A Sabbath Rest

A Sabbath Rest Remains for the People of God Commentary by Susan Docherty Cite Share Show Bible Passage The Sabbath has served as a key focus of Jewish life and ritual throughout the centuries. On this day every week, Jews imitate God, who ‘rested on the seventh day from all his works’ (Hebrews 4:4; Genesis 2:2). The theme of ‘Sabbath rest’ is central to the argument of Hebrews 4, and is beautifully illustrated in this painting by the early twentieth century Polish Jewish artist Jankel Adler. Completed in the mid-1920s, when the artist was working in Germany, and now hanging in the Jüdisches Museum Berlin, it depicts a scene in a family home (Heibel 2016: 231–232, 505). Many painters and writers focus on the joyful rites with which the beginning of the Sabbath is marked, such as the lighting of the candles and the blessing of the wine. Adler, however, homes in on the second half of the day, when the candles have burned low, the wine has been drunk, and the special challah bread is half eaten (Jüdisches Museum Berlin n.d.). He presents a couple who are quite literally ‘at rest’: the man reclining on a sofa and the woman sitting still in her chair, with no hint even of conversation between them. They seem utterly content and at peace, having ‘ceas(ed) from their labours as God did from his’ (Hebrews 4:10). The opportunity to concretely enjoy God’s rest is precisely the hope that the author of Hebrews holds out to his audience: ‘a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God’ (Hebrews 4:9).