Our six year old son Colin was a bit skeptical. “Mom,” he asked, “We won’t go all the way with our Shabbat and pretend that we don’t believe Jesus is the Messiah, will we?”

On the contrary! As Christians, we believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the Lord of the Sabbath. We wanted the elements of our Shabbat to be done in worship of Him. The elements of wine, bread and light would remind us of Jesus. As Christians, our Sabbath day of rest is on Sunday, so our 24 hour Shabbat would last from Saturday at sundown until Sunday at sundown, unlike the Jewish Shabbat which begins on Friday night.

We do try to honor the Sabbath every week, and set it aside for worship, fellowship and rest. We do not believe that Christians need to celebrate all the Jewish holidays, or that there is anything inherently holy in celebrating according to the Jewish ways.

Our purpose in celebrating Shabbat was twofold: to help our children understand more about the culture we are currently studying and to give them a frame of reference for some of the things we are reading in the Bible. At the same time, we were aware that this feast would be very different from our Egyptian feast. The Shabbat celebration cannot be separated from its inherent purpose, as a time of family worship and celebration.

Challah is an important centerpiece of the Shabbat meal. Each of the boys was allowed to make his own small challah, plus I made a large one for the family to share. The boys also made personalized challah covers out of paper napkins. Fold up a colored napkin and cut shapes out of it along the seam, just as you would for making snowflakes. Unfold it and lay it over a napkin of another color. I used a few dabs of glue to hold the two napkins together. For more recipes from our feast, see my post Shabbat Recipes.

Shabbat begins with a thorough house cleaning. To be honest, this was the most daunting part. I wrote out a list and everyone had chores to do as we tackled cleaning all the public areas (we didn’t stress out about bedrooms, laundry room, etc.) I assumed that the primary purpose of this cleaning-fest would be to give me a sense of Sabbath rest when it was done. How often I feel pulled to do household tasks instead of resting on the Sabbath!

There was another pleasant by-product, though. The day of chores on Saturday really added to the children’s relief and enjoyment when Shabbat finally began at sundown on Saturday night. I had found a toy Shofar for Cal for $2 at a museum shop.

As Cal blew his toy shofar triumphantly, Colin shouted out, “No more work! Stop working everybody! It’s Sabbath now!” We all felt a common sense of joy and freedom from our labors: 24 hours with no work allowed!

I tried to make this time of Sabbath as restful for myself as possible. I wouldn’t say I achieved total rest, as I still felt it necessary to load and unload the dishwasher and to do the most basic meal preparation. I did whatever I could in advance, however, which gave me more free time than I often have.

At sundown, Cal blew his shofar and we all gathered in the dining room, where a lovely table was already set.

Everyone was looking forward to the meal, as sundown was about 8:00 p.m. and we were hungry! We read several verses and talked about the meaning of Shabbat and its common elements (light, bread, wine). Then we enjoyed a lovely meal together, which I had prepared in advance.

We all shared about things we would find emotionally, spiritually and physically refreshing on the Sabbath. Some of the kids’ ideas were so far beyond the realm of possibility that it prompted my husband to quip, “I’d like world peace!” Nevertheless, it was nice to talk about how we recharge and what things are meaningful to us. I promised to help Knox with a book-writing project that he has often wanted to work on. As we read in Molly Cone’s book The Story of Shabbat, “A person doesn’t say the words ‘I’m too busy’ on Shabbat.” As a very busy homeschooling mother, I tried to take that particular phrase to heart.

We all shared the job of dinner cleanup, spent relaxing time together and went to bed. On Sunday morning, we had a simple breakfast of store-bought donuts, juice and fruit smoothies which had been prepared on Saturday. I put a beef roast in the crockpot, as well. After church, our simple meal was easily served and cleared away and we had the remainder of the day to rest.

The first three stars in the evening sky signal the close of Shabbat. We ate our dinner before sundown, and had a bonfire and roasted s’mores outside so we would be able to look for the first three stars. After the bonfire we closed the evening in prayer and song. I’ve detailed the brief ceremony that takes place at the end of Shabbat in the post Our Shabbat Script, as well as a post on Shabbat Recipes.

The recipes for Challah and Candlestick salad were borrowed from Martha Zimmerman’s excellent book, Celebrate the Feasts.

Celebrating Biblical Feasts

Colin preparing his Challah
Challah (Sabbath bread)(yields two large or three medium sized loaves):

2 packages dry yeast
2 cups warm water
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
4 tsp salt
3 eggs, slightly beaten
7 1/2 cups flour

Pour the 2 cups warm water into a large bowl (I used my kitchenaid mixer). It should be warm, not hot, lukewarm or cool. Add the yeast, and allow to stand for 5 or 10 minutes. Add sugar, oil, salt. Blend in the eggs, reserving 1 TBSP of egg white for brushing on the loaves. Add 3 cups flour and beat well to avoid lumps. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes. Gradually, add the rest of the flour (4 1/2 cups). Oil the table or board you will use and your hands generously and knead the dough for about 10 minutes.

When I put my dough onto the board, some of the flour was still crumbly. I added a bit of oil to my hands and the board during the kneading process, working until I had a nice smooth dough. This was my first time baking Challah, and I am not a bread-maker normally, so I am far from an expert…but ours came out great.

After kneading, put the dough back into the bowl, cover with a clean cloth and leave in a warm place. Let rise about 1 1/2 hours. Shape the loaves, braiding them on a cookie sheet. (If you have a question as to how to braid the loaves, a simple Google search yields many photos and diagrams).

Let rise 1 hour. Brush the top of the loaves with egg white, and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds, if desired. Allow to rise again for 1 hour. Bake at 375F for 30 to 45 minutes. Tap the bottom of each loaf. When there is a hollow sound, the bread is done.

For instructions to make a Challah cover out of paper napkins, see my post on Celebrating Shabbat.

Knox had lots of fun making his own Challah…and even more fun eating it!
VARIATION: I have 4 sons, and I wanted to use Ms. Zimmerman’s suggestion of letting each boy have their own small loaf to bless. I allowed each boy to make their own small loaf. This only left enough dough for one large Challah for the family, rather than 2, and yet I still wanted to tie in the symbolism of how God gave a double portion of manna on the 6th day.

Again, Ms. Zimmerman comes through with a great idea. She suggested making a lovely loaf by saving some dough to make a smaller braid, and then laying it over the top of the large braided loaf, pressing slightly so that it adheres to the lower loaf. This makes a beautiful loaf of bread! For our script, my husband just said, “You’ll notice that this large loaf of bread is actually two loaves, as there is a 2nd loaf braided on top. This is to remind us of the double portion of manna….”, problem solved!

Candlestick Salad
Three year old Cal enjoyed helping construct this simple salad, which reminds the children of the Shabbat candles.

Directions for one salad: Put a washed piece of lettuce on a plate. Place a pineapple ring on the lettuce. Cut a banana in half in such a way that it will stand in the hole (we had to cut ours into thirds and eat the middle portion, as otherwise the top-heavy bananas kept toppling over). Poke a toothpick down into a banana part way, and poke a maraschino cherry onto the toothpick for the candle’s flame.

It seems that many people eat Chicken soup and/or fish for their Shabbat meal, but a Google search yielded many potential recipes. For our Shabbat, we had the Candlestick salads, Roast chicken with carrots and onions, Challah, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. The children got to drink Sprite, which is a luxury for them. After all, Shabbat is meant to be a celebration, a feast! We had a store-bought pie for dessert to keep things as simple as possible.

Sunday meals
I prepared all the food we would need for Sunday ahead of time, on Saturday afternoon. For our Sunday breakfast, we had orange juice, Sunrise Smoothies and store-bought donuts.

Sunrise Smoothies
Combine the following in a blender:
1 carton of strawberries
1/4 can frozen orange juice concentrate
1 package frozen passion fruit pulp (frozen fruit section at the grocery store)
1 family-sized carton strawberry yogurt
Enough orange juice to thin consistency…adjust to taste

My blender was too small, so I poured some of the mixture into a pitcher before adding the rest of the strawberries and additional orange juice. I put all of it in a pitcher in the fridge overnight so it would be an easy breakfast on Sunday morning. I loved these Smoothies, but the kids thought they were too sour. Next time, maybe I will use less passion fruit and some milk instead of orange juice.

Sunday’s lunch menu was Italian beef sandwiches, green salad from a bag, fruit or applesauce and leftover potatoes from last night. If you wanted a dessert, you could serve something easy like store-bought cookies.

Crockpot Italian Beef Sandwiches
Place a 2 to 3 pound beef rump roast in your crockpot. Sprinkle the top of the roast with a package of dry Italian dressing (Good Seasonings). Add a can or two of beef broth to the pot. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours. Serve on crusty rolls, with a ladle full of broth in individual dishes, for dipping.

My family’s favorite meal is Pizza night. We try to do this once a week on Friday nights and they just love it! The kids really wanted to have pizzas for our Shabbat celebration, but I couldn’t quite get my mind around that.

As a compromise, I said we would have pizza on Sunday night. It is the last meal of Shabbat, a time of celebration for the joy and refreshment the Lord brought us during the Sabbath, before we begin to look forward to the new week. It is also a meal that requires no work from me, so I felt it fit within my definition of what we could eat on this very special Sabbath.

On Saturday morning I purchased ready-to-bake pizzas at the Walmart Deli and kept them in the fridge until Sunday night. We also ate the leftover Challah bread from the night before. For dessert, we roasted marshmallows outside in a firepit and had S’mores.

I put together this Sabbath “script”, drawing on many of the ideas and prayers I found in Martha Zimmerman’s book Celebrating Biblical Feasts. I wanted to follow her recommendations as to the elements and order of a Shabbat feast, since I had never participated in one before. Some of the prayers we read follow her suggested wording.

Other elements follow the pattern laid out in Ms. Zimmerman’s book, but the wording or scripture was chosen by me. It was important to us that the feast be explicitly Christian and that the symbolism would focus on Christ. According to our own convictions about communion, it was also important to us that our celebration would not cross from the realm of family feast into becoming a communion service, so we were careful to preserve that distinction. We also wanted each child to say a verse during the celebration; this is not traditional, as I understand it.

We took this feast seriously, and did it in a way that was worshipful, yet not legalistic. It was a joyous celebration as a family. To get the broader picture of what we did to observe Shabbat, see my post Celebrating Shabbat. There is also a post on Shabbat Recipes.

Our Family Sabbath

Saturday Night
1) Preparation Prayer (mother speaks this prayer as the family gathers, just before she lights the candles):

O Lord our God, King of the universe, You who made the Sabbath holy, You who called upon us to honor this Sabbath, abide with us this night.
Almighty God, grant us and all our loved ones rest on this Sabbath day. Drive out from among us the spirit of anger.
Enable us by your Spirit to walk in the ways of Your Word, according to the pattern shown to us by Your Son Jesus.
Heavenly Father, we rejoice in your creation! It is from you that we receive every good and perfect gift. Giver of live and love, grant us Your peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

2) Mother says the following blessings before lighting the candles:
Creation (lighting first candle): This candle represents creation. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth light out of darkness.

Redemption: (lighting second candle): This candle represents redemption. Our Lord said, “You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” As we light these candles and set them to give light to all who are in this house, light our lives with the great love of Your Son, Jesus, in whose name we pray.

Oldest child: “Jesus said, “I am the light of the world”.

3) Father’s blessing (Father walks around the table to each child, in order of their birth, and placing his hands on their heads, he blesses his children). He can pray that the Lord would bless each child, in his turn. After praying for each child (one by one) he shares a personal word of praise for that child. He may kiss each child, if desired.
4) Blessing of the wife (father): quoting from Proverbs 31:10, 27-30:

An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and bless her; Her husband also, and he praises her, saying, “Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all”. A woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

5) The family sings the 1st verse of a hymn of choice, softly and prayerfully.

6) The father recites the Kiddush, the prayer of sanctification of the Sabbath, over a cup of wine or grape juice. After reciting this prayer, the cup is passed and each person takes a drink.

Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine. The wine symbolizes life! The wine symbolizes joy! The cup is full! It reminds us of Christ’s blood shed out for us.

7) The blessing before the washing of hands (father): After this prayer, the bowl of water and towel are passed, and each person dips their hands in the water. One child could be chosen to carry the bowl around.
Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us through your Son.

8) Father: instruct everyone to cover their knives with their napkin. Father removes the challah cover from the 2 large loaves of bread and blesses the bread with these words: Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.

If you have made small loaves of challah for the male children, each male in turn (oldest to youngest) can repeat the blessing over the bread, doing as his father did, removing the Challah cover from his own small loaf of Challah. Before breaking and passing the large loaf, the father reads these words:

The two loaves of bread remind us of the double portion of manna that the Lord provided for His people in the wilderness, so that they would not need to work for bread on the Sabbath. The loaf is twisted, to represent folded arms, as a reminder to do no work on the Sabbath. The Challah cover represents the dew that was on the ground every morning that the Israelites wandered in the desert. When the dew evaporated, behold, there on the ground lay the manna. It reminds us that God provides.

Child #2: Today we rejoice in God’s Son Jesus, who said “I am the bread of life”. His body was broken for us.

After the loaves are blessed, the father breaks the large loaf with his hands and takes a piece. The loaf is then passed around the table and each person breaks off a piece, feeling thankful in their heart.

Child #3: “Eat thy bread with joy”. Everyone can take one bite of bread.

Child #4: Give us this day our daily bread.

The meal is now served. Eat it leisurely.

The Father closes the meal with this Sabbath blessing: The Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace. For of His fulness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses: grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

Sunday evening: close of the Sabbath:
Help each other find 3 stars in the sky. Mother closes the day with prayer.

Light a single candle and let one child hold it. Let another child hold the spice box.

Father fills the wine cup, placed over a dish, with wine or juice until the cup overflows. Father leads the family in prayer.

Father puts out the candle in the dish of overflowed wine. Father says, “The Light of the world went out for three days as His blood was spilled for us.”

Pass the spice box around, each person taking a deep breath and remembering that they anointed His body with spices, as was the custom.

Sing a hymn to close the day.