Welcome to Embrace Shabbat.
This week we celebrate Shabbat Erev Shavuot, a day when we prepare for Matan Torah. The Gemara Yerushalmi teaches: לֹא נִתְּנוּ שַׁבָּתוֹת וְיָמִים טוֹבִים לְיִשְֹרָאֵל אֶלָּא לַעֲסוֹק בָּהֶם בַּתּוֹרָה, the entire purpose of Shabbat and Yom Tov is to toil in Torah. Similarly, in Parashat Vayakhel, Hashem tells Moshe: עשה לך קהילות גדולות. ודרוש לפניהם ברבים הלכות שבת, make large groups for yourself and publicly give speeches in front of them on the laws of Shabbat. Hashem commands Moshe to gather the Jewish people to teach them about Shabbat.
The Torah dedicates Shabbat as a day of learning because it is a day of ample time to engage in Torah study. Furthermore, as we discussed last week, menucha on Shabbat does not merely refer to time for relaxing; it refers to getting more spiritually connected to Torah.
Rabbeinu Bachya teaches that on Shabbat, we are supposed to involve ourselves in דרכי ה' יתברך שהוא עסק הנפש, spiritual matters, as David HaMelech says: מה אהבתי תורתך כל היום היא שיחתי, Hashem I love your Torah. All of the days it is my talk. שיחה means my everyday conversational talk is about Torah.
Rabbeinu Bachya asks: shouldn’t the passuk say בכל יום היא שיחתי, every day it is my conversational talk? Why does David HaMelech say כל היום, all the day?
היום refers to Shabbat. The enjoyment of Shabbat is involving oneself in learning Torah כל היום, for entire day. On Shabbat, we are gifted with the neshama yetaira, which gives us the ability to learn more. It is for this reason that we ask the neshama yetaira on Motzei Shabbat: what chiddushim do you have?
Commenting on the words ויכל אלוקים, the Targum Yerushalmi explains that ויכל comes from the word חמד, to covet. ויחל comes from כלתה נפשי, to desire. Shabbat is a coveted day that is deeply desired.
The sefer חמדת ימים (page 114) quotes the Vilna Gaon who differentiates between טוב and חמדה. The word טוב refers to physical pleasures, whereas חמדה refers to עונג רוחני, spiritual delight. Interestingly, נחמד has the numerical value of 102. 17 x 6 is also 102. Each day of the week has a different טוב, which totals all of the goodness that is possible in the physical world during the six days of the week. Shabbat, חמדת ימים, includes all of the goods because spiritual good includes all physical goods. Physical enjoyment pales in the face of spiritual enjoyment.
When we said Naaseh v’Nishmah at Matan Torah, G-d gave us two crowns. At Chet Egel, we lost them. Every Shabbat, Moshe Rabbeinu returns those crowns to us. As we approach Matan Torah, there is no better time to reconnect to those crowns than on Shabbat. We must reconnect to our learning and commit ourselves to another year of learning. Think about what extra learning you can add to your Shabbat learning schedule. That will become your Oneg Shabbat and will help you in the Yom HaDin of Shavuot.
Shavuot is a day of judgment for the amount of chiddushim we will attain in the coming year. . Let us take advantage of our last Shabbat of the year. The Gemara says that we read the curses of Mishneh Torah before Shavuot because תכלה שנה וקללותיה, let the year and its curses end. We are starting a new year, the new Torah fiscal year. תכלה שנה וקללותיה- let’s use the last Shabbat of the Torah fiscal year dedicating our last Shabbat to this special activity of learning Torah.
Have a Shabat Shalom and a Chag Sameach.