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Sabbath or a 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 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

Jewish Shabbat and High Sabbaths are also observed by a minority of Christians.

Weekly Sabbath

Original Sabbath (shabbat, shabbos, shabbes, shobos, etc.) is a weekly day of rest, 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 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 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. Shabbat is a widely noted hallmark of Jewish peoples; the Subbotniks (literally, Sabbatarians) are a Russian sect, categorized as either Jews or Judaizing Christians, that became particularly branded by strict Sabbath observance. Several weekly Shabbats a year are designated as Special Sabbaths, such as Shabbat Teshuvah, Repentance Sabbath, 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" (Greek 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 Shabbat. These are recorded in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy and do not necessarily occur on Shabbat. They include the first and seventh days of Pesach (Passover); Shavuot (Pentecost); Rosh Hashanah (Trumpets); Yom Kippur, the "Sabbath of Sabbaths" (Atonement); and the first and eighth days of Sukkoth (Tabernacles).

The modern Hebrew term shabbaton or shaboson also means a retreat or program for education, and usually celebration, that is held on Shabbat or over a weekend with special focus on Sabbath.

Seventh-year Sabbatical

The year of Shmita (Hebrew שמיטה, literally, "release"), also called the Sabbatical Year, is the seventh year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by the Torah for the Land of Israel. During Shmita, the land is left to lie fallow and all agricultural activity—including plowing, planting, pruning, and harvesting—is forbidden by Torah law. Other cultivation techniques—such as watering, fertilizing, weeding, spraying, trimming, and mowing—may be performed as preventative measures only, not to improve the growth of trees or plants. Additionally, any fruits which grow of their own accord are deemed ownerless and may be picked by anyone. A variety of laws also apply to the sale, consumption and disposal of Shmita produce. A second aspect of Shmita concerns debts and loans: when the year ends, personal debts are considered nullified and forgiven. In similar fashion, the Torah required a slave who had worked for six years to go free in the seventh year.

Christian tradition

In Christianity, both those who observe the seventh day as Sabbath and those who observe the first day as Sabbath lay claim to the names "Sabbatarian" for themselves and "Lord's Day" for Sabbath, each group believing its position to be taught by the Bible; similarly for others who hold to strong Sabbath principles.

First-day Sabbath

In the majority of Christendom (Roman Catholicism, some Eastern Orthodoxy, and much Protestantism), "Sabbath" is a synonym of "Lord's Day" (Sunday), which is kept in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ, and often celebrated with the Eucharist. It is often the day of rest, and usually the day of communal worship. The Lord's Day is considered both the first day and the "eighth day" of the seven-day week (or, in some calendars, Sunday is designated the seventh day of the week). Relatively few Christians regard first-day observance as entailing all of the ordinances of Shabbat. The related Latter Day Saint movement generally follows the stronger of Christian Sabbatarian traditions, avoiding shopping, leisure activities, and idleness on the first day, and avoiding work unless absolutely necessary. Sometimes the Lord's Day is observed by those who believe Sabbath corresponds to Saturday but is obsolete. In Oriental Orthodoxy, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has observed both Sunday Lord's Day and Saturday Sabbath in different ways for several centuries, as have other Eastern Orthodox traditions. As another minority view, some modern Christians uphold Sabbath but do not limit its observance to either Saturday or Sunday, instead advocating rest on any chosen day of the week, or advocating Sabbath as instead a symbolic metaphor for rest in Christ.

Seventh-day Sabbath

In several Christian denominations, Sabbath is kept in similar manner as in Judaism, but observance ends at Saturday sunset instead of Saturday nightfall. Seventh Day Baptists have found Sabbath an important part of their beliefs and practices since the mid-17th century, also informing the doctrine of the similar but larger Seventh-day Adventist group in the mid-19th century. They and others believe that keeping seventh-day Sabbath is a moral obligation arising out of the Ten Commandments that honors God as Creator and Deliverer. They also use "Lord's Day" to mean the seventh day, based on Scriptures in which God calls it "my day" and "of the LORD". Adventists originally formally identified the problem of defining Sabbath worldwide on a round earth; some seventh-day Sabbatarians make use of the International Date Line, while others (such as some Alaskan Adventists) observe Sabbath according to Jerusalem time instead of local time. Many of the Lemba in southern Africa, like some other African tribes, are Christians yet claim common descent from the Jewish people, keep one day a week holy like Shabbat, and have many beliefs and practices linked to Judaism.

Monthly Sabbath

The new moon, occurring every 29 or 30 days, is an important separately sanctioned occasion in Judaism and some other faiths. It is not widely regarded as Sabbath, but some native messianic Pentecostals, such as the New Israelites of Peru, do keep the day of the new moon as Sabbath or rest day, from dusk to dusk. Their new moon services can last all day.

Annual Sabbath

In South Africa, Christian Boers have celebrated December 16, now called the Day of Reconciliation, as annual Sabbath (a holy day of thanksgiving) since 1838. Commemorating a famous Boer victory over the Zulu, the anniversary and its commemoration are intimately connected with various streams of Afrikaner and South African nationalism.

Millennial Sabbath

Since Hippolytus of Rome in the early third century, Christians have often considered that some thousand-year Sabbath, expected to begin six thousand years after Creation, might be identical with the millennium described in the Book of Revelation. This view was also popular among 19th and 20th century dispensational premillenialists. The term "Sabbatism" or "Sabbatizing" (Greek sabbatismos), which generically means any literal or spiritual Sabbath-keeping, has also been taken in Hebrews 4:9 to have special reference to this definition.

Other religious traditions

Babylonian rest days

Counting from the new moon, the Babylonian calendar celebrated the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th as "holy-days", also called "evil days" (meaning "unsuitable" for prohibited activities). On these days officials were prohibited from various activities and common men were forbidden to "make a wish", and at least the 28th was known as a "rest-day". On each of them, offerings were made to a different god and goddess. Tablets from the sixth-century BC reigns of Cyrus the Great and Cambyses indicate these dates were sometimes approximate. The lunation of 29 or 30 days basically contained three seven-day weeks, and a final week of nine or ten days inclusive, breaking the continuous seven-day cycle. The Babylonians additionally celebrated the 19th as a special "evil day", the "day of anger", because it was roughly the 49th day of the (preceding) month, completing a "week of weeks", also with sacrifices and prohibitions. Further, reconstruction of a broken tablet seems to define the rarely attested Sapattu or Sabattu as the 15th day of the lunation: this word is cognate with Hebrew Shabbat, but is monthly rather than weekly; it is regarded as a form of Sumerian sa-bat ("mid-rest"), attested in Akkadian as um nuh libbi ("day of mid-repose").

Buddhist rest day

The Uposatha has been observed since Gautama Buddha's time (500 BC), and is still being kept today in Theravada Buddhist countries. It occurs every seven or eight days, in accordance with the four phases of the moon. Buddha taught that Uposatha is for "the cleansing of the defiled mind", resulting in inner calm and joy. On this day, disciples and monks intensify their practice, deepen their knowledge, and express communal commitment through millennia-old acts of lay-monastic reciprocity.

Sabbath as Saturday

One folk tradition is the widespread use of "Sabbath" and cognates as synonyms of midnight-to-midnight "Saturday" (in English, literally, Saturn's day): this is a simplification of the use of "Sabbath" in other religious contexts, where the two do not coincide. In over thirty languages other than English, the common name for this day in the seven-day week is a cognate of "Sabbath". Those born on this day are called sâbotnichav in Bulgarian (literally, Sabbatarians), and it was also believed that someone born on a Saturday could see a vampire when it was otherwise invisible.

Islamic rest day

Jumu'ah (Arabic: جمعة ), also known as "Friday prayer", is a congregational prayer (salat) that Muslims hold every Friday, just after noon, in place of the otherwise daily dhuhr prayer; it commemorates the creation of Aadam on the sixth day. The Quran states: "O ye who believe! When the call is proclaimed to prayer on Friday , hasten earnestly to the Remembrance of Allah, and leave off business : That is best for you if ye but knew" (62:9). Attendance is strictly incumbent upon all free adult males who are legal residents of the locality.

Wiccan sabbat

The annual cycle of the Earth's seasons is called the Wheel of the Year in Wicca and neopaganism. Eight sabbats (occasionally "sabbaths", or "sun sabbats") are spaced at approximately even intervals throughout the year. Samhain, which coincides with Halloween, is considered first sabbat of the year.

An esbat is a ritual observance of the full moon in Wicca and neopaganism. Some groups extend the esbat to include the dark moon and the first and last quarters. "Esbat" and "sabbat" are distinct and are probably not cognate terms, although an esbat is also called "moon sabbat".

European records from the Middle Ages to the 17th century or later also place Witches' Sabbaths on similar dates to sabbats in modern Wicca, but with some disagreement; medieval reports of sabbat activity are generally not firsthand and may be imaginative, but many persons were accused of, or tried for, taking part in sabbats.

Bahá'í worship

The Bahá'í week ends on Istiqlál (literally, Independence). It begins at sunset on Thursday and ends at sunset of Friday.

Unification Sabbath

The Unification Church has a regular day of worship on Sunday, but also has a Family Pledge service every eight days on the day of Ahn Shi Il, considered as Sabbath but cycling among the weekdays. The Family Pledge, formerly recited at 5:00 a.m. on Sundays, was moved to Ahn Shi Il in 1994. The pledge recited at this event includes eight verses containing the phrase "by centering on true love".

Secular traditions

Rest day in seven-day weeks

Secular use of "Sabbath" for "rest day", while it usually refers to the same period of time (Sunday) as the majority Christian use of "Sabbath", is often stated in North America to refer to different purposes for the rest day than those of Christendom. In McGowan v. Maryland (1961), the Supreme Court of the United States held that contemporary Maryland blue laws (typically, Sunday rest laws) were intended to promote the secular values of "health, safety, recreation, and general well-being" through a common day of rest, and that this day coinciding with majority Christian Sabbath neither reduces its effectiveness for secular purposes nor prevents adherents of other religions from observing their own holy days. Massachusetts, uncharacteristically, does not specify the weekday in its "Day of Rest" statute, providing only that one day off from work is required every week; an unspecified weekly day off is a very widespread business production cycle. The Supreme Court of Canada, in R. v. Big M Drug Mart Ltd. (1985) and R. v. Edwards Books and Art Ltd. (1986), found some blue laws invalid for having no legitimate secular purpose, but others valid because they had no religious purpose.

Rest day in other weeks

State-mandated rest days are widespread. Laws of the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) required imperial officials to rest on every mu (every fifth day), within a ten-day Chinese week. The rest day was changed to huan or xún (every tenth day) in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

From 1929 to 1931, the Soviet Union mandated a five-day week, with each day designated by color as a state rest day for a different 20% of the workforce; families usually did not share rest days. Three weeks a year were six or seven days, because interrupted by holidays. From 1931 to 1940, the Soviets mandated a six-day week, with state rest days for all upon the 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th, and 30th of each Gregorian month, as well as upon March 1. This also necessitated varying weeks of five to seven days over the year.

Among many calendar reform proposals that eliminate the constant seven-day week in exchange for simplified calculation of calendrical data like weekday names for given dates, some retain Sabbatical influences. The Hermetic Lunar Week Calendar uses moon phases, resulting in weeks of six to nine days. The International Fixed Calendar and World Calendar both consist of 364-day years containing exactly 52 weeks (each starting on a day designated as Sunday), with an additional one or two intercalary days not designated as part of any week (Year Day and Leap Day in the International Fixed Calendar; Worldsday and Leapyear Day in the World Calendar). Reform supporters sought to accommodate Sabbatical observance by retaining the modified week and designating the intercalary days as additional Sabbaths or holidays; however, religious leaders held that such days disrupt the traditional seven-day weekly cycle. This unresolved issue contributed to the cessation of reform activities in the 1930s (International Fixed Calendar) and again in 1955 (World Calendar), though supporters of both proposals remain.

Work day in seven-day weeks

The subbotnik is a day of volunteer work in Russia, other (former) Soviet republics, the Eastern Bloc, and the German Democratic Republic, sporadically observed since 1919. It focuses on community service work; "Lenin's Subbotnik" was also observed annually around his birthday.

Russia and Hungary, and formerly the Soviet Union, also have declared Saturday a workday in lieu of a nearby Friday or Monday, if the contiguous Thursday or Tuesday is a public holiday. Poland has declared a working Saturday as an unofficial monthly occurrence. Many other working-Saturday practices are unorganized.

Annual rest days

Many sovereign nations, territories, regions, and international entities observe holidays based on events of significance to their history, most of which are public holidays from work.

Rest-year sabbatical

From the Biblical Sabbatical Year came the modern concept of sabbatical, a prolonged, often one-year, hiatus in the career of an individual (not usually tied to a seven-year period). Such a period is often taken in order to fulfill some goal such as writing a book or traveling extensively for research. Some universities and other institutional employers of scientists, physicians, or academics offer paid sabbatical as an employee benefit, called "sabbatical leave"; some companies offer unpaid sabbatical for people wanting to take career breaks.

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