Most people do not pay attention to the significance of the Sabbath let alone the difference between ‘THE’ Sabbath and ‘A’ Sabbath. Average Christians do not even care because for them because according to them it does not matter anymore. Yeshua abolished it all! Taking that attitude only brings us a disadvantage in understanding the scripture properly, especially the New Testament. As far as a Jewish person is concerned they well understand this difference. Remember, the entire scripture is written by the Jewish people and for the Jewish people.

Now, in Hebrew, Sabbath literally means “rest” or “cessation”. The word “Sabbath” didn’t really so much mean “to rest” as it meant “to cease”. The idea was to cease doing one’s regular work or chores. This didn’t mean you couldn’t go outside for a nice walk or spend time playing with your children or grandchildren.

As stated, there are two types of Sabbath in the Scripture namely ‘THE’ Sabbath and ‘A’ Sabbath. What is the difference?

The first one is the weekly 7th Day Sabbath. This is established at the creation. Traditionally speaking, the Sabbath prohibited any activities connected to lighting a fire hearkening back to the time when God had a man executed for gathering sticks to start a fire. This is the ‘THE’ Sabbath!

The second type of Sabbath is Special Sabbath Days attached to the Feasts. This is different from the fixed weekly 7th Day Sabbath. The requirements on these Sabbath days varied depending on which feast it was attached to.  This is the ‘A’ Sabbath!

For example one of the primary reasons the first day of a Biblical Feast was made a Sabbath was so there could be time put aside to prepare for all that had to be done before a given feast officially began. On ‘A’ Sabbath, all forms of work were NOT necessarily prohibited. Women were allowed to cook and men were allowed to gather sticks for fire, etcetera. Regular work was to stop but work connected to the Biblical Feast preparations was fine.

The 7th day Sabbath was for man’s physical and spiritual rejuvenation and to mimic God’s cessation from the work of His creation. The ‘A’ Sabbath was to give the Israelites a block of time for the feast preparations.

Now, here is something we need to pay attention to about ‘THE’ Sabbath! Let us read from the Book of Leviticus.

Leviticus 23:3 Work is to be done on six days; but the seventh day is a Shabbat of complete rest, a holy convocation; you are not to do any kind of work; it is a Shabbat for Adonai, even in your homes.

Referring to the 7^th day Sabbath Leviticus 23:3 says “it is a Shabbat for Adonai” or “it is the sabbath of the LORD”. The Hebrew grammar being used here is the possessive form of the word. Hence, this would make the Sabbath the Lord’s possession! It means the Sabbath belongs to the LORD. And that means the Sabbath is the Lord’s HOLY property. And we’ve learned what happens when one trespass on God’s HOLY property. It results in death!

Remember, the word ‘THE’ Sabbath refers to that one and only unique once per week 7th day of rest that God gave to all mankind not just the Jewish people! Another most important point and key difference between these special Festival Sabbath days and the 7th Day Sabbath was that the 7th Day Sabbath was fixed and firm. It never changed. Whereas, the festival Sabbath days were subjected to an allowable degree of moderation depending upon the type of preparations needed for whatever Biblical feast it was attached to.

Like the Jewish people, it is important that we recognize whether we are dealing with a special Feast Sabbath or the regular weekly 7th Day Sabbath when studying Scripture or else you’ll get super confused on the timing of certain events, especially in the New Testament.

In the Book of Mark Yeshua said:

Mark 2:27 Then he said to them, “Shabbat was made for mankind, not mankind for Shabbat;

It simply means God ordained the Sabbath for the benefit of the people to honour their creator and prosper. It does not mean to say you can define any day as your Sabbath and do anything you want with that. This is an inaccurate teaching!