Shabbat שבת קודש
The seventh day, sanctified at creation and the sign of the covenant between God and Israel.
Shabbat appears in the Torah before any commandment: the seventh day of creation is called blessed and sanctified before there is a nation. It first appears as practice in the desert with the manna—a double portion on the sixth day and none on the seventh—and then enters the Ten Utterances as "remember" in Shmot and "keep" in Devarim, which the sages explain as spoken in a single word.
Its point is not rest from fatigue but the suspension of intervention in the world: thirty-nine categories of creative work are forbidden, derived from the labours of building the Mishkan. Once a week a person stops being an owner and becomes a guest.
Shabbat is received with candles and kiddush, kept with three meals and singing, and ended with havdalah over wine, flame and spices.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Bereishit 2:1–3 — the seventh day hallowed at the creation
- Shemot 20:8–11 — “remember” in the Ten Utterances
- Shemot 31:12–17 — “a sign between Me and you” and “keep”
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Mishnah Shabbat 7:2 — the thirty-nine categories of work
- Shabbat 118b — two Sabbaths kept — and the redemption comes at once
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 242–365 — the laws of Shabbat in the code
Basis: tradition.