While inventing the week would have certainly ranked among early Judaism’s greatest gifts to the world, the Shabbat is the crowning glory. So much a part of our own division of time, we can easily assume that humanity always knew there were seven days to a week and 52 weeks to a year, but in truth, the Bible’s account of creation—which assigns specific acts of creation to specific days—solidified that notion for humanity.

Our Biblical ancestors imagined a symmetry to the days of creation best captured in this graphic. The colors reveal the connection between each of the days.

Day 1: MAKE: Light created and divided from Darkness.
Day 2: MAKE: Atmosphere created and divided from Oceans.
Day 3: MAKE: Land created and divided from water. Vegetation created.
Day 4: FILL DAY 1: Sun, moon, stars created to light and fill the heavens.
Day 5: FILL DAY 2: Creatures created to fill the sky and water.
Day 6: FILL DAY 3: Creatures created to fill the land; humanity created as the epitome of Creation.
Day 7: REST: God rested from all the work that had been done.

Day Seven, Shabbat, is not only the day of rest; ancient Judaism imagined Shabbat as a covenant for all time, as a sign marking the unique relationship between God and humanity.  Keeping this moment in time makes Jews holy inasmuch as it connects us to God.  As U.C. Berkeley Jewish Studies chair, Robert Hendel, describes it, Shabbat is as much a sign of the brit—the covenant—as circumcision. Time becomes the vehicle through which all Jews can consecrate themselves to holiness and, traditionally, to God.

Judaism is quite specific about how Shabbat is to be observed. By creating an orderliness in the rituals, our tradition has us recreate the same orderliness that was imagined in the account of creation. God made order from chaos to create; our rituals make order from the chaos in the world.

Even today, however we might observe Shabbat, the sanctity of this moment in time links us to our past, frames our identity, and reminds us of the beautiful connectedness of the natural world.

—Rabbi Ron Stern