The Sabbath as Revelation of the World of Soul and the World-to-Come
About This Entry
A lengthy encyclopedic work of mysticism and ethics, Re’shit ḥokhmah (Beginning of Wisdom) was a popular text, translated from Hebrew into many languages and reprinted some forty times. It is divided into five gates (sections): fear of God; love of God; repentance; holiness; and humility. This passage is excerpted from the second chapter in the Gate of Holiness. In it, Elijah de Vidas presents the Sabbath as a time of radical transcendence of the mundane realm, in which the individual soul is ultimately a wandering stranger. The Sabbath, in contrast, is akin to the world-to-come, and thus offers a revelation of the world where the soul truly desires to dwell.
The Sabbath is similar to the holiness of the World-to-Come, and the divine intention was to give us the holiness of Sabbath in order to reveal to us that the main dwelling of man is not in this world, because in this world he is a stranger . . . but his main [dwelling] is in the world of souls, the World-to-Come. This is the reason why he ceases working, which points to the matters of this world. And he blesses the day of Sabbath in order to show that he himself is becoming holy, and he does not care about this world, because all the reality of holiness is separation.
Translated by Moshe Idel.
Discussion Questions
What is the correlation between the Sabbath as sacred time in this world and a revelation of the world to come, divine transcendence?
If the upper Sabbath is the world of souls, what does it imply for the wandering soul in this world?
Reflect on the texture of this passage as spiritual mentality, an approach to sacred time that pays attention to the difference between ordinary reality and the upper divine being.
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The Sabbath Within God: The Candelabrum of the Sefirot
Joseph presents the structure of the sefirot—the inner life of God—as a dynamic relation between the six middle “days” and the sefirah referred to as the Sabbath.
The Transformative Power of Holy Time
Fishbane offers a contemporary theological and mystical reflection on sacred Sabbath time, with its awakening of spiritual insight and inner tranquility.
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Isaiah Horowitz reflects on the correlations of the soul to the Sabbath, and the Sabbath as world to come.
The Sabbath as the Soul’s Delight
De Vidas frames the delight of the soul in the Sabbath as a heightening of sensory experience and an attaining of deeper spiritual mysteries.