Shalom! Welcome to Zohar-Shabbos (that’s Shabbat for some you). With the help of Hashem (God), on Thursdays I will post a piece or two from the holy Zohar that relates to Shabbat. I will try to translate Hebrew/Aramaic words that may be unfamiliar; if I miss one and you want to know what it means, please ask. Other feedback is also welcome. These pieces will be “rendered,” a fancy way of saying “loosely translated, not exactly translated.”
This series of posts is in memory of a dear friend and teacher, Chaim Barukh Yehudah (b, Dovid Tzvi) Daskal, aka Chaim m’Yerushalayim z”l (may the mention of the righteous be for a blessing). What Reb Chaim did to honor Shabbat and to share Shabbat with others, I cannot describe. When I say “share Shabbat,” I do not mean the wine and the challah. I mean Shabbat herself. To spend Shabbos with him was to discover a new dimension of Shabbos. (Instead of writing these with tears at the thought of not being able to spend time with him again, I will try to write them with the joy that he brought to Shabbat and to life.)
Erev Shabbat (Part 1 of 2)
Shabbat is a day brimming with all sorts of kedushah, holiness. Shabbat is both a destination—a day we can enjoy the fruits of our weekday labors, material as well as spiritual—and an experiential academy that teaches us how to make even more progress in our relationship with Hashem. (For convenience and brevity’s sake we will also call this “spiritual growth.”)
Spiritual growth is a gift, but it doesn’t come free. You have to work and work and work for it. This is an indication that you want it, that you are seriously interested in your relationship with Hashem. Working for it doesn’t necessarily include taxing physical labor or strenuous mental gymnastics. It does include making hard choices.
Since Shabbat is rich and powerful, those forces in the Universe which work against our spiritual growth try to keep us from accessing Shabbat as fully as we can. They scheme to have things go wrong, get us angry or upset, etc. It is crucial to know that Hashem put these “anti-holiness” forces there. The purpose is not to torture or test you. It is to raise you by having you develop the “muscles” of your neshamah (soul). As much as you a closer relationship with God, God wants a closer relationship with you even more.
Long-time Shabbat observers already know this and if you’re just starting to keep Shabbat, you’ll soon find out. Erev Shabbat, Shabbat eve (Friday afternoons) are crackling with energy. That energy is potential kedushah. The anti-holy don’t want us to have it. It’s our job to stay on the alert and not lose our cool.
A Dining Experience
Come, see! On Friday afternoon, as evening approaches, that ball of unholy fire leaps, raising itself up in order to enter with the other three unholier forces, in order to receive its nourishment by stealing some Shabbat holiness.
But at that time, if Jews are preparing food for the Shabbat meals and setting the table for Shabbat, an even stronger, and holier, spark emerges and collides with the ball of fire. Both going flying into the Sinkhole of the Great Deep, unable to cause harm. They remain there until motzei Shabbat (Saturday night, after Shabbat).
(Source: Zohar 2:203b, Parshat VaYakhel)
Washing Up for the Neshamah Yeteirah
Before Shabbat begins the people of the holy nation have to bathe and immerse themselves in the mikveh (ritual bath) to cleanse themselves from the weekday energy that powers and, too often, controls them. Why is this?
On weekdays there is a spirit, not of the holy kind, that mingles, hangs around and hovers over people. So when a person wants divest himself of that spirit and step into a holy Shabbat spirit he needs to bathe and immerse himself in order to do so.
{The Arizal writes (Shaar HaKavanot, 62a) that a person needs to dunk twice in the mikveh. The first time is to remove the soul’s weekday “clothes,” which hinder spiritual progress. The second time is to honor Shabbat by readying oneself to receive the neshamah yeteirah, the additional soul we are granted on Shabbat.}
(Source: Zohar 2:204a, Parshat VaYakhel)
Cutting Edge
You should not grow your fingernails (or toenails) long. (“Long” means beyond the end of the finger [toe].) The longer they grow, the more you invite upon yourself spiritual troublemakers. [Fingernails are a representation of the more difficult situations of life.] You will feel uneasy.
You should keep your fingernails trimmed, but don’t throw the nail clippings underfoot. That’s disrespectful to the God’s agents you set up the difficulties; you can get hurt by them. [Life’s difficult moments are necessary. They are Hashem’s way of reminding us that we are accountable for what we do.]
This is similar to what goes on in the higher spiritual worlds. The Sitra Achra (forces of evil) tries to sneak up on the “back” of that which is holy. Its goal? To steal for itself some of the holiness. Throwing your fingernails (toenails) on the floor gives them easier access. We don’t need to do that!
(Source: Zohar 2:208b, Parshat VaYakhel)
© Copyright 2014 148west.com/O. Bergman
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Yashar Ko’ach! Thanks for this.