Shabbat Prayers: Friday Night: You Sanctified

“You sanctified the seventh day for Your Names and sake, the purpose of the creation of heaven and earth. Of all days, You blessed it; and of all seasons, You sanctified; and so it is written in Your Torah.”

This is usually understood to mean that the seventh day was the ultimate purpose of the creation of heaven and earth.

However I would like to suggest that perhaps this means that it was God’s sanctification of the seventh day for His Name’s sake that was the ultimate purpose of creation.

There is a hint to this in the Talmud (Shabbat 119b): All who pray on Friday eve and recite the verses of, “Thus the heaven and earth were finished,” is considered as if he has become a partner to the Holy One, Blessed is He.

It is only when we, who have free choice, actively participate in sanctifying the seventh day for the sake of His Name that we achieve this level of partnership, and it is only when we, the purpose of creation, achieve that level of partnership, that we can declare that the purpose of the creation of heaven and earth has been achieved.