Holding on to Shabbat forever

(In recognition of  the upcoming “Shabbat Project” Shabbat worldwide.)

I feel the sudden warmth, the sudden change of air,
as we stand with all the malakhim there!
If I could only keep the kedusha here and bring the whole world to see!
(Mordechai Ben David: “Candles” [1980])

* * *

Where does the Creation narrative in the Torah end?

A careful perusal will uncover the intriguing discrepancy between the end of the creation chapter – as per the Biblical chapters conventionally used – and the end of the Creation parasha – the conclusion of the first Aliya (call-up to the Torah).

Lest we forget or lest we never knew, the Biblical chapters are of Christian origin. Judaism adopted them due only due to historical necessity. Our ancestors in mediaeval times were required by the church to take part in disputations to justify their existence as Jews. (The famous disputation of Barcelona between the apostate Pablo Cristiani and the victorious Ramban [1263] was brought to life in a memorable inaugural exhibit at the Bet haTefutsot museum in Tel Aviv.) Invariably the hostile church clerics would harangue the Jewish disputant by saying “In chapter X, verse Y of Leviticus it says …” Therefore Jewish familiarity with the ‘chapters’ was essential. And so the Torah was set out by chapter and verse in the earliest printed chumashim, to be retained ever after.

Chapter One of Genesis is seen to conclude at the end of the sixth day of Creation. The account of G-­D resting on the seventh day begins the new Chapter Two.

Thus the Christian notion of the Sabbath was of a day unconnected with the other six. Indeed many Christians refer to the Sabbath as “The Lord’s Day”. The clear implication is that on the other six days one need barely be aware of the Lord. In most denominations, a good Christian goes to church every Sunday. Communion and a concomitant awareness of  G-­D beyond once a week is not required of the masses.

Judaism sees it differently. The first parasha (portion of the Sidra) concludes following, not before, the account of the Shabbat in the paragraph Vayekhulu which we have adopted as the opening declaration of the Shabbat evening Kiddush.

For the Jew, Shabbat is not disconnected from the six days of creation. Rather it is the apotheosis of Creation and indeed its very raison d’etre. As we sing in Lekha Dodi: Sof ma’aseh be-makhashava tekhila. “Last in production, first in thought!”

But lest we had imagined we had it all sussed out, we have reckoned without that ‘annoying’ little last word of the Creation parasha.

And G-­D blessed the seventh day and made it holy for on it He rested from all his creative and productive work which G­-D had created la’asot to make (Gen 2:3).

I still recall from my long distant cheder (Hebrew school) days how that final word used to jar on me. I didn’t see the need for it. G-­D rested from all His creative activity. Fine! What is the point of this la’asot?

As a child I would not have appreciated the sublimity of the answer. For one thing the explanation, properly understood, serves to secure the connection between the six days of creation and Shabbat. For another, it uncovers the stupendous revelation that the Creation narrative does not end even with Shabbat.

Firstly, to return to the connection between the six working days and Shabbat. A tangible entity connects and cements the two. That tangible entity is Man/Woman.

Adam and Eve were created last, on the cusp of Shabbat. Purposefully so. For only man/woman is capable of melding the kedusha (sanctity) represented by Shabbat into the mundane working week. And only s/he can infuse the mundane with kedusha.

This is why, symbolically, we have tosefet Shabbat, ‘stealing’ a few moments from before and after the holy day and making them a part of our Shabbat.

Woman takes the leading role in this at the outset. Eve was created closer to Shabbat than was Adam. Woman is the pinnacle of Creation. She has an extra degree of intuitive spirituality. She is the first to inaugurate Shabbat, whether fifteen, eighteen or, in Jerusalem, forty minutes prior to sunset, by hadlakat neirot, by the lighting of Shabbat candles. She, assisted by her husband (who is expected to prepare the wicks) initiates the process of suffusing the mundane with sacred light, advancing the kedusha of Shabbat into the prior working week.

The magic of Shabbat descends upon us for twenty-four-plus sacred, blissful hours. By its conclusion a remarkable phenomenon has occurred. The light that inaugurated Shabbat has transformed into a fire capable of warming us through the coming week.

That is why the havdala candle is a multi-wicked flame. This time the roles are reversed with the man, as principal breadwinner, (see Gen 3:19) leading (as a rule) the havdala ceremony with his wife by his side raising the candle aloft. The ensuing six days of toil will not disconnect entirely from the kedusha we have just experienced. Instead a portion of that kedusha will carry over into everything we do during those six days until the next Shabbat.

This is the meaning of la’asot. “For on it He rested from all His …work which G-­D created la’asot.” The end of the sixth day does not mark the close of the Creation chapter. But nor really does the end of the seventh day. Man and Woman will continue in partnership la’asot, to make the world – their world – a holy place where G-D feels welcome to enter. Shabbat, the climax of creation, has made that possible.

So the real answer to the question we posed at the outset is: the Creation narrative does not end. Man/Woman are partners with G­-D in the ongoing creation process. The first Shabbat in history had marked the raison d’etre of creation, the infusion of kedusha into the process. Our role is to keep the kedusha there through the rest of the ensuing six days. And to raise ourselves to even greater spiritual heights the following Shabbat and beyond.

In this way we fulfil our la’asot mission by remaining constant partners with G-­D in ongoing creation and will merit eventually to experience yom she-kulo Shabbat, an eternal Sabbath plane-of-existence for Am Yisrael and for humanity.

—

Extracted from my third book Spirals of the Soul.