The Sabbath of Creation: Moltman’s Interpretation and Development of Rosenzweig’s Thought on the Sabbath

Abstract

Jürgen Moltmann explained Franz Rosenzweig’s idea that the Sabbath is a festival of creation, and further developed it, thus demonstrating that the Christian Sunday and the Jewish Sabbath are both festivals of creation, and they are in separable. On this basis, Moltmann further creatively developed Rosenzweig’s exposition of“Shekina’s Wandering” to clarify the relationship between the Sabbath and Shekina, that is, the Sabbath is God’s Shekina in time. It is particularly noteworthy that Moltmann creatively extended the concept of Sabbath to the discussion of ecological issues. Compared with Rosenzweig, Moltmann’s“tradition of Sabbath is more comprehensive, including the Sabbath on the seventh day of a week, the Sabbath year on the seventh year, the jubilee on the fiftieth year and the eschatological Sabbath. The Sabbath is the real symbol of the creationism mentioned in the Bible. Obeying the Sabbath commandment is to admit that nature is God’s creation, not the natural environment. Sabbath is an ecological rest day, and it is a day to stop interfering with nature. The Sabbath also points to a Sabbath year, which is mainly related to the land, reflecting the justice of God’s land policy and restoring the alienated relationship between man and nature and between people. The jubilee is a year after seven Sabbath years, and its connotation and significance are consistent with the Sabbath year. Sabbath, Sabbath year and jubilee all point to the eschatological Sabbath, which is a permanent and endless Sabbath. Everything is reconciled, and the relationship between man and nature is also reconciled, showing an ecological picture of harmonious coexistence which formed by God, man, and the earth.