Menuchas Shabbos

Let us build on something we mentioned in the last vaad. At the end of Kabbolas Shabbos we say the two mizmorim מזמור שיר ליום בשבת and ה’ מלך. Dovid Hemelech put them in that order, first מזמור שיר ליום השבת and then ה’ מלך. However, ה’ מלך is said as שיר של יום for Friday, prior to מזמור שיר ליום השבת which is said on Shabbos. So surely ה’ מלך  should come before מזמור שיר ליום שבת in sefer Tehilim? 

On the sixth day of creation Adam Harishon was created – the shpitz of creation, so basically it was as if Klal Yisroel was created on that day. Then Shabbos arrives and requests a partner. All the other days of the week have a partner and he is all alone!  So Hashem gives Shabbos a partner – Klal Yisroel. In the medrash it would seem that Shabbos is the chosson and Klal Yisroel is the Kalloh. When you write an invitation for a wedding, you always put the chosson before the kalloh. So that’s what we do when we say Kabbolas Shabbos – we emphasize that wonderful partnership between Klal Yisroel and Shabbos – first we mention the Chosson מזמור שיר ליום בשבת, and then we mention the Kalloh ה’ מלך – which is the declaration of Adam Harishon or of Klal Yisroel, that the Borei Olam is King. It is on Shabbos that Klal Yisroel became a kalloh! 

It was on Shabbos that the Borei Olam said that He is satisfied and wants to be in a reality called Shabbos. We have been given a gift, that where the Borei Olam wants to be, we are allowed to be there too. But if that is the place where the Borei Olam wants to be, then it is not enough that we are there also – we have to want to be there as well!

This brings us to a deeper understanding of what it means to be in a state of menucha on Shabbos. Throughout the week we are supposed to be in a state of menuchas hanefesh. That means, a state of accepting the situation I am in the one that the Borei Olam wants for me – the situation he knows is best for me.  There will be situations which I find difficult to come to terms with and things which will bother me. But that is what we have come to this world to do לעבדה ולשמרה . That is what avoda is – we have come to this world to work! To actively make changes in the world. 

An example of this might be saying this vaad. I have to get up at 5.30 in the morning. Do you really think I want to get up so early? Certainly not! But I do want to work. I may not want to be here at the moment – I might have preferred to be asleep, but I do want to be active in avoda. That is the concept of menuchas hanefesh throughout the week, and it is really connected to bitochon, accepting that the situation that I am in is where I should be. 

Being a Jew means that you have come to the world to actually do something. Unfortuntely nowadays concepts which have nothing to do with Yiddishkeit have infiltrated the Jewish community. Meditative techniques from the far east – “mindfulness” and all sorts of ideas which are really in essence not part of Judaism at all. Why do people think that sitting in front of a wall and thinking of nothing is the best state of mind in which to be?! We have come to this world to actually do something! We have to be active in our avoda. We also have to be in a state of menuchas hanefesh. But that means that even if the task that I have come to do is difficult – I still want to do it, because that is what the Borei Olam wants me to do. I might not have chosen this avoda – but I know that I want to do it. 

On Shabbos however the concept of menucha is far deeper. Because on Shabbos we have arrived at a stage where there is no further avoda – there is nothing left to do. Throughout the week our avoda is focused on correcting something. We have come to fix something. But on Shabbos תיקון מנה is forbidden – physically and therefore also spiritually. On Shabbos we are looking at a world where there is nothing left to do. So when I enter Shabbos I must understand that this is the best place for me to be, without having to do anything at all! 

When the first Shabbos arrived – the Borei Olam who throughout ששת ימי בראשית “worked” בתיקון העולם – stopped “working”. Shabbos was the day where what the Borei Olam saw was good and there was nothing left to actually do. When the Borei Olam gave Klal Yisroel as a partner to Shabbos, what he was telling Klal Yisroel is that on Shabbos see the world as I see it. See a world where there is no avoda left to do. 

Today more than ever – the consumer culture which we live in, has succeeded in influencing our lives in all sorts of unexpected ways. We are no longer happy to be with someone or to be somewhere unless something interesting is going to happen. We go to see a friend because we expect that there will be something interesting to experience. Perhaps a good discussion, or an interesting conversation. But the idea of being with someone simply because you want to be with them, is an experience we are not familiar with. But on Shabbos that is exactly the feeling we have to get used to. We are with the Borei Olam – and we are simply happy to be there with Him. That is Menuchas Shabbos. 

It should be clear this does not mean that Shabbos has become a day for mindfulness! It just means that we have a different sort of avoda on Shabbos than from the rest of the week. 

In order to understand let’s bring an example of the exact opposite of menuchas Shabbos. There was a time when the kosher restaurant in Switzerland had a special offer, a night where they offered “all you can eat” for a fixed price. I wanted to see it. I went to the restaurant, ordered a cup of tea – and watched the people who came in. It was simply unbelievable. People were piling food onto their plates – and even with full plates in their hands, were already looking for next piece of food to take. They seemed to have a craving for food which nothing could satisfy! 

So I would like to start on working on menuchas Shabbos when we are sitting at the table for Seudas Shabbos. [A Kiddush on Shabbos is similar to the ‘all you can eat’ experience – making it a very difficult place to start working on menuchas Shabbos].   

If menuchas Shabbos means that I am simply happy to be there without changing anything, then when we are sitting at home at the meal, there is the food we were given on our plate – and one does not need anything else! You do not need to reach out for anything! Because you do not need anything! Nothing needs to be added, nothing needs to be changed. It is perhaps one of the biggest challenges that we are up against on Shabbos – that I do not need anything at all. I have everything I need and I am happy to be exactly where I am. 

Not everyone can take on this kabbolo – you have to find something which works for you. It might be that you can only do it for 10 minutes. However, doing this forces you to accept that what you have is exactly what you need. Nothing at all needs to be changed. On Shabbos you are with the Borei Olam and there is nothing else that you could possibly need. You see that it is a practical and active method of avoda – not simply contemplation or meditation! 

One might have difficulties with this approach to avoda, because on a daily basis we are trying to make the world a better place. Whereas on Shabbos we are active in avoda which does not come to change anything. We can also only work on this approach once a week – and that also makes it difficult, but we have to try.     

500 years ago there was someone [I will not mention their name] who said that there will be a time when Shabbos will reveal itself completely in the physical world we live in. Then we will be able to see how the world is truly different on Shabbos. For now, the experience of Shabbos is really something inside each and every one of us – each of us has to look for a way to experience the kedusha of Shabbos. That is part of being the partner of Shabbos – “כנסת ישראל היא בן זוגך”. 

There is an addition I have to make –it might be too lofty, but I think you will find that it will help us understand what we are really looking for in experiencing Shabbos. 

We define our world as a physical world, a gashmiyusdike world – what does that really mean? Why do we speak of our world in those terms? Because our world basically says that “what you see is what you get” – there is nothing beyond the physical reality which you experience through your senses. Our Avoda is to give expression to something beyond the physical world, within the physical world! That’s why we put on tfillin, that is why we put on tzitzis. That is why we have mitzvos bein odom lechaveiro. They all are an expression of something so much more meaningful. However, Olam Habo is a world where the very nature of that reality expresses something so much bigger, so much more meaningful. 

We say of Shabbos that it is מעין עולם הבא. Because on Shabbos there is no avoda to fix something or to make the situation any better. Rather I experience a world which in and of itself points at something beyond the physical world in which we usually live. On Shabbos we can experience a completely different emotion – that the place where I am, is the place where I want to be. Not because I expect something to happen and not because I need to do something. Rather because it is here that I can experience being with the Borei Olam. 
This approach is a combination of lofty concepts and simple practical ideas. I am grappling with these issues. But I have really found that when you sit with yourself on Shabbos, in a state of menuchas Shabbos, you will find that something very personal, and something pnimi, will naturally be able to find expression. That is why Shabbos is called מעין עולם הבא.

Written by Mordechai Mays