Just as a person has a body (the external form) and a soul (the inner essence), so too a week has a body (the weekdays) and a soul (Shabbat). Accordingly, the spiritual heights to which we can ascend on Shabbat depend on our conduct during the week. Maharal suggests a further parallel. A physical item can be described as having six dimensions: up, down, front, back, right, and left. The number seven expresses the item’s inner essence. Similarly, the physical world took six days to create, while on the seventh day, Shabbat, the sacred essence of the world, was created.
