Shabbos Kodesh - 02 Doing & Not-Doing

Preparation for Shabbos Kodesh – Thought, Word, and Deed

In the first chapter, we discussed when the light of Shabbos begins, and that when the illumination of Shabbos begins, the preparation must also begin. In this chapter we will discuss the character of that preparation and how a person should prepare himself to greet Shabbos according to chazal and the later rabbinic authorities.

As we explained, times for Shabbos preparation exist which begin before Shabbos even starts. And each time has its own particular type of preparation which are different from one another.

We quoted the words of the holy Arizal, who said that a person must prepare himself to receive an extra nefesh, ruach, and neshama for Shabbos. On Wednesday, a person must prepare himself to receive the nefesh, on Thursday for the ruach, and on Friday for the neshama. How is this done?

Wednesday is the aspect of nefesh (living soul), the aspect of action. Therefore, a person should use Wednesday to do many actions. On Thursday, which is the aspect of ruach (spirit) and speech,[1] a person should heavily engage himself with words of Torah and other holy words. On Friday, which is the aspect of neshama, which is the aspect of thought, which is rooted in the mind, a person should focus heavily on having many thoughts of holiness.

These three types of preparation correspond to the three types of acts: 1) physical acts, 2) oral acts, and 3) thought acts. In contrast, other types of preparation exist which fall outside the category of action, which we will explain later.

Preparation Using Action and Non-Action

In general, we engage in two types of preparation in honor of Shabbos. On one hand, we prepare for Shabbos with actions, by doing things. But on the other hand, a person must prepare himself for Shabbos kodesh by not doing and by not acting. We find many examples of both in the Gemara.

For example, “A person should always spend his money first on Shabbos preparations, as it says  ‘And it shall be that on Friday, they shall prepare that which they have brought,’ [implying] immediately.”[2] This is an example of preparation using action. The sages were meticulous to do these themselves because it is better to do a mitzvah personally than it is to do it by proxy.[3] This rule is also codified as practical halacha in Shulchan Aruch, which says “A person should get up early on Friday to prepare for Shabbos. And even if he has many servants to serve him, he should try to prepare something personally for Shabbos in order to honor it. Rav Chisda would cut the vegetables very finely. Raba and Rav Yosef would chop wood. Rav Zeira would light the fire. And Rav Nachman would prepare the house, bring in the vessels needed for Shabbos and clean the weekday vessels.  Every person should learn from them and not say ‘I will not sully my honor’ because it is an honor to honor the Shabbos.”[4]

On the other hand, some preparations do not involve any action. For example, the Gemara says “One may not embark on a ship less than three days before Shabbos.”[5] This is a preparation which involves no action.

Chazal say “It is forbidden to schedule a meal or feast erev Shabbos… even if it is a meal which he regularly makes on weekdays. It is permitted to begin a meal according to the letter of the law. But it is a mitzvah to refrain from scheduling a meal that one usually makes on a weekday from the ninth hour forward.”[6] And in certain circumstances, one should refrain even from the morning. The Talmud Yerushalmi says that it is the way of great men to fast every erev Shabbos,[7] which the Shulchan Aruch quotes as well.[8]

These are things that a person does not do in order to honor Shabbos. Those sources were not discussing what a person should do. Rather, they were discussing what a person should not do in order to honor Shabbos.

We could give many more examples, but the principle of all of these things we are commanded is that this is not a simple abstention from action. Rather it is a type of a proactive non-action of preparation with the intention of honoring Shabbos. On a deeper level, the last preparation we do for Shabbos is a preparation of non-action, as we will explain with G-d’s help.

Shabbos preparations begin long before Shabbos. As we learned from Shamai Hazakein, that starting on Sunday, he would prepare himself for Shabbos. Starting at that time, he continued preparing for the sake of Shabbos’s honor during the entire week until erev Shabbos, as we mentioned in the first chapter.[9] What is the last thing we do before Shabbos?

When we reach the last moment of Shabbos preparations, when it is immediately before Shabbos, how should a person prepare himself? Should he prepare himself with action at that time, or should he prepare himself with non-action?

It is known that the Brisker Rav, z”l, had the custom of sitting on the balcony for a certain amount of time before Shabbos without doing anything.  He would sit and wait for Shabbos kodesh, just as the Rambam said. “One should sit with a serious disposition and wait to receive Shabbos as if he were going out to greet a king.”[10] This is done to honor Shabbos. We see that there are preparations of action and preparations of non-action and the last preparation done for Shabbos involves non-action.

Two Aspects of Receiving Shabbos – Going out to Greet Shabbos and Waiting for it

Let us consider, with G-d’s help, how these two types of preparation are revealed in other ways and where they are rooted.

The Gemara explains how our sages prepared themselves to greet Shabbos kodesh. And two different versions of the text are brought. “’Come and let us go out to the bride, the queen!’ And some say ‘to greet Shabbos, the bride, the queen!”[11] This is the source for the well known custom of the earlier pious ones, who would go out to a field to receive Shabbos. On the other hand, the Gemara there also quotes the custom of Rabi Yanai, who would do the opposite “Rabi Yanai would wrap himself in a talis, stand, and say “Come bride, come bride!”[12] He would not go out. Rather, he stood in his place and said, “Come bride, come bride!”

We therefore see two opposite approaches. The first way is “Come, let us go out to greet the Shabbos queen.” And the other way is that a person stays in his home and says “Come bride, come bride.”

These represent two perspectives. Do I go out to greet the bride or does the bride come to me? The Gemara implies that the way of going out to greet Shabbos takes precedence over the way of wrapping oneself in a talis, standing, and saying “Come bride!”

We will explain the implicit difference between the two ways. “Come and go out to greet the Shabbos Queen” is the way of action. The person goes out to greet Shabbos and receives it using his own action of going out to meet Shabbos, as it were.  But when a person sits in his house and says “Come, o’ bride, come o’ bride” he is not doing an action. Rather, he is sitting without acting and waiting for her to come. Shabbos, as it were, comes to him. Later on, we will explain how non-action and waiting, at their source, are one.

The root of Preparing for Shabbos with Action and with Non-action – The Aspects of Remembering and Keeping

Let us contemplate this matter, with G-d’s help. What is the root of action and non-action with regard to Shabbos?

Shabbos kodesh is composed of “remembering” (zachor) and “keeping” (shamor). On the first tablets, it says “Remember the day of Shabbos to sanctify it.”[13] And on the second tablets, it says “Keep the Shabbos day.”[14] Chazal say that “Both zachor and shamor were said at the same moment, which the mouth cannot speak and the ear cannot hear.”[15] A person is physically able only to say one word at a time because we only have one mouth.

It is brought down in the Yerushalmi that “Rabi Shimon Bar Yochai said, ‘If I had been at Mt. Sinai at the time the Torah was given, I would have asked the Holy One, blessed is He, for two mouths: one for speaking words of Torah and another for speaking mundane words,” just as a person has two eyes and two ears. But since we do not have two mouths, we can only speak one word at a time. The mouth cannot speak both zachor and shamor at the exact same moment. Rather, it can only say either remember or shamor at any given moment. And the ear cannot hear it. As the Gemara in Rosh Hashana says, two voices cannot be heard at the same time.[16]

An explanation is required. Why indeed did Hashem not say zachor by itself and shamor by itself? Why did they have to be said simultaneously?

First, we must understand zachor and shamor individually, and then we can understand why they were said at the same time.

When we prepare ourselves for Shabbos, we must prepare for remember and prepare for shamor. Since Shabbos is a hybrid of zachor and shamor in one utterance, the “they shall prepare that which they have brought” must be done with both of these two aspects as well. When a person, on a weekday, prepares himself for Shabbos, he must prepare himself for both aspects of Shabbos. It is therefore required that there should be a preparation for zachor and a preparation for shamor.

“Remember the Shabbos day to sanctify it.” Zachor is a positive mitzvah and shamor is a negative mitzvah. As the Ramban says, “Remember the Shabbos day to sanctify it” refers to action, and “keep” refers to non-action.[17]

Shabbos kodesh therefore has an aspect of action – zachor - and it has an aspect of non-action - shamor. Therefore, the “they shall prepare that which they have brought” must be done in the same way – by preparing for zachor with action and preparing for shamor with non-action.

“Remember” for a Gentile and “Keep” for a Jew

It comes out, therefore, that preparing for Shabbos has two parts: action and non-action. The root of this is that since Shabbos is composed of both aspects, it is clear that the preparation for Shabbos must also have both aspects. And the last preparation which a person does for Shabbos is to sit and wait to greet Shabbos kodesh, which is a preparation of non-action.[18]

A person must therefore prepare himself both with action and non-action. And non-action is the most fundamentally rooted preparation for Shabbos, and it is the one done closest to Shabbos. This concept has an additional source in chazal.

The Midrash says, “Zachor was given to the nations of the world and shamor was given to the Jewish people.”[19] As the Gemara says, “A gentile who rests on Shabbos is liable for the death penalty.”[20] But if a gentile “remembers” (zachor) Shabbos, he is not liable for the death penalty. Therefore, if a gentile makes kiddush on wine, which is derived from “remember the Shabbos day to sanctify it,” the Gemara is saying that he is not liable for the death penalty.

We therefore learn from chazal that the most fundamental point in Shabbos is shamor. Zachor belongs to gentiles and shamor to the Jewish people. According to this, it is clear why the last step in preparing for Shabbos is a non-action – shamor.

“Both shamor and zachor were said at the same moment, which is impossible for the mouth to speak and the ear to hear.”[21] We have the zachor and the shamor, but the main thing is the shamor.[22] That is why “remember” is the last preparation before Shabbos.

The First Tablets Were Broken, but the Second Tablets, the Aspect of “Keep,” Remained.

Let us first consider zachor and shamor as they related to Shabbos kodesh, and we will accordingly come to understand the deeper meaning of the preparation for them.

The word “remember” was in the first tablets and the word shamor was in the second tablets. The first tablets were broken, so all that remains with us is shamor. The second tablets were not broken because they contained the aspect of shamor. That is why they were protected and not broken.

Zachor means action. When one does an action that builds, the opposite, destruction, is also possible, G-d forbid. We find that when Moshe Rebbeinu broke the tablets, Hashem said to him, “Good job that you broke them!”[23] Moshe Rabbeinu acted to break the tablets because they did not contain the power of shamor, the power of guarding. This was not the case with the second tablets, which contained the concept of shamor. They had the power of shamor, guarding. That is why they were guarded and did not break.

There were certainly other reasons why the second tablets were not broken as well. Chazal said that the first tablets were broken because of the sin of the golden calf, which did not occur with the second tablets.[24] Another statement by chazal says that “the first tablets were given publicly, so the evil eye ruled over them and they were destroyed. And here, Hashem said to him, ‘there is nothing more beautiful than modesty.”[25] In other words, the first tablets were given publicly and the second tablets were given with modesty.

Our words touch on a deep point. Why was there any possibility that the first tablets would be broken, which did not exist, as it were, with regard to the second tablets? It is because the first tablets were the aspect of zachor, the aspect of action. The possibility therefore existed for an equal and opposing action. But the second tablets were related to the concept of shamor, protecting, so their protection prevented them from being broken.

What do we still have today? Zachor, as it were, is broken. But shamor, which was established on the second tablets, was not broken, and remains with us today. With this we can understand, from a superficial perspective, why shamor, rather than zachor, is the main aspect for us today. It is because zachor, for us, is broken, but shamor remains with us and close to us.

When we contemplate more deeply, we will understand more. This certainly does not mean that when the first tablets were broken, they were nullified, G-d forbid. Because if it was, we would no longer have zachor, and we know that this is not the case because the halacha is that we still have both the laws of zachor and the laws of shamor.

What, then is the significance of the fact that the first tablets were broken and our “remember” is hidden, while the second tablets, our “keep” remains?

I have a Good Gift in my Treasure House and Shabbos is its Name

Chazal say that “Every mitzvah which Hashem gave the Jewish people was given in public aside from Shabbos, which was given to them in private, as it says  ‘Between Me and between the children of Israel, it is a sign forever.’”[26] Shabbos kodesh was given to the Jewish people in private. We find another version of this in the Gemara. “The Holy One Blessed is He said to Moshe, ‘I have a good gift in My treasure house, and Shabbos is its name.”[27] Shabbos is found in the treasure house of Hashem, in a private place. It was given privately and it remains in a private, modest place.

The first tablets were given in public, therefore they did not remain, while the second tablets were given modestly, and they do remain. It comes out, therefore, that the second tablets, in which Hashem wrote shamor, and were given in private, befit the essence of Shabbos very well, since Shabbos is identified strongly with modesty. The matter is still closed to us, and we will endeavor to explain with G-d’s help. But first, we must understand the definition of things.

The second tablets were given in private and remained. But the first tablets were given publicly and do not remain. Shabbos kodesh was given in private and it is found in Hashem’s treasure house. “My treasure house” means something modest. That is why “treasure” here is call “,גנזי” which comes from the word “גנוז,” meaning “hidden.” Shabbos is, therefore, something hidden, and the second tablets are hidden. The Shabbos that we have today is related to the aspect of shamor, which is the aspect of the second tablets.

It is clear, therefore, that Shabbos kodesh has the aspect of both zachor and shamor. The zachor aspect is the revealed point. And the shamor aspect is the hidden point. The shamor aspect of Shabbos is the hidden, guarded, and covered aspect. When a person wants to have a hiding place, what does he do? He must first create for himself a guarded, hidden place. The king cannot build a hidden treasure house in the middle of the city. The town center and the hidden treasure house of the king are two fundamental opposites. The city center is a revealed place. And the king’s treasure house is a hidden and closed place.

Shabbos kodesh, in terms of its essence, is found in Hashem’s treasure house. That is the guarded, hidden place. And it is therefore clear that the shamor of Shabbos kodesh is a deeper aspect of Shabbos than the zachor aspect.

Shamor, Meaning Waiting and Hoping

Let us expand on these ideas.

Shabbos is called “Shabbos,” which means “rest.” It is clear and obvious that we do not define “rest” as an action. Rather it is a kind of shamor, a non-action.

Shabbos means “rest.” And one who rests leaves things just as they are. That is the essential reality of Shabbos kodesh. The nature of the word “Shabbos,” “rest” testifies to the power of shamor, meaning “keeping” and “guarding,” and not to the power of action.

What does shamor mean? The Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh explains that the word shamor in the verse “And the Jewish people kept the Shabbos,” has the same meaning as in the verse, “And his father kept the matter.”[28] Rashi there explains that Yaakov “was waiting and hoping, ‘When will it come true?’” Yaakov, a”h, was waiting to see when Yosef’s dreams would be fulfilled.

“And the Jewish people kept the Shabbos” also refers to “kept” meaning “guarded” on its simple level. They guarded themselves from transgressing any of the 39 categories of labor. But the word also has the connotation of “longingly waiting.” What are we waiting for?

The longing for Shabbos kodesh already begins as soon as Shabbos ends. It continues on Sunday and throughout the rest of the week until erev Shabbos. Chazal say “The Holy One, Blessed is He, gives a person an extra soul on erev Shabbos, and after Shabbos, He takes it away, as it says in the verse  “He rested and was refreshed.” Once Shabbos [has returned to heaven and left the person,] “Woe the lost soul.” (“נפש אבדה וי ” = “וינפש”)[29] The moment that Shabbos goes out, and the person loses the extra soul, he is waiting for it to return the next Shabbos.

Do we still wait once Shabbos comes? Ostensibly, not. A person waits for Shabbos and it has already come. How can one wait for something that is already here? Therefore, the shamor, the waiting, should apply on weekdays and not on Shabbos. But this requires explanation. Zachor and shamor were both said about Shabbos itself! And although it is true we can still fulfill zachor and shamor on weekdays as we prepare for Shabbos, it is untenable to suggest that shamor and zachor apply only to weekdays and not to Shabbos. We must therefore attempt to understand what we are “waiting for” on Shabbos. What longing and waiting is there on Shabbos?

The way we observe “remember on Shabbos is well-known. As chazal say, “’Remember the Shabbos day to sanctify it,’ remember it over wine.”[30] This refers to making kiddush over wine. Zachor also refers to “remembering” with the mouth, as the Rambam says “It is a positive mitzvah from the Torah to sanctify the Shabbos day with words, as it says, ‘Remember the Shabbos day to sanctify it,’ meaning remember it with a remembrance of praise and kiddush.”[31]

How then do we observe the idea of shamor on Shabbos? Clearly, the simple meaning of shamor, meaning to keep oneself from doing any labor, still applies. This refers to not doing the 39 categories of labor we are forbidden on Shabbos and constitutes non-action.

But we must still understand the deeper meaning of shamor on Shabbos. Is it limited, on Shabbos, to the concept of non-action, or is there also a concept of waiting and longing. In other words, is it correct to say that during the week we can fulfill the “waiting and longing” aspect of shamor, but on Shabbos, shamor only means not to do any work?

Parochial Shabbos and Universal Shabbos

Let us consider the matter more deeply. Where else do we have a concept of “waiting” in the Torah?

The Gemara says, “When a person enters into [his heavenly] judgment, they will say to him, ‘Did you do business with emunah?’, ‘Did you make fixed times for Torah,” “Did you fulfill the mitzvah to be fruitful and multiply?’, and ‘Did you wait longingly for the redemption?’” When a person is judged, they will ask him whether he waited for the days of Moshiach, for the future world to come.

We have the six days of the week and Shabbos kodesh. Corresponding to them, we have the six millennia of creation (“The world will exist for six thousand years”)[32] and the seventh millennia, which is the aspect of Shabbos. Just as it is a mitzvah to wait for Shabbos during the six days of the week, so too he must wait and long for the times of Moshiach, the light of the world to come, and the day which is all Shabbos and rest forever and ever during the six thousand years of this world. These concepts are not two separate kinds of waiting. Rather, it is one longing that is revealed in two different ways.

We wait for Shabbos all of the time. During the six days of the week, we wait for the particular Shabbos of that week. And correspondingly, we wait for the world’s Shabbos, which is the Shabbos of the future world to come, for the day which is all Shabbos, for the days of Moshiach.

Now we can understand how we can fulfill shamor on Shabbos, because we are always waiting for Shabbos, whether it is that weeks’ particular Shabbos, or whether it is the universal Shabbos at the end of time. Therefore, on the six days of the week we wait for the parochial Shabbos, but on Shabbos kodesh itself, we wait for the ultimate Shabbos.

The Six Days of the Week – Six Lines – Six Hopes

Shabbos kodesh is essentially the center of everything. We explained in the previous chapter that when one looks at time as constituting the form of a circle, all of the six days of the week go out from the center point. All of the lines go out from the circle, “hoping.” The word for line, “קו” is related to the word for hope, “תקוה.” So the lines hope, long, and pine to return to the center point.

What is the center point? Shabbos kodesh is the center. The six days of the week, in the circle of time, are called “lines.” The six lines are the six hopes, hoping and waiting for the central point, Shabbos kodesh. During the six days of the week, we wait for Shabbos, and on Shabbos, we wait for the world to come, for the day which will be all Shabbos and rest forever and ever.

In truth, we must wait for the eternal Shabbos on weekdays as well. So on a deeper level, one must have two hopes during the six days of the week: one hope for the upcoming Shabbos which he waits for anxiously, and another hope for the universal Shabbos, the day which will be all Shabbos and rest forever and ever. But when Shabbos comes, one can no longer wait for that Shabbos, because he is already there.[33] One’s hope, then, is only for the universal Shabbos.

There is, however, a special character to one’s longing for the ultimate Shabbos on Shabbos itself. Indeed, the Gemara says that Shabbos is a foretaste of the world to come.[34] Therefore, if a person merits, he will taste an inner feeling of the world to come. And when a person tastes the “foretaste,” the microcosm of the world to come, then he will truly long for the thing itself.

It is harder to desire to long for the world to come during the six days of the week, because the person does not even have the foretaste at that time. But on Shabbos, each person according to their level who merits some illumination of Shabbos kodesh experiences, on some level, he has the inner light of the world to come. And if he experiences this foretaste, then it is easier to hope for the day which will be all Shabbos and rest in the life of the world to come.

The Whole and the Broken Tablets Together in the Ark – Connecting Zachor and Shamor

“Keep the Shabbos day.” We explained that shamor also means “to hope.” There are two objects of the hope that we have on Shabbos kodesh: 1) hoping and waiting for the upcoming Shabbos of that week, and 2) hoping and waiting for the universal Shabbos, the world to come. But let us consider the following: Do we only hope now, or will we also hope in the world to come?

“Both zachor and shamor were said at the same moment, which the mouth cannot speak and the ear cannot hear.”[35] At the beginning, we asked a simple question. If the ear cannot hear two words said at once, why then were they said simultaneously? Ostensibly, it would have been better to say them consecutively. To give a course analogy, when someone wants to tell his friend something, he tells him in a tone and using language which the listener can hear. If he does not do so, it would be better for him to stay silent. If so, what is the purpose in the fact that the ear cannot hear the words spoken together?

It is clear that when it says “the ear cannot hear,” the word “cannot” can also be read as “nothing,” meaning that “the ‘nothing’ of the ear can hear.”[36] As the Baal Shem Tov says, there is a place in the soul of a person which can hear both of them, but only in the world to come. And when the Jewish people stood on Mt. Sinai on the level of “I have said, you are angelic…,”[37] they were able to hear these two opposites. Now, however, we will try to understand the concept which currently concerns us.

Zachor and shamor are rooted in both the first tablets and the second tablets. And the first and second tablets are not actually separate from one another, as the Gemara says, “The tablets and the broken tablets rest together in the ark.”[38] So both the zachor of the broken first tablets and the shamor of the unbroken second tablets rested together in the ark in the Beis Hamikdash.

Using this concept, we can now understand that just like there is no separation between the first tablets and the second tablets, so too there is no separation between the concept of zachor from the first tablets and the concept of shamor from the second tablets.

The concept that “both zachor and shamor were said at the same moment” was not limited to the moment Hashem said those words on Mt. Sinai. Rather, it is a very deep and exceedingly intimate point. It is even true after the sin of the golden calf, and after the tablets were broken, and even today in our world! When the Beis Hamikdash stood, the tablets and broken tablets resided together in the ark, so both shamor and zachor exist at once.

The Unification of Zachor and Shamor in the Soul

With G-d’s help, we have explained the concepts of zachor and shamor, and the preparation for them using action and non-action. We will now attempt to understand how to bring these ideas closer to our world, to daily life.

In our spiritual perspective within daily life, we separate between zachor and shamor, and between shamor and zachor. We define certain things as zachor, “thou shalt” mitzvos, and other things as shamor, “thou shalt not” mitzvos. Just like the concepts of zachor and shamor are unified in the ark, so too in the ark of our souls, there should be a unification between zachor and shamor.[39] Where, then is our ark in which we can unify zachor and shamor?

In the soul of a person zachor means action and shamor means non-action, leaving a thing exactly as it is. As chazal say, “Be very careful not to ruin and destroy My world.”[40] Shamor, guard it, to leave it as it is. So what then is the spiritual concept of zachor and shamor, and how can we live with zachor and shamor together?

Therefore, if we contemplate deeply, we will see that we live our entire lives with zachor and shamor together. For example, we all work hard to earn a livelihood. Thereby, we fulfill the obligation to work with which Hashem penalized us because of the sin of Adam Harishon. We could ask ourselves: If we have emunah in the Creator of the world, why do we have to toil for our livelihood? We have emunah! The answer is that even though we have emunah, our emunah is not complete.

As a proof, even those who do work do not do so to the fullest extent possible. Even when someone works from morning until night, and then someone usurps some job that he hoped to get, and someone asks him about his reaction, he says, “Everything is from heaven!” But if everything is from heaven, why is he working from morning till night. Remain at home! On one hand, the person is working hard, and on the other hand, when someone wrongfully takes some job from him, he is calm and believes that everything is from heaven.

How do we explain such a phenomenon?

The answer is that even though the person has emunah, his emunah is not complete. On one hand, he works hard. But on the other hand, he believes, and even within his hard work, he reveals that he has emunah. These two worlds are not completely cut off from one another. In general, there is not a religious Jew who does not reveal his emunah to some extent within his work. However, the extent of that revelation varies from person to person. But most, if not all believers, have at least some point at which they do not take steps to control and achieve a livelihood. Even if someone offers a person an opportunity to earn more money by getting up in the middle of the night, even one who works a great deal will agree that there is some point when efforts to work go too far. So some of a person’s livelihood is attained with action, zachor. And some of his livelihood is attained with a hope that Hashem will provide, which is the aspect of shamor, hoping.

This is what chazal were speaking about when they called the agricultural portions of the Mishna and Talmud as “emunah.”[41] Tosafos there explain, “The Yerushalmi explains that one believes in the Life-giver of all worlds, and then plants.” In other words, a person does his actions, zachor, seeding, and hopes that Hashem will act to bring his work to fruition and cause his seeds to sprout. This is the aspect of shamor, hoping.

All of a Person’s Food is Predetermined for Him, Except for Shabbos and Holiday Expenses

We know the famous Gemara that “all of a person’s food is predetermined for him from Rosh Hashana to Rosh Hashana, except for the expenses of Shabbosim and the expenses for holidays.”[42]

The deeper meaning of this is that during the six days of the week, a person feels that his ability to spend is determined by his actions and his work. But on Shabbos kodesh, which is the light of rest, one’s expenses are, as it were, not determined by how much he works.

In simple terms, “all of a person’s food is predetermined for him” means that it is as if we say to a person: You have a set amount in the cash-box.  Use however much of it that you earn. Whether or not it is too little or more than enough is determined by your work and by how you spend it. But “except for the expenses of Shabbosim and the expenses for holidays” means that these funds come from a completely different source, as it were, and is determined by our actions, measure for measure. The more we work, the more we receive. But the expenses of Shabbos and holidays are above the concept of finite amounts because they have no connection to action at all.

We have clarified that during the six days of the week, we do not only live with work alone. Rather, we live with both emunah, faith (shamor) and work (zachor) together, as we mentioned above. Similarly, we can understand that we also have a simultaneous and daily grasp on both zachor and shamor together.

Zachor is the power of the six days of the week, the ability to act, and shamor is the power of Shabbos kodesh. Therefore, zachor was given to the nations of the world because they have a connection to the six days of the week, but shamor was given only to the Jewish people because they have a relationship to Shabbos.

So too within ourselves, during the six days of the week, we use not only action, which is zachor, but also emunah, which is shamor. But the exact relationship between shamor relative to zachor is relative and is different from person to person, according to each one’s level. But every believing Jew also uses the power of shamor in his soul.

What then is the deeper meaning that zachor and shamor were said in one statement? Zachor is actions that a person does, and shamor is a person’s emunah. The shamor that we know means that a person sits and waits. And just as we said in our example earlier, if someone’s work opportunity is taken away by someone else, he understands that this is beyond his ability to act or control. What does he do then? He hopes. He does not act, but instead continues to hope.

Therefore, when we come to understand zachor in shamor in our personal spiritual life, on a simple practical level, and not with lofty intellectual concepts, we can identify with these concepts in a very simple way. We use these faculties virtually every day. We act and we connect emunah in action.

What, then, should we focus on? The zachor or the shamor? We mentioned a source in chazal above which indicates that shamor is primary.[43] At first, this seemed extraordinary. Why should shamor be above zachor? But now it is clear. Zachor refers to the actions that we do, while shamor is the aspect of emunah, which means that we should act with the purpose that our actions should facilitate the attainment of emunah.

Shabbos Kodesh – the Root of the Light of Emunah

Shabbos kodesh testifies regarding the creation of the world that Hashem created His world. Shabbos testifies about the Creator of the world that He created the world so it is the essence of the light of emunah. The whole character of Shabbos is as a reminder that Hashem created His world in six days, and that He rested on the seventh. As chazal say, just as Hashem rested, we also need to rest.

Shabbos kodesh is therefore the essence of the light of emunah. On the other hand, the light of action is derived from the light of the six days of the week. “For six days shall you work, and on the seventh day you shall rest.”[44]

Now, when we come to find the zachor and shamor within our souls, we identify a faculty of action and a faculty of non-action. It is important to clarify that the faculty of non-action in the soul does not refer to laziness, boredom or any other possible reason why a person may abstain from action like fear or a feeling that some activity is not profitable.  Non-action refers to the essential faculty of a type of “proactive” non-act.

For example, if a person wants to pay a debt to a bank, but the bank is closed. Despite the need to pay the debt, the person will not go to the bank at a time when it is closed. This is one type of non-action. The other type is when he does not go to the bank because he is relying on his son to take care of it for him. What is the difference between these two types of non-action? In the first, he wants to go, but he does not because he has no choice. But the second person does not go because matters are being taken care of by someone else for him. These are two different types of non-action.

The meaning of the example is that spiritual non-action can come from laziness or an inability to act. But this is not the non-action of Shabbos kodesh. This would be like a person who only walks somewhere on Shabbos because his car was stolen. Such a person does not fulfill the mitzvah of Shabbos. But someone who does not drive on Shabbos because he believes in the depths of his soul that he has an inner light which does not require driving is fundamentally connected to the light of Shabbos rest.

In a deep way, the light of “He rested and was refreshed,” Shabbos rest, is essentially a rest which comes from a place of emunah in a person’s soul. This emunah is the light of Shabbos kodesh.

Shabbos Kodesh, the “Day of the Soul” - Revealing the Light of Emunah in the Soul

How do we attain the light of emunah? On one hand, we can do acts which will cause us to reveal the light of emunah. And on the other hand, we can reveal the faculty of rest that exists within the soul, and which is the essential light of emunah.

Let us consider and understand. We explained that among the various types of preparation for Shabbos, some involve action and some involve non-action. The reason is that Shabbos kodesh itself is composed of the elements of both zachor and shamor, so we must prepare ourselves for those two aspects. How do we do this? Superficially, we explained that we do so with the active preparations that we do to honor Shabbos and with the things that we must refrain from doing in honor of Shabbos.

But these are, as we said, superficial preparations that we do or do not do on a physical level. But how do we prepare in the depths of the soul? Shabbos is called “day of the soul.”[45] A person prepares himself with the external faculties of action and non-action , but the soul resides deep within a person. And we must reveal the roots of faculties within us. That is where the light of Shabbos kodesh, the light of the neshama, resides.

It is clear, therefore, that aside from physical action and non-action, we must prepare ourselves spiritually for action and non-action. We must prepare ourselves for zachor and we must prepare ourselves for shamor. Zachor is a person’s faculty of action and shamor, as we explained is the faculty of rest within a person, although this refers to a rest which comes from emunah, and not the mere absence of action.

How does a person prepare himself during the week for zachor and shamor? By waiting and hoping to greet Shabbos, he fulfills shamor. In the previous chapter, we also quoted the Mechilta, quoted by Rashi: “’And you shall do all of your work,’ When Shabbos comes, it should be in your eyes as if all of your work is done. You should not even think about work.”[46] We already asked: “It should be in your eyes that all of your work is done.” How can we feel that all of our work is done when, in fact, it is not done? We will now see, with G-d’s help, an explanation.

Let us contemplate. When does a person normally feel that all of his work is done?

If someone has a trusted employee who has a long track record with him for fulfilling every task he has been given, then when he asks the person to do something at the beginning of the day, he is certain that it will be done. It comes out, then, that even from the beginning of the day he sees his work as already done because he is certain that by the end of the day he will find everything in order, although it is not actually done yet.

It is the same thing with Shabbos kodesh. If someone is in the middle of building a house, how can he view it as already done when in reality it is not finished yet? When can a person feel as if it is all done already? When he believes that Hashem will build everything, then he feels that all of his work is done. Understand that chazal meant exactly what they said; they did not say that one needs to feel that his work is actually done. That would be a fantasy! Rather, they said “it should be in your eyes as if all of your work is done.” Seeing ones work as if it is done is the light of emunah.

It comes out that during the six days of the week a person does part of the work and for the additional part, he waits and hopes for Hashem to complete the work. But on Shabbos, the person only waits and hopes but does not do any work at all.

Zachor – the Aspect of Work as a vessel to Reveal the Light of Emunah

Let us return now to the beginning. During the six days of the week, a person must prepare himself for shamor and zachor. How? He should “long to receive Shabbos.”[47] The longing to receive Shabbos is shamor.

But what is the deeper meaning of this longing and waiting? Certainly it does include the idea that on Friday, we wait for a time called Shabbos. This is true. But there is a deeper inner light. We wait for the conscious realization that even on the six days of the week, we will feel “as if all of your work is done.” We want to truly feel the light of perfect emunah, such that we will believe in the depths of our souls that everything will come out in the best possible way, according to G-d’s will, without any need for us to worry.

A person cannot prepare himself for Shabbos only with shamor though. This is because there is a part of us which does not believe. If our souls had perfect emunah we could indeed live only with the concept of shamor. But this is not the case because man is created lacking emunah.[48]

Because man lacks emunah from the time of creation, he therefore needs zachor, the aspect of action, which creates a process in us which will bring us to emunah.[49] But if man does the work of zachor without shamor, it will not bring him to attain emunah, because he will feel that it is he who is achieving.

A person should work but believe that it is not his work that is achieving for him. Rather, it is actually the Creator of the world who arranged for him to attain his goal. He will contemplate and understand that the reason for all his work was because of the penalty on Adam, as mentioned in Mesilas Yesharim.[50] With this recognition, the faculty of work itself will bring him to a recognition that in essence, he does not need to work at all.

This recognition creates in a person an inner contradiction. On one hand, he is working. And on the other hand, he feels that on the deepest level, he does not need to work and that he is only working because of the curse. The work itself will cause him to feel crushed inside, which will bring him to the light of emunah.

Understand that the work that mankind is cursed to do is not random. Rather, emunah was designed to be the product of that work. Shabbos kodesh is a microcosm of the world to come. If so, the terrible curse of work does not apply on Shabbos, because no work is done on Shabbos. Although there is no contradiction in the world of action, there is a contradiction in the world of speech. “Remember [Shabbos] orally.” On Shabbos kodesh, we are elevated and we have already left behind the curse of work, but we did not yet go out from the concept of “to work it.”

The concept that “Zachor and shamor were said in one statement” and that “the tablets and the broken tablets rest together in the ark, which refer to shamor, in the case of the second tablets, and zachor, in the case of the broken first tablets. This is not some abstract concept. Rather, it is an idea that we can use spiritually every day.

A Person’s job is to Connect the Light of Emunah to all of his Actions

The principle in everything is that we must understand each thing at its root. Afterward, we must understand how that concept manifests itself in our own personal soul on a practical level. If we understand only the practical application, we lack the root of things. But if we only understand the root of things without understanding how they should apply and manifest themselves practically, chazal said about that, “The Torah is not in heaven.” The Torah was given to those who dwell on the earth. Therefore, we must clarify all of these lofty concepts in our souls in order that we should be able to use them on a practical level and know what to do.

It is therefore clear that the spiritual aspect of zachor is working. And the spiritual aspect of shamor is emunah. The secret of unifying them within one person is to connect all of his actions to the light of emunah within them.

If a person said that he does not need to do any work, and that he would just use emunah, he would be essentially denying the Creator of the world, G-d forbid. He would essentially be denying Torah and all of the prophets. Although he would still call himself a believer, but this is a foolish emunah, and not a true emunah. G-d created man lacking in emunah in certain areas of his soul. A person’s job is to perfect those areas. He perfects these by multiplying acts of emunah and also by doing acts.

For Adam Harishon, this meant “to work it and to guard it.” After his sin and Mt. Sinai, this means the 613 mitzvos which we received and all of their details and their halachos. Through action along with the light of emunah, we can, with G-d’s help, reach perfection.

Action must always be joined with the light of emunah. This is the zachor and shamor of the soul. “You do not have to complete the task.”[51] Why? Because you will not finish it! Therefore, Hashem’s power will complete it. It comes out, therefore, that I connect the light of emunah with every action. 

“Both zachor and shamor were said in the same moment.” As we explained, the deeper meaning is that we need to unify them within us. This is because the single utterance that took place on Mt. Sinai is relevant to us. It is not a mere story to tell us how things happened at that time.

The sound of the shofar on Mt. Sinai was “a great sound which did not stop…”[52] If it did not stop, that voice still exists for us today. How so? As we said earlier, zachor and shamor exist together with us in our daily lives. On one hand, we work, but on the other hand, we connect ourselves to the light of emunah while we work, whether before or even much later on. A person who works the full “six days shall you do work” literally will find that when Shabbos comes and he wants the illumination of the light of emunah, he will find that this is impossible.

“One who toils on erev Shabbos will eat on Shabbos.”[53] What kind of work does this refer to? If this refers to work in the physical world, such as working to support his household, it is possible to understand it in the following way. He worked, made a profit and bought everything he needs for Shabbos. He is indeed able to buy and honor Shabbos properly. But what does this mean if we back out of the microcosm of the world to come and consider how this applies to the actual world to come? One who toils on the erev Shabbos of this physical world will eat on Shabbos, meaning the world to come. What does a person bring to the world to come? Several suitcases full of luxurious items?

If a person connects the light of emunah with his work, then he will have something to eat in the world to come. But not due to the work that he did. Rather, through the fact that he used the light of emunah to illuminate his work, and with the two together, he attained emunah.

Did You Do Business with Emunah? – Did You Long for the Redemption?

We mentioned earlier that the first question they will ask a person when he is judged at the end of time is “Did you do business with emunah?” and the last question is “Did you long for the redemption?”[54] What does it mean to “do business in emunah”? On a simple level, it means that a person has not stolen in business. But the deeper meaning of the question is “Did you do business with emunah?” Did you do your work with the light of emunah, or was it simply work? If the answer is in the negative, there is no need to ask him whether or not he longed for the redemption because he most certainly did not!

Hoping for redemption means long to feel that all of one’s work is done as we explained earlier. How can a person feel that all of his work is done? By believing that the Creator of the world will do and complete the job according to His will. The question “Did you do business with emunah?” asks if you brought your emunah into your work. Only if the answer is yes is it worthwhile to ask whether he hoped for the redemption.

The statement that “both zachor and shamor were said in the same moment” is therefore a practical halacha. The need to work was decreed on mankind, and we illuminate that work with the light of emunah. That is why they ask a person “Did you do business with emunah?” before they ask “Did you long for the redemption.”

According to this, we can understand that which we mentioned earlier, that there is a hoping and longing for the parochial Shabbos kodesh which occurs each week, and there is a longing for the universal Shabbos kodesh of the world to come. Longing for the universal Shabbos of the days of Moshiach is not necessarily a true longing for the light of emunah. Sometimes a person has problems in life and therefore, he longs for the days of Moshiach out of a hope that this will solve his problems. Similarly, one’s longing for Shabbos at the end of the week can also be an improper form of wanting if he is not longing for the light of emunah in Shabbos. Rather, he might be waiting for the rest from his work on Shabbos. If a person works hard to make a living, he may wait and hope for Shabbos so that he can rest from his labor just like a five-day-a-week worker who longs for the weekend. In the same way, G-d forbid, this person waits for Shabbos. The longing of a person for Shabbos must be from a place of desire for the light of emunah.

Hashem created the world unperfected. All creatures are imperfect. Had we been created perfect, there would be no work for us to do. No one is perfect! Hashem created us lacking in order that we should draw ourselves closer to perfection through our own labor, as the Ramchal explains.[55] We accomplish this partly through work and partly through emunah, as we mentioned above.

Longing is Rooted in Desire, and Desire is the conduit which Draws Down the Path of Light

We must understand what longing for the light of emunah actually accomplishes. If someone’s parents have passed away, and the person sits and waits for them to return, this constitutes a “drawn out hope that brings sickness of heart.”[56] The parents will not return until the time of the resurrection of the dead. Such longing is ostensibly not a good thing. What, then, is the benefit of longing?

“The Jewish people kept the Shabbos.” We learned that “kept” also means “waited longingly,” as in “And his father kept the matter.” [57] Why must we wait? Superficially, if a person waits for something it is a sign that he values it and holds it in high esteem. But we must still understand the deeper meaning of this. Toward what end must a person wait?

The answer to this has many levels. First, the very fact that a person is waiting transforms him into a vessel for that thing. Everything in creation needs a place. If it has no place, it cannot continue to exist. As it says in Pirkei Avos, “There is no such thing as a person without his time and there is nothing that does not have a place.”[58] And the Gemara says “When Hashem told Moshe to go and tell Betzalel ‘Make for Me a Mishkan, an ark, and vessels,’ Moshe went and reversed the order and said to him ‘Make an ark, vessels, and a Mishkan.’ He [Betzalel] said to him [Moshe], ‘Moshe Rabbeinu, the way of the world is that a person builds a house and then puts vessels into it, but you are saying ‘Build Me an ark, vessels, and a Mishkan.’ ‘Where shall I place the vessels that I make?’” One must first make a place and then the vessels.[59]

We have the light of emunah. What is the vessel a person should prepare in order to receive that light? Where in man can this light be placed?

In order to receive this light, one must build vessels. What is the first vessel? How do we build it? First, one needs to hope. The hope for something means the desire itself for that thing. Desire, רצון",” has the same letters as “צינור,” meaning pipe or conduit. The desire for something actually creates the conduit through which that thing will be drawn down into the vessel.

We therefore understand that desire is the first vessel we need in us. This desire creates a vessel in the soul and thereby, we become vessels ready to receive.

The second step is that the desire should create a conduit through which we can draw something down. Now, we want emunah but it is far from us. Therefore, we must create a conduit, as it were, between ourselves and emunah, and then the emunah will make us greater. As the verse says about Mordechai, “And he raised (“אומן”) Hadassah.”[60] When a person hopes for redemption, the first thing is that he builds a vessel within himself. Afterward, it also creates a conduit through which Divine influence can flow. And the third step is the actual drawing down of emunah within oneself.

The Future Illumination of Shabbos in the Sixth Millennia – the Light of Moshiach

We understand now that the preparations for Shabbos progress gradually toward Shabbos. As we mentioned, “from Sunday, look to Shabbos.” And as the Arizal said, on Wednesday a person draws onto himself the illumination of the extra nefesh, the ruach on Thursday, and the neshama on Friday. It is the same thing with regard to the eternal Shabbos of the world to come and the light of the future to come. Moshiach does not come all at once, but rather, little by little.

For Shabbos, one first receives the nefesh, then the ruach, then the neshama, and then Shabbos kodesh comes, which is the neshama of the neshama. A person receives this preparation for three days before Shabbos, and even earlier than that, as we mentioned. We therefore bring down the light of Shabbos during the week by the hope and longing we have for Shabbos kodesh.

We understand that this is the case with regard to Shabbos, and we should know and understand the universal Shabbos kodesh.

First, we no longer live in a world where the light of Moshiach does not shine at all. But on the other hand, we do not yet live in a world where Moshiach has been fully revealed. We now find ourselves living on Friday afternoon. We know that the world will exist for six thousand years. And now we find ourselves at the end of the sixth millennia. While it is therefore impossible to say that Moshiach has already fully come, it is impossible to say that his light does not yet shine at all, because the light of Moshiach is already shining.

How can we draw down this light? This depends on a person’s preparations. Just like on a regular Shabbos, a person can receive the nefesh starting on Wednesday, the ruach on Thursday, and the neshama on Friday, not everyone receives these. Rather, each person receives according to his preparations. It is the same thing with regard to the eternal Shabbos, the seventh millennia. We must prepare ourselves in order that we merit to receive the light of Moshiach right now! We cannot, however, receive it fully because this will only occur in the days of Moshiach. But it is possible to draw it down just before Shabbos just as we do with the light of a regular Shabbos each week. Just like on Friday, one can merit to the illumination of the extra neshama of Shabbos, it is the exact same thing in the sixth millennia.

Drawing Down the Light of Moshiach Now According to How Much we Long for it

“And Yaakov kept the matter” means “He waited and longed, when will it come!,” as Rashi explains.[61] Yaakov was longing for the time when Yosef’s dreams would be fulfilled. What did his longing accomplish? The answer is that by longing for it, he drew the matter down into practical life. The waiting and longing of Yaakov is what caused Yosef to become the king! “And he refused to be comforted,”[62] because if he was eventually comforted, and had he stopped waiting, Yosef would never have become the king and no one would have bowed down to him, as Yosef had foreseen in his dream.

“These are the generations of Yaakov, Yosef…”[63] Whatever happened to Yosef was through his father Yaakov. Even the fact that Yosef became king and that everyone bowed down to him happened through Yaakov. Yaakov is the one who drew down the kingship of Yosef into the world. “Shall I, your mother, and your brothers come to bow down on the ground to you?!”[64] This was fulfilled through the power of “and Yaakov kept the matter,” by the fact that he waited and hoped for it to come to pass.

“And the Jewish people kept the Shabbos.” We wait and hope for the light of emunah. We connect it to our work on the six days of the week and thereby, we draw down the light of emunah, of Shabbos kodesh, into the six days of the week. By longing for the universal Shabbos, which corresponds to the Jewish people “keeping,” waiting for, the worldly Shabbos, we thereby draw down the light of the future redemption into this world right now. Although it is not complete, it still exists according to the extent of our longing.

“Both zachor and shamor were said at the same moment.” We prepare ourselves on the six days of the week for the concurrent fulfillment of both zachor and shamor. Through this, we merit the revelation of the light of emunah in everything, may it come soon in our days. Then, creation will achieve its ultimate purpose when every created thing, without exception, knows its Creator.