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Zohar, parashat Beshalach, pg. 47a; translation and commentary by Simcha Treister.
The difference between the expectations of the Zohar regarding
spiritual leadership and our expectations regarding secular leadership are made
clear in the following piece.
And Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, stand still,
and see the salvation of G-d."
(Ex. 14:13)  | | " Happy is the lot of Israel that a shepherd such as Moses walked among them...." | | |
Rebbe Shimon said: How happy is the lot of Israel that a
shepherd such as Moses walked among them. It is written, "Then He remembered the
days of old, of Moses His people." (Isaiah 63:11) "He remembered the days of
old..." refers to the Holy One blessed be He [who recalled the Exodus]. "...Moses
his people" [shows that] Moses was of equal weight as all Israel.
And we learn from this that the spiritual leader of the
people is, in fact, the equivalent of the entire nation. If he is worthy, then
all the people are [deemed] worthy. If he is not worthy, then the entire people
are [judged as] unworthy and are punished because of him, as we have explained.
Rashi quotes the Midrash Tanchuma as a source for his
commentary on Num. 21:21: "The leader of the generation is like the entire
generation because the leader is equivalent to all".
"Stand still and see the salvation of G-d". You need not
fight for the Holy One blessed be He, [for He] will wage war for you, as the
verse states:
"G-d will fight for you, and you shall remain silent." (Ex. 14:14)
Come and see, on that night [of the splitting of the Red Sea] the Holy One
blessed be He, gathered all His [heavenly] entourage together to pass judgment
on Israel [as to whether they were worthy to be saved]. If it were not for the
forefathers who had come first [to pray on behalf of their future children],
they would not have been rescued from the judgment. Rabbi Yehuda said that it
was the merit of Jacob that stood in favor of Israel, as is written, "If it had
not been G-d who was on our side [to save us], let Israel now say." (Psalms
124:1) That is [a reference to] Grandfather Israel [or "Yisrael Saba",
who prayed for the salvation of his children].
Note the importance of prayer, especially in time of war.
The crossing of the Red Sea was preceded by an instruction from
G-d not to fight the advancing Egyptian army. In Hebrew, the word for fighter is
"lochem" and shares the same root with the word for bread, "lechem".
In the following discourse, a parallel is drawn between stopping our "fight" for
bread on the Shabbat and the instruction that Israel was given not to fight on
the banks of the Sea of Reeds.
"G-d will fight for you, and you will be silent." Rabbi Aba
opened his discourse with the verse: "If you restrain your traveling because of
the Shabbat, from pursuing your business on My holy day, and call the Shabbat a
delight, to sanctify the honor of G-d, and honor it, not doing your usual
things, nor pursuing your own desires or speaking of mundane things, then shall
you delight yourself in G-d." (Isaiah 58:13-14) | | " The soul... is rejuvenated by the Shabbat..." | | |
How happy is the lot of Israel, that the Holy One blessed
be He chose them to bind to out of all of the other peoples of the earth, and,
out of the love for them, brought them closer to Him. [In addition, He] gave
them the Torah and gave them the Shabbat, which is the most holy of all the
other days [of the week]. It has rest from everything and is the happiness of
all [Israel].
The commentary on the Zohar, Matok MiDvash, notes that
the three expressions regarding Shabbat are a reference to the three higher
sefirot. Shabbat is called "holy" which is rooted in the sefira of
chochma; "rest" from all outside influences is sourced in keter; and
"happiness" refers to the sefira of bina. This hints that the
soul, which dwells in these three highest sefirot, is rejuvenated by the
Shabbat.
The Shabbat is weighed against the whole Torah, and one who
keeps the Shabbat is considered as though he has kept the whole Torah.
Since the Shabbat rejuvenates the soul, and since the Torah is
called a "Tree of Life", one can be balanced against the other. This explains
the secular world's fight against the Shabbat: once you defeat Shabbat you
defeat the Torah. Indeed the waves of pious immigrants to America from Russia
100 years ago became estranged from the Torah as a direct result of being drawn
into the desecration of Shabbat, feeling they had to "fight for their bread"
also on that holy day.
"And you shall call to the Shabbat a delight". (Isaiah
58:13) [This means] delight in everything; delight of the spirit and of the
body, enjoyment of the higher and lower worlds. And what is the meaning of the
words "You shall call to [the Shabbat]"? This means that you have to invite it,
as is written, "Called 'Holy'." (Lev. 23:2) This means that you call to it or
invite it, just as one would invite a guest into his house.
Here the Zohar tells us the mental attitude required to obtain
the full delight of the Shabbat. It is a frame of mind in which one is expecting
a delightful guest, and then, once the guest arrives, to enjoy their company.
This explains why the holy Ari would literally go out into the fields to greet
the Shabbat. This was a physical manifestation of an inner state of mind that
enables one to cling to the sanctity of the day. This is also the reason behind
the other customs of greeting the Shabbat.
[Therefore, one should greet the Shabbat] with the house in
proper order, with food and drink worthy and fitting [a special guest], more
than on other days.
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