Before the world was created, there was none to praise God and know
Him. Therefore He created the angels and the holy Hayyot, the heavens
and their host, and Adam as well. They all were to praise and glorify
their Creator. During the week of creation, however, there was no
suitable time to proclaim the splendor and praise of the Lord. Only on
the Sabbath, when all creation rested, the beings on earth and in
heaven, all together, broke into song and adoration when God ascended
His throne and sate upon it.[100] It was the Throne of Joy upon which
He sate, and He had all the angels pass before Him—the angel of the
water, the angel of the rivers, the angel of the mountains, the angel
of the hills, the angel of the abysses, the angel of the deserts, the
angel of the sun, the angel of the moon, the angel of the Pleiades, the
angel of Orion, the angel of the herbs, the angel of Paradise, the
angel of Gehenna, the angel of the trees, the angel of the reptiles,
the angel of the wild beasts, the angel of the domestic animals, the
angel of the fishes, the angel of the locusts, the angel of the birds,
the chief angel of the angels, the angel of each heaven, the chief
angel of each division of the heavenly hosts, the chief angel of the
holy Hayyot, the chief angel of the cherubim, the chief angel of the
ofanim, and all the other splendid, terrible, and mighty angel chiefs.
They all appeared before God with great joy, laved in a stream of joy,
and they rejoiced and danced and sang, and extolled the Lord with many
praises and many instruments. The ministering angels began, "Let the
glory of the Lord endure forever!" And the rest of the angels took up
the song with the words, "Let the Lord rejoice in His works!" 'Arabot,
the seventh heaven, was filled with joy and glory, splendor and
strength, power and might and pride and magnificence and grandeur,
praise and jubilation, song and gladness, steadfastness and
righteousness, honor and adoration.
Then God bade the Angel of the Sabbath seat himself upon a throne of
glory, and He brought before him the chiefs of the angels of all the
heavens and all the abysses, and bade them dance and rejoice, saying,
"Sabbath it is unto the Lord!" and the exalted princes of the heavens
responded, "Unto the Lord it is Sabbath!" Even Adam was permitted to
ascend to the highest heaven, to take part in the rejoicing over the
Sabbath.
By bestowing Sabbath joy upon all beings, not excepting Adam, thus did
the Lord dedicate His creation. Seeing the majesty of the Sabbath, its
honor and greatness, and the joy it conferred upon all, being the fount
of all joy, Adam intoned a song of praise for the Sabbath day. Then God
said to him, "Thou singest a song of praise to the Sabbath day, and
singest none to Me, the God of the Sabbath?" Thereupon the Sabbath rose
from his seat, and prostrated himself before God, saying, "It is a good
thing to give thanks unto the Lord," and the whole of creation added,
"And to sing praises unto Thy Name, O Most High!"[101]
This was the first Sabbath, and this its celebration in heaven by God
and the angels. The angels were informed at the same time that in days
to come Israel would hallow the day in similar manner. God told them:
"I will set aside for Myself a people from among all the peoples. This
people will observe the Sabbath, and I will sanctify it to be My
people, and I will be God unto it. From all that I have seen, I have
chosen the seed of Israel wholly, and I have inscribed him as My
first-born son, and I sanctified him unto Myself unto all eternity, him
and the Sabbath, that he keep the Sabbath and hallow it from all
work."[102]
For Adam the Sabbath had a peculiar significance. When he was made to
depart out of Paradise in the twilight of the Sabbath eve, the angels
called after him, "Adam did not abide in his glory overnight!" Then the
Sabbath appeared before God as Adam's defender, and he spoke: "O Lord
of the world! During the six working days no creature was slain. If
Thou wilt begin now by slaying Adam, what will become of the sanctity
and the blessing of the Sabbath?" In this way Adam was rescued from the
fires of hell, the meet punishment for his sins, and in gratitude he
composed a psalm in honor of the Sabbath, which David later embodied in
his Psalter.[103]
Still another opportunity was given to Adam to learn and appreciate the
value of the Sabbath. The celestial light, whereby Adam could survey
the world from end to end, should properly have been made to disappear
immediately after his sin. But out of consideration for the Sabbath,
God had let this light continue to shine, and the angels, at sundown on
the sixth day, intoned a song of praise and thanksgiving to God, for
the radiant light shining through the night. Only with the going out of
the Sabbath day the celestial light ceased, to the consternation of
Adam, who feared that the serpent would attack him in the dark. But God
illumined his understanding, and he learned to rub two stones against
each other and produce light for his needs.[104]
The celestial light was but one of the seven precious gifts enjoyed by
Adam before the fall and to be granted to man again only in the
Messianic time. The others are the resplendence of his countenance;
life eternal; his tall stature; the fruits of the soil; the fruits of
the tree; and the luminaries of the sky, the sun and the moon, for in
the world to come the light of the moon shall be as the light of the
sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold.[105]