The Holiness and Blessing of Shabbat

And he blessed [...] and he sanctified: He blessed it with manna and sanctified it with manna - and the verse is written about the future - [this is the] language of our teacher, Shlomo (Rashi) from Bereishit Rabbah 11:2.

And in the name of Rabbi Saadia, [some] have said that the blessing and the sanctification is on those that observe [the Shabbat]; that they should be blessed and sanctified. But the understanding of the verse is not that it is speaking about the future.

And Rabbi Avraham (Ibn Ezra) said that the blessing is an addition of good - that there be generated greater power to multiply among bodies and greater intellectual ability for the soul; "and God sanctified it," [means] that God did not do any work on it, as [God did] upon the other days.

And his word about this is correct for those that believe in it, as this is not a concept that people can feel [with their senses].

And the truth is that the blessing on the Shabbat day is the source of blessings and it is the foundation of the world; "and God sanctified it," that it should draw from the holy. And if you will understand this, you will know that which they said in Bereishit Rabbah 11:8, "As it doesn't have a partner"; and that which they also said, "The Assembly of Israel will be its partner"; and you will understand that there is an extra soul on Shabbat, in truth.

that the Eternal created in making: The work that was fitting to do on Shabbat, God doubled [up] and did on the sixth [day] as is explained in Bereishit Rabbah 11:9 - the language of Rashi.

But [Ibn Ezra] says likes its simple understanding; "[That God's] work is the roots in all of the species, that God placed the ability to reproduce in them."

But it appears to me, that its explanation is that God rested from all of God's work that God had created, ex nihilo, to make from it all of the creations mentioned in the first six days.

And behold, God said that God rested from the creation and from any action of the creation that God created on the first day, and from the acts that God did on the other days. And it is likely that "making" refers to that which is above: "because God rested from all of God's work that God created" ex nihilo from making (me'leaasot, as if the prefix that means, from, were added). And like it is "and they stopped counting" (Genesis 41:49, which is as if it were written, "from counting"); "and they stopped building the city (Genesis 11:8, which means, "from the city"); "guard yourselves climbing the mountain" (Exodus 19:12, which means "from climbing"); "And they did not depart the commandment of the king" (II Chronicles 8:15, which means "from the commandment"); and so [too] many [other examples of this].

And you should know that also included in the word, "to make" is that the six days of creation are all of the days of the world - since their duration will be six thousand years (Rosh Hashanah 31a) - as it is for this reason that they say that the day of the Holy Bountiful One is a thousand years (Bereishit Rabbah 19:8).

And behold, on the first two days the whole world was water and nothing was completed on them, and they hint to the first two thousand years of chaos (tohu), in which there was not one who called in the name of God. And so did they say (Avodah Zarah 9a), "Two thousand years of chaos." But as there was the creation of light on the first day, it corresponds to the thousand years of Adam - who was the light of the world, recognizing his Creator. And maybe Enosh did not worship idolatry until Adam died.

On the second day, "Let there be a firmament and let it divide" (Genesis 1:6) - as on it, Noach and his righteous children became separated from the evildoers that were judged with water.

On the third day, the dry land appeared and grew vegetation and produced fruit - that is the third millennium that started when Avraham was forty-eight years old (Bereishit Rabbah 48b) - and "then began the calling in the name of the Eternal" (Genesis 4:26), and 'a righteous sprout' grew; since he pulled many to know the Eternal, as they expounded [about] "and the souls that they had made in Charan" (Genesis 12:5). And he commanded 'his household and his children after him that they keep the way of the Eternal, to do righteousness and justice.' And the matter advanced to the point that his seed received the Torah at Sinai. And the first Temple was built on that day, and they kept all of the commandments, which are the fruits of the world. And you should know that twilight is considered like the next day, and so the matter of each day begins slightly before it; as when Avraham is born at the end of the second day. And so you will see with each and every day.

And on the fourth day, the big and small luminaries (the sun and the moon) and the stars were created. Its day hints to the fourth millennium, which is the one that begins when the first Temple was [already] built for seventy-two years until one hundred and seventy-two years after the second Temple. And behold, on this day 'there was light for all of the Children of Israel,' 'since the glory of God filled the House of the Eternal' and the light of Israel was like a fire on top of the altar, crouching there like a lion eating the sacrifices. And afterward, their light diminished and they were exiled, [such] as [the light] disappears at the beginning of the [cycle of the] moon. And it shone for them all the days of the second Temple, and the fire on top of the altar was like a dog crouching. And the two luminaries set at the evening of the day, and the Temple was destroyed.

On the fifth day, the waters swarmed with living animals and flying birds upon the earth. It hints to the fifth millennium that begins one hundred and seventy-two years after the destruction of Temple; since to it were the nations of the world compared, and humanity was made 'to be like the fish of the sea, like the crawling animals that none rules over - they bring it all up with a hook, they catch them with a net, and gather them with a drag.' And there is no one that seeks the Eternal.

On the sixth day in the morning, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, animals and creeping things, and beast of the earth after its kind" (Genesis 1:24) - and its creation was before the shining of the sun, as the matter that is written (Psalms 104:22), "The sun shines and they gather, and crouch in their dens." And then humanity was created in the image of God, and that is the time of their rulership, as it states (Psalms 104:23), "Humans go out to their labor and to their work until the evening." And that is the sixth millennium, since in its beginning, the beasts rule in it - these are the kingdoms that did not know God. And after its tenth - like the measure of the sunrise to the day (see Pesachim 94a)- the redeemer will come, as it states about him (Psalms 89:37), "and his throne will be like the sun across from Me." This is the son of David, who is made in the image of God, as it is written (Daniel 7:13-14), "and behold with the clouds of the sky, there was a man coming, and he came up to the One of Ancient Days and they brought him in front of God and they brought him close to God. And to him did God give dominion and glory and kingship." And this will be one hundred and eighteen [years] after the [first] five thousand, to complete the word of the Lord through the mouth of Daniel (Daniel 12:11), “From the time that the regular sacrifice was removed and the silent abomination was placed, there are one thousand two hundred and ninety days.” And it appears from the change of the days, from the swarms of the waters and the fowl, to the beasts of the land that at the beginning of the sixth millennium, there will arise the rulership of a controlling, fearful and violent nation, and one that comes closer to the truth than the first ones.

The seventh day is Shabbat. It hints to the world to come, which is completely Shabbat and rest for eternal life. And may God guard us in all of the days and place our portion with God's innocent servants (those do not try to divine the future).