The tabernacle is holiness in space, as Shabbat is holiness in time, explains Arthur Green about Rabbi Leib’s drash on Pekudei.
Rabbi Yehuda Leib
Just as in Creation it was said of each thing: “And God saw that it was good” and then over Creation as a whole: “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. … And He completed… and He blessed”, so too in the tabernacle each detail was “as He commanded,” and in the end “the labor was completed” … “And Moses saw all the work, that they had done it just as God commanded … and Moses blessed them.”
…
This was the whole purpose of the tabernacle: to be a vessel containing shalom for the entire world. that same is true of Shabbat with regard to time. … the essence of Israel’s witness: to bring divine blessing into the world … Thus there is witness in space and in time.
We can’t experience the Tabernacle but we can experience (“witness”) Shabbat. What does it mean to witness Shabbat? Adin Steinsaltz says that is about attaining a deeper understanding of our purpose through stillness.
Adin Steinsaltz
The stillness of Shabbat is a state of contemplation, a state of preparation for a deeper understanding of the essence of things, in a greater effort to attain their purpose.
Certainly, as long as Shabbat is perceived as a time of forced idleness, it becomes an incomprehensible, unwelcome burden. But this is not the true nature of Shabbat; its true nature is elevation from the mundane activities of the week to the attainment of a higher and holier level of creation.
Certainly, as long as Shabbat is perceived as a time of forced idleness, it becomes an incomprehensible, unwelcome burden. But this is not the true nature of Shabbat; its true nature is elevation from the mundane activities of the week to the attainment of a higher and holier level of creation.
The following are discussions of stillness in the tradition:
Pirkei Avot 3:2
Rabbi Hananiah ben Teradion said … [how do I know that the presence of the Shekhinah is among those who study Torah, it is because even for one who studies Torah] “though he sit alone and [meditate] in stillness, yet he takes [a reward] unto himself” (Lamentations 3:28).
Isaiah 30:15
For thus said my Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “You shall triumph by stillness and quiet; Your victory shall come about through calm and confidence.” But you refused.
Psalms 62:6
Truly wait quietly [in stillness] for God, O my soul, for my hope comes from Him.
Daat Zkenim (a commentary of the Tosafot)
The Ten Commandments were given on Shabbat, as Rabbi Akiva said, the verse supporting being Isaiah 30:15: “Your salvation will come about by quiet and stillness.” The first time we hear about the concept as of “stillness and quiet” is when God rested on the seventh day of Creation.
Rabbi Feuer, note 100, translation of Rabbi Kook, Olat Reiyah
The one who sits in stillness learns that in truth he carries this place [of holiness] within him. It is the very life which he has, and the revelation that things are so clears the way for standing before the Shechina.