lo looked for the same broad principles in his treatment of the
ceremonial law. The Sabbath day is the central observance, one might
say, the lodestar of the Jewish life, round which the other ceremonies
revolve. The Sabbath is the call to man's higher nature, for it is the
day on which we are bidden to devote ourselves to the Divine power
within us and to seek to know God. "The six days in which the Creator
made the universe are an example to us to work, but the seventh day,
on which He rested, is an example to us to meditate. As on that day
God is said to have looked upon His work, so we, too, should
contemplate the universe thereon, and consider our highest welfare.
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. Not so Philo, who, desiring to give the day a
value for all, regards it as God's covenant with the whole of
humanity.[162]

The Sabbath idea is reflected in all the festivals, which have as
their dominating idea man's joyful gratitude to God. Influenced
probably by a mystic fondness for certain numbers, Philo enu