21st Century Bible Hebrew -- the denouement

Genesis 2:2-3

 

ב וַיְכַ֤ל אֱלֹהִים֙ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י מְלַאכְתּ֖וֹ אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֑ה וַיִּשְׁבֹּת֙ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י מִכָּל־מְלַאכְתּ֖וֹ אֲשֶׁ֥ר עָשָֽׂה:

ג וַיְבָ֤רֶךְ אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־י֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י וַיְקַדֵּ֖שׁ אֹת֑וֹ כִּ֣י ב֤וֹ שָׁבַת֙ מִכָּל־מְלַאכְתּ֔וֹ אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָ֥א אֱלֹהִ֖ים לַֽעֲשֽׂוֹת:

 

Translation:     Gd completed on the seventh day His melakhah that He did; He ceased on the seventh day from all His melakhah  that He did.

            Gd blessed the seventh day and “sanctified” it, because on it He ceased from all His melakhah that Gd created for the purpose of doing.

 

So what do I mean when I say that everything in the narrative tends toward this denouement of Shabbat?

 

Here’s where I keep a promise I made some time ago about explaining what k’dmutenu means. Torah tells us that Gd observed Shabbat. You know that the Big Ten also require the Israelites (Jews) to observe Shabbat. The Exodus version specifically refers to creation as the reason for this. This is what makes humans ki-d’mutenu with Gd.

 

After the Babylonian Captivity, as angelology developed (admitted by experts like Rabbi Shimon Laqish), it was decided that angels lacked two things humans have. We won’t see one of them for some weeks yet, but the other was observance of Shabbat. Angels do not perform melakhah. People do. It’s reiterated over and over in Torah, particularly Leviticus with its references to m’lekhet avodah.

 

Now notice va-yishbot. Another version of this word will show up in Genesis 8:22, at the end of the flood story. It’s one of the things that makes the first two parshiyot of Torah (Breshit and Noach) a cycle unto themselves, along with the other things I pointed out already as having consequences in Parshah Noach. BH is the only ancient Semitic language with an attested connection between the root shbt and cessation of activity.

 

If you need evidence that Shabbat is strictly a Jewish observance, you can read my critique of Sayce.

 

If you need evidence that this story did not originate in the Babylonian Captivity, see the section of the blog on Documentary Hypothesis.

 

The question is, why do we also have la-asot at the end of that verse? You’re thinking in English. This is an aspectless verb with the purposeful prefix. This verse demonstrates that bara means “ex nihilo”, that is, Gd had to create everything out of nothing for the purpose of doing the melakhah.

 

And finally, why do I have “sanctified” in quotes? Because va-y’qadesh is a piel transitive verb and the problem with English “sanctified” is that it is causative, not transitive. In Narrating the Torah, in Exodus, I hit on every example of this word to show that it means, not to make something holy that wasn’t holy before, but to demonstrate the holiness of something that was already holy.  How does Gd demonstrate the holiness of Shabbat? By shabating from all the melakhah.