Viewing the World through Shabbos Eyes
A Radical Vision of Wholeness
"According to the great Kabbalists, the water was never created; it was just there. It never says in the Book of Genesis that G-d created water. Water has the 'beyond creation' power, the power to wash you clean and make everything grow. Our rabbis teach us that in order to really feel the blessing of Shabbos you have to immerse in the mikveh."
"According to logic, the light of Shabbos -- G-d's light -- is so infinitely powerful, what can the candle add? But this is one of the fixings of Chavah (Eve)'s eating the Tree of Knowledge. Because it isn't true that the candle is insignificant. According to the Tree of Life every candle makes the light more infinite and more deep. Someone shows me a painting of Picasso. It's fabulous, but it doesn't touch me. A little drawing of my 3-year-old daughter tears my heart apart. G-d's light is like the Picasso, but every candle is like my daughter's drawing." {1981?}
"Shabbos is everywhere. You can't walk out of Shabbos. But this is only on the outside. On the inside it is our device to let Shabbos into the deepest depths of our soul. Friday night the prayer is called Kabbalos Shabbos, receiving Shabbos inside."
"Shabbos morning is the fixing of grabbing. Because what G-d gives me I don't have to steal and I don't even have to take; it is given to me. A slave takes, a king receives."
"Shalos Seudos, the Third Meal before you say goodbye to Shabbos, is the deepest of all. It's when you say goodbye to the one you love that it's clear to you how much they mean to you. Our holy rabbis teach us that all day Shabbos is just Shabbos. The Third Meal is Shabbos and Yom Kippur. IT's a must for eveyrone to spend the last hour of Shabbos in the deepest emotion.
"Saturday night late we will have a concert and partake in the Fesat of King David who lives forever. The feast of King David gives us the strength to keep Shabbos alive until the next Shabbos."
THE SOUL OF SHABBOS
Shabbos is back to Paradise. Paradise is a place where everything is good, everything is holy, everything is beautiful. Paradise is a place where suddenly it's clear to me that I can fix all my mistakes. And even more so, everything I thought was a mistake, every street I thought was the wrong street, was the only way to get there.
Shabbos has two faces. There is keeping the Shabbbos holy, the 39 laws of Shabbos, the withdrawing from the world, a non-power kind of life. But then there is the bliss of Shabbos, the inside of Shabbos, which is a gift from Heaven. The bliss of Shabbos is even deeper than Paradise. It's a secret between me and G-d, between me and the people I love so much. Shabbos is peace beacause peace is secrets, secrets of the depths, of the deepest depths. Secrets are the deepest G-d revelation. A true Shabbos person is someone who walks the streets of the world and every human being they see, they seem to have a secret with. But with those they love it's the secret of all secrets.
Shabbos is the strongest vitamin. On Shabbos new energy is coming down from Heaven. But the energy refuses to be received in dirty vessels, so for one second before Shabbos purity and holiness also descend into the world. Happy are those who fill their hearts with it. Friday night is the fixing of jealousy. Jealousy comes from thinking that someone can take your place or your portion. And in the deepest depths it's my own emptiness, my own incapability to retain what G-d is giving me. But Friday night, when my heart becomes so full, so overflowing full, like the wine from the Kiddush, jealousy is wiped out from my heart and hopefully, eventually, from the heart of mankind.
Shasbbos morning is the fixing of grabbing. Because what G-d gives me I don't have to steal and I don't even have to take; it's given to me. A slave takes, a king receives.
The third meal of Shabbos is the fixing of self-esteem, of honor, of giving up hope. The third meal is like the World To Come, when the world will be filled with G-d's glory, with the glory of every human being, when the honor of a child is enough to fill the whole universe with the deepest of G-d's honor.
Shabbos is the deepest healing in the world. Our holy rabbis teach us that a doctor can only heal a foot or a hand; they cannot give you a new one. But Shabbos, on the spiritual level, gives you back kyour hands and your feet. It gives you new brains, new eyes, new ears -- what a grevalt. Shabbos!
Friday night is the time of seeing, of discovering the unbelievable beauty and sweetness of the world of the Torah, of people, and above all, those I love the most. Shabbos morning is a time of tasting. It's even deeper than seeing. Most people love each other. But tasting each other's soul, each other's depths -- this is Shabbos morning. The third meal, and finally Havdalah, is smelling, inhaling the fragrance, the beauty which is beyond seeing and tasting, the kind of dpeths which only my soul can fathom. Happy are those who walk the streets of the world with the fragrance of Shabbos.
"The Friday night meal is the ultimate fixing of the Tree of Knowledge. It is when we transform it into the Tree of Life. The Baal Shem Tov says that whoever is up Friday night celebrating Shabbos until midnight will not leave this world without fixing their lives."1
from Booklet for The Rabbi Chaim Carlebach z'l Memorial Shabbaton
Febrary 28-March 1, 1992, 24-26 Adar 5752
Congregation Kehilath Jacob, 305 W. 79thSt., New YorkNY 10024