Sabbath in the Limelight
George W. Reid November/December 2000
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While Jews of less intense practice have long served in prominent leadership posts, such as Henry Kissinger, Nixon's secretary of state, Lieberman's arrival on a national ticket inevitably raises questions about how his faith would affect his possible role as vice president, even with the possibility of serving as president. After all, more than a half dozen times in American history vice presidents have been called upon in midterm to assume the presidency.
In the public mind the first concern is doubtless the Sabbath. How would a vice president or president function within accepted orthodox Sabbath parameters that exclude such activities as riding in a car, making a purchase, or signing secular documents? What would happen in emergency situations that call for immediate action? Far from being new, this question confronted ancient Jews some 2,200 years ago when the Hasmoneans, a nationalistic group defending Judaism from Hellenistic cultural and armed invasion, reached an ingenious interpretation of a passage in the biblical book of Leviticus, "You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances, by doing which a man shall live: I am the Lord" 18:5, (RSV). If the purpose of the law is to sustain life, they reasoned, then whatever endangers life, or the full exercise of life, may at times transcend the literal requirements of religious law. For the Hasmoneans and their successors this meant that even warfare could be conducted on the Sabbath if it is defensive rather than offensive, its end effect being to sustain life. So the hundreds of column inches journalists have dedicated to this topic may come, after all, to be of little substance. There is no intractable barrier in Judaism to caring for urgent necessities on the Sabbath.
But the broader effect of Senator Lieberman's selection is to raise the profile of the Sabbath. Popular stereotype says that the Sabbath belongs exclusively to the Jews, an idea at times promoted in Jewish circles; and indeed, Jewish Sabbath observance extends far into the past. If, however, the Sabbath is limited to a symbol marking only a covenant relationship between God and the Hebrew people, such a narrowing fails to grasp the breadth of the Sabbath in the Hebrew Scriptures themselves. In them is a much broader--in fact, a sweeping-- application of the Sabbath to all humanity.
In the basic Sabbath commandment provision is made for observance of the Sabbath by others beyond the Hebrews. That commandment reads, "Remember the sabbath day, to 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." Then the text specifically designates "the sojourner who is within your gates" (Exodus 20:8-10, RSV). The reason given for the Sabbath itself is "for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it [made it sacred]" ( verse 11).
By tracing the Sabbath's origin to the Creation itself, the biblical text asserts that the Sabbath was designed for all humanity. The theme is repeated in Hebrew prophets such as Isaiah, who specifically invites foreigners to join in the worship of God, being received by Him. "Every one who keeps the sabbath, and does not profane it" (Isaiah 56:6, RSV) becomes heir to the promises of God. The universal application of the Sabbath is readily apparent in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Less well known but well supported by the evidence is the deep early Christian involvement in Sabbath observance. The first Christians shared in a Jewish heritage, being distinguished mainly by their conviction that in Jesus of Nazareth is found the fulfillment of numerous Messianic prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures. One early Christian writer reports of the resurrected Jesus that "beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27, RSV).
Repeatedly the New Testament Scriptures tell us that Jesus and His disciples observed the Sabbath, a pattern continued by Paul, the earliest Christian apostle to reach large non-Jewish populations. Not until the second century do we have records of Christians observing another day on a weekly basis, and that in the setting of a deliberate effort to draw a line between themselves and the rising public scorn of Jews among the Roman citizenry.
With the Roman emperor Hadrian's crushing of the Jewish state and deportation of its population (A.D. 135) the Jewish nation disappeared from history, not to be restored until 1948 with declaration of the State of Israel. In the passing of the centuries Christians moved away from Sabbath observance to institute Sunday as a day of worship, leaving the Sabbath largely with the Jews. Still a small minority among Christians continued Sabbath observance, at the risk of being identified by their fellow Christians as "Judaizers," a particularly onerous term in the light of a prevailing anti-Semitic prejudice. Today increasing numbers of Christians are returning to Sabbath observance, principally the rapidly-growing Seventh-day Adventist Church, which with a membership now approaching 12 million has become the largest Sabbath-observing group on earth.
But Christian Sabbath observance differs in significant ways from that of the Jewish tradition, largely by a revised approach to how its specifics are to be understood. While Senator Lieberman's practice of avoiding automobile travel on Sabbath would not apply to the Christian understanding of how the day should be kept, avoidance of routine work would remain.
Still, the designation of Senator Lieberman marks a step beyond old stereotypes. Once more it has become respectable to hold strong religious beliefs and practices, and to share them openly in public. Now the time has arrived to guarantee that in America those who hold to this ancient practice will be able to do so without suffering the public ostracism and economic penalties so long levied against them as a consequence of their faith.
George W. Reid, Th.D., is director of the Biblical Research Institute, Silver Spring, Maryland.