Congregation Shema Yisrael

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the stranger within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. -Exodus 20:8-11

Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. -Mark 3:1-6

The long and the short of it is, traditional Christianity seems to believe that acts of the Master such as the one recorded in Mark 3:1-6 more or less “undid” the Word of God relative to working on the Shabbat (Sabbath), and that the anger of the Pharisees supports the idea that Yeshua (Jesus) worked on the Shabbat by healing the man with the shriveled hand. After all, Yeshua didn’t have to heal the man on Shabbat. The guy had that shriveled hand for years. If he had to wait another day to be healed, what’s the big deal? It’s not like he was dying and needed help right then. And there’s a provision for doing “work” on the Shabbat when it’s an emergency.

Scripture and Parables

Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. -Matthew 12:9-14

This is the same event recorded by Mark, but Matthew adds an important detail, which actually turns out to be two details. The first is that, in an emergency, when people or animals are dependent on you, it’s permissible to perform actions that are considered “work” on the Shabbat. Even in modern, Rabbinic Judaism, doctors and other emergency personnel are allowed to work on Shabbat. The second point, and this is important, is that it’s permissible to do good on the Shabbat. It doesn’t have to be an emergency. From this perspective, we can, for example, shovel snow off a neighbor’s driveway on the Shabbat.

Traditional Christianity sees Sabbath keepers like me as “under the law”, which is perceived as some sort of spiritual straight jacket. There’s a lot of focus on “you can’t do this” and “you can’t do that” on the Shabbat, viewing Sabbath-keeping as restrictive and punitive. On the other hand (no pun intended), in traditional Christian thought, it’s OK to go out for brunch after church on Sunday, play a round of golf, mow your lawn, and so forth. The “specialness” of the day with God is quickly diluted by ordinary, secular activities (assuming you believe that the Sabbath was merely “transferred” from Saturday to Sunday rather than all together obliterated). Is that was Yeshua was communicating by performing this healing?

From Exodus 20:8-11, we get that the Sabbath is to be a day of rest from all our secular activities. From Isaiah, we get this:

“If you turn your foot away from Shabbat, from doing your purpose on My holy day, and call Shabbat a delight, the holy people of God honorable, and shall honor it by not doing your own ways, from seeking your needs, or discussing the forbidden; then you shall delight yourself in God, and I shall mount you on the high places of the earth, and feed you the legacy of Jacob your father, for the mouth of God has spoken.” -Isaiah 54:13-14

I’m aware of the various “proof texts” in the Apostolic scriptures that supposedly dilute the specialness of Shabbat, and how, because of the strong connection of Shabbat keeping with the Children of Israel being freed from slavery in Egypt, that Sabbath-keeping is seen as having little or nothing to do with Gentile believers. However all those arguments fail to take this into consideration:

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. -Genesis 2:2-3

The Shabbat was Sanctified; made Holy by God Almighty long, long before there was a Jewish people; long, long before the existence of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob; and long, long before the events of Exodus 20 at Sinai. My interest in writing about the Shabbat is inspired by two events (and of course, the Spirit of God). The first is that in teaching the 613 Commandments class last night in my community, the students discussed the commandments related to traveling on the Shabbat and sanctifying the Shabbat. Naturally, it’s been on my mind. The second event was when I read a commentary this morning as part of my ongoing studies:

A certain person once decided to emigrate to America from Poland. Since he lived near the Chofetz Chaim it was only natural for him to seek a blessing from the tzaddik (man of righteousness) before embarking on his journey. The great sage agreed to bless his endeavor on one condition: “You must promise never to violate the sanctity of Shabbos, and to seal it with a handshake.”

The man readily agreed and received the tzaddik’s effusive brochah.

He traveled to Baltimore and quickly found a job washing windows. After an extended period working in the company, his boss suddenly insisted that he begin to come in on Shabbos. The immigrant would not hear of this and refused. Predictably, his employer fired him on the spot.

The next week, the man began searching for a job but found nothing. After a month of fruitless seeking, things started getting tight financially. When three months had passed without work, his situation was hardly bearable. After several months had transpired, the man was virtually starving.

One Shabbos after shul he decided to give in and work on Shabbos. After all, their destitution constituted a serious question of pikuach nefesh for himself and his wife and children.

He decided that he would approach his old boss and ask for his old job back on whatever terms were offered. But as he walked to his old place of employment he suddenly recalled that he had promised the Choftez Chaim that he would not work on Shabbos no matter what.

He realized that although his family had much less food then they required, they would not literally starve and he was therefore obligated to keep Shabbos. He turned around and went home to his dismal Shabbos table.

That very night, his boss came to his door with another man. “Six months ago I told this gentleman that you would sacrifice to keep the Shabbos no matter what it took. He doubted this and we wagered to give you six months with no employment to see who was right. Today was the last day and I won the bet.”

His boss took a wad of bills out of his pocket and said, “Here is your full salary for the last six months. And of course, you are welcome back to your job starting tomorrow!”

From Daf Digest
Bava Basra 119
Stories off the Daf
The Tzaddik’s Blessing

No, I have no idea if these events literally occurred or if rather, this is in the line of a parable to illustrate a point (though we all tend to take Yeshua’s parables very seriously). What’s being communicated here as I see it, is when one makes a commitment to God, that commitment is not to be dismissed lightly at the first sign of difficulty. This man had made a commitment to God and an agreement with a Holy Sage, and in keeping it, even though there was a delay and a struggle, there was also a reward.

Faith and Vows

Does that mean I’m suggesting anyone who is asked to work Saturday (or Sunday if that’s what you consider the Sabbath) should quit their jobs? No, of course not. What I am saying is that, when we agreed to follow God; when we accepted Yeshua as Lord, Savior, and Messiah, we made certain promises that we are obligated to keep. It’s like all of the marriage metaphors in the Bible. Hopefully, no one abandons their wedding vows to their spouse at the first argument or disagreement. The old vows included the lines, “…for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.” The “for richer or for poorer” part seems to apply to our Jewish friend in Baltimore. He didn’t abandon his “groom” when becoming poorer. Isn’t this illustration enough to help us at least make an attempt to conform more of our life to how God prefers that we live? Even if you believe Sunday is your Sabbath, do you do all you can to make it a holy and sacred day, celebrating its coming in and its going out? Do you declare to all who’ll hear that this is the day of the Lord of the Sabbath?

Why is this so hard? Why, even when we, as Messianics, make a commitment to the Shabbat, do we find it difficult to really dedicate ourselves to unplugging from the other six days of the week and fully accepting all the Shabbat blessings given by God and revealed by Yeshua? Consider slavery to be the answer.

Slaves and Freedom

When God, through Moses, freed the Children of Israel and the mixed multitude from Egyptian slavery, and announced that they were to take possession of the Land of Canaan, in fulfillment of the promises to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, they must have been overjoyed. You’d think they would be almost out of their minds with delight. Of course, the Torah record paints a picture of strife and struggle, even in the short march from Egypt to the banks of the Jordan. When Moses sent the 12 spies, leaders from each of the 12 tribes, into Canaan to scope out the land, only two, Joshua and Caleb, brought back an encouraging report. Despite the “giants” in the land and the fortifications and all of the other apparent barriers to conquest, Joshua and Caleb stood strong with God saying that with Hashem on their side, they could surely do it.

Unfortunately, the other 10 spies crumbled under the apparent impossibility of the task, and gave an “evil report” which spread like wildfire among the three million gathered around the Mishkan (Tabernacle). Why couldn’t they all be “heroes” like Joshua and Caleb? Think about it. Only a year or two before, they were all slaves under the harsh lash of the Egyptians. Their fathers and mothers had been slaves. Their grandparents and great-grandparents had been slaves. As long as anybody could remember, their entire existence was organized around being slaves. Their “mindset” was that of a slave. Even when unequivocally freed from slavery by God and freed to completely obey God, their own humanity and slave-mindedness continually got in the way. It was only their children, the first generation born free or those who left Egypt too young to have been fully integrated into a slave mentality, who would take hold of that freedom and possess the Land of Israel.

What about us? We were all slaves to sin before coming to faith in Messiah. Messiah grafted us into the root of Jesse and we became full inheritors of the promises. We were freed from slavery to sin and freed to completely obey God. So why don’t we? Yeshua’s life on Earth is a lived example that it can be done. We have both the written Torah and the living Torah as examples of the freedom we can have in God’s lifestyle for the redeemed. Why don’t we live it out to the full?

We still have a “slave mentality”. You can call it a “sin nature”, an inheritance from Adam’s fall and an artifact of the fallen world we live in, but Yeshua made it plain that we may be in the world, but we’re not of it. We are citizens of Heaven and Children of the One, True King. We don’t have to think like slaves anymore, nevertheless, like that first generation who was liberated from Egypt 3300 years ago, we still think like slaves and constantly struggle between our former captivity and our current freedom.

We struggle with the Shabbat, not because the Shabbat burdens us, but because our lack of obedience burdens us. Yeshua said his yoke (Torah) was (and is) light. He called himself the Lord of the Shabbat, and he is. He showed us that Shabbat keeping wasn’t about restrictions and boundaries, but about doing good and serving God. Shabbat is about delight. It’s a special day. It’s like celebrating your wedding anniversary once a week. It’s a special occasion to dress up for, eat special foods on, and to shout out to the Heavens and to the people of the Earth that God is good!

If you choose not to sanctify the Shabbat as outlined in the Torah, that’s between you and God. This article isn’t to bash anyone. I wrote it to show the immense freedom in God we have when we keep the Shabbat holy. None of us keep it perfectly because we all still think like slaves, me included. But in the middle of our struggle between the heart of man and the heart of God, stop for a moment and take a deep breath. Thank God as you’re letting it out. It’s free air. It’s freedom from sin and freedom to be with God. That’s what the Shabbat is. Putting down our slave chains for 24 hours and breathing free air.

Afterword: For more on the traditional Jewish perspective on the Shabbat, see Torah on the Web: Virtual Beit Midrash