other: Sabbath (disambiguation)

A Sabbath or sabbath is generally a weekly day of rest and/or time of worship that is observed in any of several faiths. The term derives from the Hebrew shabbat (שבת), "to cease", which was first used in the Biblical account of the seventh day of Creation. Observation and remembrance of the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments (the fourth in the original Jewish, the Eastern Orthodox, and most Protestant traditions, the third in Roman Catholic and Lutheran traditions). Many viewpoints and definitions have arisen over the millennia. The term has been used to describe a similar weekly observance in any of several other faiths; the new moon; any of seven annual festivals in Judaism and some Christian traditions; any of eight annual festivals in Wicca (usually "sabbat"); and a year of rest in religious or secular usage, originally every seventh year.

Jewish tradition

The Jewish weekly Sabbath and High Sabbaths are also observed by a minority of Christians.

Weekly Sabbath

The original Sabbath (shabbat, shabbos, shabbes, shobos, etc.) is a weekly day of rest for Israel, now observed from sundown on Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night. Most Sabbath-keepers regard this seventh-day Sabbath to have been instituted as a "perpetual covenant 1 the people of Israel" (Exodus 31:13-17), a sign in respect for the day during which God rested after having completed the Creation in six days (Genesis 2:2-3, Exodus 20:8-11); Isaiah extends the term to include even corrupted rest-day traditions (1:13). (Some prominent rabbis believe the Sabbath was originally kept according to the four phases of the moon, every seven or eight days.) Sabbath desecration was officially punishable by death (Exodus 31:15); thirty-nine prohibited categories of work are listed in Tractate Shabbat (Talmud). Customarily, Shabbat is ushered in by lighting candles shortly before sunset, at halakhically calculated times that change from week to week and from place to place. Several times a year, the weekly Sabbath is designated as one of the Special Sabbaths, such as Shabbat Teshuvah, the Sabbath of Repentance prior to Yom Kippur. (In a distinct minority, some European Reform Jews have moved Sabbath observances to Sunday.)

Sabbath as week

By synecdoche (naming a part for the whole), the term "Sabbath" also came to mean simply "week" in Jewish sources by the time of the Septuagint. Jesus's parable of the Pharisee and the Publican describes the Pharisee as fasting "twice a week" (dis tou sabbatou), literally, "twice of the Sabbath".

Annual Sabbaths

Seven annual Biblical festivals, called by the name shabbaton in Hebrew and "High Sabbath" in English, serve as supplemental testimonies to the plan of the weekly Sabbath. These are recorded in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy and do not necessarily occur on the weekly Sabbath. They include the first and seventh days of Unleavened Bread or Passover (Pesach); Pentecost (Shavuot); Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah); Atonement (Yom Kippur, the "Sabbath of the Sabbaths"); and the first and eighth days of Tabernacles (Sukkoth).