Throughout the torah, there is constant admonition "to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy." The seventh day is set aside for rest, six days shall you do your work, but on the seventh day you shalll cease from labor, in order that your ox and ass may rest, and that your bondman and stranger may be refreshed." Exodus 23:12
It sounds revolutionary in a world of 24/7 labor and struggle for survival. One whole day each week to be set apart as a holiday. Sounds like a communist plot of subversive blue-collar rebellion, revolting against the sixteen hour workday and the exploitation of underpaid day labor. Unlike contemporary misunderstanding, the day was not meant to be shackled by stringent Blue laws enforced through state ruling agencies, decreeing the prohibition of the sale of alcohol or limiting commercial activities. This is one interpretation, but there is another far more appealing. In Judaism, the day does not begin with the sunrise spilling over the mountains like strawberry syrup; it ushers in quietly in the evening as a long-awaited bride. Sixteenth century mystics began their Shabbat, by goinging out into the fields to greet the arrival of the bride, dressed in white. The day begins in a quiet hour, a time for introspection and reflection for the blessings of life and prayers for protection through the night. The Shabbat begins when three stars appear in the western sky, heralding the arrival of the Shekhinah, the bride of Shabbat.
Mystical interpretation associates the covenant on the mountain as a wedding vow between god and the people of Israel, "Now then, if you obey Me faithfully, you shall be My treasured possessions amongst all the people. Indeed all the earth is Mine, but you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." Exodus 19:5-6
The words are interpreted as a metaphor as a marriage contract between God and man. The Ketuba is read as the bride approaches the husband. The contract is given. God promises His faithfulness throughout all generations, but the people also must be faithful. how? By being a holy people. Holiness is not a state of being a do-goody, but an active position of connecting hand and muth in fulfilling the obligations of the 613 mitzvot of the Torah, all neatly summed up in loving God and loving your fellow neighbor and treating him in the same manner as you wish to be treated.
