For many Jews and Christians, Sabbath or Shabbat is the primary day of the week when they come together as a community. For the observant, Sabbath and community can almost seem synonymous.

1. In the film, author and journalist Judith Shulevitz argues that, in order for Sabbath observance to work, everyone has to do it. Otherwise, in a highly competitive capitalist society, Sabbath observance could seem like a detriment: Those who rest on Sabbath fall behind those who don’t. 

   Shulevitz puts it this way, in speaking of the contemporary “unplugging” movement:  “. . . we have to do this at the same time, because if we don’t, we’re never going to be able to relax. Because we don’t trust that our co-worker is unplugging, too.”

   Do you agree with this concern? In order for Sabbath to be truly effective, must everyone in a community (or a society) need to participate in it? If so, how could that be accomplished? Is it even possible on a small scale?

2. Religious historian Thomas Kidd reminds viewers that the communal practice of Sabbath is part of our nation’s founding narrative. The Puritans left England to find a place where they would be free to practice their religion as they wished, including observing a strict Sabbath. In the New World, they imposed that strict observance on others. 

   Do you think the Puritans were successful in their attempts at a communal Sabbath? How do you feel about legislating Sabbath observance as the Puritans did? Does it make a difference to you, as it clearly did to the Puritans, that Sabbath observance is mandated in the Ten Commandments given to the people of Israel? (You can find two complete versions of these commandments in the Hebrew scriptures, in Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21.)

3. In the film, several commentators talk about the “Blue Laws” that legislated the closing of shops and businesses on Sundays. In one segment of the film, we meet community leaders in Bergen County, New Jersey, who talk about why the citizens of their county have chosen to retain the secular “Blue Law” laws that keep shops closed on Sunday. 

   Does this seem old-fashioned to you? Or is some sort of legislation necessary to ensure that everyone enjoys a day of rest each week? Should this be a communal decision or simply an individual one? Can so-called “Blue Laws” really be separated from their origins in religious observance, or do they represent the intrusion of religious belief into public life?

4. Both Judith Shulevitz and Thomas Kidd reference a famous case involving Sunday closing laws that came before the United States Supreme Court in 1961. In that case, “McGowan versus Maryland,” the court found that, despite their religious origins, Sunday closing laws are not unconstitutional if they serve a secular purpose, such as providing the citizens of a community with an opportunity for rest. 

   Do you agree with the court’s decision? What factors do you think have to be weighed in supporting Sunday closing laws? Are these laws a violation of the constitutional guarantee of the separation of church and state (as the defendants in the above case argued)?

5. Most Puritans saw Sabbath observance as a religious and moral obligation, as have observant Jews throughout history. Do you see it as such? Does your tradition, if you have one, approach Sabbath observance as a religious or moral obligation? On what grounds? What are the consequences of not observing the Sabbath?

6. Religiously observant Jews and Seventh-day Adventists are among groups that observe 24-hour Sabbath periods on a weekly basis. How important do you think a weekly Sabbath observance is? Is regularity a key to effective Sabbath observance, in your opinion? How realistic is that or would that be for you? For your family?

7.  Both theologian Judy Fentress-Williams and historian Thomas Kidd note that, during the time of slavery in the United States, Sabbath gatherings (whether on Sundays or Saturday nights) were among the only times that enslaved people were able to come together as a community and express their full humanity. How do these historical truths affect the way you think about Sabbath and what it means, what it has meant, or what it could mean in the future? How might honoring Sabbath also be a way of honoring the full humanity of all people, especially the historically marginalized?

8. Given the religious and cultural diversity of twenty-first century America, in which Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and people of other faiths live side by side, does Sunday or Saturday Sabbath observance become problematic, even if it is secular in nature?

9. At the Islamic Center of New York University, Imam Khalid Latif describes the Friday Jummah prayer gathering as a time when more superficial distinctions between people --- distinctions made and reinforced during the secular work week ---are removed. “The Day of Jummah is an opportunity now for people to traditionally leave everything that they have, their workplaces that are quite often segmented, the marketplace that is very much divided on social class, aspects of society that are heavily stratified,” Latif says, “and you walk into a place. Nobody is given a specific designation because of their level of affluence, the amount of wealth that they have.”

   Whatever your faith tradition, do you experience communal worship as a time when everyday identities and stereotypes are removed, and a community gathers together on equal terms? If yes, how can this vision be applied to everyday life in the larger world, where distinctions between persons are often reinforced? What does this say about the different ways (and the different perspectives with which) people may approach religious community and their identity within it?

10. Were you surprised by the role that largely secular labor unions played in the establishment of Sunday closing laws in the early twentieth century? What reasons did the unions have for joining with religious groups in advocating for Sunday labor laws? Do you feel that this was an effective coalition? Could it (or should it) be reproduced today to advocate for workers’ rights?

11. Sociologist Tricia Bruce says that an over-focus on work and busyness, things often valorized in our culture today, can make us less responsive to the needs of others and to participation in community. This was the finding of Princeton Theological Seminary’s famous “Good Samaritan Project” (1973), highlighted in Part Two of SABBATH.

    Do you find this to be true in your own life---that the busier you are and the more your life centers on work, the less responsive and engaged you may be to and with others? Do you sometimes see this in colleagues, friends, or family members? What is the result of this behavior? If you experience this in your own life, as many of us do, what changes could you make to be more responsive to and engaged with others?

12. Bruce also argues that religious congregations and houses of worship are among the few places in today’s society where people can gather in physical community to take time out from the busyness of everyday life.  Even apart from their role in worship, congregations embody many of the values of Sabbath.

    Does this match your own experience? Have you been involved in congregational life now or in the past? Is the sort of community that Bruce ascribes to religious congregations available outside of them? Or is this sort of community defined by its religious expressions?

13. In Part Two, Bruce suggests that, by contrast, religious communities can also be exclusionary, bringing together people who already share similar backgrounds, perspectives, socio-economic status, and other things. “[W]e are filtering our experience of reality and of each other. And we are essentially building communities that look like mirrors,” she says. This idea is reminiscent of the famous statement variously attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Howard Thurman, and others who suggested that eleven o’clock on Sunday morning was the most segregated hour in American life.  

    Is this your experience of religious community, if you have been involved in one? Is unconscious segregation and social grouping endemic to American religious life? Or have you found religious community to be a place where people of different backgrounds and perspectives do come together to meet, share, worship, and celebrate the richness of diversity? Or have you experienced both? If so, which experience was the most meaningful or fulfilling?