Sabbath

I came into contact with Orthodox Jewish culture at Brandeis University. Senior year two friends of mine shared an apartment with two Orthodox Jews. From sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday they celebrated Shabbat – the sabbath. They did no work. They met with other Jews for special dinners. They went to temple services.

A lot of their practices seemed crazy to me. They taped all the light switches in the apartment to the “on” position because flipping a light switch fell under the category of work. On days when they hosted lunch on Saturday, they would turn the oven on Friday afternoon and leave it running all night Friday and all day Saturday so that they could reheat the food they had prepared without doing the work of turning the oven on or off. To me that seemed excessive and wasteful of energy – the opposite of the good stewardship of the Earth that God commands in Genesis. But such was their understanding of sabbath restrictions.

But wastefulness wasn't the only thing I saw in their sabbath observance. I saw great beauty as well. Phones were shut off on the Sabbath. No calls, texts, or emails interrupted the peace of the day. They always celebrated the sabbath in community, dining and praying with other Jews. Sometimes they invited goys like their roommates to come share in the sabbath meal.

Orthodox Jews and Catholics worship the same God. Yet we Catholics are terrible at celebrating the sabbath. I can criticize my friends' roommates for aspects of their celebration of the sabbath, but who am I to talk trash when I don't even have a sabbath celebration? And let's not pretend that going to mass on Sunday counts as the sabbath. The sabbath is a weekly day of rest, not a weekly hour of prayer.

In his book What Makes Us Catholic, Thomas H. Groome argues that God mandates the sabbath for our sake. We need time to rest and just enjoy each other.

So recently, I'm trying to figure out my own rules for observing the sabbath. It doesn't have to be as legalistic as my friends' roommates. I remember reading about a Jew who qualified “working” as anything he felt he HAD to do. So tending the garden was acceptable on the sabbath right up until the moment it felt like a chore. Some millennials observe a teach sabbath – they turn off their phones and computers for one day a week as a way to unplug and recharge.

Here's where I'm at:

• Sabbath is defined from the start of mass at 6:30pm on Saturday night until the end of dinner/community time on Sunday night.
• No computer use during the sabbath.
• No chores during the sabbath (unless there is an exceptional need e.g. there was no running water on Saturday and laundry needs doing).
• Cooking is allowed during the sabbath, and should be enjoyed.
• All other activities will be sabbath approved only if they pass the Want to/Have to Test (Am I doing this because I want to do it, or am I doing it because I have to do it?) with a resounding “Want to.”

 I'm not telling you to adopt a sabbath practice. I'm not condemning anyone for not having one. This is just where I'm at regarding the sabbath. I want to do the sabbath better, and this is where I start.