the Creator and His purposes for mankind.
It was now not only the individual but also the whole House of Israel that stood in need of protection from the hovering demons of disaster. If, on the one hand, the Havdalah service includes such intimate, personal appeals as the touching Yiddish prayer of the Jewish mother that "God, Who in the seventh heav'n dwells, May pity me, my husband, and my babes," on the other, it now called upon Elijah not for personal deliverance but for national salvation; as a long acrostic poem has it, he is to lead Israel "from darkness to light."
This development comes out especially in the preceding evening service. A feature of those devotions is the recital of sundry Scriptural prophecies relating to material prosperity. Each, however, is followed immediately by another which foretells national salvation. Thus, the promise of Deuteronomy (7:13-15) that God "will bless the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, thy must and thine oil" is capped, so to speak, by Isaiah's assurance 45:17) that "Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation"; and the prediction of Joel (2:26) that "ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied" by Isaiah's confident declaration (35 :10, 51:11) that "the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come with singing to Zion"; until, in an inspired climax, the immergence of individual in collective deliverance is brought home by the skillful juxtaposition of the two verses, "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord" (Jer. 17:7) and "The Lord will give strength unto His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace" (Ps. 29:11).
The sabbath is personified in Jewish tradition as a bride whose bridegroom is Israel. Rabbinic fancy plays eloquently on this conception. Observing that the Hebrew term for the marriage ceremony really means "hallowing," the sages interpret the Biblical statement that "God blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it" (Gen. 2:3) as meaning that He wedded it to His people.
In the East, weddings usually take place on a Friday evening, and this served as an added incentive for representing the advent of the sabbath as a symbolic wedding festivity. The Talmud tells us that, on the eve of the sabbath, the famous teacher, Rabbi Hanina used to put on his best clothes and say, "Come, let us and welcome Queen Sabbath," while Rabbi Yannai used to rise and declare, "Come, 0 bride; come, 0 bride."
The custom of going out to "meet the bride" was especially common among the cabbalists of Safed in the earlier part of the sixteenth century, and some of the more poetically talented of them actually composed symbolic imitations of the conventional marriage songs. The most famous of these is the Lechah Dodi, written by Solomon Alkabetz, teacher and brother-in-law of the mystic philosopher, Moses Cordovero. This poem, which is now an integral part of the Friday night service, plays on one of the most prominent features of Arab weddings, namely, the procession of the bridegroom from the local mosque to his own home, where the bride awaits him. He is usually accompanied on this occasion by torchbearers, musicians and singers. The latter, however, do not confine themselves to the chanting of wedding songs; they also intone lyric odes of a religious character in praise of Mohammed. All of these elements find place, if only by hint and implication, in the celebrated Hebrew poem. The bridegroom-i.e., Israel, is first bidden to come and meet the bride:
Bridegroom, come to meet the bride; Let us greet the sabbath-tide!
Immediately, however, in the manner of the Arab singers, the poet breaks off to offer praise to God; and the familiar expression "the Lord is one, and His name one" looks to all the world like a characteristically Jewish imitation of the familiar Arabic cry, "There is no God but One"-a cry which punctuates all public ceremonies. Then, playing on sundry Biblical verses, he predicts the future prosperity of Zion, evidently a parody of the blessings customarily invoked upon the bride. Finally he dresses the maiden herself:
Come in peace, and come in joy, Thou who art thy bridegroom's pride; Come, 0 bride, and shed thy grace O'er the faithful chosen race; Come, 0 bride! Come, 0 bride!...an invitation doubtless modeled on that addressed to brides at human weddings.
Lechah Dodi, which has been translated into German by both Herder and Heine, is probably the best known of all Hebrew poems, and it enjoys the reputation of having been set to more tunes than any other poem in the world. It is of interest to note, however, that a very similar though now long forgotten poem, employing the same tropes and many of the same phrases, was composed at the same time by the Italian-Jewish poet Mordecai Dato (1527-85), another follower of Moses Cordovero.
Other fancies also are associated with the sabbath in Jewish traditional lore.
Not only the Jewish people but all the God-fearing elements of creation (the Gentiles) are believed to observe the sabbath day. It is told, for example, that on a certain occasion a cow which had belonged to a pious man, when sold to a stranger, refused to work on the sabbath. It is told also that there exists in the far reaches of the world a river called Sambatyon (variously located) which ceases flowing on the sabbath. Such an intermittent stream is mentioned, indeed, by several non-Jewish writers throughout the ages, and many are the tall tales of more recent travelers who claim to have seen it. An ingenious explanation of this legend has been proposed. The river, it is suggested, possessed no such miraculous properties as were later attributed to it. It was simply a river of sand. But the Hebrew word for "sand," viz., hol, is indistinguishable from another which means "weekday," and hence arose the notion that "the river of hol" was one which flowed only on weekdays and rested on the sabbath!
Finally, it is maintained in Jewish legend that even the angels keep the sabbath, an idea which receives its finest expression, curiously enough, not in Jewish literature, but in Peter Abelard's great hymn for Saturday evening.
Oh what shall be, oh when shall be, that holy Sabbath day, Which heavenly care shall ever keep and celebrate always; When rest is found for weary limbs, when labor hath reward, When everything, for evermore, is joyful in the Lord? The true Jerusalem above, the holy town is there, Whose duties are so full of joy, whose joy so free from care; Where disappointment cometh not to check the longing heart, And where the soul in ecstasy hath gained her better part. There Sabbath day to Sabbath day sheds on a ceaseless light, Eternal pleasure of the saints who keep that Sabbath bright; Nor shall the chant ineffable decline, nor ever cease, Which we with all the angels sing in that sweet realm of peace.
Let us continue our study in the Biblical Sabbath
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