The number seven has always played a significant role in Judaism. 

We find the six days of Creation followed by a seventh day set aside as the Shabbat. We count seven full weeks from Pesach (Passover) to calculate the date of the Shavuot Festival, when we celebrate the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.

Another cycle of seven involves the Sabbatical Year, when the land is to be left fallow. In addition, we calculate the Jubilee Year by counting seven Sabbatical cycles of seven years each, for a total of forty-nine. The fiftieth year is declared the Jubilee Year and special laws apply, as stated in the Torah. These and many other similar, demonstrate the special status of the number seven in Judaism.

The world as we know it is measured in three dimensions: length, width, and height.  Each of these has, in turn, two directions: width can be extended to the right and to the left. Height can be extended upward and downward. Length can also be extended in two directions, giving us a total of six sides in all. With these six measurements, man can establish the parameters of any physical object in this world. Consequently, the number six in Jewish literature is used to represent the physical world. 

Seven, one dimension further, represents the inner concept associated with the object. Is a piece of wood a chair? A table? Or perhaps a picture frame? The purpose for which the craftsman formed the object defines its significance. This seventh dimension has been described as the “soul” of the object. If it is a table, it is meant to serve for eating one' meals. If it is a chair, it is meant to be sat upon. Just as the soul defines the purpose of our physical entity, the concept of “chair” or “table” defines a wooden object which has been shaped and formed into a piece of furniture. 

A book can be defined, in the physical sense, by giving its dimensions. However, its essence is not the paper pages and the black ink printed on them; its essence is the message which the author wished to convey to the reader. This is the seventh dimension, the “soul” of the book.

Man is, at first glance, a collection of molecules which combine into organs, which, in turn, are assembled so as to produce a human being. His physical aspect can be described in terms of three dimensions, and therefore, six sides. But there is more to man than the atoms and molecules which constitute his body. Man's soul cannot be defined in terms of height, width, and length, but it is no less essential to his being than the physical components. In fact, it is the soul which breathes life into his organs and tissues; without the soul, they would be nothing more than a collection of complex chemical compounds. 

Each man's soul has a spiritual purpose, a task to perform, just as a table is made to serve a specific purpose, which is unlike that of a chair, a door, or a window frame. Man's soul is a spark of the Divine, and is bound up with the number seven, which alludes to the spiritual aspect of his being. Eventually, the soul is separated from the physical body in which it was encased. When the soul is no longer housed within the physical body, it ceases to exist as a living organism. As a result, the compounds of which it was formed decompose. They no longer have a spiritual purpose, a raison d'etre. Therefore, they return to the inert chemical substances from which they were formed. The body is not eternal; yet, the spiritual soul which it housed endures forever.

The number seven represents the spiritual aspect of this physical world, the purpose which it is meant to serve when it fulfills the will of the Creator who fashioned it. Each of the six days of Creation, G-d brought forth new components of the universe. On the seventh day, He created Shabbat, imbued with sanctity and purpose. Shabbat is the spiritual aspect of the physical world, without which it would have no claim to existence. The world could not exist without this additional, seventh day's creation, any more than the human body can live and breathe without a soul within it. 

The first Shabbat is an integral part of Creation, despite the fact that G-d completed the physical aspect of the universe in only six days. The creative process was not complete until the seventh day brought harmony, repose and blessing into the world. With the help of the Shabbat and the blessing it brings into the world, man is enabled to achieve the divine purpose for which he was created. Empowered by the unique character of the Shabbat, Man is equipped to refine his character by emulating his Creator. By doing so, man elevates not only himself, but the entire universe, which was created for his benefit.

Until the Shabbat was created, the world lacked peace and harmony. With the onset of the Seventh Day, the universe reached a new level of perfection. So to speak, it began to operate in a new “mode” in which all conflict of interests was resolved and set aside. A new atmosphere of sanctity and closeness to the Creator prevailed with sunset of the first Friday. Shabbat is thus the end-purpose which completed the act of Creation. 

The seventh day imbues the physical world with a spirituality; on this day, we are granted an end-purpose above and beyond the realm of our physicality, a lofty, spiritual goal to which we consecrate the material world as a means to nourishing the soul rather than the body. 

We might ask ourselves what sort of bond there might possibly be created between G-d, entirely spiritual, and man, who is so deeply entrenched in the physicality of this world. The gap between the two appears to the human mind to be too great to bridge.

However, the Creator – He who fashioned Man as a physical being, dependent for his very existence on air, water, food, heat, shelter, and so many other aspects of the physical world – this same Creator also taught us how to bridge that gap. The bridge between the Creator and Man, between Heaven and earth, is the seventh day, Shabbat. “It is an eternal sign, between Me and the People of Israel...” The Shabbat breathes the soul of life into our physical existence, thus giving meaning and significance to every day of our lives.

It is interesting to note that the Hebrew word for oath, “shevu'ah” also derives from the word for seven, sheva. What do the two concepts share in common?

An oath also creates a bond between Man and the Creator, just as the Shabbat does every week. When a person swears to an oath, he puts his continued existence in this world under the direct control of G-d.

Shabbat teaches us that despite the seemingly infinite expanse of the cosmos, the creation cannot fulfill the purpose for which G-d brought it into being without the input of the spirituality and sanctity inherent in the Seventh Day. The perpetuation of the universe hangs by the thread of the observance of Shabbat, just as man's body is sustained by the soul implanted within it. Everything which G-d created during the Six Days of Creation owes its continued existence to the People of Israel who guard the seventh day to keep it holy.

The Shabbat as commanded by the Torah has been adopted by much of the gentile world. It has been copied, but not duplicated. No day of rest, whether on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, can replicate the sanctity of the Shabbat given to the People of Israel by Him who created it. The Church chose Sunday, the Moslems Friday, but neither group can attain the spiritual heights of the Torah's Shabbat.

In the Holy Tongue, the days of the week are not assigned names; rather, Sunday is called Yom-rishon, or First-day, Monday is Yom-sheini, Second-day, Tuesday is Third-day, Wednesday is Fourth-day, and so on. The implication is that Sunday is the first day in counting toward the coming Shabbat, Monday is the second day in counting toward the next Shabbat, and so on. A Tuesday or a Wednesday has no particular significance of its own, but only as one specific day “on the way” to Shabbat. Thus the Shabbat holds the place of honor as the goal and the highlight of the entire week. We count the steps – first, second, third, and so forth – right up to the peak that climaxes each week: Shabbat, the only day which has a name rather than a number.

The first six days of the week are there to bring us to the experience of Shabbat, and not vice versa. Shabbat is not a day to sleep and relax in order to prepare for the coming week; to the contrary, we spend Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and all the other weekday preparing for the climax of the week on Shabbat. One cannot achieve sanctity without preparation; the greater the effort expended in advance to prepare oneself, the higher the soul can soar as a result.

If Heaven had intended that there be an intrinsic significance to the material aspect of our world other than its serving as a means of achieving spiritual goals, there would be a reason to attach importance to each weekday on its own. However, we are taught that “the Heavens, the earth, the seas, and all therein” were brought into being only to serve as tools to achievements of the soul. On the seventh day, Shabbat, the soul comes into its own. On this day, our actions constitute a national demonstration of our faith in the Creator, and our delight in being His nation. 

This fundamental concept, namely, the sublimation of the physical entity of the cosmos as a means to attaining spiritual perfection, can be found only in the Jewish concept of the Shabbat. A day when we are free to vacation, and to indulge in the pleasures of this world? This is not Shabbat, despite the fact that we are enjoined to wear our best and to serve our best meals. 

The “Sabbath” which other nations mark on Friday or on Sunday comes mainly to allow them a “breather” when they can catch up with their worldly affairs. They use it to rest up and refuel for another six days of progress in the physical world, just the opposite of the Torah’s concept of Shabbat. Taken on its own, their Sabbath has no particular significance. Although our Sages praise physical rest to the extent that it enables us greater spiritual capacity, this is not the essence of our Shabbat.

Above all, the Shabbat of Israel is a day when we are free to devote ourselves to coming nearer to G-d and to His Torah by using the physical resources which He showers upon us as a ladder on which we climb Heavenward. This is a far cry from the gentile dogma which teaches that sanctity can be achieved only by denying oneself physical pleasures. Only the Torah of Israel shows us the way to exploit the temporary delights of this physical world in order to achieve the permanent bliss of perfecting the spirit. 

The Jewish nation has guarded and preserved the sanctity and delight of the Shabbat for thousands of years. Hand in hand with its devotion to the Seventh day, the Shabbat has preserved the Jewish people throughout the long, dark years of its exile and persecutions. And so it will always be. The Shabbat was, is, and will always be a tangible sign of the eternal covenant between the Children of Israel, and Him who created Shabbat, right from the time the world first came into being.