Intimacy on the Sabbath: Was it always a mitzvah?

Abstract

Shabbat is one of only a handful of mitzvot whose observance can be traced all the way back to biblical literature. Indeed, Shabbat is mentioned in the creation story itself in Genesis 2, as well as at the moment that the nation of Israel underwent its nascent formation in Exodus 16. Moreover, throughout the biblical and post-biblical period, observance of Shabbat was considered a major barometer of one’s overall religious observance. Yet the nature of this observance, what keeping Shabbat really was, changed dramatically between the Second Temple and rabbinic periods.