EXOD255 Growing [into a fuller maturity] began, says the Torah, in the early days of the Wilderness trek, just after the Breath of Life freed ancient Israelites from the power-greedy Pharaoh who enslaves human beings and brings plagues upon the Earth. The first discovery of these runaway slaves is the Shabbat [Sabbath] that comes with manna --a taste of rest from endless toil, and a gift from the abundant Earth. For manna is the food that the Earth gives freely, so that eating it barely requires any work at all [Exod. 16:14-30]. With the manna comes the information that on the morning of each sixth day, the manna will come in a double portion so that no one will have to do even the light work of gathering it on the seventh day, Shabbat. It is as if the first realization of the people newly freed--Even before they have their Encounter with God at Sinai--is that there must be time to rest and reflect, for otherwise they are still in slavery. If the deep misstep of Eden was refusing to restrain human inclinations to gobble up the Earth, then Shabbat comes as a time for choosing self-restraint--not a grim ascetic self-restraint, but one of joyful abundance in community. And since the mistake of Eden was overeating, then this partial reversal must come with a different kind of eating. Says Isaiah (51:3): "Yayasem midbarah k'eden v'arvatah k'gan YHVH." "You turn the barren place to Eden, and the desert to a garden breathing Life." (By Arthur Waskow, "Jewish Environmental Ethics: Intertwining Adam with Adamah")