In the Bible, God mandates Sabbath rest for all people, as well as for the earth and the creatures in it. Sabbath-keeping and the freedom to keep it are matters of justice in Biblical tradition and also today.

If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath,
from pursuing your own interests on my holy day;

…
If you honour it, not going your own ways,
serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;
then you shall take delight in the Lord. . . .  Isaiah 58:13-14

1. In the film, historian Thomas Kidd notes that “the profit impulse is often one of the enemies of a strict Sabbath observance,” noting especially the role that this impulse has played in American history. 

   Do you agree with Kidd that “the profit impulse” has been the “enemy” of Sabbath thinking or Sabbath keeping in our nation’s history? If so, in what ways has it been an “enemy” of Sabbath? Can you list several? If you don’t agree with Kidd’s observation, why not?

2. Sociologist Tricia Bruce asserts that, in American history, there have been structural and systemic challenges to Sabbath keeping. One challenge has to do with the demands corporations sometimes place upon their workers. Another is the necessity for workers to earn a living wage, so that they have the ability to enjoy a day of rest.

   Have you faced either of these challenges in your own work life? If so, when? What responsibility do you think employers have to their employees in terms of Sabbath? No work on Sundays, or something more comprehensive?

3. Theologian Judy Fentress-Williams reminds viewers that, historically in America, Sabbath practice did not extend to everyone. This was especially true for enslaved persons, who sometimes were not allowed an opportunity for Sabbath rest. Ironically, their forced labor provided the economic means for enslavers to enjoy Sabbath themselves.

   How do you feel about America’s mixed record on Sabbath-keeping and the right to enjoy Sabbath? Does the fact that some people were (and are) not able or allowed to enjoy Sabbath affect the way that you think about it or practice it? Do such truths invalidate Sabbath for you or make you want to consider ways that everyone might have the right to enjoy it? How might that be accomplished?

4. In the segment on Our Lady Queen of Angels (La Placita) Church in Los Angeles, community activist Joseph Tomas McKellar suggests that, regarding Sabbath, “the question for us as a society [isn’t] what should we do to solve all of the inequalities, injustices, in the world around us, but who do we need to become?”

   What do you think McKellar means by this? What is it we individually and as a society need to become so that the promises of true Sabbath community are fulfilled?

5. Fentress-Williams suggests that “over time, church for Black people became everything. . . . In worship or in church on Sunday, African-Americans had dignity.” She describes how, especially during the era of Jim Crow, church on Sunday was the place where African-Americans could take off their uniforms and workday identities and assume authority in the worshipping community. “People who had to make their way through the world with their heads down and their shoulders hunched over got to sit up straight,” she says.

   How does this image of Sabbath worship contrast with that described in Question 3?  What kinds of Sabbath values does this image (Question 5) convey? What would it take to translate these values into the workday week? Is this experience of human dignity only available in the Black Church or in a single-race setting? 

6. Sociologist Tricia Bruce notes that in American history, work has often been viewed as a kind of “religious practice”:  God favors those who work, and success in one’s work is a sign of God’s favor. Bruce points out the challenges inherent in this way of thinking: We work harder and harder and longer and longer to gain God’s favor. Of course, this approach fits very well into the dynamics of capitalism, as Bruce observes.

   Have you ever thought about your work as a kind of religious practice? Have you ever approached it with a kind of religious zeal or intensity? Do you think that God favors hard work? What’s wrong with treating work as a kind of religion?

7. In Part 2, we meet the community behind Abundance Farm in Northampton, Massachusetts, a Jewish-led creative farming project serving the food insecure. Here we learn about Sabbath practices regarding the earth, specifically, the year of shmita (the Sabbath of Sabbaths), when, in accord with Jewish law, the land is allowed to rest. Rabbi David Seidenberg, a consultant with Abundance Farm, explains that in a shmita year (every seventh year in a seven-year cycle), “anyone can go into anyone’s field, rich or poor. It doesn’t matter where you come from. Jewish, not Jewish. You go into anyone’s field and take whatever you want, because nobody owns anything.”

   Do you find this idea surprising? Does the idea of mandated rest for the land make sense to you? What about equal and open access to its fruits, regardless of who labored to grow them? How, in your mind, does this relate to the historical American emphases on self-reliance and individualism? On ownership of property? 

8. In the same segment, Rabbi David Seidenberg points out that Jewish (halakhic) law not only mandates the sharing of agricultural bounty during the shmita year, but also the cancellation of debts owed. As the film’s narration suggests, this is one of the most challenging of Sabbath teachings. Some viewers may remember high-profile public debates about international debt relief in the early 2000s.  

   How do you feel about mandated debt relief at specific intervals of time? Is debt relief a good idea, or does it actually fight against principles of justice and accountability? If Sabbath is, in part, a time of giving back and of restoration, how might debt relief fit into that? For debt relief to work, would everybody have to participate in it? Or should it be a voluntary Sabbath practice that everyone is encouraged to consider?

9.  Both Rabbi David Seidenberg and Rabbi Jacob Fine (Director of Abundance Farm) emphasize the radical equality of schmita under Jewish halakhic law. “If we can’t hoard food, then we’re entirely dependent on how we interact with each other and what we share and creating equality between people,” Seidenberg says. Fine describes shmita as “really a blueprint for society . . . a vision for civilization” that involves the building of “a sharing economy.” 

   Do you feel that there is a connection between the sharing of goods and equality between persons? To what extent do you think of Sabbath as a time of sharing or giving? Is dependence on others or on one another something you associate with Sabbath? If not, how does associating these ideas – sharing, equality, giving, and dependence – impact your perspective on what Sabbath is and what it means?