14 Facts About Shabbat

Since the Jewish religious calendar counts days from sunset to sunset, Shabbat begins in the evening of what on the civil calendar is Friday.

Shabbat observance entails refraining from work activities, often with great rigor, and engaging in restful activities to honour the day.

Judaism's traditional position is that the unbroken seventh-day Shabbat originated among the Jewish people, as their first and most sacred institution, although some suggest other origins.

Variations upon Shabbat are widespread in Judaism and, with adaptations, throughout the Abrahamic and many other religions.

Shabbat is ushered in by lighting candles and reciting a blessing.

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Shabbat is a festive day when Jews exercise their freedom from the regular labours of everyday life.

Universal Jewish Encyclopedia advanced a theory of Assyriologists like Friedrich Delitzsch that Shabbat originally arose from the lunar cycle in the Babylonian calendar containing four weeks ending in a Sabbath, plus one or two additional unreckoned days per month.

Seventh-day Shabbat did not originate with the Egyptians, to whom it was unknown; and other origin theories based on the day of Saturn, or on the planets generally, have been abandoned.

Longstanding Jewish position is that unbroken seventh-day Shabbat originated among the Jewish people, as their first and most sacred institution.

Kabbalat Shabbat service is a prayer service welcoming the arrival of Shabbat.

In modern times, many composers have written sacred music for use during the Kabbalat Shabbat observance, including Robert Strassburg and Samuel Adler.

Term shomer Shabbat is used for a person who adheres to Shabbat laws consistently.

Shabbat lamps have been developed to allow a light in a room to be turned on or off at will while the electricity remains on.

Talmud, especially in tractate Shabbat, defines rituals and activities to both "remember" and "keep" the Sabbath and to sanctify it at home and in the synagogue.