Let’s Talk about Shabbat

The Hebrew word Shabbat comes from the Hebrew verb shavat, which literally means “to cease.” Although Shabbat (or its anglicized version, “Sabbath”) is almost universally translated as “rest” or a “period of rest,” a more literal translation would be “ceasing”, with the implication of “ceasing from work.” Thus, Shabbat is the day of ceasing from work; while resting is implied, it is not a necessary denotation of the word itself. For example, the Hebrew word for “strike” (as in work stoppage) is shevita, which comes from the same Hebrew root as Shabbat, and has the same implication, namely that the striking workers actively abstain from work, rather than passively.

Incidentally, this clarifies the often-asked theological question of why God needed to “rest” on the seventh day of Creation according to Genesis. When it is understood that God “ceased” from his labor rather than “rested” from his labour, the usage is more consistent with the Biblical view of an omnipotent God who does not “rest.”

A common linguistic confusion leads many to believe that the word means “seventh day.” Though the root for seven, or sheva, is similar in sound, it is derived from a different root word. Shabbat is the source for the English term Sabbath, and for the word in many languages meaning “Saturday”, such as the Arabic As-Sabt (السبت), the Armenian Shabat (Շաբաթ), the Persian shambe, Spanish and Portuguese Sábado , the Greek Savato, the Russian “subbota” (суббота) and the Italian word Sabato. It is also responsible for the word “sabbatical,” although that concept is also derived from the Jewish concept of the sabbatical year.

Observance of Shabbat is mentioned a number of times in the Torah, most notably as the fourth of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11 and Deuteronomy 5:12-15). Other instances are Exodus 31:12-17 and 35:2-3, Leviticus 19:3 and 30, 23:3 and Numbers 28:9-10 (the sacrifices). It is referred to directly by the prophets Isaiah (56:4,6) and Ezekiel (ch. 20, 22, 23) and Nehemiah 9:14, apart from numerous other allusions in the Jewish Bible.

Jewish law’s definition defines a day as ending at dusk and nightfall, which is when the next day then begins. Thus, Shabbat begins before sundown Friday night and ends at after nightfall Saturday night (traditionally, after three stars can be seen in the sky). The added time between sunset and nightfall on Saturday night owes to the ambiguous status of that part of the day according to Jewish law.

On occasions the word Shabbat can refer to the law of Shemittah (Sabbatical year) or to the Jewish holidays, or to a week of days, dependent on the context.