What the creation account in the Torah does NOT say:
In the beginning God created heaven and earth, and then God blessed that day. NO!
God said "let there be light", and there was light, and God blessed the light NO! And God blessed that day? No!
And God created the fish, and all that swarms in the waters. And God blessed the fish. No, this is absurd! But wait, it DOES say this!
Oh.. OK. And that day was a blessed day forever . NO!
And god created humanity... and god blessd them (YES) and that day, their BirthDay, was blessed and to be celebrated by humanity forever . NO!
And God on the 6th day finished everything, and saw that it was all VERY GOOD, and in recognition of this amazin feat God blessed that day and made it to be celebrate forever. NO, and NO!
Instead, God blessed ...... the day he rested! What?! so strange!
OK, well..... And then after resting, God said: "And forever shall this day be a day of rest for all". NO!
And God created Adam & Eve, and brought before them all the animals to give names to. And God told Adam: "Before I created you, for six days did I work to created heaven and earth and all vegetation and the animals and fish and birds,". No!
And God commanded Adam & Eve to rest on every seventh day. No! (Really??!!)
And from then on, though God did not tell humanity of this, God celebrated every 7th day to commemorate the cessation of creation and the original resting from it it. No!
And God said, "Now it is only I who am aware of the sabbath day, but in the future I shall reveal this to humankind". No!
On the 7th day God 'rested' but it was NOT made to be a day to be celebrated by God or by humanity afterwards. And no-one was notified then about the oroginal day of God's resting, nor that eventually there would be a concept of "every 7th day as a day of holiness". (Maybe.)
And Noah was commanded to build an ark, and he asked God whether he should stop building it on shabbat, and whether he could feed the animals on Shabbat. NO. Noah was NOT commanded to rest on that day. There was NO shabbat celebrated on the ark.
Ok. Well obviously it doesn't mention Abraham Isaac or Jacob in the creation or Eden account, but later on when those forefathers are emntioned, the Torah tells us that God commanded them to celebrate it (NO!!! [though ther IS oblique mention of hints of passover])
The word Shabbat, and idea of it being a day of rest, does NOT appear in the creation account or anywhere in the book of Genesis, it appears first only after the Exodus from Egypt!!!
Surely this is significant. So our challenge will be to try to understand shabbat by utilizing insight gained from the above - and other facts - in the light of Traditional Judaism
...........
Shabbat & Pesach, week & lunar month/year: Note that there were two separate observances - 'shabbat breishis', a one-time unique 'resting' and then a few thousand years later 'shabbat forever', the institution of a the notion of "a week" and resting on the 7th day.
Similarly with Passover: there was 'pesach mitzrayim', and then 'pesach ledorot' which would have a 7th day of not doing mlacha, the only Biblical hi\oliday with a 7th day being a mikra kodesh (on succot the last day, the 7th is not, only the next day, which is a separate holiday is such, and shavuot is only one day).
When the Jews were about to exit Egypt, God creates the notion of the 'months', and of the 'year' which begins in the month of Nissan. And shortly afterwards God creates the notion of shabbat, the weekly-cycle with a day of no-mlacha every 7th day. And the holidays were set to occur according to the sun & moon, as told in the creation acount which was given at that time
(" וַיֹּאמֶר אֱ', יְהִי מְאֹרֹת בִּרְקִיעַ הַשָּׁמַיִם, לְהַבְדִּיל, בֵּין הַיּוֹם וּבֵין הַלָּיְלָה; וְהָיוּ לְאֹתֹת וּלְמוֹעֲדִים, וּלְיָמִים וְשָׁנִים. ").
..
Question: The Torah makes clear by the wording that the beginning of creation ended with 'day one' not 'the first day', a difference imlpying that there was not necessarily the notion of any other days to come. Similarly, the 7th day of physical time was NOT the first humanly-observed shabbos -nor even was it the first of many, it was the 'only' shabbos, the day when creation ceased - (ie shabbos is not mentioned in that context of the original resting). If so , how can shabbos be celebrated every 7th day?
Answer: Shabbos is 'Mo'ed', which means the main or first or head. Even a mo'ed like sukot which is set by historical events is not set for the dates of occurence of a specific event. And rosh hashannah and yom kippur are not on a date on which somehting actually happened (though creaiton is said to be RH etc, but that is not given in the Bible as the reason for the date). So shabbos also can be instituted as a mo'ed anytime, and it can be a cycle of 7 days instead of the cycle of the sun, ie a year. So shabbos can be every 7 days without ther enecessarily having been some event which happened on a 7th day, ie even if God did NOT create the universe in 6 days and rest on the 7th, God could create the repeating pattern of spiritual energy to occur every 7th day just as Rosh Hashanah occurs every year.
Indeed it is the only moed without an astronomical anchor, ie stars moon sun as stated in breishis creation account are a clock. So it is anchored in the creation account, but not that this need mean that it was physical time. etc.
.......
FB: Feb/March 2021: my reply to a quesiton https://www.facebook.com/avi.rabinowitz/posts/1901914793299648:13
The creation account tells of God making the 7th day day holy, but that was only that one day, a one time event. The written Torah there makes no mention that Shabbat recurs every 7th day, nor that it should be celebrated by humans. Nor is the word "shabbat" used, ie the "name" of that day (as used in the 10 commandments etc), instead the words used are only the related terms for 'resting', and "the seventh day".
.
On the one hand the events related there occurred at the very beginning (by definition), however the account of the creation is part of the written Torah which was given much later of course.
. .
Abraham lived in between these times - after creation, but before the Torah was given - so Abraham was in contact with God before the writing by God of the creation account in the written Torah (the written Torah was given to Abraham's descendants hundreds of years after him). Abraham received many teachings from God; depending on which sources one uses, he may have known of the creation events, perhaps he was told an account similar/identical to the one in the Torah and may have been informed by God of shabbat and may have 'observed' it in various ways, and may have commanded his descendants to observe it. However, God made it 'obligatory' (as we know it now) to the Jewish People only after the Exodus (and is part of the 10 commandments of course). .
(As I have written elsewhere) it is possible that God not only instituted a special holiness on the original day as stated in the written Torah, but also some aspect of a continuing holiness in a limited sense afterwards for those who observed it 'voluntarily' like Abraham. Later of course, as told in the Torah, God gave the Shabbat as a gift to (and bond with) the Jewish People and as a celebration of the Exodus, so we can conclude that by then God had sanctified that day forever as a recurring spiritual influx into the physical universe (especially for those who open themselves to it), but we are not told in the written Torah explicitly when that recurrent-sanctification occured (perhaps at the first shabbat, perhaps later, perhaps only after the Exodis).
.
Note that not only was the command only given afer the Exodus but shabbat is mentioned in the Torah both as a 'remembrance' of creation/resting and as a 'remembrance' of the Exodus, and so it may indeed be that the cyclically recurrent-sanctification happened only then or happened in two stages, with the second after the Exodus..... .................... Note that the Torah refers to the shabbat as "the first among the holidays", and it may be that the intent is that God's institution of a cyclical-holy-time (for Shabbat), ie the very infusion into time of the ability for holiness to recur, was the channel whereby all the holiday and their attendant spiritual energy could then recur cyclically (annually).
.(BTW: It is notable that Shabbat is in the ten commandments which according to Jewish Traditional teachings were 'simultaneously broadcast' spiritually all over the world, and the other nine commandments are universal rather than specifically "Jewish", so Shabbat too presumeably has some relevance to all humanity [though only the Jewish People were commanded to observe it in the way they do - the Torah calls it a 'sign' established between the Jewish People and God.])
...
Feb/March 2022:my post: https://www.facebook.com/avi.rabinowitz/posts/4640799812709392:6
Shabbat: Why did God celebrate RESTING rather than the creative act itself - what is so special about the resting from creation that God sanctified that day, made it holy. When we achive something great and then go on vacation, in later years it is the acheivement which is meaningful, not the going on vacation afterwards!
And if God created the world in 6 days and then rested, why should WE rest?
And why every 6 days, why not on an annual holiday?
And why according to Traditional Judaism is it permitted to work on the Shabbat - after all, the Rabbi is most busy that day!
Some of the above will be addressed, but moreso, we will focus on this quesiotn:
Why does keeping shabbat in Traditional Judaism involve so much that is inscrutable, where what is forbidden on Shabbat is a list of very specific rather arcane mundane actions?
AR: I placed the mishkan-related material on a page for that topic https://sites.google.com/nyu.edu/biblethemes/mlachot-shabbat-and-creation , this page is for shabbat breishis vs recurring shabbos, so the material related ot mishkan is in small font:
An allegory: As an introduction to the explanation, let's imagine a scifi movie: information from some mysterious source outside Earth is received, and it turns out to be the specifications for building some structure, but the information is provided as a puzzle or riddle.
The people of Earth are told that there are parallels between the structure and that of the fundamental aspects of the physical universe - in fact the aspects required for making the strucuture parallel in some deep way the aspects required to bring the universe into existence. So scientists try to figure out which actions were needed for the creation of the universe, and then they use those actions to erect the structure.
Amazingly, when people enter the structure they feel a special spirtual sense, a conection to their essence. It turns out that humans can feel this special spirituality because they were created by the entity which created the universe, and which gave the specifications of the structure, and this entity's spiritual presence fills the people who enter the structure.
And furthermore, it turns out that after the universe was created, a special energy was placed in it and made accessible under special conditions - and the genetic structure of humans was crafted in such a way that when commemorating that event and refaining from using those specific actions used for the crafting of the universe, and for the structure, they are able to connect to that special energy.
So in this way there is a deep link between how the universe emerged into existence, and the human body, and the special 'structure', and the ability to connect to the creator of it all....
This is what Tradition tells us about the mishkan and perhaps hints about the creation of the universe - and the human body, and the mishkan abd shabbat......
Humanity and the mishkan: In some sense we ourselves are effectively a mishkan ('tabernacle') for God's Presence! God explicitly states to Moses to tell the Jewish People "Have them build me a 'mikdash' (temple), and I will dwell in THEM"! (ie God's presence will 'dwell' NOT in the mikdash but rather in the people). Indeed as described in Genesis humans are constructed by God in the divine image and our essence is God's breath/spirit, and God tells the Jewish people many times in the Torah "be holy for I am holy" (and variations on this phrasing).
Physicality is a creation of God, and was designed to 'house' spirituality, so that the universe created by God according to a very special design is a repository for divine presence, as is the very-specially-designed human body/brain, as is the very-specially-designed Temple, and according to Traditional teachings there is a type of interconneciton and mirroring of these in the other. All parts of the mishkan and its contents and priestly garments as described in the weekly portions recently and upcoming - their measurements and design and function etc - reflect deep relationships between the deeper levels of the universe and of humanity.
Shabbat: Altogether, as we'll see now, there is an intricate interelationship between shabbat, the mishkan and the creation, and humans, holiness, and God,...
The first Holiness was when God sanctified the seventh day, as described in Genesis, and 'rested'. There's no record in Genesis of the notion that EVERY seventh day from then on would be holy, or of the name 'sabbath' for that day, nor that any humans should rest because God did. However long after the creation and this sanctification, soon after the exodus from Egypt, God instructed the Jewish People to similalrly 'rest' every seventh day, calling it 'the sabbath'!
Though these events (creation and the instruction about shabbat) were far apart from each other in time, they are in a sense juxtaposed since the account of the creation and of the sanctification of the 7th day was given in the Torah, ie proclaimed to the Jewish People during the same period (during the sojourn in Sinai) as the command to keep the sabbath every 7th day!.
So the notion of every 7th day being holy, and of commemorating the original 7th day, are made known not at creation but right after the exodus, as part of the instruction to the Jewish People that they are to observe this, and indeed they are instructed that this recurrent shabbat is meant as a commemoration both of the exodus and of the creation of the universe!
Furthermore: As mandated in the Torah, the Jewish People are to assemble at the mishkan/mikdash during the holy days, which are set to occur on dates determined by the combination solar-lunar calendar. The very notion of a cyclical pattern to time, that a special day can recurr annually, and at a set time, is an interesting concept, and it depended on the institution of the holiness of cycles in time institued by the establshment of the sabbath to be every 7th day, which is mentioned in the Torah after the exodus, not in the creation account!.
God says shabbat is the "first of the holidays", which I interpret as referring ot the above-described concept:that it was God's establishment of cyclical holiness in time when creating shabat for the Jewish people to keep every 7th day which then enables the annual Jewish holidays. And of course at those times the Jewishp people were to assemble and experience God's presence in the mishkan which was created using the same actions as for the universe and which the jews undertook to desist from every shabbat
..............
The relationhship of the mishkan, creation, and the actions forbiden on shabbat: Shabbat of creation, as described at the end of the creation account, occurred once, and relates to all creation and therefore to all created beings. The eternally-recurring Shabbat - every 7 days - is a covenant between God and the Jewish People, regarding that creation and the Shabbat after it, as God put it in the Torah "a sign between Me and the Children of Israel".
As part of that covenant the Jewish People accepted to desist on each Shabbat from specific actions, as described by God to Moses on Sinai and transmitted as part of the Tradition, and which God told Moses is mnemomnically hinted at it in the written Torah, which is only a tiny fraction of the Revelation at Sinai.
We are commanded to keep Shabbat because God rested from creation, so the Torah should have stated 'desist on Shabbat from doing what God did during creation'. However, the Torah passage only mentions to desist from 'mlachot', so presumably we are to rest on Shabbat from doing the melachot God used in creation. Melacha is a word only used in one other place in the Torah - when describing the construction of the mishkan ('tabernacle'); why desist from the mlachot used to construct the mishkan in order to commemorate God’s resting from the mlachot used in creation? My proposal is now obvious: Clearly then, there must be a close connection between the melachot of building the mishkan and creating the universe – in fact the implication of the command of shabbat is that God employed these melachot in creation.
Indeed a close examination reveals many parallels in the words of the Shabbat commandments and the mishkan. One parallel is the celebration of the seventh day, at the end of 6 days of work constructing the mishkan,
Furthermore, an analysis of the words in the creation (and Eden) account reveals MANY parallels to the words/descriptions regarding the making the mishkan as described by Tradition, specifically the keywords of the "39 melachot", the actions forbidden on shabbat) which Tradition associates to the construction of the mishkan.
Much has been written about the parallel between the universe and the mishkan (including its contents) which would explain why the same mlachot would be used for both. Otherwise Shabbat is a (seemingly) blatant on-sequitar: God telling us "desist from the mlachot of the mishkan because I rested after completing creation".
Twice in the Torah (Vayikra 'Leviticus') 19:30 & 26:20 we see direct links betyween shabbat and mikdash: "אֶת-שַׁבְּתֹתַי תִּשְׁמֹרוּ, וּמִקְדָּשִׁי תִּירָאוּ " and further, the 'mnemonic hint' that God conveyed to Moses (or perhaps to all the Jewish People who received divine prophecy while hearing the ten commandments which include the Shabbat) is that the word 'mlachah' which God uses in the Written Torah (dictated word by word to Moses at various times after the assembly at Sinai where they heard about Shabbat directly from God) to describe the agreed-upon actions to refrain from - the 'forbidden acts of Shabbat' - is the same word that God uses in the Written Torah to describe the construction of the mishkan ('Tabernacle' in English), and which is used by the Written Torah in these two contexts.
Some of these parallels are drawn in Traditional texts, but I have attempted to find parallels for all of them: see my Hebrew page [Those familiar with the original text of the Torah and with the technical laws of shabbat, can see the parallels in Hebrew: https://sites.google.com/nyu.edu/biblethemes/%D7%9C%D7%98-%D7%9E%D7%9C%D7%90%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%91%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%90%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%9D
....................
Further reading
I am not at all an expert in the deep teachings on this subject, interested readers can followup rearding the mishkan and its cosmic function including the intricate relation between the structure of the mishkan, its dimensions, the contents of the mshkan, the priestly garments, the sacrifices, and the parallel at the mysitcal level to the structure of the universe, and what God's presence means, and what it means for it to dwell in humans (I have only tangential familiarity with all these topics). There are many deep works written about these topics (and a little is accessible via google searching using the relevant keywords, eg "connection mishkan and universe" etc), and much more is contained in the Oral Tradition especially the mystical teachings which are only comprehensible to those who have already studied all of Torah and tradition and have practised all the commandments and have purified and refined their character (I cannot claim to be in this category) (See for example the Path outlined in the holy guide-book to self-development "Mesilat Yesharim" written by Ramchal (Luzzatto).
...
May we be blessed to connect to the mishkan and to shabbat both, and make ourselves a vessel for accepting God's presence, especially this week when we read about it in the Torah portion! (And a good place to start of course is in celebrating shabbat, starting with the customary kabbalat shabbat service during which the divine presence, the schechinah, is welcomed, along with the holiness of shabbat itself...)
........
NEED TO EDIT MORE FROM HERE
The shabbos/mishkan connection as explanation of why creation account speaks of 6 days.
One would have imagined that on 7th day God commanded that one desist from the types of actions H' used to create the un(iverse), ie those actions from which Gd rested. However acording to Jewish Tradition this is NOT so - instead, God commands us that on 7th day we should desist from "mleches hamishkan", the actions used by the Jewish people in the desert in constructing the "Tabernacle"!
Of course it may be that since the mishkan is a reflection of the universe itself, the actions needed to produce ARE the actions God used in creating the universe. And though thisis indeed my preferred interpretation. I believe that the fact that we are NOT told to rest fror the actions of creaiton but rather from the acitons of making the n\mishkan is very significance, expecially since thye building of the nmishkan was soon after the exodus, which was the event triggering the command to keep the shabbat, and was close to the time that the concept of shabbat was revealed to the Jewsh people (and maybe when God created shabbat itself, ie the cyclically-repeating energy of the every 7th day).
ie since the idea of interpreting the cr acct literally is most acute for OJs who feel it is necessary in order to serve as the underpining sof shabbos which is central to yiddishkeit, one can resolve this by separating the need to keep shabbos from the idea of 7 real days of creaiton ie by saying that the keeping of shabbos is not related to it, it is the cessation of meleches hamishkan. Why? Well that is a Trad J idea, not mine.
And one can buttress this by saying that the torah account of the mishkan is of 7 days, resting on the 7th etc.
And shabbos is zecher leyetzias mtizrayim, and the idea that shabbos was for creaiotn was stated only after y mitzrayim, and in 10 commandments, not in story of Adam & Eve or Noach (7 laws do NOT include shabbos). So it wwas only when were ready to create the mishkan that H commanded shabbos!
And the 2nd acount of the ten commandments says it is zecher leyitziyas mitzrayim. So zochor is for creation and "shomor" is for y mitzrayim . Actually we are concrned with shabbos that we keep, which is "shomor"!
So why is there a cr acct? Well the cr acct was ALSO given only after y mitzrayim, maybe even together with the commands to MR to build themishkan and HOW to exactly do it (andr maybe it was written down only AFTER the mishkan had been built, though this is not crucial).
So H wanted humans to rest on a cyclical day; any design of humans would require a resting day, and given theactual design, it was the 7th day. And so the mishkan was built in 7 days and then there was a rest, and in concert with this, H wrote up the account of the DESIGN of the universe in such a way that it reflects this 7 day cycle energy, whih H wired into the spiritual natur eof the universe. We know it is 'tachlis maaseh shamayim vaaretz', ie it had to be 7th, and the physical/sp'l universe was created in such a way that the 7th day energy was inherent in it. And given that blueprint for the sp'l nature of the eventual universe, the universe was then created, as a big bang designed to produce humans who would rest on the 7th day.
.......
Maybe the mishkan was itself a vehicle whose purpose was related to the creation of the time-cycle holiness.
It was erected on RH? this is the begining of the year cycle.
And it all happened after yetzias mitrzayim, which was the beginning of th other ascet of the annual-cycle.
So there was an onset of these two time-cycles of holiness, the annual and weekly.
And the giving of the command for shabbos at sinai and re the "mon" , and linking of the machos hamishkon therefore to the mlachos of creation etc.
...........
Answer 2: After the creation of the universe's blueprint in God's mind, there was a resting, and that resting-period was blessed. However "time did not yet exist". The actual creation - based on the blueprint - also took place outside of time, and without 'resting', perhaps in an instant that was not time. Of course, part of the blueprint for the universe was a design of time, and space etc. And for the interaction of spirit and matter, eg enabling a physicla being to have a soul, an expresion of the human being in the image of God.
When the Jewish People exited Egypt, a time-cycle of 7-day 'weeks' was instituted - there was no such cycle beforehand, or it did not pertain to human experience. And, the 7th day of EVERY week was mandated as a day of rest, "zecher ly'tzi'at mitzrayim", but only for the newly-formed Jewish people, and it was not linked to anything about creation of the universe (instead it was related to the exodus from slavery, as preparation for entry into the Land of Israel, and a societal and individual life working the grund there etc).
Shortly afterwards the ten commandments were given and the 7th day of EVERY week were mandated as a day of rest as "a sign/witness to the creation by God of the universe in 6 days and resting on the 7th", a sign/witness between God and the newly-formed Jewish people. That is, now there was placed into the physical time experienced by humanity, or by the Jewish people only, a new energy corresponding to the blessed energy instituted by God at the end of the creation of the universe's blueprint. And obvioulsy the blueprint created outside of time contained the ingredients necessary for the physical humans in the bluprint to be able to benefit form this spiritual energy. It was a present, a gift to the new "Jewish people", part of the covenant between them and God, providing them with a blessed day every 7th day, having in it the spiritual energy God imbued into the aftermath of the creation of the universe's blueprint (which happened outside of time). And the blueprint created outside of time contained within it the potential for time, and for a 7-day cycle, and for the special energy to be inserted into the 7th day
And then or later, a creation account was provided to the Jewish people and incorporated into the Torah, which cast the universe's creation in these terms, a universe created in time, in 6 days, with a 7th day of rest, and with this cycle now being the recurrent time-cycle of the spiritual aspect of the universe.
סיפור היצירה משמש כתפאורת רקע לקביעת ה' את מצוות שמירת השבת בעשרת הדברות, ש
דברי הגמ': "אמר לו הקב"ה למשה מתנה טובה יש לי בבית גנזי ושבת שמה ואני מבקש ליתנה לישראל לך והודיעם" (שבת, י:), דהיינו, השלמת חסרון יום העבודה בשבת ניתנה לישראל כמתנה מהקב"ה, לפיכך "עובד כוכבים ששבת חייב מיתה, שנאמר: 'ויום ולילה לא ישבותו" (סנהדרין נח:), כלומר, משום שכאשר העכו"ם שובת בשבת נחשב לו הדבר כגונב מישראל את מתנתו של בורא עולם, לפיכך אף דינו של ישראל המחלל שבת הוא מיתה משום זילזולו במתנת מלך מלכי המלכים הקב"ה.
...
After yetzias mitzrayim, when there was a klal yisroel, and they were to have chagim, H created the energy of infusin time with cycles and spiritual energy, the "Mo'adim".
Iti s all based on an energy baked into the universe at creation, to enable time to be split (into weeks) and cyclic (holidays will follow pattern of sun, one solar year). And that activates what H says in Breishis re the sun moon and stars being a clock.
The idea of time being divisible and imbued with spiritual energy and cyclic is brought in by shabbos, which is the head of the mo'adim; it is the only one which does NOT follow the usn moon and stars. And this special energy was inserted into the creation in potentia when the universe was created. H created in an instant, instantaneously and then 'rested' by creating the laws of nature etc. And it was a spiritual resting. And then after sinai time was made cyclic etc, and that resting energy we placed into the 7th day. But the creation account is given at Sinai because the 7-day cycle begins at sinai, int he ten commandments, but according to the energy pre-designed (like H created the mircales before sunset).
...
On the one hand the J tradition continas the attitude that there was no need for the creation account... it is only needed as intro to the commandments etc. And we know shabbat from later on in the otrah, it is not really in the creaiton act anyway (only shabat rishona[breishis] is there, not sh ledorot).
But the IDEA of the creaiotn in 6 days is important isnce it is given as the basis for shabbat in the later command of sh ledorot. So we would in any case need to reinterpret that, ie even if there ws no cr acct.
Our method will be to show that sh as understood within J trad'n is subtl sophisticated, not really related to creation, and to cr acct, and so it would exist AS IS even wo the idea of creation of the phy'l un i 6 actual days.
Namely: it is melakhot hamishkan, and that is so abstract, make ssens eonly if invoke upper worlds etc, so it is easy to thenunderstand the 6 day as being about the upper worlds, not as physical actions in the physical universe in actual historical time.
.......
Parallels of 49 mlachot to the actions ascribed to God in the story of creaiton: this strneghtens the idea that the Genesis account is about the "upper worlds", a creation which is mirrored later in the mishkan etc, whchis also 6 days and a 7th..
...
Combining "shabbat ledorot" & "shabbat breishit" via the fact that the word 'laasot' appears in both: Asher bara elokim la'asot (et hashabat) - ie H' created all for/with shabos. ...ie in order to later insert the energy of shabat ledorot into the universe, or: in order that there be a shabbat, H' created that energy in the upper world blueprint (which after all is the Torah!), so the process outlined in the 6 days of creation it is not a physical action in the physical universe that science would detect.
............
What does God want us to believe:
That using scinece we will come to the conclusion that God created in 6 days, said 'let there be light etc etc?
That the scientific method doesn't work, and don't use it for medecine, technology etc?
...
1. Shabbos as a holiness in time is not a concept which can be fit into naturalistic descriptions of theuniverse. Neither holiness nor a 7-day cycle are natural (neither is time-progression, according to SR). And that it should be just for the J people makes it notuniversalistic and so definitely not a natural phenomenon So there's no conceivable physics theory which will give rise ot the notion of shabbas. Even trying to find 6 epochs in the development of the universe is futile, since there is no way one can get form there to the notion of holiness or cylical nature arising forever every 7th day.
So it is not useful - in my -opinion - to consider the physical universe to have been created in 6 days and God rested on the 7th day, as a prerequisite to having shabbos. One could have been commanded to keep the 7th day holy and rest etc, without there having even been a creaiton as long as the regularity is imbued into time, God could command it it or reveal it to exist, just as RH, YK etc, indeed shabbos is the first or main 'm'ed'.
So let's not try to understand physical nature as having been created in 6days, nor that Gd rested in the physical time during the 7th day, etc
.......
2. Shabbos was first known to bney yisroel after receviing the ten commandments? And then receiving the text of the beginning of breishis, or the later parts of chumash mentioing it?
Or are ther emidrashim etc of Adam or Noach or Abraham etc keeping shabbos? or eg that the b ysiroel in mitzrayim had trouble keeping shabbos as slaves?
Or was it only revealed after sinai? So that indeed it can easily have a meaning in terms of "zecher li'tziyah mitzrayim" ! Maybe somehow the ide aof shabbos as resting after creation only came about after yetzias mitzrayim? Maybe only when there emerged a true people, at har sinai they were as one, for the first time, and shabbos is an ois betwn H' and Bnei Yisraeol.
So how can I fit all this i with my idea that the energ yof shabbos as resting frmm 6 day was imbued into the universe, in order to have shabbos, as per 'tachlis maaseh shamayim vaaretz" rahter than imlying that the actual creaiton had an in-time duraiotn of 6 days
...
Shabbos as a recurrent holiness in time is not a concept which can be fit into naturalistic descriptions of the universe. Neither holiness nor a 7-day cycle are natural (neither is time-progression, according to SR). And that this phenomenon should be just for the Jewish people ie not universalistic means that it is definitely not a naturalistic phenomenon. Clearly there's no conceivable physics theory which will give rise to the notion of shabbos. Even trying to identify 6 epochs in the scientific account of the development of the universe (which was done by early 20th century Christian theologians) is futile in this regard, since there is no way one can get from there to the notion of holiness, or to the existence of a cyclical spiritual energy arising every 7th day, forever .
So in my opinion it is not useful to consider that as a prerequisite to having shabbos it is necessary that the physical universe was created in 6 days and God rested on the 7th day. One could have been commanded to keep the 7th day holy and rest etc, without there having even been a creation altogether, as long as the regularity is imbued into time. God could command it, it or reveal it to exist, just as RH, YK etc; indeed shabbos is the first or main 'mo'ed'. And shabbos is also zecher le'yetziat mitzrayim.
So let's feel constrained to understanding physical nature as having been created in 6 days, nor that Gd rested in the physical time during the 7th day, etc, and so we need not reject a physical theory which does not describe the physical universe as having emerged in 6 or 7 days. Instead, we need to ADD ON to the physical theory an understanding that in ADDITION TO the physical nature described by it, there is a spiritual realm, and within THAT context to discuss the energy of Shabat, and the meaning of the creation account.
In an analogous manner, we certainly do NOT need our scientific model of the emergence of humanity to include spiritual aspects like the existence of a soul, since it is clear that no physical theory ever will include such. Instead we consider the infusion of a soul into physical humanity as an incident in the spiritual history of the universe, which is inaccessible to physical investigation.
"Just because it didn't happen doesn't mean it isn't true"
Firstly, shabbat is mandated "zecher leetzi'us mitzrayim", so even without the creation-reason it would exist.
Secondly: if H' commanded us to rest on the 7th day and not do mleches hamishlan then, it would be enough, wthout the creation-reason.
Since it is mleches hamishkan which is forbidden, and that took 7 days, it would make sense that the 7th day would be holy day, and one refrains from mleches hamishkan.
Chazal say that the whole breishis is extra, the torah should have begun from "hachodesh hazeh lachem", so obviously they didnt think it was needed for the reason of shabbos. However, perhaps this is because the explanaiotn "ki sheshes yamim asah.." is given later on, so we wouldn;t need Breihsis for this.
In any case, even given the creaiton account of 6 days, it is completely non-sequitar to say that WE should rest because H' rested. And that we should rest EVERY 7th day, why not once a year, to commemorate creation of the world, perhaps on Rosh Hashanah?! And why commemorate RESTING!!? The Holy day should be the fist day of creaiotn, or the last, the 6th day, when humanity was created and all was seen to be Tov Me'od! not the day of resting from creaiton!! And clearly it is absurd to say that H needed a day to create anything, it would have been intantaneous, and in any case H is not time-bound, does not exist "in" time; and in any case the concept of a day is anachronistic since it has to do with the creaiotn of the earth and sun, later on.
So my explanaiton is: H created shabbos, it was special creation, not the 'cessation of work", and H also created the ability for this special energy of Shabbos to recur every 7th day, and created the ability for us to attach to it; it was chosen to be 7th day because that was decided as the optimum for the beings that H designed, and indeed for humans 4 days would be too short a week and ten days too long. (Also refer readers to my video in Russian & Hebrew.) Just like all is a shadow of the higher-level, and it could have bene projected differently, tfilin would have been something else if H had decided to create beings without arms, and not to create cows, and the time for shabbos and its duration would have been different if our planet spun more or less quickly or did not at all have day-night alteration, but it still would have been Shabbos. The creation account is a reflection of our physical situation - the projection into our physical universe of the higher-level spiritual reality ie H chose that the universe whould contain beings on a planet spinning with specific period (which we call "one day"), and that the being have a physical/mental constitution of a specific sort, and have arms and that there would be cows, so that the higher-level spiritual Tfillin would project down in that universe to leathe rstraps wound on an arm, and Shabbos would be on the 7th 'day'. Shabbos is real, and tfilin is real, but one shouldnot think that H has arms just because H puts on tfilin, nor that H created the uinniverse in 7 days just because WE are told to rest on the 7th day, and because the creaiotn account is told in that framework.
Maybe the creation account is a description of events in H' mind, ie events on the upper levels, the creation of the blueprint for physical creation. So when H' rested, created shabbos & made it holy, it means that H' imbued the creation plan with the ability for it to have a 7-day cycle with a special holiness for the 7th day.
BUT: H' can do as H' wishes and so it CAN be that H' created time and then limited H's self to create within time. And that H created everything exactly as described in Genesis, according to its literal inteprretation. Maybe H even created air so that H could actually say "yehi or", using specially-created vocal chords etc. Etc. And H actually 'rested', etc. But it is not necessary to believe that H wants us to believe that.
Either way, whichever creation-scenario one prefers from the above list, and whichever interpretation one prefers for Shabbos etc, the instant universe scenario provides a way to reconcile the scientific and Biblical descriptions of creation.
...
It is as though God experiences it every 7th day, but that is of course according to human reckoning of time, which God is in any case beyond.
.......
Perhaps Shabbos was not necessarily occuring every 7th day until later (or not happening on an earthly plane).
The idea of it being EVERY 7th day, and that WE should rest, is not mentioned until after the exodus from Egypt, at the giving of the 10 commandments: Shmos 20:8: "Ki sheshes yamim osoh...vayonach.. vayekadshehu": זָכ֛וֹר֩ אֶת־י֥֨וֹם הַשַּׁבָּ֖֜ת לְקַדְּשֽׁ֗וֹ שֵׁ֤֣שֶׁת יָמִ֣ים֙ תַּֽעֲבֹ֔ד֮ וְעָשִׂ֖֣יתָ כָּל־מְלַאכְתֶּֽךָ֒ וְי֙וֹם֙ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔֜י שַׁבָּ֖֣ת ׀ לַה' אֱלֹהֶ֑֗יךָ לֹֽ֣א־תַעֲשֶׂ֣֨ה כָל־מְלָאכָ֡֜ה אַתָּ֣ה ׀ וּבִנְךָֽ֣־וּ֠בִתֶּ֗ךָ עַבְדְּךָ֤֨ וַאֲמָֽתְךָ֜֙ וּבְהֶמְתֶּ֔֗ךָ וְגֵרְךָ֖֙ אֲשֶׁ֥֣ר בִּשְׁעָרֶֽ֔יךָ
כִּ֣י שֵֽׁשֶׁת־יָמִים֩ עָשָׂ֨ה ה' אֶת־הַשָּׁמַ֣יִם וְאֶת־הָאָ֗רֶץ אֶת־הַיָּם֙ וְאֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר־בָּ֔ם וַיָּ֖נַח בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֑י
עַל־כֵּ֗ן בֵּרַ֧ךְ ה' אֶת־י֥וֹם הַשַּׁבָּ֖ת וַֽיְקַדְּשֵֽׁהוּ׃
However, shabbos is said to be "zecher" commemorating the exodus from Egypt, ie it was commanded as both a commemoration of the exodus and at that time - after the exodus - the Jewish people were commanded to observe it. (so it is possible that only then it became a recurrent holy eenergy?
No mention of creation: instead, shabbos is presented as a sign ('ois'), as for God, as remembering the Exodus...
* Shmos 23:12: Shabbos is for resting of animals, workers: שֵׁ֤שֶׁת יָמִים֙ תַּעֲשֶׂ֣ה מַעֲשֶׂ֔יךָ וּבַיּ֥וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֖י תִּשְׁבֹּ֑ת לְמַ֣עַן יָנ֗וּחַ שֽׁוֹרְךָ֙ וַחֲמֹרֶ֔ךָ וְיִנָּפֵ֥שׁ בֶּן־אֲמָתְךָ֖ וְהַגֵּֽר׃
* Shmos: 31:13- : For bney yisroel, shabbos is an Ois (to know that "I am Hashem who makes you holy", & Bris: and H' says "observe MY shabbos", because it is holy for YOU (and for H'): וְאַתָּ֞ה דַּבֵּ֨ר אֶל־בְּנֵ֤י יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר אַ֥ךְ אֶת־שַׁבְּתֹתַ֖י תִּשְׁמֹ֑רוּ כִּי֩ א֨וֹת הִ֜וא בֵּינִ֤י וּבֵֽינֵיכֶם֙ לְדֹרֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם לָדַ֕עַת כִּ֛י אֲנִ֥י ה' מְקַדִּשְׁכֶֽם׃
וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם֙ אֶת־הַשַּׁבָּ֔ת כִּ֛י קֹ֥דֶשׁ הִ֖וא לָכֶ֑ם מְחַֽלְלֶ֙יהָ֙ מ֣וֹת יוּמָ֔ת כִּ֗י כָּל־הָעֹשֶׂ֥ה בָהּ֙ מְלָאכָ֔ה וְנִכְרְתָ֛ה הַנֶּ֥פֶשׁ הַהִ֖וא מִקֶּ֥רֶב עַמֶּֽיהָ׃
שֵׁ֣שֶׁת יָמִים֮ יֵעָשֶׂ֣ה מְלָאכָה֒ וּבַיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֗י שַׁבַּ֧ת שַׁבָּת֛וֹן קֹ֖דֶשׁ לַה' כָּל־הָעֹשֶׂ֧ה מְלָאכָ֛ה בְּי֥וֹם הַשַּׁבָּ֖ת מ֥וֹת יוּמָֽת׃
וְשָׁמְר֥וּ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל אֶת־הַשַּׁבָּ֑ת לַעֲשׂ֧וֹת אֶת־הַשַּׁבָּ֛ת לְדֹרֹתָ֖ם בְּרִ֥ית עוֹלָֽם׃
* Vayikra: 23:3: Don't work, it is shabbos FOR H': דַּבֵּ֞ר אֶל־בְּנֵ֤י יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ אֲלֵהֶ֔ם מוֹעֲדֵ֣י ה' אֲשֶׁר־תִּקְרְא֥וּ אֹתָ֖ם מִקְרָאֵ֣י קֹ֑דֶשׁ אֵ֥לֶּה הֵ֖ם מוֹעֲדָֽי׃
שֵׁ֣שֶׁת יָמִים֮ תֵּעָשֶׂ֣ה מְלָאכָה֒ וּבַיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֗י שַׁבַּ֤ת שַׁבָּתוֹן֙ מִקְרָא־קֹ֔דֶשׁ כָּל־מְלָאכָ֖ה לֹ֣א תַעֲשׂ֑וּ שַׁבָּ֥ת הִוא֙ לַֽה' בְּכֹ֖ל מֽוֹשְׁבֹתֵיכֶֽם׃
* Deuteronomy 5:12: Ten commandments: Shabbos is in remembrance of slavery in Egypt and of the exodus (בְּיָ֤֥ד חֲזָקָ֖ה֙ וּבִזְרֹ֣עַ נְטוּיָ֑֔ה )
שָׁמ֣֛וֹר אֶת־י֥וֹם֩ הַשַׁבָּ֖֨ת לְקַדְּשׁ֑֜וֹ כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוְּךָ֖֣ ה' אֱלֹהֶֽ֗יךָ
שֵׁ֤֣שֶׁת יָמִ֣ים֙ תַּֽעֲבֹ֔ד֮ וְעָשִׂ֖֣יתָ כָּֿל־מְלַאכְתֶּֽךָ֒ וְי֙וֹם֙ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֜֔י שַׁבָּ֖֣ת ׀ לַה' אֱלֹkיךָ לֹ֣א תַעֲשֶׂ֣ה כָל־מְלָאכָ֡ה אַתָּ֣ה וּבִנְךָֽ־וּבִתֶּ֣ךָ וְעַבְדְּךָֽ־וַ֠אֲמָתֶךָ וְשׁוֹרְךָ֨ וַחֲמֹֽרְךָ֜ וְכָל־בְּהֶמְתֶּ֗ךָ וְגֵֽרְךָ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בִּשְׁעָרֶ֔יךָ לְמַ֗עַן יָנ֛וּחַ עַבְדְּךָ֥ וַאֲמָתְךָ֖ כָּמֽ֑וֹךָ׃וְזָכַרְתָּ֞֗ כִּ֣י־עֶ֤֥בֶד הָיִ֣֙יתָ֙ ׀ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔֗יִם וַיֹּצִ֨אֲךָ֜֩ ה' אֱלֹהֶ֤֙יךָ֙ מִשָּׁ֔ם֙ בְּיָ֤֥ד חֲזָקָ֖ה֙ וּבִזְרֹ֣עַ נְטוּיָ֑֔ה
עַל־כֵּ֗ן צִוְּךָ֙ ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ לַעֲשׂ֖וֹת אֶת־י֥וֹם הַשַׁבָּֽת׃
................
la’asos is shabbos bec: "la'asos es hashabos ledorosom" [and it is 'asiyah':"(ois hi)...oso es hashamayim.. (shovas vayinofash)" vaeschanan: " שָׁמוֹר אֶת-יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת, לְקַדְּשׁוֹ, כָל-מְלָאכָה אַתָּ , לַעֲשׂוֹת, אֶת-יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת"
