Among our courses on Jewish liturgy, this year I offer one on the origins and meaning of Shabbat. The biblical Shabbat invites us to deepen our understanding of Imitatio Dei. It is a day on which creation rests, imitating the Creator (Gen 2), but it is also meant to proclaim social equality, offering rest to workers, and even to animals (Exod 20; Deut 5). The course analyses various biblical texts which help us trace the background of later Shabbat observances.

A second part is dedicated to Rabbinic sources. Even after the destruction of the Second Temple, Shabbat was conceived as a day of particular sanctity, its observance equal to all other comandments put together.

Historical analysis helps us understand the development of liturgy in the Talmudic period, when Shabbat became dedicated to prayer, Bible reading and study, rejoicing in the Torah, thereby evoking the vicinity of God. Studying the formation of its liturgy since late antiquity helps us understand the meaning of Shabbat observance, such as the mystical reading offered by Zoharic literature: a day of renewal of the covenant between God and his people similar to that between spouses. Such interpretation radically changed both the understanding and the liturgical practice of Shabbat from the 17th century on. The last segment is devoted to Shabbat in modern Jewish thinkers such as H. Heine, E. Fromm, and A. J. Heschel. Along with the historico-philological analysis of Shabbat throughout history, we hope to convey to students the sacred dimension of a celebration which still exists, wherever Jewish communities are present today.

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Rabbi Joseph Levi is Chief Rabbi of Florence and teaches regularly at the Cardinal Bea Centre.