Let us never neglect the example of the best life, the combination of
action and thought, but keeping a clear vision of it before our minds,
so far as our human nature will permit, let us liken ourselves to
immortal God by word and deed."[158] High-flown this language may be,
but what Philo wishes to mark is the spiritual value of the Sabbath.
It is not merely a day of rest from workaday toil, but it is a day
upon which we devote all our thoughts to God, and enter into closer
communion with Him, [Hebrew: mnoht 'hba vndba], a repose of love and
devotion. Heine said that on one day of the week the lowliest Jew became
a prince, Philo that he became a philosopher. As in all of Philo's
interpretations of Jewish custom, there is something mystic in his
conception of the Sabbath. For he regards all Divine service and all
prayer as a mystic rite which leads the human soul unto God. In the
special ordinances of the day he finds a spiritual motive. We may not
touch fire, because fire is the seed and beginning of industry.[159]
The servant of the house may not work,[160] because on this day he
shall have a taste of freedom and humanity, and he will work the more
cheerfully during the remaining six days. Some rabbis later, when
numbers of Gentiles had adopted this without the other institutions of
Judaism, claimed the Sabbath as the special heritage of Israel; and in
the book of Jubilees[161] it is said that Israel alone has the right
to observe the Sabbath.
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