Entering the World of Shabbos

Vaadim on Shabbos – Entering the world of Shabbos

Introduction 

It is fascinating, that very often in the world of avoda, having made some progress, we are forced to take a step or two back, before we can make the next step. It is because with avoda there is no clear curriculum, and no clearly defined stages of development. Sometimes finding an opening on how to proceed, can lead to another opening in a completely different direction. This is certainly true with our avoda on Shabbos. We tried working on telling the story of Shabbos and experiencing להתענג על ה’, and now it seems clear that we do something else before telling the story of Shabbos.

Mitzvos which we trample on

Rashi at the beginning of Parshas Eikev brings a well-known chazal, which says that there are mitzvos which אדם דש בעקביו – literally there are mitzvos which a person tramples with his heel. What are Chazal telling us?  

Many people explain this Chazal with a “neurological” explanation. They explain that ones heel is the furthest point from the brain. The heel is also the least sensitive part of the body. So when Chazal talk of mitzvos which אדם דש בעקביו – the implication is a severe lack of sensitivity and understanding towards these mitzvos. That certainly sounds intelligent, but it is definitely not pshat. 

The pshat would seem to be that “דש” has the same meaning as it does in Hilchos Shabbos. It’s when you cause an animal to trample on the harvested grain in order to break the outer shell, and extract that which is inside. Thus the word עקביו here does not mean heel – instead it means steps, as in the Pasuk in Tehilim [1] ועקבותיך לא נודעו. When Chazal use the phrase אדם דש בעקביו regarding mitzvos, they are saying that when people do mitzvos in the same way that they take steps in their world, what they are actually doing is trampling on the mitzvos. When we do mitzvos we are in the world of the Ribono Shel Olam – and people forget that fact. They forget that there can be in a different reality apart from their own. When that happens, despite all their good intentions, despite really wanting to keep Torah and mitzvos, what actually happens is that they trample on the mitzvos. 

When one visits a royal palace, it is built in such a way which almost forces you to behave differently from the way you would usually behave. In Versailles, for example, there are rooms of vast dimensions; 150 people could be seated in one room quite comfortably – and all there is in the room are two chairs. When a person stands in that room, there is simply no way he will shout to his friend – “Come over here”. It’s as if the atmosphere in the room forces people to behave in a certain manner and to keep to a certain code of behavior. One seems to understand that this is not my world – it’s somebody else’s, and it has its own rules of conduct. But if you are דש בעקביו it means you walk around in the palace of the Borei Olam as if you were at home.  

Being in a different world 

This story might help to explain. The Mashgiach was once sitting at the table and there was somebody sitting next to him from Beer Yaakov who was telling stories from years gone by. In his enthusiasm he slapped the leg of the Mashgiach. I almost stopped breathing. This fellow did not realise that the Mashgiach actually lives in a different reality – a different world, from the world in which he lives in. So he behaved with the Mashgiach according to the rules of his own world, as if he was a friend – not realizing that when you were with the Mashgiach you had to behave according to the rules which governed his reality. 

On Shabbos, if we are not walking around in a different mindset, then we have not entered into the different world which we call Shabbos. Shabbos then becomes like any ordinary week day with a few extra rules. We have to experience Shabbos not as the day that comes after Friday but rather as a completely different world.  

If we do not find a way of first entering into the world of Shabbos, then everything we mentioned previously, that is to say – seeing the bigger picture and the fascinating ideas of Manna, etc., will remain abstract ideas, with no real implication on how we experience Shabbos. So we have to take one step back in our avoda – we have to begin by opening the door which separates between our world and the world of Shabbos.

Living differently

The Ramban writes in Parshas Emor [2] that in theory one could, according to the letter of the law, keep Shabbos and still drag ones furniture around all day. But Hashem wants that on Shabbos our actions should not be as they are throughout the week, and this presents a real difficulty. Because we are very careful about keeping all the Halachos of Shabbos, but we fail to see that we are keeping those Halochos in our world, and thus, inevitably, we end up “trampling” on Shabbos. If we want to live in a different reality, we can’t live on Shabbos as we do during the rest of the week. 

Translating this idea into practical terms presents some difficulties. We really have to try and think in terms of the world of Shabbos and not in terms of our daily lives. 

Seeing things from the point of view of Shabbos

Many people have problems relating to the Jewish world. Whether it’s the way the irreligious Jews in Eretz Yisroel view the Chareidim, or the way the goyim in Europe look at Brit Milah, or the way the goyim in America look at how we should be educating our children, all of them make the same mistake. They try measuring the Jewish world using their own definitions of right and wrong. They simply are not able to understand that there is a different way to look at the world – a completely different yardstick. 

And it hurts to say, but Shabbos looks at our efforts to keep the Halochos of Shabbos in much the same way as we look at those people. Just like we look at that super-intelligent Harvard graduate who thinks he understands what Judaism is all about and simply cannot understand because he is trying to see our world using his perception of reality. Just like he tramples on all which is kodosh because he can only see things in his terms, that is probably the way Shabbos looks at us. One can almost hear Shabbos saying that she still has not found her shidduch [3]. 

So, just like we have to answer the goyim in Europe about Brit Milah – that the Jewish people have been functioning for 4000 years, living long lives according to their rules, and they cannot possibly see things from our perspective. So too, we have to start looking at Shabbos differently – the way that Shabbos sees things. And this approach in fact opens the door to practical avoda on Shabbos. 

Defining a feeling of awe on Shabbos

Perhaps we can start with developing a feeling of awe for Shabbos. But first, we have to define that feeling. Perhaps it is similar to the feeling I had when in the presence of the Mashgiach. Being in his presence at home, I felt I simply could not touch anything without first asking permission. On one occasion when I came to learn, there was a huge vase of flowers on the table between the Mashgiach and myself, making it impossible to start learning. However, I still did not move the vase until I had asked his permission. Some people felt very close to him and had no problem bringing him the mail from the mailbox without asking him first. However, I felt very strongly that that was not the right thing to do. It was his world – and without his permission you were not to touch anything. 

So we have to find a practical way of translating that feeling into avoda on Shabbos – and using it to ‘open the door’ into a different reality.  One possible way [but this would only work for men coming home from shul on Friday nights] would be the opening of the door to one’s own house when we come home from davening. Because then we really have a physical door to pass through in order to enter the house, and the house is a different reality from all that is going on outside. On entering you are now living according to the rules of a different world. So, for example, even if your hands are cold, you won’t put them in your pockets because that is the sort of thing you do during the week when you are not in the palace of the Borei Olam. 

It might be that learning a certain sefer – or wearing certain clothes helps to make you feel you have entered a different world, with different rules. You have to find something which works for you. It really is very personal. 

If you can find some action which has the ability to open the door into the world of Shabbos and you really think about it, then that sort of action really will have the effect of אחרי הפעולות נמשכים הלבבות. Actions which are thought out and clearly defined, actions which are filled with content, can make a difference. Thinking about our actions for ten minutes after we come home, can make a change. Obviously it depends on your family situation – you have to do things in a way which will not interfere with the way that other people enjoy their Shabbos. But we have to try. 

We are still on the runway – we have not yet taken off, but what we have said today really makes sense, and can make a big difference in how we experience the world of Shabbos. 

 

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[1] תהלים ע”ז כ’ – ע’ רש”י שם “אין הפסיעות נכרות על המים”.

[2] ע’ אמר כ”ג כ”ד – ונראה לי שהמדרש הזה לומר שנצטוינו מו התורה להיות לנו מנוחה ביום טוב אפילו מדברים שרינו מלאכה לא שיטרח כל היום למדוד תבואות…ולפנות הכלים וגם האבנים מבית לבית…והותרו הימים הטובים האלו ואפילו השבת עצמה שבכל זה אין בהם משום מלאכה, לכך אמרה תורה שבתון שיהיה יום שביתה ומנוחה לא יום טורח וזהו פירוש טוב ויפה וכו'”. ע’ שם עוד 

[3] See the previous vaad 

[4] ע’ ספר החינוך מצוה ט”ז – שלא לשבור עצם מן הפסח “כי השתדלותו ועסקו בהתמדה בתורה ובמצות אפילו שלא לשם שמים מיד יטה אל הטוב, ומתוך שלא למשה בא לשמה, ובכח מעשיו ימית היצה”ר כי אחרי הפעולות נמשכים הלבבות”.

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written by Rabbi Mordechai Mays