The world we inhabit was not made by us and we have a responsibility to preserve and transmit it in good working order. Through cessation from work we renew the contract with our Landlord, even as we renew ourselves. The third topic deals with principles which ought to govern human relationships and eventually become the foundation of our American political system. According to the Mishna, the legal code edited by Rabbi Judah the Prince in Palestine around the year 200 C.E., witnesses about to testify in a capital case were first admonished as to the gravity of the proceedings by sermonic reference to the opening chapters of Genesis. The Mishna's inspired use of the material vastly expands its meaning.
Human life is a matter of ultimate value.
To take one life usually involves bringing to an end a chain of beings that would have sprung from it. Hence God accuses Cain of killing not only Abel but also all of his offspring. To deepen the point, the Mishna goes on to assert that this is the reason that the world began with the creation of a single man, who carried the seed of all future humanity within him. Thus anyone who destroys a single life is regarded by the Torah as if he had destroyed the whole world and conversely anyone who saves a single life is regarded as if he saved the whole world. Put differently, all human beings are also of equal value.