The Creation of Meaning
ב"ה
The Creation of Meaning - בראשית
Friday, 17 October, 2025 - 2:28 pm
After the sixth day of creation, the Torah states that all of creation was complete:
And God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good, and it was evening and it was morning, the sixth day. Now the heavens and the earth were completed and all their host.
Yet, the very next verse implies that the creation was completed not on the sixth day but rather on the seventh day:
And God completed on the seventh day His work that He did, and He abstained on the seventh day from all His work that He did.
Rashi offers two interpretations to resolve the seeming contradiction. The first is that the creation was complete at the last point of the sixth day, and therefore it seems that creation was completed on the seventh day.
The second interpretation that Rashi offers is that the world was indeed created on the sixth day, yet despite being complete, the world was missing something. The world was missing rest. The seventh day introduced the concept of rest and thus completed the creation.
In Rashi’s words:
And God completed on the seventh day. Rabbi Shimon said: {A human being of} flesh and blood, who cannot {exactly} know his times and his moments, must add from the profane to the holy [i.e., he must add some time to the Sabbath.] The Holy One, blessed be He, Who knows His times and His moments {exactly}, entered it {the Sabbath} within a hairbreadth, and it therefore appeared as if He completed it {His work} on that day. Another explanation: What was the world lacking? Rest. The Sabbath came, and so came rest. The work was completed and finished.
During the six days of creation, the physical world is created and completed. Yet, despite being complete in one sense, Rashi, quoting the Midrash, states that the world was still “missing“. Because the physical reality on its own is incomplete before its spiritual purpose is introduced. The same is true in our lives. During the six days we are invested in creation, we strive to advance, accomplish, grow, and succeed. On Shabbat, we stop the creative process in order to connect to the inner purpose of our lives. Because even the perfectly complete physical world is lacking until the inner purpose is introduced. The six days are incomplete until the seventh day emerges, the day of spirituality and holiness. For, indeed, “God completed on the seventh day his work which he had done”.