In the little classic, The Sabbath, Abraham Joshua Heschel notes that there is a puzzle in that verse in Genesis that describes the first Sabbath. “And on the seventh day God finished the work he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.” (Genesis 2:2)  Hadn’t God finished the work on the sixth day?  Heschel concludes that the ancient rabbis understood that there was an act of creation on the seventh day.  Just as heaven and earth were created in six days, menuha was created on the Sabbath.

“Menuha which we usually render with ‘rest’ means here much more than withdrawal from labor and exertion, more than freedom from toil, strain or activity of any kind.  Menuha is not a negative concept but something real and intrinsically positive. This must have been the view of the ancient rabbis if they believed that it took a special act of creation to bring it into being, that the universe would be incomplete without it.”

“’What was created on the seventh day? Tranquility, serenity, peace and repose.’”
So, in these abundant fall days friends, here in this glorious northland, I wish you each tranquility, serenity, peace and repose.

Pastor Lee Goodwin +