Parshat Bereshit5 min read

The Sabbath Asked God Why She Was the Only Day Without a Partner

The first day of the week had the second. The third had the fourth. The fifth had the eve. The seventh counted them off and found itself standing alone.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. God Made Three Things a Day and Then Ran Out
  2. The Days Went Off in Pairs
  3. She Brought It to the Throne
  4. He Told the Angels Before He Told Anyone Else
  5. He Said It Out Loud at the Mountain
The Sabbath Asked God Why She Was the Only Day Without a Partner Click for full size

God Made Three Things a Day and Then Ran Out

On the first day God made the heavens, the earth, and light. On the second, the firmament, Gehinnom, and the angels. On the third, trees, grasses, and the Garden. On the fourth, the sun, the moon, and the constellations that turn behind them. On the fifth, birds, fish, and Leviathan. On the sixth, Adam, Eve, and every creeping thing, and Rabbi Pinchas counted six that day rather than three, because the cattle and the wild beasts and the fatlings came up out of the ground alongside the man and the woman.

Then the sixth evening came, and God went through what was left to make, and made all of it early.

Scripture does not say that God created and made. It says that God created to do. Rabbi Bannai read the crack in that sentence and found the answer inside it: everything the Holy One had been going to bring out on the seventh day, He brought out on the sixth instead, ahead of schedule, so that when the seventh arrived there would be nothing in its hands.

The Days Went Off in Pairs

Rabbi Berekhiah and Rabbi Dostai counted the week out on their fingers, the way you count anything you suspect is uneven.

One of the week and two. Three and four. Five and the eve of the Sabbath. Six days and they paired off cleanly, each with a partner beside it, and then the counting stopped.

The seventh had nobody.

She was not weak. She was the only day in the calendar that nothing can push out of place. A festival can be shifted. Even the Day of Atonement can be shifted. The Sabbath is never shifted, not for anything, and Rabbi Samuel bar Nahman said that was the whole reason God blessed her. She had been set apart, sanctified, blessed, made immovable, and left standing at the end of the line by herself while the other six went off two by two.

She Brought It to the Throne

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai taught what happened next, and it is the shortest scene in the creation of the world.

The Sabbath came before the Holy One and spoke. "Master of the Universe. Every one of them has a mate. I have no mate."

God did not tell her she was above such things. He did not tell her that holiness is its own company. He answered her the way you answer someone who has asked a fair question and deserves a name back.

"The Community of Israel is your mate."

Which was a strange thing to promise, because the Community of Israel did not exist. There was no Abraham yet. No Jacob, no twelve sons, no Egypt to come out of. God had just betrothed the seventh day to a people who would not be born for twenty generations, and she took the promise and waited.

He Told the Angels Before He Told Anyone Else

The angels of the presence and the angels of sanctification had been standing there since the first day, made in the same breath as the heavens and the waters, along with the angels of fire and the angels of the winds and the angels of the clouds.

God gathered the two highest ranks of them and told them the arrangement. We will keep this day together, He said, above and below. And know this: I am going to separate one people out of all the nations for Myself, and they will keep it as well, and they will be My people and I will be their God.

So the angels stopped work every seventh day for the sake of a nation that had not been assembled yet, on behalf of a bride who was still waiting to be introduced.

He Said It Out Loud at the Mountain

Twenty generations later they stood at the foot of Sinai with the mountain smoking over them, and God opened with the thing He had promised in private at the beginning of the world.

"Remember what I said to the Sabbath. The Community of Israel is your mate."

Then the commandment came out of the fire in front of the whole camp. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

The people at the mountain heard an order. The day at the end of the week heard her own name called in a crowd, in public, after twenty generations of standing at the end of the line by herself, and every Friday evening since, somebody has lit a light and kept the appointment.

ShabbatCreationIsraelJubileesPartnershipGarmentsRestSinaiBlessingSabbathShekhinahDelightZoharYalkut ShimoniBrideHouseholdManna
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From the tradition

Sources

4 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Bereshit Rabbah 11:8Bereshit Rabbah

Translation of the source text.Midrash Rabbah -- TE · Public Domain

Another interpretation: Why did He bless it? Rabbi Berekhyah and Rabbi Dostai and Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman. Rabbi Berekhyah and Rabbi Dostai say: Because it has no partner. The first day of the week has the second as its partner, the third the fourth, the fifth the sixth; but the Sabbath has no partner.

Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman said: Because it is not set aside. A festival may be set aside, the Day of Atonement may be set aside, but the Sabbath is not set aside. Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai taught: The Sabbath said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the universe, all of them have a partner, but I have no partner.

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to her: The Assembly of Israel is your partner. And when Israel stood before Mount Sinai, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: Remember the word that I said to the Sabbath, "The Assembly of Israel is your partner." This is the commandment: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8).

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Bereshit Rabbah 11:9Bereshit Rabbah

Translation of the source text.Wikisource Bereshit Rabbah · CC-BY-SA

Rabbi Levi said in the name of Rabbi Hama bar Hanina: Three creations the Holy One, blessed be He, would create on each and every day. On the first day He created heaven and earth and light; on the second, the firmament and Gehinnom and angels; on the third, trees and grasses and the Garden of Eden; on the fourth, the sun and the moon and the constellations; on the fifth, birds and fish and Leviathan; on the sixth, Adam and Eve and creeping things. Rabbi Pinhas said: On the sixth He created six: Adam and Eve and creeping thing, and domesticated animal and wild animal and fatted beasts. Rabbi Banaya said: It is not written here "which God created and made," but rather "which God created to make" (Genesis 2:3). All that the Holy One, blessed be He, was destined to create on the seventh day, He anticipated and created on the sixth.

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Jubilees 2:18-20Book of Jubilees

Translation of the source text.Wikisource 2019 · Public Domain

And the angel of the presence spake to Moses according to the word of the Lord, saying:

Write the complete history of the creation, how in six days the Lord God finished all His works and all that He created, and kept Sabbath on the seventh day and hallowed it for all ages, and appointed it as a sign for all His works.

For on the first day He created the heavens which are above and the earth and the waters and all the spirits which serve before Him

--the angels of the presence, and the angels of sanctification, and the angels [of the spirit of fire and the angels] of the spirit of the winds, and the angels of the spirit of the clouds,

and of darkness, and of snow and of hail and of hoar frost, and the angels of the voices and of the thunder and of the lightning, and the angels of the spirits of cold and of heat, and of winter and of spring and of autumn and of summer,

and of all the spirits of His creatures which are in the heavens and on the earth, (He created) the abysses and the darkness, eventide (and night), and the light, dawn and day, which He hath prepared in the knowledge of His heart.

And thereupon we saw His works, and praised Him, and lauded before Him on account of all His works; for seven great works did He create on the first day.

And on the second day He created the firmament in the midst of the waters, and the waters were divided on that day--half of them went up above and half of them went down below the firmament (that was) in the midst over the face of the whole earth.

And this was the only work (God) created on the second day.

And on the third day He commanded the waters to pass from off the face of the whole earth into one place, and the dry land to appear.

And the waters did so as He commanded them, and they retired from off the face of the earth into one place outside of this firmament, and the dry land appeared.

And on that day He created for them all the seas according to their separate gathering-places, and all the rivers, and the gatherings of the waters in the mountains and on all the earth,

and all the lakes, and all the dew of the earth, and the seed which is sown, and all sprouting things, and fruit-bearing trees, and trees of the wood, and the garden of Eden, in Eden, and all (plants after their kind).

These four great works God created on the third day.

And on the fourth day He created the sun and the moon and the stars, and set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon all the earth,

and to rule over the day and the night, and divide the light from the darkness.

And God appointed the sun to be a great sign on the earth for days and for sabbaths and for months and for feasts and for years and for sabbaths of years and for jubilees and for all seasons of the years.

And it divideth the light from the darkness [and] for prosperity, that all things may prosper which shoot and grow on the earth.

These three kinds He made on the fourth day.

And on the fifth day He created great sea monsters in the depths of the waters, for these were the first things of flesh that were created by His hands, the fish and everything that moves in the waters, and everything that flies, the birds and all their kind.

And the sun rose above them to prosper (them), and above everything that was on the earth, everything that shoots out of the earth, and all fruit-bearing trees, and all flesh.

These three kinds He created on the fifth day.

And on the sixth day He created all the animals of the earth, and all cattle, and everything that moves on the earth.

And after all this He created man, a man and a woman created He them,

and gave him dominion over all that is upon the earth, and in the seas, and over everything that flies, and over beasts and over cattle, and over everything that moves on the earth, and over the whole earth, and over all this He gave him dominion.

And these four kinds He created on the sixth day.
And there were altogether two and twenty kinds.

And He finished all His work on the sixth day--all that is in the heavens and on the earth, and in the seas and in the abysses, and in the light and in the darkness, and in everything.

And He gave us a great sign, the Sabbath day, that we should work six days, but keep Sabbath on the seventh day from all work.
And all the angels of the presence, and all the angels of sanctification,

these two great classes--He hath hidden us to keep the Sabbath with Him in heaven and on earth.

And He said unto us: "Behold, I will separate unto Myself a people from among all the peoples, and these will keep the Sabbath day,

and I will sanctify them unto Myself as My people, and will bless them; as I have sanctified the Sabbath day and do sanctify (it) unto Myself, even so shall I bless them, and they will be My people and I shall be their God.

And I have chosen the seed of Jacob from amongst all that I have seen, and have written him down as My firstborn son, and have sanctified him unto Myself for ever and ever;

and I will teach them the Sabbath day, that they may keep Sabbath thereon from all work."...

And thus He created therein a sign in accordance with which they should keep Sabbath with us on the seventh day, to eat and to drink, and to bless Him who hath created all things

as He hath blessed and sanctified unto Himself a peculiar people above all peoples, and that they should keep Sabbath together with us.

And He caused His commands to ascend as a sweet savour acceptable before Him all the days. There (were) two and twenty heads of mankind from Adam to Jacob,

and two and twenty kinds of work were made until the seventh day;

this is blessed and holy; and the former also is blessed and holy;

and this one serves with that one for sanctification and blessing.

And to this (Jacob and his seed) it was granted that they should always be the blessed and holy ones of the first testimony and law, even as He had sanctified and blessed the Sabbath day on the seventh day.

He created heaven and earth and everything that He created in six days, and God made the seventh day holy, for all His works;

therefore He commanded on its behalf that, whoever doth any work thereon shall die, and that he who defileth it shall surely die.

Wherefore do thou command the children of Israel to observe this day that they may keep it holy and not do thereon any work, and not to defile it,

as it is holier than all other days.
And whoever profaneth it shall surely die, and whoever doeth thereon any work shall surely die eternally,

that the children of Israel may observe this day throughout their generations, and not be rooted out of the land;

for it is a holy day and a blessed day.
And every one who observeth it and keepeth Sabbath thereon from all his work, will be holy and blessed throughout all days like unto us.

Declare and say to the children of Israel the law of this day both that they should keep Sabbath thereon, and that they should not forsake it in the error of their hearts;

(and) that it is not lawful to do any work thereon which is unseemly, to do thereon their own pleasure, and that they should not prepare thereon anything to be eaten or drunk.

and (that it is not lawful) to draw water, or bring in or take out thereon through their gates any burden, which they had not prepared for themselves on the sixth day in their dwellings.

And they shall not bring in nor take out from house to house on that day; for that day is more holy and blessed than any jubilee day of the jubilees:

on this we kept Sabbath in the heavens before it was made known to any flesh to keep Sabbath thereon on the earth.

And the Creator of all things blessed it, but He did not sanctify all peoples and nations to keep Sabbath thereon, but Israel alone:

them alone He permitted to eat and drink and to keep Sabbath thereon on the earth.

And the Creator of all things blessed this day which He had created for a blessing and a sanctification and a glory above all days.

This law and testimony was given to the children of Israel as a law for ever unto their generations.

Full source
Book of Jubilees 2:4Book of Jubilees

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.Sefaria Community Translation · CC-BY

The Book of Jubilees, a text that dances on the edge of the biblical canon, gives us a breathtakingly detailed account. It’s a story of creation, but also so much more. It’s a story of cosmic order, divine intention, and the very foundations of our world as we know it.

The Book of Jubilees, sometimes called Lesser Genesis, is a Jewish work of the Second Temple period. It retells the stories of Genesis and Exodus, but with a twist. It adds layers of detail, angelic interactions, and a strict emphasis on keeping the Sabbath and other Jewish laws.

Our passage opens with a grand declaration: a complete history of creation itself. How, in six days, the Lord God finished everything. And, crucially, how He kept the Shabbat, the Sabbath, on the seventh day, hallowing it for all ages. This wasn't just a rest; it was an appointment, a sign for all of God’s works. It's a powerful statement about the importance of rest and reflection, built right into the very fabric of creation.

Let’s break down that first day. What exactly was conjured into existence?

"On the first day," Jubilees tells us, "He created the heavens which are above and the earth and the waters." Pretty standard Genesis stuff. But then, the text takes a turn into the celestial realms. It speaks of "all the spirits which serve before Him."

Who are these spirits? Jubilees specifies them: "the angels of the presence, and the angels of sanctification, and the angels [of the spirit of fire and the angels] of the spirit of the winds, and the angels of the spirit of the clouds..."

It’s a glimpse into a hierarchical cosmos, a world teeming with angelic beings, each with their own specific role and purpose. The angels of the presence, constantly in God’s presence. The angels of sanctification, dedicated to holiness. And then, those elemental angels – fire, wind, and clouds – the forces of nature themselves given spiritual form. The universe isn't just matter and energy; it's imbued with spirit, with divine intention at every level. The wind isn't just the movement of air; it's an angelic force, carrying out God's will. The clouds aren't just condensed water vapor; they are vessels of divine power, bringing rain and sustenance to the earth.

What does this all mean?

Jubilees isn't just giving us a historical account; it's giving us a theological one. It's emphasizing the intricate order of creation, the divine plan that underlies everything. It’s reminding us that we are part of something much larger than ourselves, a cosmos filled with wonder and purpose. And it all started with those first six days, and that crucial day of rest. A day that continues to echo through time, inviting us to pause, reflect, and remember the source of all creation. A source that, according to Jubilees, is intimately involved in every aspect of the world around us, from the smallest breeze to the grandest celestial phenomenon.

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