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A Day of Divine Rest

To any rabbis

I also forgot to ask this questions.

1)When the Hebrew bible speaks of god creating the earth in 6 days, on the 7 day god rested. Does that literally mean god gets tired just like us humans, from hard days work?

I am very curious.

2)How comes Jews never called the Torah,”Old Testament”?

I apologies for getting to ask questions.

Yours Sincerely

Costas Sfikas

Answer:

1. No, it doesn’t mean that God got tired; because God is a non-physical Entity, He cannot “get tired” in the literal sense of the word.

Rather, it means that he “rested” from the labor of creation. This positive “act of resting” was also a form of creation — a creation of the concept of “rest” after the completion of an action or a process of creation. Our own Sabbath rest “translates” the concept into human terms — the week’s work is done, and on the Sabbath we rest.

2. For Jews, the Torah — the Old Testament — is certainly not “old.” Christians coin it Old because they have a New Testament. For Jews, there is only one Testament, and it is neither Old nor New but One.

Best wishes.

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1 Comment

  1. for q1:
    Have you ever worked “hard” at building something, perhaps a bookshelf or a garden? When completed, one steps back, and looking at his handiwork, he exclaims, “ah, well done!” This is akin to what God did. He looked at His Creation and said, “Very Good.” In other words, he admired his handiwork. I believe one reason God wants us to “rest” is to work hard for six days, and on the Sabbath take time to admire what we’ve accomplished, just like He did.

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