Shabbos Kallah

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·        Vayachulu – psukim from the beginning of the second chapter of Breshis - that we say in Friday night davening and Kiddush – has a perplexing structure.

·        Here are the 5 phrases

1.     Now the heavens and the earth were completed and everything in it.

2.     And Hashem completed on the seventh day His work that He did,

3.     And He abstained on the seventh day from all His work that He did.

4.     And God blessed the seventh day and He Mekadeshed it

5.     For on it He abstained from all His work that Hashem created to do.

 

·        Four of the five phrases refer back towards the past week, saying what Hashem accomplished in the 6 days of creation, and only one of the five phrases  looks forward to Shabbos, the holy 7th day.

·        When we make Kiddush Friday night, we are TOTALLY looking forward to Shabbos, and we’re not looking back at what we accomplished during the week.

·        We’re looking forward to the kiddushah and menuchah of Shabbos, of spending time with family, friends, and community.

·        Then why does Vayachulu refer mainly back to the 6 days of creation?

 

·        We’re going to suggest something that at first sounds a bit strange, and is admittedly anthropomorphic, but let’s see if the evidence supports the idea.

·        The Medrash in Breshis Rabba 11:8 says the following:

·        Rabbi Berekiah says: "Each of the first 6 days of the week has a partner. The first day of the week has the second, the third has the fourth, the fifth has the sixth, but Shabbos has no partner….Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai taught: Shabbos requested of Hashem, saying: "Everyone else has a partner, but I don’t have a partner!" Hashem answered saying: "Kenneset Israel will be your partner."

·        Our suggestion is that Hashem was going ‘home’ Friday night to a Shabbos that was lonely.

 

·        Perhaps Vayachulu is focused on the past because Hashem, so to speak, is hesitating and feels ambivalent about coming home Friday night to a sad and lonely Shabbos that was bereft of company.

·        Sure there was Adam and Chava.  But they weren’t really good company or ‘happy campers’. 

·        They had just sinned and forfeited Gan Eden.

·        Their bags were packed and they were going to be kicked out the door Motzi Shabbos – not the greatest of company.

·        I once heard a Rabbi say that one of the loneliest experiences is to make Kiddush alone, because Shabbos needs to be spent with others.

 

·        This lonely condition for Shabbos remained that way for about 2000 years.

·        When Hashem and Avraham and formed a relationship in the year 1948, Hashem had in mind a solution to this problem, as the Medresh above says.

·        As soon as the Jews left Mitzrayim, just before the first Shabbos at Marah, Hashem suggested to the Jewish people the Shidduch called Shabbos.

·        Shabbos 10a and Beyah 16a says:

·        Hashem said to Moshe, I have a magnificent gift in My Otzar, my treasure house, called Shabbos and I want to give it to the Jewish people.  Go and let them know that they are about to receive this splendid gift.

·        Messechet Kiddushin says that a father can Mekadesh his daughter

·        We’re suggesting that Hashem is proposing to Mekadesh Shabbos to the Jewish people, as the Medresh from Breishis Rabba suggests.

·        When we say that Hashem “Mekadesh Shabbos”, perhaps it is referring to the idea that Hashem Mekadeshed Shabbos to the Jewish people.

·        The first Shabbos at Marah was the first Shidduch date.

 

·        But Hashem wanted to ensure that the Jewish people would be an excellent husband for Shabbos. 

·        I once asked Rabbi Belsky what the most important ingredient for a good marriage is, and he said it is to be able to be Mevater.

·        And that requires humility, and a lack of Gaivah.

·        Perhaps Mitzrayim was to be an environment to expunge the Gaivah from the Jewish People so that they could be a great husband for Shabbos.

·        Mitzrayim with its Avdus was like breaking and plowing the ground to make it more fertile so that what is planted will flourish.

 

·        Yevomos 46a talks about the night of leaving Mitzrayim.

·        It says that’s when the Jewish people BECAME the Jewish people – the men all had a bris, and the women all went to the Mikvah.

·        And on Pesach we rid ourselves completely of Chametz, the arch-metaphor of Gaivah,

·        With Klal Yisroel formed, and the gaivah expunged, the stage was set for the marriage between the Jewish people and Shabbos.

 

·        And if Marah was the first Shidduch date, the marriage itself took place 7 weeks after leaving Mitzrayim, at Har Sinai, that is often compared to a Chupah.

·        We refer to this every Friday night when we sing Lecha Dodi Lekrat Kallah.

·        We are referring to Shabbos as the Kallah, remembering how it was a Kallah and the Jewish People were the Chosson at Har Sinai.

·        Over Shabbos we treat Shabbos royally, like a Queen.

·        We refer to this when we have the meal right after Shabbos called Melavah Malka.

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·        This Kiddushin with Shabbos explains two other Hallachas.

·        It explains why if a non-Jew tries to keep Shabbos he is Chayiv Misah, because that is tantamount to Aishes Ish, being with another man’s wife.

·        It also explains why a Jew who is Mechalel Shabbos is Chayiv Skilah – the worst punishment – because it is equivalent to being disloyal to one’s wife, in this case, a wife whose Shidduch was arranged by Hashem Himself.

 

·        Messechet Shabbos 88b says that at Har Sinai, the Aseret Hadibros were so powerful that the Neshama of the Jewish people left them, and this was replaced by a new Neshama.

·        This new Neshama was on a new, holier madrega, that enabled the Jewish people to be a great husband for Shabbos.

·        This is the Neshama Yisera, the extra Neshama, that we feel more palpably on Shabbos.

 

·        Shabbos 86b says, “All agree that the Torah was given to Israel on Shabbos.”

·        Har Sinai had to take place on Shabbos because both the Chosson and Kallah had to be present at the Chupah.

·        The intimacy between Klal Yisroel and Shabbos was so intense, that it created the Kiddushin that bound them together. 

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·        We re-experience this intense intimacy with Shabbos every week, from the moment Shabbos starts - to the moment we are sad to see it go.

·        The intimacy that the Jewish people have with Shabbos on Shabbos recharges our spiritual batteries, so that we can make the world a holier place during the other 6 days of the week.

·        It raises the spiritual madrega of the Jewish people so we can fulfill our mission to be a Mamlechet Kohanim and a Holy People.

·        We have this ability to reach this special madrega because were given the Neshama Yesera at Har Sinai to be good husbands with Shabbos.

·        This Neshama Yesara enables us to attain and maintain this amazing spiritual charge that we get from being with our Shabbos Kallah each Shabbos.

 

·        This may sound somewhat like science fiction.

·        But is it totally real, it IS reality.

·        It’s a reality that is partly rooted in the spiritual world of Ruchnius, and it happens to the Jewish People every Shabbos in the real physical world.

·        Shabbos is where the spiritual world meets the physical world.

·        We the Jewish people should feel incredibly honored by this reality.

·        There is nothing more special that the opportunity that every week we spend 25 hours together with our Shabbos Kallah.

·        We must let Hashem know how much we appreciate this gift, this marriage, and use the spiritual energy that we get on Shabbos to Mekadesh the world.