By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal
SAN DIEGO — Parashat Ki Tissa contains the verses we love to sing every Friday night, V’shamru: “The Israelite people shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout the ages as a covenant for all time. It shall be a sign between Me and the people of Israel. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He ceased from work and was refreshed.” (Ex. 31:16-17)
The Jewish Sabbath begins Friday night and ends Saturday night. At what time it begins and concludes, however, is a trickier question.
Technically, Shabbat begins at astronomical sunset. While at one time this was established via visible sighting, today we rely on the time as established by the U.S. Naval observatory. Although Shabbat begins at sunset, it is customary to light Shabbat candles eighteen minutes before sunset in order to make sure one does not wait too close to sunset and inadvertently desecrate Shabbat.
Similarly, Shabbat ends at astronomical sundown on Saturday night. However, in order not to desecrate Shabbat before it concludes, traditionally one waits to celebrate havdalah about sixty minutes after candle lighting, or when one sees three stars (not planets) in the sky. Rabbi Isaac Klein, a Conservative rabbi and halachic authority, writes in “A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice” that it is sufficient to wait forty-three minutes after candle lighting to conclude Shabbat. (p. 57-58)
But the discussion does not end there. In the Talmud we are instructed mosifim mei-chol al ha-kodesh, that one should add from the profane to the holy. That is, one is supposed to extend Shabbat by beginning it early and concluding it late. From candle lighting to about twenty-five minutes after sunset is the minimal extension. If one wishes to add to this by beginning earlier or ending later, one may do so.
This, writes Rabbi Chaim Eter in Mayanot Ha-netzach, is what the Torah means when it instructs us la’asot et ha-Shabbat – to “make” (observe) the Shabbat. Even though Shabbat as God created it, is a specific amount of time from sunset to sunset, God agrees to extend Shabbat by what we, the children of Israel, add to it. We should greet the Shabbat with expectancy and enthusiasm and depart from it reluctantly. In Judaism the realm of the sacred is not God’s creation alone. It is a joint effort between God and human beings. God and humans together create the holy spaces in which we meet.
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Rabbi Rosenthal is spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego. He may be contacted at leonard.rosenthal@sdjewishworld.com