The Holy Shabbat

By Nathan Light

In Blessed Memory of Shmaya Yisrael ben Chaya.

In this week's Torah portion, the main event we read about is the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Within the Torah's description of that untimely event, the parshah lists the "Ten Commandments" that were passed down to us from God. Let us focus on one of those commandments; that of Shabbos (the Sabbath). God willing, through further analysis of the text portraying its commandment, may we come to a deeper understanding of what Shabbos is all about.

After commanding us to observe Shabbos, the Torah explains the basis of keeping Shabbos in the first place:

"For in six days God made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, God blessed (BeiRaKH) the Sabbath day and sanctified (vayeKaDSHehu) it" [Exodus: 19: 11]

After a cursory reading of the verse, nothing seems to stick out. But, as usual, the Torah contains deep concepts and ideas that can only be brought out through closer examination. The verse says that God both "blessed" and "sanctified" the day of Shabbos. The simple and fundamental questions we should start off with are: What does it mean to be "blessed"? What does it mean to be "sanctified"? And what does it mean to be both "blessed" and "sanctified"?



In this week's Torah portion, the main event we read about is the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Within the Torah's description of that untimely event, the parshah lists the "Ten Commandments" that were passed down to us from God. Let us focus on one of those commandments; that of Shabbos (the Sabbath). God willing, through further analysis of the text portraying its commandment, may we come to a deeper understanding of what Shabbos is all about.

After commanding us to observe Shabbos, the Torah explains the basis of keeping Shabbos in the first place:

"For in six days God made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, God blessed (BeiRaKH) the Sabbath day and sanctified (vayeKaDSHehu) it" [Exodus: 19: 11]

After a cursory reading of the verse, nothing seems to stick out. But, as usual, the Torah contains deep concepts and ideas that can only be brought out through closer examination. The verse says that God both "blessed" and "sanctified" the day of Shabbos. The simple and fundamental questions we should start off with are: What does it mean to be "blessed"? What does it mean to be "sanctified"? And what does it mean to be both "blessed" and "sanctified"?

The Hebrew word for blessing is "Barukh", which has the same root (BRKH) as the Hebrew word for knees: "Birkhaim". When standing still, the objective of bending our knees is to bring our body downwards. Thus, as the Rabbis explain, the meaning of the word "Barukh" is to lower, or to put it more clearly, to be drawn down. A blessing is the idea of drawing something down from the higher world into the lower world.

In our daily prayers and blessings, we say over and over "Blessed are you God…" Doesn't this seem strange? Does the almighty God really need our blessing!? Of course not! However, we are not blessing God, rather we are making a statement that God is blessed. Meaning, by reciting these words, we are enforcing our belief that God doesn't just stay up in heaven and watch over us. Rather, God actually draws Himself down into this world from his lofty throne in order to directly care for our daily needs and requests.

What is sanctification? The Hebrew word is "Kadosh", which has the same root (KDSH) as the Hebrew word for a prostitute: "Kedeishah". At first this may seem striking! Aren't sanctification and prostitution diametrically opposed to one another!? Don't worry; the answer is yes. However, there is one common denominator that links these two extremes together: Separateness. When something is given a "sanctified" or "holy" status, it is described as something that is spiritually detached from everything around it. So too a prostitute, through her actions, is (or should be) considered an outsider, someone who is detached from the morals of society.

Now, what does it mean to both "blessed" and "sanctified"? According to what we've explained thus far, it means to be drawn down into this world, while at the same time remaining completely detached. Perhaps, the following example may make things a bit easier to understand:

There is a bundle of rope lying at the top of a building, and you are standing on the street in front of the building. If the rope were to remain at the top of the building, it would of course remain separate from you. If the rope were thrown down to you, it would eventually uncoil itself completely and be found entirely at your feet, and therefore becoming separate from the building. However, if before throwing down the rope, one end were attached to the building's rooftop, the rope would be found at your feet while still connected to the top of the building.

Something that is both "blessed" and "sanctified" is something that draws itself down into this world while still remaining completely detached from it and remaining part of the higher world. Every day in our prayers, we recite more than once the following two verses in conjunction with one another:

"Holy, holy, holy (Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh) is God, Master of Legions…" [Isaiah: 6: 3]

"Blessed (Baruch) is the glory of God from His place" [Ezekiel: 3: 12]

It is no coincidence that these two verses are meant to be recited together. The very nature of God is that He is completely infinite and soars beyond anything we can ever possibly begin to imagine while at the same time He is rooted in this world and lowers Himself into each and every detail of our lives. God has invested Himself in this world so that we can tug at his rope and develop a meaningful relationship with Him. But at the same time we must know that there is no end to His greatness, and that it is impossible to understand His true nature.

From now on, whenever we refer to God as "HaKaDoSH BaRuKH Hu" ("The holy one blessed be He") we can truly take this message to heart.

And this is Shabbos; the day described by our sages as "Me'ein Olam Haba" (a taste of the world to come). The holiness that lies within the day of Shabbos is indescribable, and its very nature is detached from this world. However, God has drawn down the holy time of Shabbos into our world, for us to experience and harness its sanctity into the remaining days of the workweek.

Once every seven days, we are truly blessed with the ability to connect to a world outside of our own, let us not waste it.

Good Shabbos,

This post was written by Nathan Light. He is a regular writer but for technical reasons is posting this week as a guest. Starting next week he will be posting on his own account.