We often hear how important the Ten Commandments are in our society as the foundation of Western Civilization.  While many people talk about keeping these basic laws, one wonders how many people actually are able to live by them.  Aside from the very difficult commandment against coveting (a topic for another time, perhaps), I’m thinking, in particular, of the fourth commandment about the Sabbath, which appears in two different versions in the Bible. 

In Exodus 20, we are told:

Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.  Six day you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God:  you shall not do any work – you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements.  For in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

Here we are told to “remember the Sabbath day” and the reason given is that God rested from creation on the seventh day, blessed it and made it holy.  We keep it holy by remembering it and by not laboring on it.

In Deuteronomy 5, Moses recalls the events at Sinai forty years earlier and repeats the Ten Commandments, but when he gets to the fourth one he states it somewhat differently, as follows:

Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; you shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the stranger in your settlements, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do.  Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God freed you from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

Now the commandment is not “remember” but “observe”.  The reason given for the commandment is not the remembrance of the Creation story, but the application of the lessons of the Exodus story to those who serve us now.  When we observe Shabbat properly, we maintain the dignity of all of the creatures on the earth in remembrance of the Exodus.  It is a completely different version of the fourth commandment.

Was Moses having a senior moment and, failing to recall the original version of the fourth commandment, decided to wing it?  Our Jewish sages say “no.”  Both versions of the biblical text are valid, both are the word of the living God.  In fact, they believe, God said both versions at the same time, just as we sing in the hymn L’cha Dodi at our Friday night service, “Shamor v’zachor b’dibur echad hishmianu El hameyuchad.”  “’Observe’ and ‘Remember’ in one commandment did the one God cause us to hear.”  When we sanctify the Sabbath day over a cup of wine at home on Friday evening, we assert that the Sabbath is both in remembrance of the works of creation and also a memorial of the Exodus from Egypt.  These two central events are inextricably linked to the Sabbath day.

In the Creation story, we are not told that God “rested” on the seventh day, but back in Genesis, it says “vayishbot,” from the same root as Shabbat, the Sabbath.  God “stopped” on the seventh day.  He could have continued, He could have perfected the world, He could have got it right with no war, no dissension, no inequities, but He intentionally chose to stop and leave room for human accomplishment, to allow us to take up the role of partners in creation.  The Creation story ends with the words, “For on that day God stopped all of His labor which He had created to be done.”  He made a world crying out for more things to be done by us to make it better.  The Sabbath day is a day for us all to stop and look at the world that God has created, to appreciate all the beauty of nature, and give thanks for the wonder of His handiwork, as we contemplate the work that we have before us in the days ahead.

One of the areas God left unfinished was the area of human relationships.  He brought the people of Israel first into slavery in Egypt and then later redeemed us from that state in order to sensitize us to the plight of the stranger, of the unfortunate, to open our eyes and ears to the needs of the lowest elements in society.  We are always to remember the stranger, for we were strangers in Egypt.  The Sabbath day is also intended to be a day when we experience a taste of that ideal society when all will live in harmony and in peace, the third central event, the one yet to come, the Sabbath day of the Messianic era.  On the Sabbath, the people of the world are called upon to stop for the day and take note of our common humanity and our common task to complete the work of creation during the six other days of the week.

For Jews, the two versions of the fourth commandment complement one another by emphasizing both the positive and negative aspects of Sabbath observance.  On the positive side, we are to “remember” Shabbat by preparing our homes as if to greet a special guest each week.  We dress for the occasion, we set a special table with our best china and silver, we prepare a feast, and the whole family makes time to dine together.  Candles are lit, blessings are bestowed upon the children, the day is sanctified over a cup of wine and braided loaves of challah bread.  We are to speak words of Torah, sing Sabbath songs and conclude the meal with a rousing chorus of the grace after meals, birkat hamazon.  The day continues with times for prayer and study, two more special meals, and periods of rest and relaxation.  At the conclusion, we send off the Sabbath with the Havdalah ritual over wine, spices, and a braided candle.  This is how we remember the Sabbath.

As for observing the day, that is equally important.  How in our busy 24/7 schedule can we find time for such a special observance unless we declare a moratorium on creative labor during that time?  For that one day each week, we are to do no work.  The sages, seeing how the Torah connects Shabbat to the instructions on building the desert Tabernacle, determine that 39 categories of labor involved in creating that sacred structure, a miniature universe as it were, are the same types of labor which are prohibited on Shabbat.  When we avoid those labors, we create what Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel called a “sanctuary in time.”  We literally carve out of the time allotted us on earth, a place where we can experience the joy and relaxation of the Sabbath day.

Our Christian neighbors instituted a “Lord’s Day” on Sunday rather than keeping the Jewish Sabbath that Jesus observed.  They tried to make it into a Sabbath-like day.  There were in the early days of this country and there still are in some places, people and congregations that adhere to that old-fashioned Sabbath, who maintain the holiness of the Sabbath, but on Sunday instead.  In recent years, however, we see that Sunday has once again become rather secular for the vast majority of our society.  Yes, church services are held in the morning, but then just about any other activity is permitted.  The shopping malls are open, many businesses run seven days a week, and Sunday has become like any other day for many people in our community.  People who are off from their regular jobs, continue to do other forms of work.  They use Sunday as a day for mowing the lawn, doing household chores, or running off in many different directions.  Sunday as family day, is no longer what it used to be for gentile or Jew.

Unfortunately, Friday night and Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, also is too often completely forgotten, or observed only in the most superficial manner.  It is wonderful that there are still some people who have adopted the traditional Friday night meal as a part of their family life.  I wish there were many more.  Yet for too many, once the dinner plates have been removed from the Friday night table, the Sabbath comes to an end for them.  They’ve made a great beginning, but the rest of the day is often spent in totally secular pursuits without any attempt to maintain the sense of Sabbath holiness with which they began.  In our hectic society, I feel, the Sabbath is needed more than ever and yet, unfortunately, it is ignored more than ever.

It is for this reason, that annually Jewish congregations across the United States and Canada have signed onto the Shabbat Across America project.  We invite Jews to join in a Friday night service which will be explained as it proceeds and then to stay on for a traditional Sabbath dinner that follows.  Several synagogues in New Hampshire, including Temple Israel in Manchester, are participating this week in Shabbat Across America.  It is an opportunity once more to “Remember the Sabbath day” in the hopes that more of us may come to “Observe” it week after week.