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Home -- Content: Series 7 (Laws) -- Translation: English -- Book: 1 (Tora) -- Part: 1 (Positive) -- Command: 154 -- Text
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The Sharia of Moses in the TORA
Part 1 - The 248 Positive Commandments of the Tora

154 - RESTING ON THE SABBATH


Exodus 23:12 -- “Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.”
Exodus 20:10 -- “But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.”

“Thus God commanded us to abstain from work on the Sabbath, and to rest, for two purposes; namely: (1) That we might confirm the true theory, that of the Creation, which at once and clearly leads to the theory of the existence of God. (2) That we might remember how kind God has been in freeing us from the burden of the Egyptians. The Sabbath is therefore a double blessing: it gives us correct notions, and also promotes the well-being of our bodies.”*

* Moreh Nebuchim II, 31

“The object of the Sabbath is obvious, and requires no explanation. The rest it affords to man is known; one-seventh of the life of every man, whether small or great, passes thus in comfort, and in rest from trouble and exertion. This the Sabbath effects in addition to the perpetuation and confirmation of the grand doctrine of the Creation.”*

* ibid., III, 43

“The commandments relating to the Sabbath and idolatry are each equal to (the sum of) all the other commandments of the Torah, the Sabbath being designated as a sign between the Holy One, blessed be He, and ourselves, to all eternity. Hence he who (willfully) transgresses any of the other commandments of the Torah remains nevertheless numbered among the wicked of Israel, but he who violates the Sabbath openly is as if he had worshipped idols, and both of them (i.e. the idol-worshipper and the open Sabbath-breaker) are regarded as idolaters in all respects. It is for this reason that the prophet expresses himself in praise (of the Sabbath thus:) Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it; who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. (Isaiah 56:2)”*

* Mishneh Torah, Zmanim, Hilchoth Shabbath, XXX, 15

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