Several of our brethren undergo difficulties on Friday night in the Autumn and Winter months because their request to leave earlier on Fridays to prepare for Shabbat would get rejected.
Shomer Shabbat friends sometimes would be horrified and accuse the employer of religious discrimination. Normally, by law, it is expected that the employer provides the necessary times to observe the mitzvot associated with Judaism’s Shabbat, or Sabbath, which begins at dusk on Friday and ends after sunset on Saturday. The problem for such times is that not everyone lives close to his job. As such, one should always consider the distance from the working place to the home place. How much time does one need to go from one place to the other?
When there is sufficient time for you provided, you should feel as though your employer is accommodating when he allows you to leave even a little bit earlier. Other employers are willing to leave their employees 1.5-2 hours early on Fridays in the winter. This happens also for Muslims who want to go to the mosque on Friday night. Co-workers can make a point of routing work to you earlier on Fridays so that you’d have time to complete your section before you have to leave because of Shabbat.
Often we find people wondering what can be done and what may not be done in the Shabes hours. Often we hear that it goes to very ridiculous points, like even not or well, being allowed to rip toilet paper, though each of us shall have to visit the restroom also on the seventh day of the week.
Even in my most observant days, there are things I never kept. Like I always ripped toilet paper on Shabbat. I suppose I could have pre-ripped it, but I never did. It just seemed stupid, that the otherwise holy observance of Shabbat would be broken completely by a piece of toilet paper. {10 Years of Shabbat}
Toilet paper: The undoing of Shabbat and 2020? Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixaba
The big question might be
What is realy the right way for Shabbath keeping?
JYP writes
Actually, even the language of “breaking Shabbat” bothers me.
Like you could keep Shabbat for 99% of the day, or keep 99% of the rules, but mess up on 1% and Shabbat is broken and shattered, like a Christmas ornament that fell on the floor and splintered into a million worthless pieces. The 99% that you kept means nothing. {10 Years of Shabbat}
Many also overlook the fact that certain tasks have to be done during shabbes anyway. Doctors, nurses, emergency services and firemen, for instance, cannot just leave people without help during Shabbat or God-given holidays.
In several Jewish and Jeshuaist communities, even before the ordinary days, there is the question whether or not it is possible to use electronic means, such as the computer to interact with others through e-mail, Zoom, Messenger, Whatsapp and other social means.
It is also not easy for people who live in a skyscraper. When living on the 7th or 24th floor does that mean that person should be there stuck for 24 hours and shall not be able to go to the service? Sounds ridiculous, is it not?
The El ʿElyon (the Most High) did not make His commandments so it would be very difficult to keep them. Many times people forget how over the years people have often made certain rules that go far beyond the demands or requests of God. It is precisely these human regulations that have gained the upper hand while one can safely stick to the basic rules that the Elohim has provided and that He considers sufficient.
Wouldn’t it be better if we focused on the regulations the Bore has given to enosh (or mankind)? Instead of focusing and getting annoyed by rules that have been forced on us by people in past centuries? How has Chayyei Olam (or the Eternal) not warned us not to add anything to His Words? It is already nice if we can keep ourselves to the Aseret HaDibrot or the basic 10 Words. Naturally, we may not fall into the trap that so many Christians have fallen into, them thinking they should not do any works any more. For sure we have to fulfil several duties. Never may we forget that faith without works is useless and death. We do have to uphold the divine elements and manifest the characteristics of Jehovah God to those we might be privileged to assist. Always we must keep traditions apart from the biblical texts that should guide us to make the best of our and others’ lives. God knows our inner thought. Our way of thinking and our way of how we want to relate to our God, that is most important to our Creator. Maintaining this or that is just a way in which we can express our relationship to God and others.
We may not forget that attitude is everything.
In this world, people have to work on different days and in different shifts. You shall not find any works specifically mentioned in the Scriptures, which you are not allowed to do on certain days. Over the years many rabbis discussed the matter and created a list of works that should not be done on the Shabbat, or which are avot melachah, and as such we should not do at all. It were (again) the Rabbis who decreed that one not only should avoid forbidden acts but also must not do anything that (1) resembles a prohibited act or could be confused with it, (2) is a habit linked with a prohibited act, or (3) usually leads to performing a prohibited act.
All those prescriptions of rabbis may have been to put a fence around the Torah, but you should wonder
Does it take man to put fences around torah?
God’s Word should be more than enough to guide us through life. Lots of people want to put certain rules at the front of the screen but forget the most important rule which should be our top priority. Certainly the name-Christians have forgotten that rule or neglect it, because they adhere to three gods instead of keeping to the Only OneTrue God. It is our love to that One God Who is One, which should have us to arrange our works for others and for that One God. It is true that there are hundreds of “commandments” mentioned in the pre-Messianic Scriptures, covering all parts of life. Often people consider them to make up “the Law” of the Old Covenant.
We always should remember that Shabbat is not just about not doing certain things, or the other way round, just doing special things, or having special food. On the Sabbath we are supposed to have a Sabbath gathering and as such people should be able to come together to praise the Elohim. On the Sabbath, we should take time to enjoy one another’s company and to enjoy celebrating the Works of God. It is time to invite peace in our homes but also outside our homes, at the synagogue, at school, at work. So, there at those places on Friday(in the afternoon) it all starts, binging thoughts in line and giving away that feeling of “Shabbat Shalom”.
The difference of the Sabbath against other days of the week should be in the “carrying of peace”,as if we receive an extra soul, a neshamah y’teyrah, so that by our readings of the Torah and by our gathering the mysteries of the Torah that we begin to grasp increase our faith in the Divine Wisdom and intensify the delight that floods us at the time of prayer. All this goes beyond all the restrictions that certain people want to impose on us and are in fact not imposed by God His Word in the Words delivered to us.
If we want to keep the Sabbath, we should consider carefully how this goes in accordance with the work we want to do. Furthermore, we should be careful not to go overboard in regulations or restrictions that are not really imposed by God. Likewise, we should never forget what our duties towards others are, so if we work in the care sector, that includes work on the Sabbath and we should simply fulfil our Sabbath duty on another day.
Life does not have to be so difficult!
Each person can take some other moment for an intentional pause as time for God.
It is not by not switching the lights on or off that you shall have a better relationship with the Bore. Cooking or not cooking on the Sabbath day is not making or breaking that day.
I do agree when you walk in the streets of Antwerp, from Friday afternoon you shall see many lights burning for more than one day, the people living in those flats convinced they should not turn on or off the lights. In the meantime, they use unnecessary electricity, wasting energy and polluting this earth. They should wonder if the Elohim would think such regulation is all right.
Several Jews will tell you that they have to do some sacrifices for the Sabbath and as such may not take part in anything ‘worldly’ and as such not putting on radio’s, televison, or going to a theatre. It looks like for one day in the week all life stops.
We, as Jeshuaists, believe we do not have to do such sacrifices on Sabbath. Having a break in the things we normally do should not be a sacrifice but an extra breath we give ourselves freely. If we abstain from things during the Sabbath, it need not be a difficult task or a sacrifice for us.
Just let that seventh day be a special day in the week. A day to have for yourself and your God. And then let that commitment to your Maker be something special to share with others in communion with joy and not with a look of deficiency.
Make also sure not to judge people whom you think would not keep to the Sabbath.
Being a creature of the Most High Maker, wanting to know His Word better and to see clear in the many religious groups this world has.
+ Een schepsel van de Allerhoogste Maker, die Zijn Woord beter wil leren kennen en duidelijk wenst te zien in de Goddelijke Boodschap en in de vele religieuze groeperingen van deze wereld.
Alle berichten van Immanuel Verbondskind weergeven
Jeshuaisten / Jeshuaists 