Day and night [they] will not cease (Bereishis 8:22)
It says in the Gemara that a non-Jew is forbidden to keep Shabbos, because it is written, “Day and night [they] will not cease [to work].” And the Rambam rules:
If a non-Jew made a day of cessation from work, even if it was a weekday, if he designated it for himself to be like a Sabbath, he is liable.... And surely this is so if he made a holiday for himself. The rule is that we don’t allow them to create a new religion and to make mitzvos for themselves as they see fit.... If a non-Jew occupied himself with Torah study, or kept a Sabbath, or created a new mitzvah, he is to be punished, and he is to be informed that he is liable....”
The principle is that people should not make up religions. If a non-Jew sets a fixed weekly day of rest, a “Sabbath,” this is like taking on a new religion, and it makes him liable.
Why is it so important for a non-Jew not to set for himself a day of cessation from work? What’s so terrible if he takes Sunday off?
The characteristic point that distinguishes a Jew and sets him apart from a non-Jew is Shabbos, or the day of rest, as we will explain.
When Hashem created the world, He imbued it with the laws of nature. This makes our subsistence dependent on our work. Man must toil if he wants to eat and have his needs taken care of. If a person goes and sets for himself a day of rest, on which he stubbornly desists from all work, he is thereby contradicting natural law. He is doing something spiritual, something super-natural. This is a clear declaration of religion and faith, albeit not necessarily the Jewish faith.
Those who deny the tenets of “religion” might agree that G-d created the world and set the laws of nature, but still hold that He does not take an active part in guiding the world’s affairs. G-d set up the world and lets it run on its own, they might say. But “Religion” implies a belief that G-d takes an interest in human affairs and acts in the world. Therefore, man needs to keep G-d’s laws and obey His Will.
Cessation from work, when carefully observed, is the greatest expression of the belief that G-d acts in the world and guides its affairs according to His Will. This is because keeping a fixed day of complete rest flies in the face of common reason.
The non-believer, when he sees someone desisting from work, wants to say to him, “How do you think you are going to support yourself that way? How are you going to live? If the sun starts beating down on your crops, are you going to just sit there and let them all wither away? You need to turn on the irrigation system! Tomorrow is too late; your crop will be toast by then. You need to do it today.”
The non-believer thinks that observance of the Sabbath day will impede the advance of human civilization. That’s what they thought in Communist Russia. But the religious person believes that G-d runs the world. G-d can and will support those who do His Will. All of nature is in His hands. And if He doesn’t wish us to have sustenance, all the work in the world will not help. This outlook is “religion.”
This is the outlook appropriate to a Jew. But a non-Jew who keeps Shabbos is sinning because this is not how he is supposed to live. A non-Jew is meant to live in accordance with the natural world as G-d created it. Therefore, his cessation from work is counterproductive. Only a Jew, whose connection to Hakadosh Baruch Hu has a unique nature and level, may desist from work without causing damage to Hashem’s world.
