Intention and Execution

“When it comes to Divine creation, there is no gap between intention and execution. God spoke, and the world came into being. In relation to God, Isaiah says: “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” (Isaiah 46:10). God knows in advance how things will turn out. With human beings, it is otherwise. Often, we cannot see the end at the beginning, the outcome at the outset. A great novelist may not know how the story will turn out until he has written it, nor a composer, a symphony, nor an artist, a painting. Creativity is fraught with risk. All the more so is it so with human history. The “law of unintended consequences” tells us that revolutions rarely turn out as planned. Policies designed to help the poor may have the opposite effect… One alternative is simply to let things happen as they will. This kind of resignation, however, is wholly out of keeping with the Judaic view of history… The other solution – unique, as far as I know, to Judaism – is to reveal the end at the beginning. That is the meaning of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not simply a day of rest. It is an anticipation of “the end of history,” the messianic age.”

The Sabbath: First Day Or Last? (Ki Tissa, Covenant & Conversation)