CCAR RESPONSA
American Reform Responsa
43. Sabbath Observance
(Vol. LXII, 1952, pp. 129-132)
For some time now many of the questions directed to the Committee on Responsahave had to do with situations in which traditional observance of the Sabbath is involved. In some instances, the correspondents are irritated by the widely accepted restrictions, in the face of which no innovations designed to improve temple attendance or expand its recreational program, could be introduced. Thus, one rabbi, disturbed by the fact that the local high school attracts too many of the young people of his congregation to its Friday evening dances, wonders “if there is a real objection to holding dances in the Temple vestry on Friday evening after services.” Another rabbi, eager to promote athletics among his young people, wishes to know “the attitude of Reform Judaism to synagogue-sponsored recreation on the Sabbath.” Specifically, he should like to have his teenage baseball team practice on Saturday afternoons. But “one of the leaders of a local Orthodox synagogue has demanded that this not be held on the Sabbath.”
In other instances, our members seem more concerned with the impact of strict Sabbath observance on their social and communal relations than on their purely synagogal activities and plans. Thus, one of our members, who has had considerable experience in the field of public relations, feels put out by the refusal of some rabbis “to participate in public ceremonies such as flag-raising, a welcome-to-the-city to a distinguished visitor, or the like, if they occur on a Friday evening or a Saturday.” He asks in rhetorical vein: “Should a rabbi refuse to accept an invitation to represent the Jews of his community at… public occasions held Saturday afternoon at which there will be representatives of the three faiths and a rabbi’s presence is desired?” Another rabbi, who is earnestly pursuing “an inquiry concerning Sabbath observance and its violation by various Jewish organizations in the community which are accustomed to having meetings on that day,” raises the question “as to which kind of meetings might properly be proscribed and which type of meetings might, within the spirit of the Sabbath, be given sanction?’
Of course, most of the above questions, and others of like nature, find their clear answer within the body of traditional law. We are, for example, left in no doubt as to what activities one may freely engage in on the Sabbath. One may attend any kind of meeting the purpose of which is to deal with some pressing communal problem. The law permits both the pledging of funds for the care of the poor and the holding of special convocations in the synagogue for that purpose. One may even complete arrangements on the Sabbath to have his son placed in some desirable trade. The Rabbinic principle–resting on the passage in Isaiah wherein, in connection with the proper observance of the Sabbath, the prophet accentuates “nor doing thy business, nor seeking thereof” (Isaiah 58:13)–excludes from among the prohibited categories any business, or the speaking thereof, which is dedicated to some important social and religious purpose (Shab. 150a).
Likewise, in the light of this Rabbinic principle, it is quite obvious that one may join on the Sabbath any assembly of men who have been brought together in response to some public good–provided, of course, that there is nothing that conflicts with such participation, as, for instance, the call to public worship, or (in the case of those who abstain from any kind of travel on that day) the forced use of public or private conveyance.
Nor is the prohibition against dancing on the Sabbath anything more than a precautionary measure, aimed to forestall a possible breach of grave character, such as might occur were one led to construct on the selfsame day a musical instrument to accompany the dance (Beitsa 36b). It is interesting to note, though, that later Rabbinic authorities, in admonishing congregations not to sanction the holding of public dances on the Sabbath, to which some communities had grown accustomed, based their reason on the moral laxness which the free mingling of the sexes might induce, rather than on the older Talmudic ground (She-elot Uteshuvot Zichron Yosef,no. 17).
Yet, however wide an area of freedom we may still discover within the narrow limits of traditional law, no one who is acquainted with the vast bulk of restrictive measures designed to keep the Sabbath inviolate will question the accuracy of the Mishnaic observation, that the Sabbath laws represent “mountains suspended from a hair” (Chagiga 10a). But, unfortunately, we have chosen to avert our gaze from these mountains. We prefer to ignore their presence. In doing so, however, we have willfully turned away from the opportunity that was ours to bring the institution of the Sabbath under the searching light of liberal thought.
To be sure, no effort to liberalize our Sabbath laws will get us nearer to a solution of the Sabbath question, as long as the masses of our people must engage in bread-winning employment on that day. The heart of the Sabbath is today what it has always been–rest from week-day labors. Our goal must ever be to help create those conditions which will make it possible for the Jew to observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy. And with the rise of the five-day week in modern industry, the partial fulfillment of our aim may not long be delayed. Yet many of us might even today be true Sabbath observers in the essential meaning of the term, if we could but rescue the Sabbath from the host of unreasonable restrictions which mar its character and weaken its appeal to the modern mind.
There can be little doubt as to the real intent of the primary laws governing the Sabbath. We are to let go of the toil which occupied our energies during the week: “Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest” (Ex. 34:21). The Biblical idea of labor thus embraced the agricultural occupations in which men were engaged to obtain their livelihood. When Jeremiah denounced the men of his time for bearing burdens on the Sabbath day, he clearly had reference to their persistent practice of carrying the produce of the field and the articles manufactured in the home to the marketplace, just as they were wont to do on week-days (Jer. 7:21-22). Even the injunction against the kindling of fire on the Sabbath (Ex. 35:3) was closely associated with the daily occupational tasks of the people, in which fire was an essential element, as the context of the passage clearly reveals, and as Bahya ben Asher properly points out (Vayakhel, Be-ur). And so, too, the thirty-nine principal classes of acts forbidden on the Sabbath, as they are enumerated in the Mishna, have to do mostly with the agricultural and industrial occupations of the people.
The principle that fences must be built around the law, which has led to the enactment of countless precautionary regulations, is a principle that we today must boldly reject in the interest of a saner observance of the Sabbath. Instead, we should reaffirm and employ as our constant guide the more important and fruitful Rabbinic principle: That the Sabbath has been placed in our control, and that we are not under the control of the Sabbath (Yoma 85b).
Taking our stand on this principle, we shall, of course, continue to stress the twofold nature of our Sabbath, namely, that it is our Jewish day of rest, and that, moreover, it is a day dedicated to the delights of the soul. But we shall not seek, in the name of Judaism, to deny men the freedom to perform such necessary acts and to engage in such additional delights as they have learned to associate with their periods of rest. In an age like ours, when we have come to view sports and games of all sorts as proper forms of relaxation on rest days; to hark back to the puritanic rigors of the Rabbinic Sabbath is to call in question the relevancy of religion to modern life.
Israel Bettan
See also:
Resolution,” National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods,1948, 1949.
S.B. Freehof, “Congregational Meeting on the Sabbath,” Reform Responsa, pp. 46ff; “Gift Corner Open on the Sabbath,” Reform Responsa, pp. 51ff; “School Dance on the Sabbath,” Recent Reform Responsa, pp. 32ff; “Caterer Working on the Sabbath,” Current Reform Responsa, pp. 225ff; “Muggers and Money on the Sabbath,” Reform Responsa for Our Time, pp. 28ff; “Gentile Funerals on the Sabbath,” Reform Responsa for Our Time, pp. 142ff; “Sports on the Sabbath in Community Center,” Reform Responsa for Our Time, pp. 11ff; “Wedding on Saturday Before Dark,’ Recent Reform Responsa, pp. 167ff; “Shofar on New Year Sabbath,” Recent Reform Responsa, pp. 36ff; “Memorial Services on the Sabbath,” New Reform Responsa, pp. 130ff; “Preparing the Body on the Sabbath,” Reform Responsa, pp. 126ff.
If needed, please consult Abbreviations used in CCAR Responsa.