Israel’s Day of Light and Joy: The Origin, Development, and Enduring Meaning of the Jewish Sabbath, Jon D. Levenson, Eisenbrauns, University Park, PA, ©2024, ISBN 978-1646022731, p. 222, plus abbreviations, notes, and bibliography, $24.95.
By Fred Reiss, Ed.D.
WINCHESTER, California – The history of a seven-day week, especially one in which a seventh day, the Sabbath, becomes a day of rest, is elusive. Genesis opens with God ceasing His work on the seventh day (Gen. 2:2-3), and then Shabbat never appearing again as day of rest until after the Exodus and the collection of manna (Ex. 16:23). Levenson brings to bear his own insights and knowledge on the subject, together with the thoughts and theories of other scholars endeavoring to understand the ancient meanings and observances of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israel’s Day of Light and Joy begins with a study of the origin of a seven-day week. Units of time in calendars developed from both natural observations and contrived perceptions. A day, the time for the Earth to rotate once on its axis. A year, the time for the Earth to revolve once around the Sun. A month, the time for the Sun to pass through one sign of the Zodiac. A week, who knows—from where does its meaning arise?
Levenson reviews histories of foreign lunar and solar calendars and their relationship to the development of a Jewish calendar from the Babylonian Captivity, through Judea’s conquest by Alexander the Great, and the influence of Roman astronomy during the Talmudic era, showing how a wide chasm developed between pagan calendars based on the science-of-the-time and a theologically-centered Jewish calendar having a seven-day week ordained by God.
Hebrew is generally based on a three-letter root system, and the Hebrew Bible offers no clear path identifying a precise meaning for the root letters forming the word sabbath, šbt. The Book of Exodus, among other biblical works, uses this root as noun and verb to mean many things, including,”day of rest” and “to stop” without specifying their enactments. Employing linguists, Levenson, traces šbt from Akkadian through the Writings and books of the prophets, finding šbt connected to monthly full-moon festivals (Ps. 81;4), permitted travel on the Sabbath (II Kings 4:22-24), and week-day observances in Temple times (Isa. 1:12-13), leading him to speculate in preexilic Israel Sabbath refers to the day of a full moon and not the seventh day of the week.
It should not be surprising Judaism has vestiges of full Moon celebrations and holding seven to be a kind of magic number, as Judaism emerged from Mesopotamia an area with similar practices and beliefs. Sukkot occurs on a full Moon, as does Passover, and Shavuot falls 7 x 7 days after Passover. Levenson detects close biblical connections between words used in the commands for the seventh day and for the sabbatical seventh year, which describes the land going fallow.
Does that association carry over to an early meaning of the Sabbath, that is, rest from agricultural work? He thinks this is a possibility, bring us to a dichotomy between traditionally religious and historical approaches to the Bible. On the one hand traditional Judaism views the Five Books of Moses as God’s words, perfect in every way, and on the other hand the Documentary Hypothesis, accepted by many biblical scholars, views Torah, indeed, the entire Hebrew Bible, as a redaction by many players with their own religious agendas.
Twice. That’s the number of times the Ten Commandment appears in the Torah, in Exodus and Deuteronomy. The former saying, “observe the Sabbath day;” the latter, “remember the Sabbath day.” How can the perfect word of God describe two different actions? Such rabbinic angst led medieval kabbalist Shlomo Alkabetz to declare in his well-known poem L’cha Dodi, “observe and remember as one [divine] word.” Levenson, pointing to historical fact, says the Book of Exodus’ version is closer to actual events; Deuteronomy’s is much further removed. The passage of time alone explains the difference.
The difficulty between the two distinct versions manifests again in the Kiddush for Shabbat, “In love and favor you gave us the holy Sabbath as an inheritance, a memorial day of creation…it is also the first day of the holy convocation in remembrance of the departure from Egypt.” So, what is Sabbath’s function, commemoration for creation or remembering the Exodus? As a Harvard professor of Jewish studies, Levenson falls on the side of documentary-historians, concluding that we are simply stuck with two versions and two understandings and any other conclusion is conjecture.
Despite his propensity for historical explanations and analyses, in Israel’s Day of Light and Joy Levenson takes a balanced approach. Three chapters give voice to religious-centric interpretations, one focusing on Shabbat as a token for creation and Exodus, another on Shabbat as divine dictum, and the third on the Sabbath as a glimpse of the World-to-Come.
In its final chapter, “Modern Life Challenges the Sabbath—and Vice Verse,” Levenson reviews the contentious historical split between Jewish and Christian Sabbath observances, the democratization of Judaism, beginning with European Enlightenment, and establishment of a cultural phenomenon, “the week-end,” morphing synagogue-centered Sabbaths into one of rest through relaxation, making synagogues more like civic associations whose goal is attracting and maintaining membership by building cohesiveness among them.
Israel’s Day of Light and Joy is a comprehensive and serious study of the sinuous history, dynamic cultural and political forces, and various religious ideologies surrounding the meaning and application of a Jewish Sabbath. For documentary-historians complete answers and the full story may never be known, none the less, Israel’s Day of Light and Joy verifies the truth of what nineteenth-century essayist Ahad Ha’am wrote, “More than Israel has kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept Israel.”
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Dr. Fred Reiss‘ works include The Jewish Calendar: History and Inner Workings and The Comprehensive Jewish and Civil Calendars, 2001 to 2240.