Part of the job of parenting is helping your children with their homework. That job gets rebranded as a perk when you are a grandparent. Extra benefit -- your children/their parents get some relief. Win-win-win situation if there ever was one!
I would like to share a bit of what I learned with one of my granddaughters about Shabbos and how we as a nation relate to it, as explained by R' Shimshon Pincus. The foundation of the presentation is that we treat Shabbos as an entity with independent existence, opinions, desires, etc... that is, as a אישיות/personality. We are so used to it that we don't even think about it.
We don't receive Pesach or Sukkos or Purim or Chanuka. The time comes for them and we celebrate them with the requisite kiddush or megillah reading and/or appropriate candle lighting. They are deep, meaningful, important, and fun; but they are, when all is said and done, events on the calendar. We also don't really -- and please read the rest of the paragraph before jumping on me -- prepare them. Even Pesach, for which we spend weeks cleaning, then turning over the kitchen, then cooking, and buying matzah. That is not preparing for Pesach; that is preparing for ourselves to be able to avoid the prohibition of having chameitz and enabling us to fulfill the mitzvah of eating a measure of matzah. For Sukkos, one must have a sukkah in order to be able to eat a bread meal and make kiddush. If one fails to have any of these things ready, then there will likely be transgressions of both Torah and Rabbinic ordinances. Some of those transgressions would be quite serious. But they are -- ahem -- "just" that; transgressions. They are not an insult to the holiday.
Not so Shabbos. We have a whole קבלת שבת/reception service for Shabbos. We have a ceremony for escorting Shabbos out, and (of course, we are Jewish, after all) a meal to go with it. Our relationship with Shabbos can't be put into words, so we sing it in, and we have special songs for the meals. Interestingly, on a Shabbos of Yom Tov or Chol HaMo'ed, we do not sing those songs and we have an abbreviated קבלת שבת service. After all, whenever you have guests, focus on them and don't have such personal family time. So too, when Shabbos occurs during Yom Tov, we need to be more formal and pay attention to the mitzvos particular to those days.
All of this, says the Brisker, is learned from when we received the Torah at Har Sinai. At that momentous occasion we all prepared to meet our Creator, our King, our Father. Every Shabbos is a reunion and personal replay of that event. When we receive Shabbos into our homes, we are receiving HaShem... our Creator, our King, our Father.
Imagine someone's parents told them they were coming from out of town and would be there for Shabbos. How would the parents feel if they arrived on Thursday and no one was home to greet them? They come back Friday afternoon, knock on the door and are told, "We are all busy right now. But we are really looking forward to seeing you tonight."
Shabbos is much more than the mitzvah of kiddush and the prohibition to work. It is actually receiving HaShem, the King into our homes along with His bride, the Shabbos. Running into Shabbos unprepared is like running into a chasuna in your t-shirt and shorts. It is an insult.
Shabbos is the source of all blessing and goodness we receive in our lives. That blessing is not just "getting stuff" (Hey, HaShem... good to see You... what did You bring me?) That blessing the relationship we have and experience each and every Shabbos. Isn't that something worth preparing for with enthusiasm?
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