The Sabbath Command
“Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.” (Ex 20:8-11 NRSV)“Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work — you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.” (Dt 5:12-15)
Fast forward:
“Then he said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.’” (Mk 2:27-28)“Then Jesus said to them, ‘I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?’” (Lk 6:9)
Fast forward some more:
“He who cuts open an abscess on the Sabbath — if it is to make an opening for it, he is liable. But if it is to draw out the pus from it, he is exempt. And concerning him who traps a snake on the Sabbath — if he got involved with it so that it would not bite him, he is exempt. But if it was for purposes of healing, he is liable.” (m. Eduyyot 2:5 [Neusner])“There are [rules] applying to offerings of the community which do not apply to offerings of the individual. For offerings of the community override the Sabbath and [the prohibitions of] uncleanness, and offerings of an individual override neither the Sabbath nor [the prohibitions of] uncleanness.” (m. Temurah 2:1)
And now, today:
How shall the faithful interpret the Sabbath command? What I’ve just quoted is merely a paltry little sampling (the last bit is from the Mishnah for those unfamiliar). But it is worth pondering from time to time and in an excellent editorial article appearing in the Wall Street Journal, Mollie Ziegler Hemingway performs said pondering on the Sabbath versus our commercial culture:
The flip side to the prosperity we enjoy is that we have lost our day of rest for another day of consumption. The pace of commerce and technology provide unheard of options for ignoring family, religion and rest–not just on the Sabbath but every day of the week.
Give it a read if you’re interested.
