Sabbath Observance Research Articles

Searching for a distant God: the legacy of Maimonides

Monotheism is usually considered Judaism's greatest contribution to world culture, but it is far from clear what monotheism is. This work examines the notion that monotheism is not so much a claim about the number of God as a claim about the nature of God. Seeskin argues that the idea of a God who is separate from his creation and unique is not just an abstraction but a suitable basis for worship. He examines this conclusion in the contexts of prayer, creation, sabbath observance, repentance, religious freedom, and love of God. Maimonides plays a central role in the argument both because of his importance to Jewish self-understanding and because he deals with the question of how philosophic ideas are embodied in religious ritual.

The Life of Herbert Hoover. Vol. III: Master of Emergencies, 1917-1918 (review)

Book Reviews61 make any obvious factual mistakes, this treatment tends to rob her subjects of their full dignity, and to suggest their motivation came more from the unconscious need to overcome their social oppression, which was certainly necessary, than from a genuine movement of the Holy Spirit. While her treatment ofQuakerwomen is more respectful thanthat ofsome ofherother subjects, one might wish for a less arch tone. Readers wishing a more indepth treatment ofthe same period would do well to go on to read Phyllis Mack's Visionary Women, or the anthology by Mary Garman, Judith Applegate, Margaret Benefield, and Dortha Meredith, Hidden in Plain Sight, for treatment with more depth. One might wish also that Davies had examined the origin ofthe Quaker women's business meeting, that seedbed ofQuaker gender democracy that protected the ideas ofthe English Revolution and nursed them into flower forcoming generations. While Quakerwomenmight seemat one with many oftheir Puritan sisters, their roles as foremothers oflater leaders ofwomen resulted from the institutionalization oftheir pioneering. Formanyreaders, however, this lively book will serve as an introduction to a fascinating subject that must be understood before the advances of women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries can be evaluated. One hopes Stevie Davies has many readers. Margaret Hope BaconKennett Square, Pa. TheLife ofHerbertHoover. Vol. Ill: MasterofEmergencies, 191 7-1918. By George H. Nash. New York: Norton, 1996. 672 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. 945. George Nash has dedicated himselfto researching and revealing the life of Herbert Hoover in extensive detail, and this volume meets the high standards set by his previous scholarship. The last volume ofthis ongoing biography, covering the years 1914-1917, endedwith Hoover inLondon as founderandadministrator ofone ofthe most successful humanitarianefforts in history: the relief commission that provided food and other vital assistance to the more than seven million Belgians trappedbetween the German and British armed forces. In 1917, the U.S. entered the Great War, whereupon "Hoover of Belgium " enteredWoodrowWilson's government as head oftheFood Administration . Again, Hooverprovedtobe the consummatebureaucrat, building anefficientandeffectiveagencyforregulatingfoodpricesandconsumption while expanding production and exports to America's allies. As Food Controller he impressed many with his energy, "extraordinary grasp of 62Quaker History perplexing and intricate problems," and "magnetic leadership" (p. 503). Stressing his slogan, "Food Will Win the War," Hooverbecame a "benevolent bogey" (p. 159), exhorting the nation voluntarily to observe wheatless and meatless meals. His flair for publicity made the food campaign one of the mostprominent aspects ofthe wareffort, buthis flairforself-promotion engendered only envy and bitterness from other government officials. Indeed, Nash does not sugarcoat his subject; he carefully portrays and assesses a personality that could be thin-skinned, humorless, and imperious —traits that would later weaken Hoover's presidency. Readers interestedin the Quaker orfaith dimensions ofHoover's life will find little enlightenment in this volume. Despite an extensive fifteen-page index, there areno entriesfor"Quakerism" orsimilartopics. Nashdoes note that by 1918 Hoover "had not attended a [Quaker] meeting for years" and that "Sundays were devoted not to Sabbath observance but to automobile excursions into the countryside," usually ending near a stream where Hoover, ever the engineer, would construct dams with stones to divert the water from its course. The usually prim and tidy Hoover would emerge wet and muddy, looking "like a tramp" but thoroughly refreshed and invigorated , (p. 428) Clearly, Nash's Hoover found emotional and mental sustenance in his work, both humanitarian and recreational, rather than in the faith ofhis youth. Reading all of Nash's 656-page opus is not for the faint-hearted. Although the exhaustive research is exemplary, the detail can be mindnumbing . Fortunately, Nash writes with clarity and grace, invoking "the sultry dews and damps ofdowntown Washington" in the summer of 1918, orthe character ofa life lived in "constant overdrive." In the end, the rewards forthe reader are both increased knowledge anddeeperunderstandingofthe disciplined, talented man who would later serve as our thirty-first president. Alice Almond ShrockEarlham College Journey ofthe Wild Geese: A QuakerRomance in War-Torn Europe. By Madeleine Yaude Stephenson and Edwin "Red" Stephenson. Pasadena, CA: Intentional Productions, 1999. xviii + 316 pp. Illustrations. $ 17.95. Beginning with Madeleine Yaude's first report from France in April 1946 to the American Friends Service...

Isaiah 56:1-8 and the Redefining of the Restoration Judean Community

This article argues that the prophetic oracle of Isaiah 56:1-8 was intended to redefine the social boundaries of the Judean community in the early second temple period. This prophecy offers an alternative viewpoint to the nationalist and exclusionist views of Ezra and Nehemiah as to who can be a member of the Judean community. The position taken by this passage utilizes the images of the eunuch and the foreigner to reveal conflicts over land possession and the reproduction and socialization of children. It is argued that the exilic principles of community membership revolve around the issues of "purification" (in the exile) and the exclusion of outsiders who did not share this experience, and "loyalty," seen as endogamy and the reproduction and socialization of children to preserve the ethnic purity of the exilic community. The cases of the eunuch and the foreigner (convert) challenge both these principles and offer alternative principles of "loyalty" by relocating the markers of community membership into Sabbath observance and ethical behavior, social markers that do not require any ethnic purity or reproductive ability, and which ease the conversion of non-exiles into the community while allowing the community access to additional land resources.

Jews and Christians Speak of Jesus (review)

Book Reviews BOOK REVIEWS 147 Jews and Christians Speak of Jesus, edited by Arthur E. Zannoni. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994. 191 pp. $12.00 (P). In recent years, topics in dialogue meetings between Jews and Christians have often focused on practical matters of current concern rather than the divisive issues offaith and teaching. This volume shows the measure of maturity that has been achieved in Jewish-Christian relations by tackling head-on one of the most central issues between these two groups, namely, Jesus of Nazareth. The essays in this volume, by recognized Jewish and Christian scholars, were originally presented as papers at a series of symposia sponsored by the Center for Jewish-Christian Learning at the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul and Minneapolis). This set of essays is an attempt to look afresh at the Jewish origins of Jesus, casting new light on the relations ofJesus to his contemporaryJews and on the process by which early Christians began to ascribe messiahship and divinity to Jesus. The book is set up admirably to facilitate discussion and rethinking of old issues. Each of the four parts of the book focuses on a crucial aspect ofunderstandingJesus. Part one, with essays by ShayeJ. D. Cohen and Anthony J. Saldarini, explores the diversity within Judaism at the time ofJesus. In part two, Lawrence H. Schiffman and E. P. Sanders examine the Jewishness ofJesus and how he related to the Judaisms of his time. In part three, Paula Fredriksen and John R. Donahue trace the background of the idea of messiah and the path by which early Christians came to consider Jesus as the messiah. And in part four, Alan F. Segal and Monika K. Hellwig reflect on how Christians began to make the move in their interpretation of Jesus from Christ to God-and how this radical move relates to the Jewish background of Christianity. These essays provide a helpful sampling of recent scholarship relating to understanding Jesus of Nazareth. There certainly is broad agreement among all these scholars that Jesus must first of all be seen within the context of the Jewish world in which he lived-that is perhaps the central theme of the whole volume. But within that general consensus these essays also present a fertile diversity in interpretation, bringing the reader into the lively and ongoing scholarly discussion. For example, Cohen argues that, for all the diversity of the Judaisms of this period, there was a clear assumption both amongJews and among 148 SHOFAR Fall 1996 Vol. 15, No. 1 outsiders that Judaism was a unified system. Saldarini, on the other hand, sketches out the factions and distinct groups within Jewish society, importing modern ideas of sects and deviance to highlight the function of the diverse groups. Schiffman argues that almost all the sayings of Jesus reflect similar ideas expressed by otherJews, especially in the later rabbinic collections. Sanders makes a similar point about Jesus' relation to Jewish law, proposing that Jesus did not wish to oppose traditional religious law, even in the reported conflicts over sabbath observance and unclean foods. Scholars have sometimes emphasized that, while Jesus remained within the Jewish orbit, Paul and the other Christians who began to ascribe messiahship and divinity toJesus moved far beyond theirJewish roots. The essays in this volume suggest a much more nuanced view of Christian development within the Jewish context. Paul's construction ofthe message and the mission of Christianity, Fredriksen finds, fits entirely within the views and concerns ofJudaism. For example, the Gentiles Paul preached to were actually those who customarily attended synagogues without being Jewish converts, Gentiles who thus knew Jewish scripture and tradition. Donahue argues that the narratives of Jesus' suffering and death, which have been so divisive in Jewish-Christian relations, were motivated not by history but by theological concerns and contemporary issues. One important point in reexamining these narratives, according to Donahue, is to realize that Jesus was not tried by a Jewish "supreme court" (the Sanhedrin), as has traditionally been supposed, but actually by a type of informal group called in to arbitrate local cases. Concerning the ascription of divinity to Jesus by Christians, Segal suggests that this was not an alien non-Jewish...

A Comment on "Church and State in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century America"

Thomas Curry's synopsis of church-state practices in seventeenth and eighteenth century America is notable for its modesty and balance. When lawyers and judges paint the religious history of that period they picture events like cows on a hillside—all pointing in the same direction. (Of course the cows point different ways in different pictures; it depends on which way the wind is blowing.) The scene Curry describes is more disorderly. This makes it harder to identify trends that we might say were embodied in first amendment principles. But it prefigures, and helps explain, our messy first amendment practices. Curry argues that two topics dominated church-state discussions from 1600 to 1800: (1) the government's power to legislate about religion, and (2) public financial support for ministers. As to the first issue, Americans gradually accepted the principle, espoused by Roger Williams, that government had no power over matters of religious worship and practice. But they did not live up to this principle. They passed laws about sabbath observance, blasphemy, days of prayer and fasting, and religious qualifications for office. In this, they followed the practice of John Cotton, who thought that the two tables of the Ten Commandments (religion and morals) must stand or fall together. “The principle was the principle of Williams, but the practice was the practice of Cotton.” As to the second issue, financial support for ministers, practice converged more with principle. But there were exceptions, as in New England. And those who opposed support often did so for no principle more lofty than the fear that it would go to the Church of England.

Genesis 2: 1–3 - Creation and Sabbath

In Gen 2:1-3 the Priestly writer has emphasised the sabbath of God at the end of the creation account. In exile, when Israel had been severed from land and temple, pastoral consideration was needed in the reshaping of the traditions. The temple no longer stood as a symbol of the sovereignty of Israel's God. In the creation account, the construction of the heavenly sanctuary, which usually concludes ancient Near Eastern creation myths, has been replaced by the motif of the divine rest. The Priestly writer connects God's sabbath rest at creation with the institutions of tabernacle and human sabbath observance and gives the people a means whereby the sovereignty of their God can be proclaimed

The Sabbath as dialectic: Implications for mental health

Jewish tradition established the Sabbath as a special day. Its observance was both part of a religious tradition and an example of psychological health. This article explores the values and attitudes that underlie Sabbath observance, identifies some of the themes and behaviors most characteristic of these observances, and relates these to current mental health practices.

The Sabbath: Implications for Mental Health

Jewish tradition established the Sabbath as a special day. Its observance was both part of a religious tradition and an example of psychological health. The author explores the values and attitudes that underlie Sabbath observance, identifies some of the themes and behaviors most characteristic of these observances, and relates these to current mental health practices.

The Rise and Decline of the "Puritan Sunday" in Providence, Rhode Island, 1810-1926

O N Wednesday, 10 May 1876, the eyes of the world were on Providence machine manufacturer George H. Corliss, President Ulysses S. Grant, Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil as they prepared to turn on the gigantic Corliss engine that would provide power for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The opening ceremonies were originally to have taken place on a Sunday, but Corliss, a devout Congregationalist, had refused to permit his engine to run on Sundays. Open the gates to desecrate the Sabbath, he had warned the directors of the exposition, and I will dismantle my engine withdraw the power. Corliss made his point. While the exposition's gates remained open seven days a week, his engine ran only six; on Sundays it rested.1 In taking his stand, Corliss spoke for many in Providence the rest of America who identified the preservation of the republic with strict Sabbath observance. Indeed, by 1876, the injunction to set the Sabbath apart from the rest of the week had become a norm. Yet, as the fact that the exposition was open at all on Sunday makes clear, the future of the custom was already in doubt. That vestiges of strict Sabbath observance survived into the 1920s reflects more the strength of the Protestant political lobby organized just after the turn of the century than the persistent devoutness of the American people. What contemporaries referred to as the Puritan Sunday might more properly be called the Victorian Sunday, for on

The traditionalist Jewish physician and modern biomedical ethical problems.

Recent advances in biomedical technology and therapeutic procedures have generated a moral crisis in modern medicine. The vast strides made in medical science and technology have created options which only a few decades earlier would have been relegated to the realm of science fiction. Man, to a significant degree, now has the ability to exercise control not only over the ravages of disease but even over the very processes of life and death. With the unfolding of new discoveries and techniques, the scientific and intellectual communities have developed a keen awareness of the ethical issues which arise out of man's enhanced ability to control his destiny. In response to the concern for questions of this nature, there has emerged the rapidly developing field of bioethics. Jews, to whom all such questions are quests not only for applicable humanitarian principles but for Divine guidance, must, of necessity, seek answers in the teaching of the Torah. "The Torah of God is perfect" (Psalms 19: 8), and in its teachings the discerning student will find eternally-valid answers to even newly-formulated queries. As physicians and patients turn to Rabbinic authorities for answers, Jewish scholars seek to elucidate and expound the teachings of the Torah in these vital areas of concern. The present essay highlights some of the ethical issues faced by the Jewish physician who faithfully observes his tradition in all matters including his daily practice of medicine. Although more questions are raised than answered, the aim of this essay will have been achieved if the reader is stimulated to pursue these issues in the extending writings on the subject now available in English.

A Reconsideration of the Politics of Assimilation

In his review article on Jewish assimilation in European society in the nineteenth century, Dr. Michael Marrus discussed two aspects of this historical development: the external pressures of the environment on Jews to acculturate by neglecting their own heritage and the desire of the Jews themselves to barter their identity for civil rights.' Marrus described the negative attitudes that many of the European Jews developed toward Judaism in an attempt to accommodate themselves to the secular modem culture of their host country. In response to Marrus's argument, I would like to emphasize the importance of the first cause in shaping the attitude of Jews toward integration. By comparing the assimilation in eastern and central Europe with that in England and the United States, one can get a wider perspective on the impact of external pressures on the nature of assimilation. Jewish concepts of modernity and acculturation were radical, as they were in Germany, Italy, and France, because of the pressure exerted on Jews to conform to their host societies. But when cultural, linguistic, religious, and ethnic particularisms were recognized, as in the liberal English and American societies, Jews preferred to retain their Jewish loyalties. This pattern can be seen very clearly in England, where the assimilation of Jews resembled the French and German model prior to the predominance of liberalism (in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries), but took a different course during the mid-nineteenth century, the period of emancipation and triumph for English liberalism. During the Georgian period, the upper strata of Anglo-Jewry secularized while losing their Jewish identity. The Jewish gentry was clean shaven, well dressed, English speaking (Yiddish was abandoned), and secular minded. The well-to-do attended the opera and the theatre, gossiped and played cards in coffee houses of the City or took the water at Bath and visited the seashores at Brighton. They spent their leisure time in lavish entertainments and grand dinner parties. Some of them acquired estates in the country and adopted there the habits of the local gentry. Anglo-Jewry in the Georgian period was in a rapid process of secularization at the expense of Jewish loyalties: Jews neglected Sabbath observance, rarely attended synagogues, and were lax in performing religious duties. They lacked traditional education (there was not even a single yeshiva in existence during the eighteenth century), disregarded dietary laws, and rarely appealed to rabbinical author-

Religious Benevolence as Social Control: A Critique of an Interpretation

AMONG historians of the last two decades it has become standard to classify the post-Revolutionary generation of religious humanitarians as conservative and self-serving. Fearful of rising currents of secularism and egalitarianism in the new nation, these churchmen, so many students would have it, mounted a campaign of religious evangelism and created a system of local and national religious and benevolent societies in order to preserve their own declining status and to regain their earlier colonial position as the moral arbiters of American society. Such a conclusion about the nature of religious humanitarianism was first advanced in 1954 by John R. Bodo and Charles C. Cole. Charles I. Foster and Clifford S. Griffin offered in 1960 important variations on the main theme. Each approached the subject from a different perspective. While Bodo and Cole organized their studies around individual representatives from the clergy and focused on sermons as their sources, Foster and Griffin centered on both ministerial and lay members of the interdenominational societies and focused on the societies' reports. Yet all agreed that when these religious humanitarians founded Bible and tract societies, or promoted temperance and Sabbath observance, or tried to aid the urban poor, what they wanted in reality was to gain power over society for their own conservative, if not reactionary, ends. It was the desire for social control, not improvement, which lay behind their seemingly benevolent schemes., Moreover, it has recently been customary to stress the differences rather than

The Rest of Life: Rest, Play, Eating, Studying, Sex from a Kingdom Perspective by Ben Witherington III

The Rest of Life: Rest, Play, Eating, Studying, Sex from a Kingdom Perspective by Ben Witherington III

Made for Man: One Professional’s Journey from Pharisaism to Freedom through Observing the Sabbath

Is Sabbath still a relevant concept in the post-modern professional world? The author reflects on how his relationship with Sabbath observance evolved from Pharisaic avoidance to celebratory freedom over his professional career. Historical research, application, exploration, and family intervention all played a role in the journey. Not proselytizing for his views, the author simply holds himself out as one recipient of God’s blessing through keeping the Sabbath.

The Religion of the Jews of Elephantine in Light of the Hermopolis Papyri

THE recently published Hermopolis letters contain over fifty Aramean and Egyptian personal names and provide valuable information on the private affairs of Aramean soldiers stationed at Syene.1 They also illuminate the religious affairs of the Jewish soldiers at Elephantine. Two points are noteworthy: (1) the presence of a single Hebrew name Shabbethai (Abty) b. ?wg (BK 4:10); (2) the presence at Syene of temples to Nabu (BK 1:1), Banit (BK 1:7, 2:1, 12, 3:1), Bethel, and the Queen of Heaven (mlkt 8myn [BK 4:1]). The first relates to the question of Sabbath observance by Jews and nonJews while the second relates to the cult of both Jew and non-Jew.

An Equal-I Scale for Measurement of Attitudes towards Sabbath Observance

An Equal-I Scale for Measurement of Attitudes towards Sabbath Observance

Book Review: Sabbath Observance; the Lord's Day in Our Day.

Book Review: Sabbath Observance; the Lord's Day in Our Day.

If Religion Is Life, What Is the "Sabbath"?

The question which the title of this article raises is unusual. It opens up a topic about which many feel intensely, but the issue which is here raised is not between the observance of the first and the seventh day, but rather the whole question of the observance of one sacred day in the week. This line of argument ought to appeal especially to men whose views of Sunday observance or Sabbath observance are latitudinarian. Perhaps it will also help those of our readers who are more sensitive to the legalistic elements which have worked their way into our religious life.