How To Keep the Sabbath

The Bible teaches us that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. We too follow in God's path and spend six days developing the world and on the seventh we refrain from any physically creative activities. This includes driving, writing, cooking, turning on electricity etc. etc. The goal is to make the Sabbath a day of spiritual bliss. How is this done?

1. Prepare in advance: Two sumptuous meals should be prepared before sundown on Friday night. They should include meat, fish, challah (a traditional bread roll), soup and whatever else you like to eat! A third lighter meal should also be prepared. The first meal should be eaten on Friday night, the other two on Saturday sometime before dark. God will reward you for enjoying the food!
2. Light candles: Before sundown on Friday night, two candles should be kindled. Preferably the woman of the house should light the candles, but if there is no woman in the house then the man should light. The candles should be placed near the dining room table.
3. Wear your finest clothing: You should set aside formal and tasteful clothing to wear throughout the Sabbath.
4. Make sure that everybody is home: The Sabbath is family time. It is crucial that everyone in the family eat together and connect emotionally. Business or gossip should not be topics of conversation but rather spiritual and personal topics should be the focus. Get to know each other! Particularly husband and wife should have special time together. It is also important to sing Jewish songs together.
5. Invite guests: Jewish tradition emphasizes the importance of hospitality. Every guest is important but you should make a special effort to invite poor people, orphans, widows or others who might be lonely.
6. Go to a traditional synagogue: You should try to attend a synagogue both on Friday night and on Saturday morning. But if the synagogue is not within walking distance you should opt to stay home and pray there. Driving is forbidden on the Sabbath.
7. Nap: Take a sweet nap on Saturday afternoon. It is an exquisite pleasure!
8. Read books of Jewish interest: Try to read books with spiritually meaningful content such as the Bible or even contemporary works that can enlighten and edify you.
9. Introspect: Try to find time to think about the course of your spiritual life and how you can improve it. Forget about work! For the 25 hours of the Sabbath pretend you don't have a job. Don't read the business pages in the newspaper. Nothing should distract you from connecting to the inner parts of your life.