Pilgrimage Reflection

A Journey of Faith to the Bible Land: A Parish Pilgrimage to Israel

Pilgrimage - Day 9 : Shabbat

The Hebrew word for Sabbath is Shabbat. The Jewish Sabbath begins on Friday at sundown and concludes at sundown on Saturday. Theologically, Christianity also follows this Jewish pattern of measuring the day from sundown to sundown. This is why attending the Eucharist on a Saturday late afternoon "counts" for your Sunday attendance.

 

Katie and Leslie in Jerusalem

In Cleveland, we Christians have some exposure to Shabbat because of the significant number of Jews who live in the city, especially the east side.

Many of our Jewish coworkers and friends are unavailable for social activities because Shabbat and the family meal on Friday evening take priority over all else. But in Israel we pilgrims have become exposed to the observance of Shabbat in a whole new way.

In this country almost everything not associated with either tourism or essential services shuts down tight. The preparation for Shabbat begins at dawn and gears up to 3:00 pm when everything begins to close and people head home, to friends' houses and to hotels for the celebration. The itinerary and plans for our pilgrimage and all tourism are made in the context of Shabbat. It is the reason why seeing Christian sites is scheduled for Friday afternoons and Saturdays as Jewish sites are closed.

Much of the staff in the hotel are the Arab employees and not Jewish. There are even specially designated Shabbat elevators in the hotel for observant Jews that automatically stop at every floor so they do not need to press any buttons and thereby violate the commandment to not do any work (operate mechanical equipment) on the Sabbath. N.B. The hotels need to put signs in English on these special elevators so that we Gentiles know not to get on them. Oops!

 

Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem. Tree planted with a plaque in honor of Gentiles who helped save Jews during WWII.

 

Last Friday in Tel Aviv a group of young Jewish males were at dinner in the dining room and were enjoying a fair amount of the really good Israeli wines. By the end of the meal and after reading the concluding prayers for Shabbat they were singing and being very festive.

As we watched their joy, the smiling maitre d' told me that Shabbat is meant for two things; to be happy and celebrate life, and to love God. The men's joy and love was infectious and I found myself feeling somewhat envious of them and how this country honors God's command to set aside one day each week to do nothing else but celebrate life and to love God.

We Christians have lost this gift of Sabbath. It is an enormous loss to us, to our family life, to our society and our faith.

 

Imagine what our life would be like if we dedicated one day per week to sit and eat, drink good wine, play, talk and sing with our loved ones? Imagine that we did not do the work of operating a lot of mechanical gadgets one day per week but instead read books, took walks, listened to music, had one-on-one conversations with each other? Imagine what would the result be for our spiritual health if we took time out of each Sabbath day to be with God in worship and community?

God chose the Jewish people to be a witness to the nations (That would be us.) as to what a right relationship with God looks like. We should take notice of how all Jews - religious and secular - honor God's command to mark the Sabbath and keep it holy. This people is better off for it and we would be as well if we were to emulate them.

Think about it: What could be bad about being intentional to celebrate life and love God one full day per week?

As they say in Israel, "Shabbat Shalom." Sabbath peace!

Peter +

 

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At Yad Vashem, Israel's poignant memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. This monument is to the 1.5 million murdered children. The pillars are unfinished because the childrens' lives were unfinished.

 

Scale model of Jerusalem circa 70 CE

 

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