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.
