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“Sabbath Eve” by Alexander Johnston [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Then we begin discussing verse 12. This commandment will be followed up in the next segment of TMT.
Exodus Ch. 20 (NIV):
8“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11For 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. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
Thank you so much for your show, Mr. Footnick!
I have a few questions regarding Shabbat. You said on your show that Shabbat is inherently holy but that we can desecrate it. How is that so? God is also inherently holy. Can we also desecrate Him? What is holiness?
Thanks for listening and your questions.
Yes, Shabbat is inherently holy:
Gen 2:2-3
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
On the seventh “day” of creation God makes it holy, so Shabbat is inherently holy due to God’s blessing. We can desecrate Shabbat (God forbid) by not observing the mitzvot He commanded us as a Jewish people (i.e. the prohibition of lighting a fire on Shabbat).
And yes God is inherently holy. He is the source of holiness. Remember that holy is kadosh in hebrew and kadosh means something along the lines of “distinct, distinguished, or set apart.” God is God alone and there is no other. Though tautological, He is distinct because He is set apart from everything else. He is the Creator of all creation. He is not a creation… which is not true for anything else.
A Torah source:
Leviticus 19:2: “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy”
And yes we can desecrate God, Shabbat, and man… all of which are to be considered holy.
In hebrew we have the terms:
Chillul Hashem = desecration of God (or God’s name)
and it’s counter Kiddush HaShem = sanctification of God (or God’s name)
There is likewise Chillul Shabbat
This is getting ahead of the class but here is a reference:
Ex. 31
14“ ‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people. 15For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death. 16The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. 17It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ”
Holiness is making something distinct through elevating it from this realm towards God. Humans are created in the divine image (hence why we can also be desecrated – because we have an intrinsic holiness) and we can choose whether we will act more animal like or more Godly. The more animal we behave the less human we become and therefore we distance ourselves from Godliness (or holiness).
For instance we can plow our face into a bowl of food and devour the food entirely. There is nothing unethical about this behavior but there is something wrong with it right? Many would describe such behavior as animalistic or they might say “He eats like a pig.” God wants all people to be set apart(kadosh) from the animals and elevate themselves through elevated behavior (i.e. not eating like an animal.) He wants Jews to be set apart (kadosh) from other people and elevate themselves through His commandments (i.e remember and observe the Shabbat, kosher diet, Passover, etc.) And we are to be a light unto the nations… and teach others how to elevate their behavior through Biblical values. Eventually creating a world where man is less animalistic and more Godly.
Hope that helps and thanks again for listening and good questions.
But if we “desecrate” God (or anything else), He isn’t really losing His inherent holiness, we just fail to acknowledge it. Is that correct? Is holiness relative to the things or people that surround it? It seems like that must be the case because some things are holy, and in the temple, there was the Holy of Holys, and God Himself is “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
Yes basically that’s it.
God and Shabbat retain their inherent holiness despite our behaviors. But it is not just that we fail to acknowledge it. We can actually do damage in regards to how others regard their holiness. Regardless though, God and Shabbat remain holy – we just keep missing out on it or far worse we cause others to lose respect and awe for that which is Holy.
In regards to your second question:
There are gradations of holiness. God being the most Holy obviously. And yes in the Temple we are given a hierarchy of holiness. It graduated from the land outside of Israel, to Israel, to Jerusalem, to the Temple Courtyard, to the Sanctuary, to the Holy of Holies. Each one could be considered a step up in elevation from the secular to the holy.
We have that with the people as well. All people are God’s people, and the Jews are to be His treasured people – “Kingdom of priest and a Holy nation. And that brings up the point that even among the Jews, we have a gradation of holiness. The most high were the descendants of Aharon – who themselves had distinctions (the Kohen Gadol and then the other Kohanim “High Priest and the other Priests”) and then those from the tribe of Levi, and finally the Israelites.
God is a big on keeping things separate. Holiness is one of those ways. We are always to be recognizing the secular (chol) from the Holy (kadosh.)
Thanks again for your excellent questions!