The Shabbat is the most important feast of all in the Jewish calendar because it recurs every week.

The Shabbat begins at sundown on Friday afternoon and ends at sundown Saturday afternoon. The Shabbat starts with the mother of the house in the Jewish family lightening the Shabbat candles and reads a blessing that praises God for teaching them to sanctify the home by performing this mitzvah (decree). The Father says prayers and blesses the wife, the children, the bread and the wine. The dinner which opens the Shabbat is always extra festive when it comes to both food and the setting of the table.

The Shabbat is a reminder and a symbol to Jews of their liberation from slavery in Egypt. When they were slaves under the Egyptians they had to work from morning to evening all the days of the week. Now, when they are free from the bondage of slavery, they can rest from their toil on the seventh day.

The Shabbat decree is one of the Ten Commandments that Moses received at Mount Sinai after they had gone out from Egypt.

”Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”
Exodus 20:8

In Jerusalem a siren is sounded loud at the beginning of every Shabbat. Traffic decreases, buses cease to run and shops close down. During the Shabbat Jews go to the Synagogue, they perform no work, they do not drive their cars and they prepare and cook their meals in advance in order not to break the Shabbat command. The Messianic Jews celebrate in like manners; they go to their congregations instead of the Synagogues to celebrate service.

Here follows some quotes from the Bible concerning the Shabbat.

”There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the LORD.”
Leviticus 23:3

"If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, 14 then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob." The mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Isaiah 58:13-14

"And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to serve him, to love the name of the LORD, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant- these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations."
Isaiah 56:6-7