Courtesy of Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein
It’s not icing on the cake.
It’s halachah.
The emotional component in
readying ourselves for Shabbos is fixed in the literature of halachah. Rambam writes[2] “Our Sages
command a person…to envelop himself in his talis, and sit solemnly, waiting
to receive the presence of Shabbos as if he were going out to receive the
king.”
In the hours immediately
before Shabbos, both the various Worlds and the souls of the departed move to
higher places. How are we to relate to such a time?
The Gemara provides us with
an important start at an answer. We find [3] two approaches. R. Chanina would
say, “Let us go out to greet the queen- bride.” R. Yanai, on the other hand,
would say, “Come, oh kallah; come oh kallah.”
Shabbos is the kallah, explains the Maharsha,
citing a medrash, because all the days of the week had “mates,” as the six days
of Creation easily form three such “couples.” Shabbos gave the week an odd
number of days. To restore harmony, Shabbos needed a partner, and found one in
the Jewish people.
We experience the fullness
of this marriage on Shabbos itself, which is like nisuin. We instantly comprehend
that the avodah of erev Shabbos, then, is kiddushin. Shabbos, continues the
Maharsha, is the bride. She is also a queen, in that Bnei Yisrael all become
like royalty.
A groom ordinarily goes out
to greet the kallah, arriving to ready herself
for the wedding. So did R. Chanina, walking out to greet Shabbos. At the
wedding itself, the chasan, ready to formalize the
entrance of the kallah into the new life they will
build, stands under the chupah,and bids the kallah approach. The entrance of
the kallah into the symbolic house of the chupah will be followed a short
time later with the groom’s bidding her enter their actual domicile. R. Yanai
took up this role, in his doubled “come, oh kallah.”
Rabbenu Chananel adds a
nuance to the Gemara’s description of R. Chanina. The Gemara offers that
description in the context of a legal discussion, one that limits liability of
people rushing about on erev Shabbos. When they inadvertently
damage others, halachah frees them from the obligation to make restitution,
arguing that “they rush about with legal approval.” The Gemara points to R.
Chanina as the source of this legal approval. Rabbenu Chananel paraphrases the
Gemara, and speaks of him as “dancing onwards, proclaiming ‘come, ohkallah.’” While we don’t see the
dancing in the words of the Gemara, Rabbenu Chananel did. He understood that
the rushing about sanctioned by Chazal is not born of the pragmatic
considerations of getting much done in a short period of time Friday afternoon.
Rather, it is made of the same stuff as R. Chanina’s Shabbos-greeting ceremony:
emotionally charged, unbridled enthusiasm for the approach of Shabbos, akin to
the emotive release of dance. It was the heart that dictated R. Chanina’s
behavior, not his wristwatch ticking off the little time remaining before shkiah.
The customary recitation of
Shir Ha-Shirim is perhaps the clearest expression of the air of expectancy
surrounding erev Shabbos. Elsewhere, the loving
relationship between Klal Yisrael and HKBH is framed in terms of the
parent-child relationship. “Banim atem” [4]– your are children to
Hashem. Shir Ha-Shirim takes the love to the next level – that of a couple,
both smitten with lovesickness. It is reminiscent of Rambam’s definition of the
proper way to love Hashem: “One should love Hashem with a very great love, so
that his soul should be bound up to His love…as if afflicted by
lovesickness…All of Shir Ha-Shirim is a mashal to this state.”
More specifically, the
recitation of Shir Ha-Shirim sharply defines the key difference between how we
experience erev Shabbos relative to Shabbos itself.
If Shabbos is a time of intense devekus to Hashem, then erev
Shabbos is the time that we are consumed with longing for that devekus. (This is part of the intent
of the verse [5] “And they will prepare what they bring.” We arrive at Shabbos’ devekus to Hashem only by preparing
ourselves, by anticipating the imminent connection to Hashem through intense
longing.) Within the orbit of love-related feelings, it is longing that most
characterizes the mood of Shir Ha-Shirim.
The Ohr Ha-Chaim [6]
offered a beautiful mashal for this thought. A king divorced his queen. As far
as all in the realm were concerned, the divorce was final. He would not have
distanced her unless he had completely lost all feeling for her. Their son,
however, suspected otherwise. Speaking to his father, he determined that the
king still had much love for the ex-queen. When he spoke to his mother, he
detected the same feelings of love for her former spouse. To remedy the
situation, he composed two songs or verses. One expressed the love of the king
for the queen, and the second her love for the king. He sent each song to its proper
recipient, and restored the closeness between them. This is why, explained the
Ohr Ha-Chaim, the work is called Shlomo’s Shir Ha-Shirim, and not simply
Shlomo’s shir. It is literally a song of
songs, a song that merges two songs – one of the King and the other or His
queen. Between the two versions, we understand the bond between Hashem and His
people.
R. Elimelech of Lizhinsk
famously stated that were it not for the sweetness of Shabbos itself, he would
not be able to contain within himself the sweetness of erev Shabbos. Our approach makes sense of
this. Shabbos and erev Shabbos each bring us to a
different emotional place. The longing and desire of erev Shabbos disappear when Shabbos
arrive, because we then achieve the object of our desire, as the longing gives
way to devekus! Each experience is sweet in
its own way – and potentially overpowering. R. Elimelech meant that he would be
overcome by the strength of the erev Shabbos feeling if it did not come
to an end by morphing into the very different feeling of Shabbos itself.
We should mention yet one
more aspect of the pre-Shabbos longing. The Ohr Ha-Chaim [7] sees a connection
between the word veshamru and a similar expression of
“And his father shamar - kept the matter in mind.”[8] Part of our attitude
towards Shabbos should be keeping it in mind at all times. We should look
forward to it at all times during the week, impressing upon ourselves that all
our other activity pales in comparison to the elevated state that we experience
on Shabbos. A Jew should spend his entire week with Shabbos!
We are instructed in the Aseres Ha-Dibros to “remember the Shabbos
day.” [9] The commentaries tell us that this means that we should mention it
all through the week.[10] According to our thinking, however, it may mean more
than that. We should live our lives suffused with Shabbos, making Shabbos the
central and most important experience of our week.
We relate to the land of
Israel in a similar manner. The Gemara[11] [says, “Both he who is born there,
and he who longs to see it.” Here, too, the longing and desire are part of the
mitzvah.
[1]
Based on Nesivos Shalom v.2 pgs 40-43
[2] Shabbos 30:2
[3] Bava Kamma 32A
[4] Devarim 14:1
[5] Shemos 16:5
[6] In his Rishon Le-Tziyon on Shir Ha-Shirim
[7] Shemos 31:16
[8] Bereishis 37:11
[9] Shemos 20:8
[10]See Ramban, ibid., that we should count the days of the week towards
Shabbos
[11]Kesubos 75A
[2] Shabbos 30:2
[3] Bava Kamma 32A
[4] Devarim 14:1
[5] Shemos 16:5
[6] In his Rishon Le-Tziyon on Shir Ha-Shirim
[7] Shemos 31:16
[8] Bereishis 37:11
[9] Shemos 20:8
[10]See Ramban, ibid., that we should count the days of the week towards Shabbos
[11]Kesubos 75A
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