IV. Sabbath and Festivals.
The daily work which has chiefly the well-being of the body as its aim must be interrupted on certain days which the Almighty has appointed for the promotion of man’s spiritual well-being. Sabbath and Festivals are the days thus appointed, and are therefore called מועדי יי “the seasons of the Lord,” and מקראי קדש “holy convocations.” The blessing derived from the observance of Holy-days in the true spirit is described by the prophet as follows: “If thou keep back thy foot because of the sabbath, from doing thy business on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and shalt honour it, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own business, nor speaking thine own words: then thou shalt delight thyself in the Lord: and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob, thy father” (Isa. lviii. 13, 14). To those who fail to observe the seasons of the Lord in the true spirit, the prophet says in the name of the Almighty: “Your new-moons and your festivals my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them” (ibid. i. 14).
Maimonides[27] comprehends the various duties and observances of the Holy-days in the following four terms: זכור “remember,” שמור “take heed,” כבוד “honour,” and עונג “delight.” The first two are found in the Pentateuch, and form the beginning of the fourth commandment in Exodus and Deuteronomy respectively; the other two occur in the above description [[340]]of the Sabbath quoted from Isaiah (lviii. 13, 14). Following the example of our great teacher, we shall likewise treat of the laws and customs of Sabbath and Festivals under these four heads:[28]—
a. זכור “Remember.”
Remember the Sabbath-day; speak of it, of its holiness and its blessings. We fulfil this duty when Sabbath comes in, by the Kiddush, “the sanctification of the day,” in which we praise the Almighty for the boon bestowed upon us by the institution of the Sabbath; and when Sabbath goes out, by the Habhdalah, in which we praise God for the “distinction” made between the holy and the ordinary days. We have both Kiddush and Habhdalah in a double form: (a) as a portion of the Amidah in the Evening Service; the Kiddush being the middle section of the Amidah, the Habhdalah consisting of a prayer added to the fourth paragraph beginning אתה חנן; (b) as a separate service especially intended for our homes. It is this home-service that we generally understand by the terms Kiddush and Habhdalah, and in this sense they are employed in the following.[29]
Kiddush.
There is a traditional explanation of the term zachor: זכרהו על היין “remember it over the wine.” As “wine [[341]]gladdens the heart of man” and forms an important element in a festive meal, it has been ordered that our meal on the eve[30] of Sabbath and Festival should be begun with a cup of wine in honour of the day, and that mention should be made of the holiness of the day before partaking of the wine. The Kiddush consists of two blessings (ברכות): one over the wine,[31] and one that refers to the holiness of the day. On Holy-days—except the last days of Passover—a third blessing (שהחינו) follows, praising God for having granted us life and enabled us again to celebrate the Festival. On Friday evening a portion from Genesis (i. 31 to ii. 3) is added, which contains the first mention of the institution of Sabbath. If a Festival happens to fall on Sunday, we add part of the Habhdalah to the Kiddush on Saturday evening,[32] [[342]]referring to the distinction between the holiness of the Sabbath and that of the Festivals.
The Kiddush is part of the Sabbath or Festival evening meal, and in the absence of the latter the Kiddush is omitted.[33] In Synagogues of the German and Polish Minhag the Reader recites the Kiddush at the conclusion of the Maarib Service. This custom is a survival of the ancient way of providing for the poor and the stranger. In the absence of better accommodation lodging and food were given to the needy in rooms adjoining the Synagogue, or even in the Synagogue itself. It was for these that the Reader recited the Kiddush, before they commenced the evening meal, as most probably wine was not served to all. Although circumstances have changed the mode of maintaining the poor, and the latter find no longer lodging and board in the Synagogue, the Kiddush has been retained as part of the Maarib Service, except on the first two nights of Passover, when there had never been an occasion for reading Kiddush in the Synagogue. The poor were treated on these nights with four cups of wine each, and they recited Kiddush by themselves as part of the Seder. [[343]]
Habhdalah הבדלה.
Habhdalah is recited in the evening following Sabbath or Holy-day, after the Evening Service. A cup of wine is raised, and the ברכה over wine is followed by another ברכה, in which God is praised for the distinction made between the holy and the ordinary day (בין קדש לחול), or between two kinds of holiness (בין קדש לקדש) in case Sabbath is followed by a Holy-day.—On Sabbath night we take a candle and a spice-box, and add two blessings after that over wine; in the one we thank God for the enjoyment of the fragrance, in the other for the benefit He bestowed on us by the creation of light. A few verses from the Bible, especially the Prophets, precede the Habhdalah.
The origin of the introduction of the blessings for light and for spices in the Habhdalah may be the following:—The principal meal of the day used to be taken about sunset; light and burning incense were essential elements of a festive meal. On Sabbath these could not be had, and were therefore enjoyed immediately after the going out of Sabbath. Although the custom of having incense after the meal has long ceased, it has survived in the Habhdalah, and has, in course of time, received another, a more poetical interpretation. The Sabbath inspires us with cheerfulness, gives us, as it were, an additional soul—נְשָׁמָה יְתֵרָה—traces of which are left on the departure of Sabbath, and are symbolised by the fragrance of the spices. For the use of the special light there has likewise been suggested a second reason, namely, that it is intended at the commencement [[344]]of the week to remind us of the first product of Creation, which was light.
There are a few customs connected with the Habhdalah that may be noticed here.
(1.) The wine, when poured into the cup, is allowed to flow over, as a symbol of the overflowing Divine blessing which we wish and hope to enjoy in the coming week.
(2.) Some dip their finger in wine and pass it over their eyes, in allusion to the words of the Nineteenth Psalm (ver. 9), “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” The act expresses the love of the Divine commandments (חִבּוּב מִצְוָה).
(3.) Only male persons partake of the wine; they have more interest in the Habhdalah as the signal for the resumption of ordinary work and business.—The exclusion of women from the wine of Habhdalah may also have its origin in the fact that Jewish women generally abstained from taking wine, considering strong drink suitable only for the male portion of mankind. They only partake of the wine of Kiddush on account of its importance; to Habhdalah less importance was ascribed.
(4.) On reaching the words בין אור לחשך, “between light and darkness,” some hold their hands against the light, the fingers bent inside, in illustration of the words which they utter, showing darkness and shadow inside and light outside.—With the practice of these and similar customs we must take good care that we should not combine any superstitious motive, or join actions which are really superstitious, and did not originate in Jewish thought and Jewish traditions. [[345]]
We further remember the Sabbath-day to sanctify it by increased devotion, by reading special Lessons from the Pentateuch and the Prophets, and by attending religious instruction given by teachers and preachers.
Besides various additions in the Service, and the substitution of one paragraph concerning Sabbath or Festival for the thirteen middle paragraphs of the Amidah, there is another Service inserted between the Morning and the Afternoon Services; it is called Musaph, “the Additional Service,” and corresponds to the additional offering ordained for Sabbath and Festival (Num. xxviii. 9, sqq.).
An essential element in the Morning Service is the Reading from the Torah (קריאת התורה) and the Prophets (הפטרה). A periodical public reading from the Law was enjoined in the following words: “At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men and women and children, and the stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law; and that their children, which have not known anything, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God” (Deut. xxxi. 10–13).
A seven years’ interval would surely have destroyed the impression produced by the reading. The reading was probably repeated throughout the country at shorter intervals. Tradition ascribes to Moses the institution of reading the Law every Sabbath, Monday, and Thursday morning, in order that three days might never pass [[346]]without Torah. Ezra is said to have added the reading on Sabbath afternoon, and to have made various other regulations with regard to the reading of the Law.
Quantity and manner of reading were at first, no doubt, variable. In the course of time certain systems found favour and became the fixed rule. Some completed the reading of the whole Pentateuch in three years, others in one year. The former mode was gradually displaced by the latter, and the attempts which have lately been made to revive it have not succeeded. Traces of the triennial reading may be noticed in the number of sedarim contained in the five books of the Pentateuch. At present, however, the annual course is followed in almost all our Synagogues. The section read on one Sabbath is called sidra; the first, בראשית, is read the first Sabbath after the Feast of Tabernacles, and the last sidra is read on Simchath-torah (the 23rd of Tishri).
For the Festivals such sections were selected as contained either direct or indirect reference to the Festivals. If these happen to be on a Sabbath, the ordinary reading is interrupted, and that of the Festivals substituted for it.
The number of persons who were to take part in the reading varied according as the people were likely to devote less or more time to Divine Service: on weekdays and on Sabbath afternoon three, on New-moon and Chol-hammoed four, on the Festivals five, on the Day of Atonement six,[34] and on Sabbath seven. Some may have required the assistance of the chazan, and in [[347]]some cases the chazan’s voice was the only one that was heard; gradually the chazan became the reader, and the original reader became silent, being content with reciting the b’rachoth. Only in the case of the Bar-mitsvah, the Chathan-torah, and the Chathan-b’reshith the original practice has been retained.
As regards the order of those who take part in the reading of the Law, the first place is given to a Cohen, i.e., a descendant of Aaron, the priest; the second to a Levite, i.e., a non-priest of the tribe of Levi; and then follow other Israelites, that are neither Levites nor Cohanim, without any prescribed order. The last who concludes the reading from the Law on those days on which a chapter from the Prophets is also read is called maftir, “concluding;” and the lesson from the Prophets is called haphtarah, “conclusion.”
In the selection of the haphtarah care was taken that it should contain some reference to the contents of the lesson from the Pentateuch, and as there was not much choice, the haphtarah, once chosen, was as a rule read again on the recurrence of the same sidra. Different communities had different series of haphtaroth. A few negative rules concerning the selection of the haphtarah are mentioned in the Mishnah (Megillah iv. 10); Ezek. i. and xvi., 2 Sam. xi. and xiii., are to be excluded. These rules, however, were not observed, as Ezek. i. is the haphtarah for the first day of the Feast of Weeks. There is an ancient rule about the nature of the haphtaroth between the Fast of Tamuz and New-year; viz., there should be three haphtaroth of “rebuke” [[348]]and seven of “comfort” (נ׳ דפרענותא, ז׳ דנחמתא). The former are taken from Jeremiah (i. and ii.) and Isaiah (i.); the latter are selected from Isaiah (xl. to lxvi.)
Various accounts are given of the origin of the haphtarah. One account traces its origin to a period of persecution, when the Jews were not allowed to read from the Torah, and the scrolls of the Law were either confiscated or concealed. In both cases it was easy to read from the Prophets, for this could be done by heart and in any place; whilst for the reading of the Torah it was necessary to produce a copy of the Law. According to another account, the haphtarah served as a protest against the theory of the Samaritans, who recognised the Torah alone as holy. But it is more likely and more natural to suppose that the haphtarah was introduced as soon as the Prophets became part of the Holy Scriptures.
There was a tendency to have recourse to the Divine messages of future comfort and glory when the present was gloomy and sad. At the end of the Service or a religious discourse, just before leaving the Synagogue or the Beth ha-midrash, passages from the Prophets were read, in order that the people might carry away with them a strengthened faith in God and in the ultimate victory of their religion. On Sabbath morning the lessons from the Prophets were of greater importance, since a larger number congregated, and more time could be devoted to it. A b’rachah therefore introduced it, and b’rachoth, including a prayer for the restoration of Zion, followed it. The name haphtarah suggests this explanation; it denotes literally “causing to leave,” “departure,” or “conclusion.” [[349]]
After the return of the Jews from Babylon they spoke the Chaldee dialect; the lessons from the Bible were accordingly accompanied by a Chaldee translation called targum. The translation was not always literal, but was frequently a paraphrase. It was given, as a rule, after each verse, by an appointed methurgeman.—In communities which only understood Greek the Greek version was read. A Spanish translation of the haphtarah is still added at present on the Fast of Ab in the Portuguese Ritual; but otherwise the practice of adding a translation to the text has long since been discontinued.
b. שמור “Take Heed.”
The negative commandment concerning the Holy-days is: לא תעשה כל מלאכה, “Thou shalt do no manner of work.” The very name Sabbath (שבת, “rest”) implies absence of labour. We are commanded to rest on the Sabbath, but not to indulge in laziness and indolence, which are by no means conducive to the health of the body or the soul. The Sabbath rest is described in our Sabbath Afternoon Service as “voluntary and congenial, true and faithful, and happy and cheerful.” Moderate exercise, cheerful reading, and pleasant conversation are indispensable for a rest of this kind.
What is to be understood by the term “labour” or “work” in the prohibition “Thou shalt not do any manner of work”? The Pentateuch gives no definition of the term. But the Israelites, when they were told that work was prohibited on Sabbath, and that [[350]]any breach of the law was to be punished with death, must have received orally a full explanation of the prohibition. A case is mentioned of one who profaned the Sabbath by gathering sticks, and was put to death; this could not have been done if any doubt had been left in his mind whether the act of gathering sticks was included in the prohibition.
A few instances of work prohibited on a Sabbath-day are met with in the Bible. In connection with the manna, the prohibition of cooking and baking is mentioned; also the commandment, “Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day” (Exod. xvi. 29); i.e., we must not travel or go beyond a certain distance[35] on the Sabbath. Another act distinctly forbidden is contained in the words, “Ye shall kindle no fire in all your dwellings on the day of rest” (ibid. xxxv. 3). The prophet Amos (viii. 5), in rebuking the Israelites for cheating their fellow-men, puts the following words into their mouth: “When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may open our stores of wheat?” This shows that the Israelites conducted no business on New-moon and Sabbath. Jeremiah (xvii. 21 sqq.) says as follows: “Thus saith the Lord, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in [[351]]by the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day.”—Nehemiah relates (xiii. 15): “In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine-presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. Then I said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do and profane the sabbath day?” As a general rule, we may say that the work prohibited on Sabbath and Festivals embraces two classes: viz., (1) All such acts as are legally—i.e., in the Oral Law—defined as מלאכה “work.” It makes no difference whether we consider any of them as labour or not. Under thirty-nine different heads[36] they are enumerated in the Mishnah (Shabbath vii. 2). The following are a few of them:—Ploughing, sowing, reaping, threshing, [[352]]grinding, baking, hunting, killing an animal, tanning, sewing, writing, kindling light or fire, and carrying things abroad.
(2.) Everything which our conscience tells us to be inappropriate for the Sabbath; acts which come neither under the head of מלאכה nor under that of שבות, but which would tend to change the Sabbath into an ordinary day; e.g., preparing for our daily business transactions, although such preparation does not involve an actual breach of any of the Sabbath laws.
Whatever we are not allowed to do ourselves, we must not have done for us by a co-religionist, who deliberately disregards the fourth commandment. Neither must we employ non-Israelites to do our work on Sabbath, except in case of need; e.g., in case of illness or fear of illness.
As regards Holy-days, there is the general rule that work (מלאכה) prohibited on Sabbath must not be done on Holy-days: “Save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you” (Exod. xii. 16); that is to say, it is allowed on Festivals to cook, to bake, or to prepare food in any other way.[37] Of course, for the Festival that happens to fall on a Sabbath, the [[353]]laws of Sabbath remain in force. The Day of Atonement is in this respect equal to Sabbath.
c. ענג “Delight.”
The principal and noblest delight yielded by Holy-days is the pleasure we feel in more frequent communion with the Divine Being, in the purer and holier thoughts with which we are inspired when at rest from ordinary work, and able to devote ourselves more fully [[354]]to the contemplation of the works and words of God. In this sense the day of rest is described in one of the hymns (זמירות) after supper as “a foretaste of the world to come” (מעין עולם הבא יום שבת מנוחה).
But oneg shabbath includes also delight of a less spiritual character. We are not commanded on the days of rest to forget altogether the wants of the body. On the contrary. Nehemiah, when on the first day of the seventh month, that is, on New-year, he perceived that his brethren were sad, addressed them thus: “Go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet, and send portions unto him for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto the Lord: neither be ye grieved; for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. viii. 10). The same conception of “the sabbath unto the Lord” is met with in Talmud, Midrash, and throughout the whole of the Rabbinical literature. In one of our Sabbath-hymns (זמירות) we say: “This day is for Israel, light and joy, a sabbath of rest;” and in our prayers for Sabbath we glory in being shom’re shabbath ve-kor’e oneg, “observers of the sabbath, and such as call it a delight.”—With regard to the Festivals, the duty of rejoicing is repeatedly enjoined (Deut. xvi. 11, 14).
In our regulations, customs, and prayers for Sabbath and Festivals, this duty is clearly indicated. All fasting and mourning is prohibited. Care was taken that Divine Service should be free from such prayers as would be likely to create feelings of grief and sadness.[38] A special formula has also been introduced for the [[355]]expression of our sympathy with the sick and the mourner on Sabbath and Festivals.[39]
When any of the obligatory fasts—except the Day of Atonement—happens to fall on a Sabbath, the fasting is put off (נדחה) till the next day, or kept, as in the case of the fast of Esther, on the preceding Thursday. Tradition has raised the taking of the three regular meals on Sabbath (שלש סעודות), viz., supper, breakfast, and dinner, to a religious act—a mitsvah, and the religious character of the meals is shown by the special prayers and hymns—zemiroth—which accompany them. A fourth meal is, according to some authority, likewise obligatory; whilst, according to another authority, it may be replaced by spiritual food, by reading and studying the Torah.
d. כבוד “Honour.”
We honour the day inwardly by considering it a holy, distinguished season, which ought to be devoted to higher objects than the wants of our body. Our mind should be entirely turned aside from our daily business, in order to be free for loftier and holier thoughts. For the purpose of effecting this inward distinction of the Sabbath, we honour it also outwardly by various things, which are partly a symbol, partly a reminder of the distinction claimed by the day. We honour the Sabbath, therefore, by giving a festive appearance to our meals, our dress, and our dwelling. The [[356]]principal thing required is neatness and cheerfulness; not luxury. On the contrary, we are guided in this respect by the principle: Make rather thy Sabbath an ordinary day—i.e., omit the distinction in food and dress—than render thyself dependent on the support of thy fellow-men.[40]
It is customary to have two loaves on the table, over which the blessing ha-motsee is said. They are to remind us of the double portion of bread or manna (לחם משנה, Exod. xvi. 22) given to the Israelites in the wilderness on the sixth day because of the succeeding Sabbath-day. The cloth spread beneath the loaves, and the cover over them, represent symbolically the dew which both lay on the ground under the manna and also over it.[41] The origin of this custom of covering the bread may perhaps be found in the following Talmudic law: “If a meal that has commenced on Friday afternoon is continued in the night, it must be interrupted when Sabbath comes in; a cloth is to be spread over the bread whilst the Kiddush is recited” (Babyl. Talm. Pesachim, 100a). The spreading of the cloth appears to be here merely a sign of the pause, and the distinction between the ordinary meal and that of Sabbath.[42] That which was at first ordained for [[357]]special cases became in course of time a general custom.[43]
The loaves are called birchoth (ברכות), taashir (תעשיר), or challah (חלה). The first name they received as symbols of God’s blessing, the double portion of manna which the Almighty sent to the Israelites on Friday because of the Sabbath (see Rashi on Gen. ii. 3). The verse, “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich” (תעשיר, Prov. x. 22), suggested the second name. Challah reminds us of the commandment to give the first part of the dough to the priest (Num. xv. 17–21). Although at present this commandment cannot be carried out, we separate a small piece, called challah, of the dough which we prepare for bread, and burn it, after having recited an appropriate blessing.[44] It is customary to prepare the dough for the Sabbath loaves at home, in order to be able to act in accordance with this custom. This is one of the religious acts which it is the special duty of women to perform, and some of the pious women of Israel (נשים צדקניות) have the praiseworthy custom to lay something aside for charity when performing this or similar religious acts.
Another act performed in honour of Sabbath and [[358]]Festivals is the kindling of special lights before the holy day comes in, to indicate symbolically the approach of a day of light and cheerfulness. This duty is likewise the privilege of the housewife[45] or her representative. Before[46] kindling the lights the following blessing is recited: ברוך אתה … וצונו להדליק נר של שבת “Blessed art thou … and hast commanded us to kindle the sabbath lights.” יום טוב, יום הכפורים, שבת ויום טוב, or שבת ויום הכפורים is substituted for שבת according as a Holy-day, the Day of Atonement, or these days when they happen to fall on a Saturday, come in. On Festivals, except the last days of Passover, the following blessing, called שהחינו, is added: ברוך … שהחינו וקימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה “Blessed art thou … who hast kept us in life, preserved us, and enabled us to reach this season.”