INTERVIEW
In this segment, the national leader of Jewish Faith inNigeria, Paquada (Bishop) E.S Uba (08035530256) discusses the Shabbat (Sabbath) its origin, observance and blessings.
Excerpts as put together by Robert Mbeyi
Shabbat, an Island in time
The word Shabbat comes from the Hebrew words for the number seven. The Book of Genesis states that Almighty created the heavens and earth in six days and then blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on the seventh day, he rested from all his work. Shabbat is an island in time, a day of rest in the rush of activity which engulfs the other six days of the weekly cycle. For 25 hours from sundown Friday evening to night fall Saturday night we cease all creative involvements with our surroundings, transcend the worries and struggles of our daily existence and enjoy the tranquillity of creator’s day of rest.
We all know the story of how the Almighty created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day. But creation was not a one-time event. It is an on-going process. The Creator is continually creating our earth in a cosmic cycle of work and rest.
By resting on Shabbat, we bring our own lives in sync with the Divine cycle of creation. We attest to his creation of the universe, affirm our own roles as the Creator’s partners in creation and bring wholeness, holiness and purpose into our lives.
Some said no such thing exists but Shabbat may well be the panacea to modern life. Imagine a day in which the world stands still. Imagine a time when the search for one’s spiritual centre ceases because one is now at his spiritual centre.
Celebrating Shabbat is a simple yet a profound way to open ourselves and the world around us to the Divine. We welcome the Shabbat by performing the Shabbat ceremony at home surrounded by friends and family. During the Shabbat, we light candles and recite prayers to welcome the light of the Shabbat into our lives for the coming week.
This simple ceremony is a medium, through which one aligns himself with the Divine, fulfilling the Creator’s most essential commandment as it relates to bringing external and transcend light into the human sphere in a concrete way. Shabbat blesses us with the light of the Creator which sustains us and the world around us until the coming Shabbat when the weekly cycle begins anew.
One may ask, how do we know which day is the Shabbat? In the Scriptures, it is prescribed to rest on the seventh day of the week because the Creator of heaven and earth created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day. Today, Christians rest on Sundays, Muslims on Fridays and Jews on Saturdays.
Rabbi Yehuda Halevi in his 12th Century classic, “the Kuzari” points to an earlier source for the universally accepted week. He endorses the striking fact that the vast majority of the world keeps a seven day week, an evidence that this must be a very ancient custom indeed. How did it begin? When Adam was banished fromEden on the first Friday afternoon of creation, he rested that first Shabbat. He then counted six days and again rested on the seventh. Ever since then, his off springs in many parts of the world have emulated these practices, living their lives by a seven day week.
Actually, early christians observed the Jewish tradition of recognising Saturday as a day of rest. A few hundred years into it, as Christianity spread into places like what is now Italy and Greece, the day was changed to Sunday in obedience to the proclamations of the Great Roman Emperor, Constantine (AD 366-337? The then Christians had no choice but to carry out the directive in order to be allowed to live in peace. In return, the christians changed their day of worship to match that of the Romans, the day named after one of their gods (Sunday).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, most Muslims do not consider Friday as a rest day (see Wikipedia Sabbath &Islamic rest day). According to Daniel Pipes, Friday as a day of rest is an emulation of contemporary customs elsewhere.
HEBRON, 18th Century BCE Thirty eight centuries ago, Abraham and Sarah embarked on a journey to bring the idea and morals of monotheism to a predominantly pagan world. Their journey took them from their native Ur Kasdim to Charan (Meso potamia) and from there to theland ofCannan where they settled first inBeersheba and later inHebron. They pitched their tent at the desert cross roads.
Wherever they went, they taught the truth of the one deity, the Creator (Gen Chapter12 Talmud Sotah.
In Sarah’s tent, a special miracle proclaimed that Divine presence dwelt therein. The lamp she lit every Friday evening in honour of the Divine day of rest miraculously kept burning all week till the next Friday evening. When Sarah died (1677 BCE) the miracle of her Shabbat lamp ceased. But on the day of Sarah’s passing Rebeca was born and when Rebeca was brought to Sarah’s tent as the destined wife of Sarah’s son, Isaac, the miracle of the lamp returned. Once again, the light of Shabbat filled the tent of the matriarch ofIsraeland radiated its holiness throughout the entire week.
