SABBATH DAY'S JOURNEY (ruz, ntrin, aa1313cirot, 636s), the prescribed distance which may lawfully be traversed on a Sabbath, and beyond which no Jew can go without violating the sanctity of the day, except he adopts the means appointed for exceeding the canonical boundaiy.
1. Distance of a Sabbath-way, and its origin.— From the injunction in Exod. xvi. 29 ,that every man is to abide in his place,' and not to go out of his place' on tbe Sabbath, the ancient Hebrew legislators deduced that an Israelite must not go 2000 yards, or 12,000 hand-breadths—as the ancient Hebrew yard consisted of six hand-breadtbs=five Greek stadia, for the Greek stadium measured 240o hand-breadths—beyond the temporary or per rnanent place of his abode. Epiplianius' definition of the Sabbath day's journey at six stadia =14,400 band-breadths, or 750 Roman geographical paces (Herr. 66, 82), is most probably based upon the larger yard, which the Jews adopted at a later period. [WEIonTs AND MEASURES.] These 2000 yards are not to be measured from any and every spot, but according to definite and minute rules ; the city having always to be reduced to a square. Thus if the Sabbath day's walk is to be fixed from a circular city an imaginary square must be circum scribed about it, and the measurement is not to be taken from the corner a in a diagonal direction —i.e. from a to e—inasmuch as thereby the dis tance between a f will be less than 2000 yards, but from a to f, whereby the allowable distance is increased in the direction of a e, as will be seen from the following diagram.
The reason for fixing the distance of a Sabbath day's walk or journey at 2000 yards is that the fields of the suburbs for the pasture of the flocks and herds belonging to the Levites measured 2000 cubits or yards, and that in Exod. xxi. 13 it is said, I will appoint thee a place (tnpro) whither he shall flee'—i.e. the Levitical suburbs or cities. Now, it is argued, if one who committed murder ac cidentally was allowed to undertake this journey of 2000 yards on a Sabbath without violating the sanctity of the day, innocent people may do the same. Besides the place of refuge is termed alpn, which. is the same word employed in Exod. xvi. 29. As the one cip*, Awe, was 2000 yards dis tant, it is inferred, according to the rule the ana logy of ideas or words (r11V-1 MT)) that the command Let no man go out of his place onpnn) on the seventh day' (Exod. xvi. 29) means not to exceed
the distance of the place 2000 yards off ([11ILLEL I., rule ii.] Erubin, 5r a ; Maccoth, 12 b ; Zebachim, 7 a).
2. Cases in which the limits of a Sabbath-a'ay's journey could be exceeded. —Though the laws about the Sabbath day's journey are very rigorous, and he who walked beyond the 2000 yards, or moved more than four yards further than his temporary place of abode, when the Sabbath day's journey had not been determined beforehand, received forty stripes save one, yet in cases of public or private service, when life was in danger, people were allowed to overstep the prescribed boundary (Mishna, Ernbin iv. ; Rosh Ha-Shana, 5). The Pharisees, or the orthodox Jews in the days of our Saviour, also contrived other means whereby the fraternity of this order could exceed the Sabbath day's walk without transgressing the law. They ordained that all those who wished to join their social gather ings on the Sabbath were to deposit on Friday afternoon some article of food in a certain place at the end of the Sabbath day's journey, that it might thereby be constituted a domicile, and thus another Sabbath day's journey could be undertaken from the first terminus. [PHARrsEEs.] This mode of connecting- or amalgamating the distances (nrry rnInro, as it is called, is observed by the ortho dox Jews to the present day. Such importance have the Jews since their return from the Baby lonish captivity attached to the Sabbath day's journey, that a whole Tractate in the Mishna (i.e. Erubin) is devoted to it. Hence the phrase is mentioned in the N. T. (Acts i. 12) as expressive of a well-known law, and the so-called Jerusalem Targum translates Exod. xvi. 29, And let no man go walking from his place beyond two thousand yards on the seventh day,' whilst the Chaldee paraphrase of Ruth i. 16 makes Naomi say to Ruth—` We are commanded to keep Sabbaths and festivals, and not to walk beyond two thousand yards' (comp. Mishna, Erubin, cap. v. ; Rosh .Ha Shana, 15; Babylon Talmud Erubin, 56 b, 57 a ; Zuckermann in Frankel's Illonatschrift ffir Geschichte und Wissenschaft des yudenthums, vol. xii. p. 467, ff. Breslau r863).—C. D. G.