The Biblical calendar has annual festivals which I’ve written about before (and will be writing more in days to come). However, Shabbat (the Sabbath) is a weekly mini-festival. Shabbat means rest or cessation. It is a break from everyday life and work to take a break and pause. Jews reckon a new day beginning at sundown so the Sabbath goes from Friday sundown until Saturday sundown. This past Friday evening, for one of my classes, we went to a local synagogue to experience a Friday evening service of welcoming Shabbat. It’s a joyful time, leaving behind the worries of the […]
Tag Archives: Sabbath
God’s Dinner Table
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:46-47 Rabbi Shimon would say: Three who eat at one table and do not speak words of Torah, it is as if they have eaten of idolatrous sacrifices; as is stated, “Indeed, all tables are filled with vomit and filth, devoid of the Omnipresent” (Isaiah 28:8). But three who eat at […]
Shabbat Shalom!
If you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable… Isaiah 58:13 I talked briefly about the Sabbath in my last post. The Sabbath is a big deal in the Bible, starting from the beginning. God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day and therefore commanded us to observe the Sabbath. He built it into the creation. We cannot keep going and going without a break without suffering consequences. It is a time to stop. It is a time to remember that I am not defined by what I do. The traditional […]