For nearly 4,000 years, the phrase has been a bedrock among observant Jews:
"Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy."
The Fourth Commandment has the power to still storefronts, fill synagogues, and turn the sidewalks of some neighborhoods into a sea of black-cloaked Orthodox Jews from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday as they fulfill the obligation to enjoy a day of rest.
But ancient practice created a very contemporary predicament for the National Museum of American Jewish History, which will open its new building off Independence Mall on Nov. 26. And dealing with the sanctity of the Sabbath required a Solomonic solution.
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