During the workweek, we are in a constant struggle to gain the greatest possible profits, whether for ourselves or our employer. No stone is left unturned, no potential customer not approached. For six days, man attempts to extend his power over the resources of the entire world. On the seventh day, Shabbat, the Jew turns his focus inward. He concentrates on controlling and developing the resources within his own soul.

Over two thousand years ago, in the times of the Maccabees, the Greeks conquered Judea and first came into close contact with Jews and Judaism. When they became aware of how devoted the Jew was to the observance of Shabbat, they were incredulous. 

“Do you mean to say that one-seventh of your entire life you will sit by idle, feasting and celebrating the seventh day, and not accomplishing any productive work? No sowing, no harvesting, no plowing, and no other productive pastimes? What a colossal waste!” they exclaimed. 

Their reaction was to prohibit the observance of Shabbat altogether. In their eyes, the institution of the Jewish Shabbat was an expression of Jewish indolence, to be eradicated forever. In the eyes of the Hellenists, rest and repose served only one purpose: to enable the slaves, the artisans, and workers to produce even more goods once they were refreshed. In and of itself, it served no purpose at all, and hence was to be kept to an absolute minimum. 

This outlook is the antithesis of the Shabbat of the Jewish People. Work is a means to an end, not an end in itself. In contrast, the Shabbat is not a means to an end, namely the ability to produce more, but rather an end in itself. Not merely a day to recover from the labors of the weekdays, but far above and beyond: “The purpose for which Heaven and earth were first created.”

In other words, our day of rest is not there to serve the other six days of the week, but just the opposite: we work for six days in order to be able to observe the Shabbat. Shabbat is not merely the chorus sung between the verses of the poem of life; it is the very purpose for which we were endowed with life in the first place. 

Far from being merely a day of prohibitions, the Shabbat is a day of delights, a time when we are at leisure to experience heightened sanctity and blessing. The Jew honors his Sabbath not only with the work of his hands, but also with songs of the heart and the praises on his tongue.

Total repose is the product of full harmony which fuse man's body, his mind and his soul into one complete unit. The seventh day is likened to a palace which stands in the dimension of time, constructed by the Jew through his fulfillment of the commandment to “guard the Sabbath day to sanctify it.”

For the Jewish People, the Shabbat is the finest and the dearest of days. What is so endearing about the seventh day, so much so that the entire nation cherished it and were prepared to suffer no end in order to preserve its sanctity? Perhaps because the Shabbat is like a mine of gold or diamonds from which the Jewish people extracted the raw materials with which they built their Palace in the dimension of time. We can think of the observance of Shabbat as an artist's masterpiece which crowns G-d's Creation. It was G-d who sanctified the seventh day; we, His subjects, are commanded to emulate Him. By keeping the laws of the Sabbath, man translates into deeds the divine sanctity of the Shabbat.

How would the world look without the Shabbat? Such a world would deify itself. Such a world would lack the window which gives us a glimpse of eternity, and of our fellow Jew. Although it is spiritual in its essence, the Shabbat is not nebulous; its parameters are clearly defined by the halachah. It embodies precise, clearly defined commandments. The Shabbat behooves us to perform certain acts and to refrain from others. The spirit of the Shabbat and its commandments unite to form a consolidated whole, just as the body and the soul are united in one human being. The task of the halachah is to define the parameters; the soul senses the spirit of Shabbat.