Embrace Shabbat

Shabbat is One

Published: July 29, 2022
Duration: 05:04

Welcome to Embrace Shabbat.

Last week we brought ideas from the Sefer Yafei LaLev by Rav Chaim Palagi. He continues with another beautiful thought in אות ז where he writes: אחד נקרא שבת, Shabbat is called One. This means that one of the titles of Shabbat is “One.”

We know that Hashem is One, השם אחד. The Zohar also teaches that one of G-d’s names is Shabbat. (For this reason, a person is not allowed to say the word Shabbat in the bathroom or any unclean place, because Shabbat is one of G-d’s names. This applies to the Mikvah as well.

I met a man in the Mikvah in Deal who would say “GS” when he was talking to Ashkenazim and “SS” when he was talking to Sefardim. GS stands for Good Shabbos and SS stands for Shabbat Shalom, because he could not say ‘Shabbat’ in the Mikvah.)

Rav Palagi says an unbelievable thought. In mincha on Shabbat we say, ,אתה אחד ושמך אחד- G-d is One and His name is One. G-d’s name is Shabbat. When we say אתה אחד ושמך אחד it means G-d is One and His name, which is Shabbat, is also One.

Shabbat is referred to as One because it causes achdut, as the Midrash teaches: הַיּוֹשֶׁבֶת בַּגַּנִּים חֲבֵרִים, the friends are sitting in the garden. This refers to when the Jewish people are sitting together on Shabbat in Shul.

The Gemara in Masechet Chagiga teaches that there are three that testify on each other: HaKadosh Baruch Hu, Shabbat, and the Jewish people. HaKadosh Baruch Hu and Shabbat testify on the Jewish people that they are One. HaKadosh Baruch Hu and the Jewish people testify on Shabbat that it is one and the Jewish people and Shabbat testify on HaKadosh Baruch Hu that He is One.

אתה אחד refers to G-d, שמך אחד refers to Shabbat, and מי כעמך כישראל גוי אחד refers to the Jewish people. Every Shabbat at Mincha we mention about the three forces that are unified: G-d, Shabbat, and the Jewish people.

What does it mean that Shabbat is One?

On Shabbat, we are given the opportunity to connect to G-d as we separate from the external evil forces that seem contrary to G-d. We go back to the Source of our neshama, which is G-d, by disconnecting from these separating forces.

This is why on Shabbat, we cannot carry from a reshut haYachid to a reshut haRabim. It symbolizes that we cannot go from the private zone to the public zone.

Furthermore, the Jewish people are referred to as a reshut haYachid and the goyim are referred to as the reshut haRabim. Esav is called nefashot (plural), and the Jewish people are referred to as shivim nefesh (singular) because the Jewish people are one. We are connected to G-d without the outside forces, whereas the goyim are all disconnected by the various negative forces that they associate with.

The Mishnah in Masechet Middot teaches that the Greeks breached the wall called חל. This wall was 10 tefachim high, about the height of the table, and it went around the Beit HaMikdash area. The Rosh explains that this wall turned the area of the Beit Hamikdash into a Reshut HaYachid; it was an Eiruv so that people could carry there. The Goyim wanted to undo the concept of a private territory.

Shabbat is all about achdut. It is when we reconnect to our souls. אתה אחד ושמך אחד ומי כעמך ישראל גוי אחד בארץ.