To remember God is the creator of both the heavens and the earth and all living things.
We do this through the Shabbat meal, which has several parts, to usher in the Sabbath day.
To refrain from "typical work" or labor and strain.
To observe the day as
Holy unto the Lord and spend time together as a family, in joy and
celebration, without the pressures of our "typical" behaviors and
responsibilities.
To spend time in Prayer.
We do this through the day of Rest as the Lord first displayed and modeled for us.
The Meal:
There
are several movements of tradition as we move throughout the meal time,
to mark and remember both God's creation and His provision both through
the Exodus and through Christ the Savior. Each of them has a Hebrew
prayer to usher in the next tradition, and is greatly grounded in Jewish
purpose.
1. Washing of hands--we wash away the icky feelings from the week, forgive and renew.
2.Charity--we give of our abundance to those less fortunate, into a
Charity box, which we hold until the time comes in which another's need
arises.
3. Approaching the table for prayer, then
lighting the candles to usher in the Sabbath (done by the woman of the
home). 1 Candle represents Remembering the other Observing.
4.The taking of the wine--The Abundance of God's provisions poured out to
us, also the blood of Christ provided to us as atonement for sin.
5.The breaking of the braided bread (Challah) with Salt--The provision
of the Man-nah in the Exodus, 2 loaves on Friday, by God along with
Christ's body, broken for us. The Salt is a symbol that it never goes
bad or rots, it preserves.
6.The Father blesses each child of the family and then reads a blessing over his wife.
7.We say a final prayer, ending with saying loudly "Shabbot Shalom".
8.We engage in our family meal, giving everyone the opportunity to share about their week (High's of the week).
9.We discuss God's abundant blessings both in the OT and the New and how
it relates to us as Christians in the light of being grafted into the
Jews Chosen Position with the Lord. How this then implies what our true traditions, celebrations and remembrances should be.
10.
Lighting of the candles on Saturday to Usher our the Darkness and bring
in the Light. Both the light of provision in darkness given to the
Jews upon the Exile, the Light given upon Creation and the Light given
in Jesus Christ.
Moving through these prayers, traditions and sharing in the markers to
remember God and our Savior now as the fulfillment of the Law, we are
blessed and
reminded of God's character, love, provision, plan, and our position in
Him.
Below I pasted some information about Shabbat from a Jewish website. There is tons of information available.
The Nature of Shabbat
The
Sabbath (or Shabbat, as it is called in Hebrew) is one of the best
known and least understood of all Jewish observances. People who do not
observe Shabbat think of it as a day filled with stifling restrictions,
or as a day of prayer like the Christian Sabbath. But to those who
observe Shabbat, it is a precious gift from G-d, a day of great joy
eagerly awaited throughout the week, a time when we can set aside all of
our weekday concerns and devote ourselves to higher pursuits. In Jewish
literature, poetry and music, Shabbat is described as a bride or queen,
as in the popular Shabbat hymn Lecha Dodi Likrat
Kallah (come, my beloved, to meet the [Sabbath] bride). It is said "more
than Israel has kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept Israel." Shabbat is the
most important ritual observance in Judaism. It is the only ritual
observance instituted in the Ten Commandments.
In modern America, we take the five-day work-week so much for granted
that we forget what a radical concept a day of rest was in ancient
times. The weekly day of rest has no parallel in any other ancient
civilization. In ancient times, leisure was for the wealthy and the
ruling classes only, never for the serving or laboring classes. In
addition, the very idea of rest each week was unimaginable. The Greeks
thought Jews were lazy because we insisted on having a "holiday" every
seventh day.
Shabbat involves two interrelated commandments: to remember (zakhor)
Shabbat, and to observe (shamor) Shabbat.
Zakhor: To Remember
Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it (Hebrew: Zakhor et yom ha-Shabbat l'kad'sho)-Exodus 20:8
We
are commanded to remember Shabbat; but remembering means much more than
merely not forgetting to observe Shabbat. It also means to remember the
significance of Shabbat, both as a commemoration of creation and as a
commemoration of our freedom from slavery in Egypt
In Exodus 20:11, after Fourth Commandment is first
instituted, G-d explains,
"because for six days, the L-rd made the heavens and the earth, the
sea
and all that is in them, and on the seventh day, he rested;
therefore,
the L-rd blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it."
By resting on the seventh day and sanctifying it, we remember and
acknowledge that G-d is the creator of heaven and earth and all living
things. We also emulate
the divine example, by refraining from work on the seventh day, as G-d
did. If G-d's work can be set aside for a day of rest, how can we
believe that our own work is too important to set aside temporarily?
In Deuteronomy 5:15, while Moses reiterates the Ten Commandments, he
notes the second thing that we must remember on Shabbat: "remember that
you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the L-rd, your G-d brought
you forth from there with a mighty hand and
with an outstretched arm; therefore the L-rd your G-d commanded you to
observe the Sabbath day."
What does the Exodus have to do with resting on the seventh day? It's
all
about freedom. As I said before, in ancient times, leisure was confined
to certain classes; slaves did not get days off. Thus, by resting on
Shabbat, we are reminded that we are free. But in a more general sense,
Shabbat frees us from our weekday concerns, from our deadlines and
schedules and commitments. During the week, we are slaves to our jobs,
to our creditors, to our need to provide for ourselves; on Shabbat, we
are freed from these concerns, much as our ancestors were freed from
slavery in Egypt.
As believers we get to also remember the freedom given in Christ from sin,
through the Cross. We are given the gift of experiencing the fullness
of the message God prepared for the Jews through the atonement of
Christ, the Son of God. How much more do we see the full beauty and the
experience the completeness of God's perfect will?
Shamor: To Observe
Observe the Sabbath day to sanctify it (Hebrew: Shamor et yom ha-Shabbat l'kad'sho)-Deuteronomy 5:12
Of
course, no discussion of Shabbat would be complete without a discussion
of the work that is forbidden on Shabbat. This is another aspect of
Shabbat that is grossly misunderstood by people who do not observe it.
Most Americans see the word "work" and think of it in the English sense
of
the word: physical labor and effort, or employment. Under this
definition, turning on a light would be permitted, because it does not
require effort, but would not be permitted to lead Shabbat services,
because leading services is his employment. Jewish law prohibits the
former and permits the latter.
Many Americans therefore conclude that Jewish law doesn't make any
sense.
The problem lies not in Jewish law, but in the definition that Americans
are using. The Torah does not prohibit "work" in the 20th century
English sense of the word. The Torah prohibits "melachah"
Mem-Lamed-Alef-Kaf-Hei, which is usually translated as "work," but does
not mean precisely the same thing as the English word. Before you can
begin to understand the Shabbat restrictions, you must understand the
word "melachah."
Melachah generally refers to the kind of work that is creative, or that
exercises control or dominion over your environment. The word may be
related to "melekh" Mem-Lamed-Kaf.
The quintessential example of melachah is the work of creating the
universe, which G-d ceased from on the seventh day. Note that G-d's work
did not require a great physical effort: he spoke, and it was done.
The word melachah is rarely used in scripture outside of the context of
Shabbat and holiday restrictions. The only other repeated use of the
word is in the discussion of the building of the sanctuary and its
vessels in the wilderness. Exodus Ch. 31, 35-38. Notably, the Shabbat
restrictions are reiterated during this discussion (Ex. 31:13), thus we
can infer that the work of creating the sanctuary had to be stopped for
Shabbat.
As believers we can see and often hear that Jesus has fulfilled the Law
and we are not bound to the same observances as the Jews were in the OT.
Although, this may be true, there are fabulous blessings available when
we honor the things the Lord
has set out to honor and those things Jesus himself honored, being the
Messiah.
We may not see or interpret the word "work" the same considering
we no longer build sanctuary's or temples, but, we can see in our busy
modern lives the need to honor the Lord's day of rest. He called in
Holy. When we do so, we enjoy both a sense of accomplishment from
preparing for Shabbat throughout the week and then
rest when we spend the day Observing the Lord's perfect picture painted
through the OT, which displays His Character, beauty, authority and
governing over the Earth.
For our family we see a handful of blessings being offered by
getting back to the feasts and festivals, specifically Shabbat, the Lord
laid out for us, as Gentiles,
adopted into His Chosen People.
1. A weekly family time
of Remembrance and Observance which displays for us both God's divine
nature and provision along with Christ's fulfillment of the Lord's will.
2.Tradition which offers teaching and instructing in the ways of God's
people, which connects us more closely with God the Father and His Son
Jesus Christ.
3. Spending the week with Intentionality to draw in
the Shabbat meal on Friday night and the day of rest on Saturday. We
must be more diligent as a family to prepare to experience Shabbat
together.
4. Keeping my family coming together on a regular basis,
hopefully as they grow, and possibly leave home. Establishing a
tradition they look forward to and enjoy so they too will bring their
families over once they grow.
5. An opportunity to
teach reverence and respect for the Lord's Holy things. To dress up in
honor of Him. To act out of love for him.
We do not see
celebrating Shabbat weekly as an act of obedience or religiousness that
earns favor with God, but rather out of our deep love for Him and His
Son Jesus,
displaying our respect for the days He designed and remarked in
scripture as significant and Holy. It is an act of Love. A reverence of
the fulfillment of the Saviors sacrifice in light of the picture God was
painting from the beginning.
Ebay is a great place to
purchase the items you would need/desire to celebrate the meal time
(Challah (bread) cover, candlesticks, Handwashing Cup, Charity Box,
Bread plates, Wine Fountains, etc.).
