Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

SABBATH, JEWISH

A symbol of a state of rest of the life forces which supervenes on the higher planes at the close of a period of activity on the lower planes, when a result has been accomplished.

"And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work. . . . And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it because that in it he rested from all his work." - GENESIS. IL 2, 3.

“And on the seventh period of the Divine outbreathing and inbreathing, when the return of the Life into Itself is accomplished, the Divine nature is said to rest. At this stage the Divine Spirit is said to 'rest," inasmuch as a suspension of activities is rendered necessary, prior to another and distinct movement forth. And the Supreme blesses and sanctifies the period, for at this termination of the process of Involution the soul has arrived at that blessed condition which answers to completion and entirety, when the Spirit appears to cease its operations.

"Malkhuth represents the Sabbath or seventh day, the close of the construction or building of the universe, the Rest Day or harmony of all." - I. MYER, Quabbalah, p. 272.

The buddhic principle contains the scheme and consummation of the lower plane activities, therefore the indrawal of the Life would be to the buddhic plane a state of rest and harmony.

In the Hebrew Genesis the period of Involution is signified by the six days of Divine activity preceding the Sabbath of rest or inactivity, after which the universe and the soul awaken to the new life-process of Evolution, as described in the first part of the second chapter.

The Jewish Saturday Sabbath connotes a cessation from activity (pralaya), and not a rousing to (manvantara) which is signified by Sunday.

"This seventh day of rest is the stage here drawn, the state of full age,' or perfection,' when instead of growth and change, and the varying life of faith, and the struggle between the old state and the work of God within us, we reach the life of vision and of rest." - A. JUKES, Types of Genesis, p. 42.

"This resting (on the seventh day) -which is not annihilation but repose,- involves the return of Matter (from its dynamic) to its static condition of Substance. The idea presented is that of the cessation of active-creative force, and the consequent return of phenomenal existence into essential being. This stage it is which constitutes the termination of the creative period, and the perfection It is at once of every creative work. It is at once the rest which remains for the people of God'; the attainment of perfection by the individual, system, or race; and the return of the universe into the bosom of God, by re-absorption into the original substance." – KINGSFORD MAITLAND, The Perfect Way, p. 16.

In the completion of involution of all qualities and forms the soul is perfected potentially as the Archetypal Man, who dies within the lower nature and becomes the prototype of the many souls, who incarnate and actualize in the present period of evolution.

See Also

ARCHETYPAL MAN
BREATH (divine)
BUDDHIC (plane)
CREATION
EVOLUTION
HOUR (mid-day)
IMAGE
INCARNATION OF SOULS
INVOLUTION
MALKHUTH
MANVANTARA
NIGHT
NOX
PLANETARY CHAIN
PRALAYA
PROTO-TYPES
SATURDAY
SEVENTH
SUNDAY