The National Jewish Outreach Program is sponsoring the 11th annual Shabbat Across America, "highlighting the beauty of our Jewish heritage and celebrating its preservation," said Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald, the program's founder and director.

This celebration of the Sabbath has attracted more than half a million participants in the past decade, organizers said. Both Congregation Kol Ami in the Salt Lake Valley and Temple Har Shalom in Park City are participating, offering interactive Friday night services and a traditional Shabbat dinner, with all the accompanying rituals explained.

The events are designed "to show that Shabbat is both age-old and entirely precious and new each week," Rabbi Buchwald said. "The importance of preserving Jewish traditions such as Shabbat is illustrated by the great care with which we preserve items of Jewish symbolism like candlesticks, Kiddush cups and mezuzahs that have special meaning to us."

Jews and Christians alike understand that the pattern for Sabbath observance was set by God during the creation of the world, as recorded in Genesis. For them, to keep the Sabbath day "holy" was to sanctify it.

The Hebrew word le-kadesh, to sanctify, "means, in the language of the Talmud, to consecrate a woman, to betroth. Thus the meaning of that word on Sinai (with Moses and the Ten Commandments) was to impress upon Israel the fact that their destiny is to be the groom of the sacred day, the commandment to espouse the seventh day," writes Abraham Joshua Heschel in his book, "The Sabbath."

He uses an allegory to describe how Jews are the bridegroom to Sabbath in the creation story, among a number of legends that reflect the ancient idea that "the Sabbath is an example of the world to come," Heschel writes.

One ancient Jewish tradition declares that "the world to come is characterized by the kind of holiness possessed by the Sabbath in this world. ... The Sabbath possesses a holiness like that of the world to come."

That holiness sets the observant at odds with not only Little League baseball games and soccer tournaments but with lifestyle issues that present 21st century believers with challenges their early forbears didn't face, because Sunday "blue laws" regulated commerce in much of America until the early 20th century.

The early Blue Laws of New Haven Colony, published in 1781, included 45 laws of conduct, most of which were never strictly enforced, but are reminiscent of some of the detailed Sabbath restrictions still practiced by many Orthodox Jews. They said:

• No one shall travel, cook victuals, make beds, sweep house, cut hair, or shave on the Sabbath day.

• Whoever brings cards or dice into this Dominion shall pay a fine of 5 pence.

• No one shall ... make minced pies, dance, play cards, or play on any instrument of music, except the drum, trumpet, and jewsharp.