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itself, when we verbally declare the above-
mentioned foundational tenets of the
Jewish faith.
“Observing” Shabbos, on the other
hand, is about desisting from the acts of
creative work prohibited on Shabbos. The
irony is that this seemingly endless list of
regulations and prohibitions is amazingly
liberating because it’s the things we can’t
do on Shabbos that free us up to do the
things we can. Says the Ramban, “observ-
ing” Shabbos allows us the opportunity to
fully engage ourselves in spiritual pursuits
— learning Torah, connecting to God
through deep, heartfelt prayer and deep-
ening our faith in our Creator.
There is another way in which Shabbos
is spiritually transformative: it reaffirms
our role as God’s partner in creation. The
Midrash makes this explicit, stating that
whoever recites the paragraph Vayechulu
— which refers to God’s completion of
the world on the very first Shabbos of cre-
ation, and which we say in the first part
of the Kiddush on Friday night — “it’s as
if he has become a partner with the Holy
One, blessed is He, in creation.”

BEING GOD’S PARTNER
Conceptually, Shabbos is a mitzvah that
actively demonstrates that we are God’s
partners in creation. The Torah explains
that we work for six days and rest on the
seventh because God created the world
in six days and rested on the seventh.
By mirroring our own existence in our
Creator’s, the Torah is signaling to us
that we are essentially creators, like Him,
moving through the very same seven-day
cycle of creation and rest.
But we are not just God’s partners in
creating the world out there. We are very
much partners in creating ourselves. And
Shabbos is a crucial element of this pro-
cess of inner transformation.
The Talmud identifies 39 categories
of work that are prohibited on Shabbos.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch says the
common denominator is that all 39 are
expressions of human creativity. All 39
melachot (acts of work) — whether it be
harvesting, baking, cooking, carrying
or lighting a fire — are about imposing
human will on the world to achieve cre-
ative and constructive objectives.
Rabbi Hirsch explains that God gave
us powers of creativity to exercise free-
ly. This we do during the week. But on

Shabbos, we “give back” these powers to
God. We acknowledge the Divine source
of our creativity. We acknowledge the
One who created us, who gave us these
creative powers, as the ultimate Creator.
Shabbos, then, becomes about a dif-
ferent kind of creativity. Shabbos teaches
that creativity is not just about tangible
things. We do the work of becoming
better people. During the week, we are
involved in creativity which has a tangi-
ble, measurable impact on the world. On
Shabbos, the focus switches. We transfer
our creative energies into creating our-
selves. We do this by acknowledging God
as the Creator of the universe, which, as
we have discussed, has a deep impact on
our faith and sense of identity.

But, on Shabbos, we also transform
ourselves through the time and mental
space we are afforded to work on our
characters, to reflect on our lives, to build
and enrich our relationships with others
and with God. Their impact may not be
directly observable or tangible in a tra-
ditional sense, but these are all intensely
creative endeavors. On Shabbos, we learn
to appreciate the idea of internal creativ-
ity that emerges from ceasing external
creativity.
We learn this from God Himself. The
Torah says: “God completed His work
on the seventh day.” (Bereishit 2:2) Rashi,
referring to the Midrash, says the verse
implies that God did actually perform
creative “work” on the seventh day; that
rest itself was a creation. The Torah is
reinforcing the idea that there is a creative
aspect to desisting from work on Shabbos
— that rest on Shabbos isn’t about doing
nothing, and creativity is not just about
what we produce physically.
People tend to measure themselves
by their tangible productivity. Unless

they are creating something that can be
touched, measured or charged for, they
believe they are not being productive.
But, sometimes, we need to stop our fren-
zied activity so we can focus our attention
inwards.
When we cease external creativity
and focus on developing ourselves and
improving our relationships with our
families and community, when we invest
in our spirituality and our connection to
God, and in the relationship with our-
selves, we are being no less productive
and creative. The laws of Shabbos are
structured in such a way as to facilitate
this form of productivity and creativity.

LOOKING INWARD
Ultimately, we see that becoming a
partner with God in creation is not just
building the external world, it’s about
building our own inner world, transform-
ing ourselves into the best version of us
we can be. And Shabbos, in many ways,
aids us in this task — it’s a day on which
we withdraw from the world in a certain
sense and replenish our inner reserves; it’s
deep, spiritual “quiet time” that refreshes
and reinvigorates us, that refines and
redefines us.
By making the declaration of
Vayechulu, that God created heaven and
Earth, we become a partner with God in
creation in this full sense. Of course, God
does not need our affirmation. As the
Ramban explains, Shabbos, like any other
mitzvah, is for our benefit, not God’s.
And, like any other mitzvah, like any
good friend, Shabbos helps us become
better people. It transforms us.
There endures a deep and loving
friendship between the Jewish people
and Shabbos, a friendship that is deeply
embedded in our national psyche. This
emotional connection to Shabbos is
reflected in the words of an ancient song
traditionally sung on Friday night. “Mah
yedidut menuchatech — How beloved a
friend is your rest.”
It is this friendship with Shabbos, this
enriching relationship, that has truly
transformed and uplifted the Jewish peo-
ple for thousands of years and will con-
tinue to do so forever.

Rabbi Warren Goldstein is the chief rabbi of

South Africa.

“SHABBOS HAS
ACCOMPANIED US
EVERY STEP OF THE
JOURNEY — AND,
LIKE A GOOD FRIEND,
IT HAS POSITIVELY

IMPACTED US.”