ב"ה
CLICK HERE for Article Summaries of Editor's Favorites
One from each genre
Advanced
Shabbat provides spiritual nourishment for each weekday.
"No one should leave any [manna] over until morning."
One day does not give or lend to the other. But on the sixth day, the Queen prepares the King's table. Therefore two portions of manna were found on that day - one for the sixth day, and one to prepare for the celebration of the King with the Queen. |
On Shabbat, everything, including humankind, has already been refined
In the six days of Creation of this world, G-d first created the lower types of creatures, the mineral world. To do this He had to separate out the lowest, coarsest elements from the creation-soup from the first day. Next, G-d separated out the coarsest elements remaining in the creation-soup, which resulted in the creation of the vegetable kingdom. The creation-soup was thus left purified of those elements so coarse that only vegetative life could be created out of them. Next G-d separated out the animal elements, and finally, the choicest part left was the human.
|
Intermediate
Shabbat is particularly suited for attaining higher spiritual levels.
There is little doubt that a person who prepares himself to receive the Shabbat benefits from the additional soul which inhabits every Jew on Shabbat. However -as the Shelah teaches - if it were not for the heavenly assistance received, his spiritual accomplishment would have been far more modest.
|
Intermediate
The additional soul we receive on Shabbat is an expression of a higher love for G-d.
There are two types of love for G-d. One type of love is born out of contemplation of the greatness and oneness of G-d. This is a love that stems from our thoughts and, as a result, is limited in nature, as it is in direct relation to the quality of his intellect.
The other type of love is a love that is not born out of contemplation and intellect but is an expression stemming from a deep will and desire for G-d that is beyond reason. Just as a person's will to live is not based on reason but is rooted in his inner depths, so too this unbounded love for G-d is an expression of the deepest part of a person, the essence of his soul. This deep and unbounded love for G-d is the experience of our Additional Soul on Shabbat. |
Following every Shabbat, duality is absorbed by oneness.
It is a prevalent custom among observant Jews to gather on Saturday night, singing and dancing and telling stories until dawn. We extend the Shabbat that has technically passed, carrying some of its holiness with us into days of the week, the realm of the profane. It is the ideal time to speak about the righteous. Any story or anecdote about them is a Shabbat in itself, a rest-stop for the Jew who is preparing to confront the weekdays. It is a place of transition where the mind is given ample time to ready itself for the mundane.
|
Beginner
Kabbalah explains the mystical connection between Shabbat and femininity.
The Sabbath day is traditionally inaugurated by candle-lighting, preferably done by the woman or women of the house. The Kabbalah teaches us that all of Creation, from the lowest levels of physical reality to the highest spiritual beings, return to their Source on this day.
The Shabbat refers to the sefira of malchut, the divine attribute of kingship, the receptacle of divine sustenance which flows from the higher sefirot into the physical or lower worlds. Women are related to this concept, because of their inherent physical nature that first receives, and then forms and develops, the embryo. The Shabbat is intrinsically female, as it receives, in contrast to the giving nature of the previous six days of the week. |
