The Shabbat ordinance

The Shabbat ordinance | JPost | Israel News:

There is a fascinating parallel to the alternative approaches to Shabbat within our biblical tradition. In one version of the Ten Commandments we find the “religious” reason for cessation of work on the Sabbath: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.” In Exodus we find a “social” reason: “So that your male and female servants may rest, as you do,” basing the commandment on our people’s formative experience as an enslaved nation. This is, after all, the great innovation of Judaism: incorporating faith with a commitment to social justice, or – as Mordecai Kaplan aptly labeled it, promoting a religion of ethical nationhood.

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Shabbat and Shabbox, Persian Style | 30 Years After | Jewish Journal

Shabbat and Shabbox, Persian Style | 30 Years After | Jewish Journal:

This group, however, was different.  They were not family members, they chose to be together for dinner, and they were all students and young professionals. No mothers were there to cook, no fathers were there to recite the blessings over wine and bread. There was no need for the TV to be on, and guests weren't moved to looked thru their phones out of boredom or force of habit.

And there was one non-Iranian Jew in attendance.

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