The Sabbath is without question of central importance in the Hebrew Bible and in the Jewish tradition. According to the opening story of creation, the Sabbath is a part of the very creation of the world with God resting on the seventh day of creation after the previous six days in which God created the universe. In addition, the first time that the term holiness (קדושה) appears in the Bible is in the opening story of creation in relation to the Sabbath – “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified (ויקדש) it (as holy)” (Genesis 2, 3).
The term Sabbath (שבת) literally means to cease or to desist as in the opening story of creation when it is written regarding the seventh day – “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and he ceased (וישבות) from all his work which He had done” (Genesis 2, 2). The ceasing of the Sabbath is for the sake of the ultimate purpose of rest and refreshment as written in the Biblical verse – “Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day cease (תשבות) in order that your ox and your ass may rest (ינוח), and that the son of your handmaid and the stranger will be refreshed (וינפש)” (Exodus 23, 12). Such rest and refreshment demanded of the human being is in imitation of God, as written in the verse – “for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He ceased (שבת) and was refreshed (וינפש)” (Exodus 31, 17).
The rest and refreshment that is the ultimate purpose of the Sabbath is obviously not just physical rest and refreshment, but most importantly spiritual rest and refreshment as the Hebrew word (וינפש) that is translated as refreshed comes from the Hebrew word meaning soul (נפש). Thus, the rest or refreshment that is being spoken about is most importantly spiritual rest and refreshment of the soul. The holiness of the Sabbath is holiness of time, and not of space. Holiness of space relates to a physical object (such as the ancient Tabernacle that accompanied the Israelites as a center of ritual worship in their wanderings in the wilderness, or the ancient Temple of Jerusalem that replaced the Tabernacle); while, holiness of time is completely abstract and entirely spiritual. The ultimate purpose of sanctifying as holy a certain time, the seventh day, is in order to achieve the spiritual experience of rest and refreshment of the soul.
The Sabbath serves as a connecting bridge between the two stories of creation of the Hebrew Bible – the opening account of the creation of the universe in six days with God resting on the seventh day (Genesis 1, 1 – 2, 3), and the story of Adam and Eve (Genesis 2, 4 – 3, 24). In the first story of creation, there is no moral aspect or content to the Sabbath – and, the Sabbath actually lacks any higher moral purpose. God is depicted as a God of power who through the use of reason imposes rational order upon chaos in creating the universe. The human being created in the image of God is endowed with creative power and given dominion over nature (Genesis 1, 27-28) – and, the human being is the only animal who can transform nature by taking what is God given such as wheat and making it into something even better, bread. But, such creative power is to be used only during the regular six days of the week – the seventh day, the Sabbath, is the day on which God ceased from using reason in creating the universe and a day primarily of mental rest (Genesis 2, 2-3):
And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and he ceased on the seventh day from all his work which He had done. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it he ceased from all His work which God had created to do.
In the first story of creation God merely ceases from work in creating the universe, and the implication is that the human being created in the image of God is to cease from creative, mental work on the seventh day. However, according to this first story of creation there is no positive aspect beyond the ceasing from creative work and no moral content connected to the Sabbath. In the second story of creation, the first story is actually incorporated and integrated within it.
The two stories consist of a larger literary unit of two complementary stories as reflected in the opening verse of the second story – “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord (YHVH) God (Elohim) made the earth and the heavens”. The verse contains two parts – the first part reflecting the opening Biblical account of creation, and the second part reflecting the second story of Adam and Eve. In the first part of the verse (“These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created”), reflecting the opening account of creation, the heavens precede the earth because the opening story of creation is a chronological account of the creation of the entire universe in which the creation of the heavens precedes that of the earth as in the opening verse of the story (“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth“). In the second part of the opening verse of the second story of creation (“in the day that the Lord (YHVH) God (Elohim) made the earth and the heavens“), reflecting the second story of creation (the story of Adam and Eve, and the eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil), the earth precedes the heavens in importance because the second story of creation is not a chronological account of the creation of the universe. The second story is actually not an account of the creation of the universe at all, but is an account of the creation of the human being. The focus of the story is the human being and the earth as the abode of the human being; therefore, the earth precedes the heavens in terms of importance in the second part of the opening verse of the second story of creation.
It is when the two stories of creation are seen as complementary parts of a larger literary unit that the Sabbath, as the conclusion of the first story, is now integrated within the second story, and thus receives moral content and moral purpose from the second story. The story of Adam and Eve, in its plain meaning, is an allegory of their acquiring of the Divine trait of moral conscience through the eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In light of the second story of creation and its emphasis upon morality, the ceasing from work no longer lacks moral purpose, but is for the higher purpose of spiritual rest and refreshment of the soul in a moral sense, as in the words of the Sabbath afternoon prayer of the traditional Jewish prayer book – “a rest of love and generosity, a rest of truth and faithfulness, a rest of peace and tranquility and quiet and security, a complete rest…”.
In light of the second story, the Sabbath is not only a time that we are to cease from creative work one day each week; but, even more importantly, a time one day each week that, according to the Jewish tradition, we are to cease from anger, sadness and from all personal worries and concerns (emotional as well as physical and mental rest). The Sabbath, according to the Jewish tradition, is to be one day each week a time of complete spiritual joy and fulfillment, as in the words of the traditional Jewish prayer book – “A psalm, a song for the Sabbath day; a psalm, a song for the time to come (spiritual salvation after death), for the day that will be entirely a Sabbath and rest for eternal life”. That is, the Sabbath that we are to experience one day each week in this world is to be a spiritual experience of complete joy and fulfillment in which we are able to taste of the spiritual fulfillment that according to the Jewish tradition awaits us after death and which is viewed as one long Sabbath.
In light of the second story of creation and theme that the human being is to guard and preserve nature, the garden (Genesis 2, 15) – “And the Lord God took the human being, and put him into the garden of Eden to work it and to guard it. It is forbidden, according to the Jewish tradition, to pick a flower or even a blade of grass on the Sabbath since nature is entitled to rest on the Sabbath from the subjugation and dominion of the human being.
In light of the second story of creation and theme of companionship regarding the relations between a man and woman (Genesis 2, 18 & 24), there is a commandment, according to the Jewish tradition, of conjugal rights (עונה) including among other things the right of a wife to sexual satisfaction and enjoyment beyond the fulfillment of the commandment to be fruitful and multiply. Whereas in the first story of creation (Genesis 1, 28) the purpose of sexual relations is reproduction and the continuing of the human species (“God said unto them: Be fruitful, and multiply”), in the second story of creation (Genesis 2, 18 & 24) the purpose of sexual relations is companionship (“And the Lord God said: It is not good that the human being should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him…Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his woman). The engaging in sexual relations by a husband and wife on the Sabbath is seen, according to the Jewish tradition, as an expression of the joy of the Sabbath experience (sexual relations are not seen, according to the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition, as something sinful as in classical Christianity).
In light of the second story of creation, it is fitting that the Sabbath, according to the Jewish tradition, is a time of moral self-examination one day each week in which we cease in order to examine how, and for what purposes, we as human beings created in the image of God are using our reason and power in being given, according to the first story of creation, dominion over the world. Reason and power, as well as science and technology (which are the direct result of reason and an expression of our enormous power), are morally neutral instruments that can be used for both good and evil purposes.
I want to suggest that we, as human beings, often use our reason, scientific knowledge and technology, and our enormous power, in a blind way without direction. On the one hand, we are creating and building things bigger and faster than ever before, and from this point of view it is possible to argue that our science and technology bring us progress. Yet, on the other hand, we are destroying the natural world around us to such an extent that according to the estimates of many scientists the human species, apart from the threat of nuclear catastrophe, cannot survive more than several hundred years, without drastic changes in our lifestyle due to the damage that we our causing to our environment. I am reminded of a joke (illustrating the morally blind way that we often use our scientific knowledge and technology) in which an airplane pilot announces over the loudspeaker to the passengers that he has good news and bad news. He tells them that he will first give them the bad news. The bad news, he tells them, is that we are running out of fuel with very little left, and that we have no idea where we are or where we are headed, and that we have lost our way and are about to crash. He then tells them, though, that there is also good news – we are traveling very fast at such and such speed, and thus making very good time and rapid progress. In light of the second story of creation then it is fitting that the Sabbath, according to the Jewish tradition, is to be a time of moral self-examination one day each week in which we cease in order to examine our direction in life, and to examine how, and for what purposes, we as human beings are using our reason and power as a species in being given, according to the first story of creation, dominion over the world.
Furthermore, despite our great scientific and technological progress of the 20th century, we live in an age that many historians and existentialist thinkers characterize as an age of loneliness and despair. In an age of sexual liberation, people not only suffer from sexual disorders and dysfunctions to a greater extent than ever before, but also experience a lack of genuine companionship. Living in a technologically advanced society, with radios, televisions, computers and cell phones, not only do we often not only not know our neighbors, but within our families very little genuine companionship and togetherness is experienced. In light of the second story of creation, the Sabbath is also to be a time of moral self-examination in which we cease in order to examine the ways in which we oppress our fellow human beings and ignore their existential loneliness. Most important, in light of the second story of creation, the Sabbath is to be a time of genuine companionship and togetherness especially of the family.