On The Jewish Sabbath

Sabbath is an important holiday for Jewry and Judaism. There is no consensus on the conceptual origin and precise definition of Sabbath in Etymology. Among many conjectures there are three ones that sound reasonable. The most probable one is that Sabbath originates form the verb Sabat "cease" in Hebrew and can be understood as "day-off': a specific day with all work stopped. At the end of 19^th century, some of the scholars tried to seek the source of Sabbath outside Hebrew Bible, mainly based on the widely acknowledged Moses five classics and the documents of ancient Babylon. Although the broad researches about the origin of Sabbath have been in process for more than a century, there is a mysterious mask upon the Sabbath of the Jews up to nowadays. The search for the origin of Sabbath excluding Hebrew Bible is still unsuccessful.In the Hebrew Bible, Sabbath originates from God's creation. Observing Sabbath is a tenet Mount Sinai gave to the Israel people and a sign of the agreement between God and his electorates. It is traditionally regarded that, "Moses five classics" is the earliest contents concerning Sabbath. "Foreknow book" enriches the significance of Sabbath: "Amos" is the earliest book clearly stating the northern countries' cognition about the celebration of Sabbath every week. "Isaiah" partly reveals the significance of observing Sabbath. The statement in "Jeremiah" indicates the boundaries between observing and destroying Sabbath. "Book of Ezekiel" efficiently summarizes the significant evidences on observing Sabbath. "History" also has some statements about Sabbath.With the evolution of Jewish history, the implication of Sabbath is becoming richer and richer. The explanations of Judaism on Sabbath are different during different periods. The old commandments shows the existence of 'keeping the seventh day' before the establishment of monarchism. The relevant files show that Sabbath during the early days of monarchism is not only a day of celebration with the sacred ritual but also the day with all the work stopped. In the time of Rabi, Sabbath has completely become a remarkable symbol of Jewish being selected as the God's people, mainly derived from the attempt for the Jewish people to keep the uniqueness of their beliefs. In the evolution of Jewish history, the set of rules on Sabbath has gone through a continual process of adjustment, with the general tendency from strict to flexible. There are viewpoints that Sabbath is a day for the Jewish people to enjoy the holy life. In this article, the writer will explain the tendency through her experience of taking part in the Sabbath.Although keeping the rules of Sabbath shows a tendency of from strict to easy, it can not absolutely solve the in-depth problem faced by obeying to the Sabbath; contrarily, this problem will become worse and worse upon modern challenges. It has great impact on the daily life of modern Jews as well as the politics and martial activities in Israeli country. Facing the conflicts, Jews are trying to find out ways to harmony and mergence of keeping the Sabbath and modern society.The Jewish ideologists hold different opinions on the Sabbath. The ideologists of the biblical Judaism, with Philo as its representative and the ideologists of the Rabi Judaism, with Patriarchs as its representative, regard the Sabbath as a day making people refreshed. In the medieval time, the Jewish philosophers with Maimonides,Isaac Arama,Judah Halevi as their representatives, tended to detail the symbolic significance of the Sabbath. From modern times, the Orthodox, the Reform, the Conservative and the Reconstructionist Judaism have different understandings on Sabbath and the degrees and ways of their keeping the Sabbath are also slightly different. The Orthodox Judaism thought that since the God is immortal and 'Torah' is written by the God on Sinai, no rules in it including keeping the Sabbath can be changed.The Reform Judaism abandoned many customs from the Middle Age and they didn't reach a consensus among themselves on the Sabbath. The radicalism launched the Sabbatarianism movement, proposing that people could work on Sabbath. But the moderates thought this change was too far way from the Jewish tradition and agreed with neither changing the Sabbath to Sunday nor changing the ceremonies.The Conservative Judaism is in some way between the Orthodox Judaism and Reform Judaism. They emphasize the ceremonies on Sabbath as well as the actual needs and try to reconcile the tradition and reality. The Reconstructionist Judaism are similar to the Orthodox Judaism on the ceremonies of Sabbath, but they were more radical than the Reform Judaism in the theory. Mordecai M. Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, even had the thought of changing the Sabbath to Sunday in order to meet the customs of most Americans, but he finally gave up. Abraham Joshua Hesche, the well-known modern ideologist and philosopher gave the significance of Sabbath a clear explanation, which has been achieved by nobody else. "Sabbath, the holy palace in time" has stirred up the communities of both academy and religion and has deeply impressed and inspirited the present author. This article will try to discuss the significance of Jewish Sabbath from the aspect of ideology. Ideologically, Sabbath reminds the people of two worlds; the modern world and the future world. Sabbath means happiness, holiness and rest. Happiness is part of modern world, while holiness and rest are parts of the future world. The ideological significance lie in three aspects: sanctifying the life of the Jews; strengthening the national consciousness of Jewish people getting the truth of Judaism continued.