According to Torah, G-d created the world in six days. On the 7th day He rested from His labours and commanded that we should do the same. We are to observe the 7th day of each week as a day for the Lord. The English word sabbath is derived directly from the Hebrew, shabbat, which comes from a root word meaning to cease or rest.

Although many Jews will spend time praying in the synagogue on Shabbat, it is not specifically a day of prayer. Rather, it is a time to change focus from the workaday world of the other days of the week and to have time for higher thoughts. Shabbat is a day for spiritual renewal and rest. It is a day to look forward to, to enjoy and to regret the passing of. Many Jews consider that Shabbat lasts 25 hours and the first day (Sunday) only 23. Jews often use the metaphor of Shabbat being a bride. There is a popular Sabbath hymn which says, "come, my beloved, to meet the bride". When it is sung in synagogue during the Friday night service many congregations turn, as they sing it, towards the door to welcome "the Sabbath bride".

Shabbat is the most important Jewish day (more important even than Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement). It is the only ritual observance mentioned in the 10 commandments.

Observing Shabbat requires that a Jew refrain from any activity that would be considered as melachah. This Hebrew word is often translated as work but actually means something more akin to creative activity. The word is related to the word melech, king and refers to those activities by which we exercise control over our environment. Thus, writing is out but reading is OK; making fire or cooking are out; general working tasks, such as agriculture and hunting or their modern day equivalents with similar purposes (ie earning a living) are forbidden on Shabbat. Of course, anything to do with commerce, trade or finance is quite out of the question. Domestic animals, however, should be fed and cared for, since they are unable to care for themselves.

Shabbat is a time for being with your family. It is a time for eating in a more leisurely and luxurious fashion than during the rest of the week. It is a time for talk about the higher things, a time not to think about the daily grind.

Shabbat begins on Friday evening (For Jews every day begins at sunset - in the story of Genesis the days of creation are marked by the phrase "It was evening and it was morning, the nth day"). A few hours before sunset the house will be readied. Any cooking tasks that cannot be done on Shabbat will be done, the house will be cleaned as if a special guest were due, the family will ready themselves - a bath, clean clothes etc.

A little while before the start of Shabbat, the Shabbat candles will be lit. This is specifically a female responsibility and the mother of the family will light 2 candles in the best candlesticks.

As Shabbat begins the family will sit down to eat. The meal begins with kiddush, the blessing for wine. Being shabbat the kiddush blessing is lengthened by the recitation of passages concerned with remembering to keep Shabbat. As on any day kiddush is followed by a blessing for bread but on shabbat the bread is chollah, a plaited bread made from a rich dough containng both sugar and egg. The shabbat table always has 2 of these loaves.

The Friday night meal is something to be savoured. There are no regulations about what it should contain. You can read about a typical Shabbat meal elsewhere on these pages.