(REVIEW) Martin Doblmeier’s documentary, “Sabbath” explores how each of the monotheistic faiths have tackled the restlessness and consistent hurry of modern culture through adopting some variation on what the weekly Sabbath or time of rest looks like in their respective faith cultures.

Doblmeier and his crew began filming in the spring of 2022, and the documentary took approximately 18 months to film and produce. Journey Films officially released the film to the public on June 1, 2023, airing on PBS stations across the country and free on some online platforms. 

The opening shots of the documentary note how much of modern American culture is characterized by burnout and exhaustion. After the Second World War, American society entered what Dr. Norman Wirzba of Duke University calls “The Great Acceleration,” where “people feel that the pacing of their lives has accelerated to a point where they don't have time to care for themselves, they don't have time to care for family members.” 

Academics and theologians aren’t the only ones who are concerned about this cultural phenomenon.

“I’m really compelled by what Pope Francis says about the Sabbath. Pope Francis says that if you have the right to work, you also have the right to rest,” Joseph Tomás McKellar, a Catholic community organizer, said in the film. “As a community organizer, as a Latino Catholic, I am concerned, as the Pope is, about the things that get in the way of people's ability to practice Sabbath. More and more our economy is designed to keep people in a constant state of work just in order to survive.” 

Doblmeier’s inspiration for the film originated from reading Abraham Joshua Heschel’s book on the concept after producing a documentary on Heschel himself. Doblmeier also noticed the passion that Seventh Day Adventists have for the Sabbath, and noted a sense of collective restlessness during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Here we are, I thought during the pandemic, all feeling a sense of stress, detachment, and a loss of time and the rhythm of time,” Doblmeier told Religion Unplugged in an interview. “Sometimes I couldn’t really tell if it was Sunday or Monday or Thursday. That put into the forefront the whole idea of Sabbath for me. What Covid unquestionably did was temporarily decimate the notion of gathering together in communal worship, whether Jewish, Christian, or Catholic, so Sabbath became a lens through which to see what was happening in organized religion.”

“Plus, Sabbath takes us naturally into a lot of different topics,” Doblmeier added. “The idea of care of the earth, care of creation, and so on. This has a really strong environmental component. So once we began to think as a team that this is much deeper than saying ‘hey, wanna take a break on Sunday? I’m gonna stop on Sunday,’ then we began to realize that we had tapped into something that was bigger than we could have imagined, and hopefully we could communicate that well to a viewing audience, that we could open and expand the idea of Sabbath to them too.”

The Sabbath theme underscores aspects of the American founding. According to the documentary, the Puritans on the Mayflower moved to the New World in part to practice Sabbath as strictly as they wanted. In England, King James I permitted sporting events, drinking, and other activities on the Sabbath which the Puritans thought was unbiblical.

For the earliest Christians, who were Jews, the Sabbath was a sacred time set aside for congregational prayer, study, and the Eucharist in remembrance of Christ’s death. When Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 312 A.D., he instituted the Sabbath in place of the day of honoring the sun god, hence the term, “Sunday.”

While the practice of Sabbath may be rooted in religion, it has been adopted in the secular sphere and has traditionally been seen at least as a respite from the fast paced, working rhythm of the work week. It is a time apart from regular time to rest, recuperate, and reconnect with one’s family and community. In the past, many states endorsed Sabbath closing laws, or “Blue Laws,” in the United States for exactly this purpose.

Because these laws prohibited certain businesses to remain open on Sundays, they were challenged in 1961 under the Establishment Clause of the First amendment for favoring Christianity over other religions. In McGowan v. Maryland, however, the Supreme Court upheld the Blue Laws in question in an 8-1 decision. Delivering the majority opinion of the Court, Justice Warren noted that although the practice of Sabbath was historically religious, new secular justifications for it have arisen over the years, to the point where this legislation is helpful to institute. Hence, this kind of legislation is not exclusively representative of religious interest, and aims to “protect all persons from the physical and moral debasement which comes from uninterrupted labor.”

For practicing Jews, the concept of Sabbath (Shabbat or Shabbos) constitutes a shift in mindset from the rest of the week. Theologian Michael Fishbane said that the Sabbath even entails a different “spiritual consciousness.” Beginning at sunset on Friday evening, the Sabbath is a period of mandated rest. It reminds practicing Jews of humanity’s connection with one another, the earth, and God. If Sabbath and rest is a part of the created order, as per the Genesis account, then the Sabbath itself allows us to live within the created order and prevents us from undoing it in our human imperfections. 

“Rest can be very selfish,” Doblmeier said. “We who are incredibly self-centered in the 21st century can see Sabbath as legitimizing me to stop a little bit and get ready for hitting it again on Monday morning. What we try to show is that the underlying message of Sabbath is that it's about a lot more than giving myself the right to take a nap on Sunday afternoon. To accept this means you buy into a whole notion that the world is bigger than us, and that we’re entrusted with the responsibility to care not only for it, but for ourselves in a very different kind of way.”

In Judaism, the Talmud provides a rigorous structure of rest, prohibiting thirty-nine different kinds of labor such as threshing, plowing, and building. Especially for an agriculturally based economy like that of the ancient Israelites, this would force a near-complete pause on everyday life, allowing for a mindset or spiritual consciousness of rest, remembrance, and community to truly unfold. There is no room for individualism during this time. As Princeton Theologian Nathan Stucky said in the film, God gives Sabbath to the gathering of God’s people, never to the individual alone. Even the kinds of labor needed to build the temple in Jerusalem are forbidden during Shabbat. 

For Muslims, who do not employ Sabbath terminology per se, the weekly Jummah prayer on Fridays shares many of its goals and characteristics. The Arabic etymology of the word (jumu’ah) refers to the notion of bringing people together, according to Khalid Latif, an imam featured in the documentary. When the call is sounded, Muslims are strongly encouraged by the Quran to leave behind their work rhythm for the sake of remembering and praising Allah with other Muslims. The Quran explicitly says that in remembering God, one finds rest (Surah 13:28). 

“Prayer is different on Friday than it is during the rest of the week. And one of the additional aspects is that people are encouraged, in addition to the formal prayer gathering, to go out and do public service,” Doblmeier said. “Sabbath is that one day a week where it’s no longer about me and my success, or me and my advancement, it’s about others. It’s about realizing that God created this world and God asked us to take a day off and rest ourselves from the way that we engage the world. But it’s also a time for us to be aware of others and the world around us, and those who are in need.”

Doblmeier’s Sabbath presents the day of rest as a way of being in the world, a time replete with remembrance, community, and contentment. The commandment of rest applied to us because God rested, and in this time, we are invited to reflect on the kind of life we live and what kind of life we are meant to lead. Interested parties may view the film for free after creating an account on www.journeyfilms.com 

Rafa Oliveira is an intern with ReligionUnplugged.com covering technology and religion. He is a recent graduate of The King’s College in New York City with a degree in politics, philosophy and economics. He speaks Portuguese, English and Spanish and is an ardent Manchester United Supporter.