When we look at time, we don't usually think of it as a creation—we assume time just is, and that God created people, places, and physical things within it. But time is a creation, too. Nothing exists unless God creates it. While it can be hard to fathom, God created time, and like any creation, time has different "flavors."
Just as places and people have different flavors, so does time. In our context, when we say "flavors," we really mean levels of holiness. But there is a crucial distinction: vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry are different flavors of the exact same item—ice cream. When it comes to living creatures, an animal and a human aren't just two different "flavors" of the same thing; they are entirely different states of existence.
As we know from the Kuzari's hierarchy, a Jewish person represents a distinct state of being. The same principle applies to holy places. The Beit Hamikdash was not just another physical location. Rav Wolbe, quoting the Ha'emek Davar, explained that when you walked into the Beit Hamikdash, you entered a completely different time zone and existence. As Rav Moshe Feinstein put it, walking into the Beit Hamikdash was like stepping into God's embassy—a place existing min ha'olam v'ad ha'olam (from this world to the next world). You were stepping directly into Olam Haba.
Shabbat operates the exact same way. Shabbat is me'ein Olam Haba—a mini-experience of the World to Come. It isn't just a different flavor of time, like the difference between "Monday morning blues" and a Friday weekend mood. It is the difference between ice cream and pastrami—a completely different category of existence.
Rav Matisyahu Salomon illustrates this with a story about the Chofetz Chaim. When the Chofetz Chaim completed writing the Mishnah Berurah, he hosted a large siyum. He invited a group of Talmidei Chachamim, and each day of the week, they celebrated a different volume, spending the day discussing its topics—Volume 1 on Sunday, Volume 2 on Monday, through Volume 6 on Friday. The guests assumed that after spending all week at his house, Shabbat would proceed as normal. Instead, the Chofetz Chaim called everyone together and announced, "We need to make another siyum."
Confused, they asked, "But there is no seventh volume of the Mishnah Berurah!"
He replied that Shabbat had come to him and asked, "Why don't I get a siyum?"
Rav Matisyahu Salomon explains: because Shabbat is a higher dimension of time, from the perspective of Shabbat's realm, the siyum had not happened yet. It was an entirely different level of existence.
This concept explains several other teachings:
- Sheva Brachot: The rabbis explain that on Shabbat, you don't necessarily require panim chadashot (new guests) at a Sheva Brachot meal. Why? Because Shabbat itself is so new and distinct that no one was truly there before—it is a whole new reality.
- Physical Being: The Chasam Sofer famously noted that while a medical test on people from different regions might show minor variance ("flavors"), the spiritual reality of a Jew who eats kosher food alters their physical baseline.
- The Nature of Food: Rabbi Grossman offered a parable of two cars that look identical, but one runs on regular gasoline and the other on diesel. Putting the wrong fuel into a car destroys the engine. Similarly, we consume unique spiritual food because we operate on a different plane of existence. The Beit Hamikdash had holy Korbanot for the same reason: higher states of existence require higher food.
- The Shift after Adam Harishon: Rav Moshe Shapiro noted that after the sin, Adam was told he would have to eat the grass of the field. Originally, bread grew on trees—meaning fully formed, ready-to-eat carbohydrates grew naturally like fruit. When Adam realized he was reduced to eating raw wheat from the ground like livestock, he lamented, "Am I and my donkey to eat from the same trough?" Eating the same food implied operating on the same plane of existence.
- Aseret Yemei Teshuva: Rav Moshe Shapiro also explained why we adopt additional stringencies like Pat Akum (refraining from non-Jewish baked bread) during the Ten Days of Repentance. By elevating what we eat, we demonstrate to Hashem that we are striving to exist on a higher, more elevated plane.
This helps us answer a famous question about the days of the week. Midrashic sources teach that the days of the week are paired up (e.g., Sunday with Monday, Tuesday with Wednesday, Thursday with Friday), but Shabbat was left without a pair. Shabbat complained, and Hashem responded that the Jewish people would be her match.
Why couldn't Shabbat simply pair up with Sunday or Tuesday? Because a match requires compatibility in existence—a giant cannot marry a regular human being because they belong to different categories. Sunday through Friday share the same mundane level of creation, but Shabbat belongs to a higher plane. The only fitting partner on that same elevated level of existence is the Jewish nation.
This is the deeper meaning of Kiddashto Mikol Hazmanim—Hashem elevated Shabbat above all other times. As we enter Shabbat each week, let us appreciate and embrace the elevated state of existence we are privileged to step into.