Shabbos Kodesh - 11 Merging Boundaries

“Eravtem” – Merging Boundaries

“No Man Shall Leave His Place on the Seventh Day”

In the previous chapter, we quoted a passage from Mishnayos Shabbos: “There are three things which a person must say in his home erev Shabbos at twilight: isartem (Have you taken ma’aser?), eravtem (Have you made an eiruv?), light the lights!”[1] There we explained the concept of ma’aser. Now we will attempt to clarify the idea known as eiruvin.

In its most general sense, there are three types of eiruvin: eiruv techumin (merging boundaries), eiruv chatzeros (merging courtyards), and shitufei mavo’os (joining passageways). Our discussion, however, will be limited to the first category.

In the Torah passage that describes how the Jews received manna in the desert, Hashem commands, “Each man shall remain in his place. No man shall leave from his place on the Shabbos day.”[2] It is from this verse that Chazal learn that it is forbidden for a person to leave his place of residence on Shabbos kodesh. A person’s residence is his “place,” he is not allowed to leave it. A person needs to rest in his place on the Shabbos day.

How is this area defined? Until where is a person allowed to go? Chazal tell us that one is permitted to walk at most 2000 amos from the city border.

Merging of Boundaries – The Restricting and Defining of a Person’s Place

The boundaries of Shabbos extend 2000 amos in every direction. In other words, a person who is in a city and he wants to leave, he is allowed to go at most 2000 amos beyond the city’s limits on Shabbos. That is the Shabbos boundary of the city. But further than that, it is forbidden for him to walk, for he will have then left the Shabbos boundary of the city.

If nonetheless a person has a need to go further than the permissible Shabbos boundary of the city on Shabbos, he must make an eiruv techumin at the edge of the city’s Shabbos boundary.[3] This will now permit him to walk an additional 2000 amos from that location.

The concept of “merging boundaries” determines the place of a person: what is the extent of the area he is allowed to go. The boundary itself is the endpoint. In fact, the letters for boundary (תחום) are the same letters for seal (חותם), as it is known. The seal is the end, and the boundary similarly marks the end of an area.

Therefore, the concept of “boundary” is that of a seal. And “merging of boundaries” comes to define my place: to what extent I am allowed to walk on Shabbos kodesh.

2000 Amos – Circle or Square?

There is a fundamental debate brought in the mishnah in eiruvin: How do we measure the 2000 amos limit? “2000 amos in every direction, like a circle. [These are the words of] Rabbi Chanina ben Antignos. The sages say, ‘It is like a square, like a square table, in order to gain [access] even to the corners.’”[4] The opinion of Rabbi Chanina is that from whatever a person’s location, he measures 2000 amos out in every direction, like a circle. The sages, on the other hand, hold that when the measurement is made, the resulting area will resemble a square: 2000 amos extending in the four compass directions “in order to gain [access] even to the corners.” In other words, according to the opinion of the sages, a person will be able to walk an even greater distance. This is because if a person follows the imaginary diagonal line that runs from one corner of the square to the other, he will be able to walk further than 2000 amos from the point where he established his residence. He will be able to walk even to the corners of the square area, even though they are beyond the 2000 amos from where he started.

If the measurement of the boundary resembles a circle, such that the person is located at its center and the boundary surrounds him like a circle, so any point on the circumference of the circle will be exactly 2000 amos from him and no more. But if we measure 2000 square amos, however, then the boundary surrounding him will resemble a square such that the corners of the square, even though they are in fact beyond 2000 amos from his current location, are within the permitted distance, and he will be allowed to travel there.

Therefore, when the sages tell us that the 2000 amos are “square, like a square table,” even though it is true that a person may only go 2000 amos in any of the four compass directions; nonetheless, he in fact has the option to walk more than 2000 amos if he will choose to travel to a corner of the square, being that these corners are more than 2000 amos from his residence. We need to understand what is the deeper significance behind this.

One Who Delights in the Shabbos is Given an Inheritance without Boundaries – The Opposite of Boundaries

There is another fascinating point. On one hand we have a concept called “merging of boundaries” by which I define my location: the extent to which I am allowed to walk. This type of boundary connotes “limit,” as we explained above. This is basically the essence of Shabbos, as Shabbos is the end of the week. From the perspective of time, the framework of the days of the week is that the six weekdays come, and then there is Shabbos. Shabbos kodesh is the conclusion of the week. But Chazal also tell us, “All who delight in the Shabbos, they give him an inheritance without boundaries.”[5]

On one hand, there is a concept called “merging of boundaries” whose function is to delimit an area, to give it boundaries. And yet, “all who delight in the Shabbos, they give him an inheritance without boundaries” – no borders and no limits! This is nothing less than a contradiction in terms. On one hand, Shabbos seals us in, preventing us from leaving the prescribed boundaries. But on the other hand “all who delight in the Shabbos, they give him an inheritance without boundaries.” Where does this stem from?

With Hashem’s help, we will attempt to delve deeper.

Shabbos of this World has an End, but in the Future – It will be Without End

Shabbos kodesh is the end of the week in the framework of time. From this perspective, Shabbos is the sealing of the week. Shabbos marks the endpoint of the week and is its conclusion. But at the same time, Shabbos as we experience it today is also called “a taste of the World to Come,” as we know.

This being the case, what then is the endpoint in time of the world we live in? The end of the week is Shabbos, and the end of Shabbos is the World to Come, which itself has a quality of “a day that is entirely Shabbos and rest for all eternity.”[6]

Therefore, the endpoint in time of this world is the Shabbos of the World to Come. At that time, the Shabbos will be a Shabbos of eternity, never ending. The Shabbos which we have today is a Shabbos that has an end. Where? When we make havdalah at the conclusion of Shabbos, that is when Shabbos ends. And even if havdalah is not done, Shabbos departs on its own with the arrival of nightfall on Saturday night. This Shabbos has an end, and therefore it also serves to seal off the week and conclude it.

Had there been no end to this Shabbos, it wouldn’t be able to be the conclusion of the week since it is itself endless. Therefore, this Shabbos is called Shabbos from the aspect of boundaries since it has a limit and an end.

But the Shabbos of the World to Come will be “the day that is entirely Shabbos and rest for all eternity.” A day that is entirely Shabbos, having an aspect of infinity, is a day that never ends. This is a completely different dimension of Shabbos, a dimension of “all who delight in the Shabbos, they give him an inheritance without boundaries.” An inheritance without boundaries is a gift that has no end, no border. This is the Shabbos of the World to Come.

If that is the case, the Shabbos that we have access to today is a Shabbos that has an end, and thus it has a boundary. However, the Shabbos of the World to Come is a Shabbos that is without end, without boundaries. About that Shabbos, it is written, “All who delight in the Shabbos, they give him an inheritance without boundaries.”

Leaving the Boundary – Connecting to the Inheritance without Boundaries

What remains to be understood is how a person who delights in the Shabbos of this world can become connected to the Shabbos which is an inheritance without boundaries. The Shabbos of this world has boundaries; a person is limited in the extent of his travel. This is the opposite of an inheritance without boundaries!

To resolve the difficulty, we will revisit and delve deeper into the debate between the sages that is brought in the mishna in Eiruvin which we mentioned earlier: do we measure the Shabbos boundaries, the 2000 amos, in an area resembling a circle or a square? If the area is like a square, then we also gain access to the corners of the square which are actually further than 2000 amos away from the center, as we explained. It is in these corner areas, which are more than 2000 amos, that there is a revelation of the idea that a person is able to break through and go beyond the 2000 amos boundary.

The boundary is in fact 2000 amos. In a parallel way, the holy Torah preceded the creation of the world by 2000 years. This means that the beginning of the roots of existence, in a manner of speaking, began 2000 years before the world itself. If we want to break through it all, to reach the Infinite, as it were, we need to get past the boundaries, past the 2000 amos, and, in that way, we will return to that which preceded existence.

We’ve mentioned in previous chapters that there is a concept of a Shabbos which comes after action, and there is also a Shabbos which, in a manner of speaking, came before Hashem’s creating of the world. This latter Shabbos which preceded Creation, that is a Shabbos with no borders and no end.

How are we able to connect to it?

According to the opinion of Rabbi Chanina ben Antignos, the 2000 amos have a circular shape and are not square. According to this opinion, one is only permitted to travel 2000 amos in any direction and no farther. That is the border of Shabbos, that is it’s limit. On the other hand, the sages hold that a person can go beyond the limits of Shabbos kodesh, for the corners are in fact more than 2000 amos from where he established his residence. In this way, there is here a deeper revelation which in fact is revealing the inheritance that has no boundaries.

“The sages say [the extent to which a person can go on Shabbos] is square-shaped, like a square table, in order to gain access [even] to the corners.” Why is it important that a person be able to reach the corners? Certainly, the intention is not merely that he can walk a little farther: now he can walk the extra area that is beyond the circle and within the square. What is this great gain that he is getting that Chazal bothered to point out that he is gaining the corners of the square?

The gain, in its deeper meaning, is that in this way a person is able to go beyond the boundaries and reach the inheritance that is without boundaries. In one sense, we have the description of Shabbos that is an aspect of an inheritance with boundaries. Shabbos has limits. But on the other hand, there is an aspect of Shabbos kodesh that we need to bring out – the inheritance without boundaries.

The revelation of the “inheritance without boundaries” comes, as it were, from the same place that the person is allowed to go beyond the 2000 amos and into the area of the corners. It is there that he connects with that which is beyond the boundaries.

“If You Will Restrain, because of the Shabbos, Your Feet”

Let us now try to understand this border, this limit, and to also understand why it is possible to go beyond the 2000 amos.

The verse states, “If you will restrain, because of the Shabbos, your feet, [and from] attending to your needs on My holy day, and you will call Shabbos ‘a delight’, the holy one of Hashem ‘honored.’”[7] What is the meaning of the phrase “if you will restrain, because of the Shabbos, your feet”? What type of confinement of the feet is there on Shabbos kodesh?

According to the simple understanding, when a person is walking, he walks with his feet. Even when he is standing and not walking, he is still standing using his feet. However, when a person is sitting, then he is not using his feet.

“If you will restrain, because of the Shabbos, your feet” – the word “Shabbos” comes from the same Hebrew root as “to sit.” When a person "sits," i.e., he rests in his place, he isn’t walking with his feet. This is the simple understanding of the verse, by which we explain that he is causing his feet to stop [From the continuation of the verse, which says, “from going on your ways,” we learn that the way one walks on Shabbos should be different from his walking during the week[8]].

But in a deeper understanding, the intention of the verse from Isaiah can be derived from a verse is Proverbs: “Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold of the netherworld.”[9] In the very place of the feet, that is where death is revealed. What is the connection?

Let us try to explain in a simple way. Feet are the part of the body where death can be found. In their deepest sense, the feet are what bring a person to death. Let us explain. The function of feet is – to go, to walk. Every time a person takes a step, it is because he is lacking something. For had he not been lacking, he would not feel compelled to go anywhere.

Walking is always owing to some lack, and the goal is therefore to bring to a state of completion. That being the case, the walking itself stems from the same point that was lacking in me. The essence of lack is death. However, there is a total death, and there is a partial death. As Chazal phrase it, “What does it matter if he killed it [the animal] completely or killed it halfway?”[10] That is, that there is no difference whether someone kills an animal completely, or kills it partially, for example, by injuring it or weakening it. For in the event he kills it completely, the whole animal is lost, and when he kills it partially, that part is lost.

What is this comparable to? A person whose leg is paralyzed, Heaven forbid, or even worse, they need to amputate it. This leg, for all practical purposes, is dead. The rest of his body is healthy, BaruchHashem, just his leg is “dead.”

“Her feet go down to death” means that the fact that a person has a desire to move, to walk with his feet, to achieve things - this flows from the point that is lacking in him. And this that he holds himself to be lacking is itself a “death” for him. He has killed himself through his perception.

“Who is Wealthy? He that Rejoices in His Portion”

“Who is wealthy? He that rejoices in his portion.”[11] It is possible that two people are in exactly the same situation and, nonetheless, one will feel empty while the other full. How is this possible? The one feeling deficient, his lack stems from the very fact that he holds himself to be lacking. Had he instead viewed himself as complete, with the attitude of “he that rejoices in his portion,” then indeed he would feel complete.

In truth, every thing that a person is lacking is a result of his perception. The thing that creates his feeling of lack is none other than the person himself. His mindset is the very thing that creates the existence of death within him. Whether it is a general “death” or a partial “death,” this is the death that is within him.

We can then understand that the mere fact that the person acts and goes, it means that he feels lack. It is because of this that a person is in the grips of death. This is the deeper meaning of “her feet go down to death.”

In a more superficial understanding, the verse can be explained to be telling us that the feet are essentially what take a person from inside to the outside. Consider, for example, a person who is in his house. There, he is guarded from harm. But when his feet transport him outside, then he is exposed to whatever evil elements are found outdoors. According to this, “her feet go down to death” is referring to the leaving that a person does when he goes from inside to the outside, for in this leaving are hidden all the destructive forces that exist in the world. As long as a person is in his house, he is better protected from all the evil that is outside, but once he leaves his house, then he is exposed to the evil that is there. This is an outward way of expressing it.

But in an inward way of expressing it, when a person is looking inward, then he will feel complete, and this completeness is not touched by evil. However, when a person will look outwards, that is to say, that he feels lacking and wants to fill that lack, and then the very feeling of lack becomes the focus of evil within the soul. This is the source of the point from which evil extends itself.

It turns out, that the idea of “her feet go down to death” means that the feet are what lowers a person to an attitude which is both more external and lowly. The feet take a person away from the internal focus.

If You Will Restrain, Because of the Shabbos, Your Feet – Putting the Feet “To Rest”

The force called fire, as we know burns and destroys; however, it doesn’t swallow things up into itself. Similarly, the forces of wind and water do not swallow things. On the other hand, the force of earth does swallow things into itself. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.”[12] The ground swallowed up into itself the blood of Hevel. When a person is caught in a low, he is caught up in a scarcity mentality, and because of this, he wants to acquire more and more. This is “her feet go down to death,” for the feet are what touch the earth, are touching the ground, and in this way they are what actually bring a person to a feeling of lack.

Through this, we can understand the depth behind the verse “if you will restrain, because of the Shabbos, your feet.” Another way of saying “to restrain the feet” is to say “to cause the feet to rest,” since they mean the same thing in their essence. What is “causing the feet to rest”? This is an attitude of resting, not physically resting.

In previous chapters, we mentioned the words of Chazal on the verse, “And you will do all of your work”[13]: “When Shabbos comes, it should be in your eyes as if all of your work is done; you shouldn’t think about work,” as Rashi explains there. On Shabbos kodesh, a person should feel that all of his work is finished. When everything is done, a person doesn’t feel he needs to complete anything.

This mindset, where a person feels that everything is done, this is the accurate meaning of “if you will restrain, because of the Shabbos, your feet.” “Restraining the feet” means quieting the desire that a person has to take, his desire to run, to go, to obtain that which he is lacking. When a person acquires the deeper mindset in his soul of completion, as if “all your work is done,” if all of his work is as if it is done, this is putting his feet “to rest.”

Putting the feet to rest is essentially the depth of the insight that a person silences his feet. He reveals a deeper understanding that is within him that in this way he is complete, he lacks nothing.

“And you will call the Shabbos ‘a Delight’”

“If you will restrain, because of the Shabbos, your feet…and you will call the Shabbos ‘a delight.” What is meant by “and you will call the Shabbos ‘a delight’”? Is the intention that you will prattle, “Shabbos is a delight. Shabbos is a delight.”? [It’s not possible to say that this is meaningless because every word of holiness has the ability to influence a person tremendously, but it is self-understood that this isn’t the primary intention of the verse.]

“And you will call the Shabbos ‘a delight’” is written after “if you will restrain, because of the Shabbos, your feet.” A person who hasn’t first quieted his feet on Shabbos from the mindset that we’ve explained, he isn’t able to call Shabbos ‘a delight.’ Until he does this, he is hypocritically proclaiming something that is antithetical to what he feels in his soul. This is nothing less than “with their mouth and with their lips they honor Me, but their heart is far from Me.”[14] He feels one way, yet he expresses himself as if he feels something else entirely.

Only when a person restrains and quiets his feet, then he silences the internal attitude that is within him and can reveal the perspective of “as if all your work is done.”  From there, a person reveals a different root, and to this root we can call ‘a delight’!

When a person wants to bring out the delight that is in Shabbos kodesh, there is one condition that must first be met: to silence the feet. To cease that movement, and then he reveals a different source of nourishment.

How can we explain this? When a person doesn’t quiet his feet, he seeks out pleasure and looks for completion by going to other places in order to find what he is lacking. He tries to find fulfillment by stepping and walking – whether in a physical sense or a more spiritual sense. He strides towards something else in order to attain it.

But when a person quiets his feet, then he discovers the completion to be found right here, in his very location! “No man may leave his place on the Shabbos day.”[15] Why? Consider, as an analogy, a person who goes to look for something to eat and drink at the local grocery store. “Why do you want to see what’s in the store?” his wife asks. “We have plenty of food right here in the house!”

During the six days of the week, a person finds his completion from things that are outside. He is obligated to go. That is when the “legs” are active: doing and running. But when Shabbos kodesh comes, another source of nourishment is revealed. This other source is not from without, this other source is a nourishment from within – from within me myself! That is why there is no need to go anywhere on Shabbos. There is no need to activate the feet and walk in order to attain pleasure. When the source of nourishment is from within myself, I have no need to walk to get there.

The Pipeline of Shabbos and of the Weekdays – When One Opens, the Other Closes

There is actually a great distinction that needs to be pointed out between the analogy and the message of the story we brought earlier, and it is a very deep point. A person who has food in his house, that same food also can be found in the grocery store. He can choose whether he wants to get it from his house or from the store. But in spiritual attainments it doesn’t work the same way. For the very moment that a person perceives that what he wants is beyond himself, the inner gates are shut, and he no longer sees the option existing within himself.

This is an important principle regarding the soul of a person, that when he sees that there is something [desirable] outside, he no longer sees the inner point that is within himself, and the reverse is true as well: when he sees the point that is within himself, he no longer seeks for that which is outside himself.

To use a physical analogy, the food exists, so to speak, both in the house and outside. But when one understands the soul of a person deeply, he realizes that these are really pipelines. And in a manner similar to the windpipe and esophagus, where as one opens the other closes, and if they were to both open simultaneously a person would die, Heaven forbid, so too, by these pipes that exist within the soul of a person: the pipeline of the six days of the week, and the pipeline of Shabbos kodesh.

The moment a person opens the pipeline of the six days of the week, the pipeline of Shabbos closes. And when he opens the pipeline of Shabbos kodesh, then the pipeline of the weekdays closes. Someone who would try to operate both pipelines simultaneously, he’d find that it wouldn’t work, it is something that is impossible to occur.

“If you will restrain, because of the Shabbos, your feet” – when you will close, in a manner of speaking, the faucet, the perception of the soul that its completion is found from without, then another source becomes revealed. And what is this source? “And you will call the Shabbos ‘a delight’” – to be understood as “call to her and she will come.” This is the revealing of the connection from another place, a revealing of delight.

As long as the feet of a person are operating, he cannot call Shabbos a delight; he doesn’t recognize it, he doesn’t know what it is. The pipeline is blocked within his soul, and it only can open when a person silences the doing, the running.

Your Walking on Weekdays versus Your Walking on Shabbos

There is a prohibition of “no man may leave his place on the Shabbos day,” which is a prohibition regarding leaving the camp. In addition to this, it is forbidden for someone to transport objects out of his house unless he first makes an eiruv chatzeros. In its deeper meaning, we have explained here that a person needs to realize that he essentially exists only within himself and he has no reason to go beyond himself.

For this reason, Chazal established two addition types of merging: eiruv chatzeros (merging courtyards) and shitufei mavo’os (joining passageways). Through setting up eiruvin, we join domains in such a way that all the courtyards and alleyways become one unified location. If the whole area is only one domain, there is no prohibition of transferring between domains. “One domain” is like saying “everything exists with me in the house.”

When a person walks from place to place within the house, he doesn’t feel that he is going in order to fill a lack. The item is here with him, the completion is from within.

An example of this would be a person who has saliva in his mouth and swallows it. Does he feel like he has now received something from someone else? The saliva is part of him! Another example: the circulatory system moves blood throughout a person’s body, transporting it from one limb to another. Does he feel like someone has donated to him any blood? Of course not! He receives the blood from within himself [This isn’t to say that there is no transaction at all, but that the transaction is occurring within the person himself].

The Secret of the Eiruv – To Include Everything into One Inner Private Domain

If so, whether it is an eiruvi chatzeros or whether it is a shitufei mavo’os, their function is essentially to create a situation of a unified domain, also known as a private domain. On Shabbos, the Torah forbids both carrying from a private domain to a public domain, and also the reverse: bringing from a public domain to a private domain.

What is the deeper understanding of a “private domain”?

The prohibition regarding taking out and bringing in from a public domain to a private domain is explained in the mishna which begins the gemorrah Shabbos: “The carryings out of Shabbos are two which are [really] four…How? The poor man stands outside and the master of the house is inside. [If] the poor man stretches his hand inside and places [something] into the hand of the master of the house or [the poor man] takes [something] from [the master of the house] and brings it outside, the poor man is liable.”[16] In its deeper meaning, a person has no reason to search for things from without for it already exists within him, whatever his location is. When a person looks outside, it is possible for him to find all types of evil and destructive forces there. On the other hand, when he exists within himself, he is in a protected place, and there the person can find safety.

The deeper idea behind eiruv techumin is that a person needs to make borders for himself. This is similarly explained in the writings of the Arizal in Sha’ar HaKivunim [17] that this is a protection from damaging forces. Since, if a person will not make boundaries, then inevitability he will come to a place of evil, and there it is even likely, Heaven forbid, that they will cleave to him.

We can understand this through a modern-day analogy. It is similar to a personal computer. As long as it remains in the house, it is protected. However, when I bring it outside or load onto it software from the outside, then there is a very good chance that it will be infected with a virus or software that wasn’t scanned. Outside, there is evil, which is not the case within the house.

The idea of an eiruv, therefore, is comprised of two parts: 1. to derive nourishment from within and not from without, 2. to not venture outside and, having gone outside, connect with the evil that is there.

A Wholeness that Has No Lack – No Evil Can Cling to It

If a person creates a boundary for himself, then there is no way for the evil to enter within him. It is a protection from the evil that prevents it from entering within. But this is a very superficial understanding. What is the deeper insight?

The deeper understanding can be explained the following way: that precisely because a person has no need to bring anything within himself is itself the very point of wholeness.

Let us explain. Why is it that evil can touch a person? It works along the lines of “a thing finds [more] of its kind, and rouses [them].” The essence of evil is “lack.” When a person feels that he is lacking and he wants to fill that lack, this outlook, that he is lacking, is what allows the evil to cling to him, for they now share the same mold, the same essence.

The whole essence of evil is deficiency, of causing lack. Precisely because a person views himself as lacking, this is what gives an opening for evil to attach to him, for he identifies himself with that concept of lack. On the other hand, when a person views himself as whole, then the evil has no way to connect to him.

That being the case, we can explain this in a superficial way by saying that the moment a person makes a boundary around a place it is protected and the evil cannot penetrate inside. But a more profound definition, on the other hand, would be to say that when a person doesn’t require anything from the outside – which itself stems from the inner mindset of “as if all your work is done” – such a person feels that everything is complete, and his feeling of completeness means he feels that nothing is lacking. When a person has no lack, evil has no way to get to him, and once evil cannot reach him, then it is self-understood that this person is protected.

So we see that the deeper understanding of “protection” is from the very outlook that a person feels complete, for a person who feels complete automatically is protected. Just like regarding the Infinite One, Blessed Be He, no evil can cling to Him, so too, when a person aligns himself with the idea of “as if all your work is done” and he is complete, then there is no place for evil to attach to.

In the World to Come: No Lack and No Boundaries

Shabbos Kodesh – a taste of the World to Come. The Shabbos in its fullness is “a day that is entirely Shabbos and rest for all eternity.”[18] In our world, there is lack and evil, there is impurity and transgression, Heaven forbid. But in the future, no impurity will exist in the world, as the verse says, “And the spirit of impurity I will make pass from the land.”[19]

As long as impurity exists in the world, there is a boundary for Shabbos. But in the future, when it will be a time that is completely Shabbos and rest for all eternity, then there will no longer be the laws of boundaries!

Why is this so?

A “boundary” means, in its superficial sense, to keep guard against evil so that it not penetrate within, and similarly, that a person not go outside the boundary and be injured by the evil that is there. But if there is no evil, then there is no longer a reason for protection. This is the superficial explanation, but a deeper understanding is that the evil is itself in existence because a person views himself as lacking, and that being so, there are boundaries. But in the future, in the day that is entirely Shabbos, there is no possibility of lack, since if in the future a person will be lacking, his lack will be immortalized.

Let’s explain this idea using an analogy: a person works during the week because he has needs. Now Shabbos has come, and he is still lacking, so on the following Sunday he will again try to fill his needs. But if we were to make that Shabbos never-ending, then his needs will now also be never-ending, they will perpetually be with him. The World to Come is described as “the day that is completely Shabbos and rest for all eternity.” But if the above Shabbos were to be fixed for all eternity, then that person would remain with his unfilled needs for all eternity. Would anyone think this is the ultimate purpose of Creation? Of course not!

It is obvious then that “the day that is entirely Shabbos and rest for all eternity” is a day that doesn’t have any lack, for if there would be any lack, it isn’t possible that that day would be perpetuated for all eternity, since such a day would never have in it completion. Only a day which doesn’t have lack in it is able to become a Shabbos that continues for all eternity.

That being the case, “the day that is entirely Shabbos and rest for all eternity” is that day that doesn’t have in it lack. That is to say, it is an attitude of not lacking, and with an attitude that nothing is lacking, there is  no need for borders. Evil attaches itself to someone who identifies with the evil that has lack as its root, as we have explained, but when a person views himself as whole, there is no evil, and this then is the day that is completely Shabbos in the World to Come, and there is no need for boundaries.

We have clarified till this point, with Hashem’s help, that the idea of boundaries is not to find nourishment from without but from within, and that “within” there are no limits, no restrictions. Within, all is whole.