Welcome to Embrace Shabbat.
Next week marks the beginning of the Nine Days, the period of time when we mourn the Churban Beit HaMikdash and resolve to improve ourselves in the areas that caused its destruction.
In describing the Jewish people going into galut, the passuk in Eicha tells us: לֹ֥א מָצְאָ֖ה מָנ֑וֹחַ, she did not find rest. The word מָנ֑וֹחַ is derived from the word מנוחה, and the Gemara teaches that one of the reasons that the Jewish people went into galut was because they did not keep Shabbat.
It is interesting the passuk uses the terminology of לֹ֥א מָצְאָ֖ה מָנ֑וֹחַ rather than the simpler לא שבתו, they didn’t keep Shabbat. While Shabbat is מנוחה, it is strange that the passuk focuses on the outcome of Shabbat, rather than the day itself.
People who keep Shabbat can be separated into two categories. There are those for whom observing Shabbat is a tircha, a bother. They complain about how it interferes with their life and prevents them from doing things that they enjoy. And then there are those from whom Shabbat is the biggest taanug, enjoyment. How is it that these two groups experience Shabbat so differently?
There was a newly married woman who invites her husband’s family over for dinner for the first time. In her angst, she calls her neighbor and says that she wants to serve the most delicious dessert. Does her friend have any recommendations? As luck would have it, her neighbor has the recipe for a cake from the #1 chef in France. It was a winner, guaranteed!
The woman takes down the recipe and under tremendous pressure, begins to make the cake. Unfortunately, she does not have many of the ingredients. But she is resourceful and manages to make appropriate substitutions for many of the ingredients. The recipe called for butter, so she replaces it with margarine. It calls for walnuts, and she throws some salted almonds into the batter. She’s out of honey, so she substitutes sugar. It is perfect!
Her husband’s family sits down for the meal, and the cake is not edible. Between the salt from the almonds and the margarine instead of the butter- they can hardly eat it! She herself tastes the cake and sees that it is a disaster!
After the meal, she calls her friend and starts screaming and yelling at her. “What did you do to me? My family came over for the first time and this is what you do to me?” Her rant goes on and on. Her friend is shocked! She asks, “Did you follow the recipe exactly?” Her friend says she didn’t, but imagine what would have happened had she actually followed the recipe!
HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us Shabbat and the recipe for מנוחה- follow שמירת שבת כהלכתה. If we start substituting what we think are the proper ingredients for מנוחה, the cake is not going to come out the way that it is supposed to. לֹ֥א מָצְאָ֖ה מָנ֑וֹחַ- they didn’t find מנוחה because they didn’t follow the recipe.
Shabbat is set up in a way that we can intuit whether or not we are following it properly. If a person feels the מנוחה and the special feeling of Shabbat, then they know they are following the recipe. If a person is not feeling it, they should question whether they are keeping Shabbat properly. Wise is a person who recommits themselves to learning Hilchot Shabbat- the Chief chef’s recipe.
Have a Shabbat Shalom.