The Second Soul of Shabbat

When G-d drove Adam from Paradise, he retained part of his soul to remain there. On Shabbos, G-d releases that part and gives it back to man. This is our extra soul of Shabbos. On this day we are given the opportunity to return to Paradise.

Now, I must be satisfied with Paradise on Shabbos; in the future we hope to be brought to Jerusalem of High.

~Reb Shlomo Carlebach

There is a tradition within Judaism that on Shabbat we all receive an extra soul with which to enjoy the Sabbath. As I said in a previous post, in the past I had found this idea intriguing and even beautiful, but I didn't see any way to integrate it into the rest of my beliefs. However, recently an idea occurred to me which I want to share with you.

The Talmud says that Shabbat is "a taste of the world to come." (Berachot 57b) The author of the letter to the Hebrews made a similar point when he or she wrote "So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God." (Hebrews 4:9a) The point is the same: the Sabbath is a sign pointing not just to the past, but also to the future.

So what about this second soul? Well, if in order to experience the joy of Shabbat, God gives us each week a neshama yiterah, a second soul, how much more does this imply that we should receive a neshama yiterah gedolah in order to experience the joys of the world to come, where we will enjoy an even greater rest and know an even greater delight?

In fact, since the sages say in that same passage of Talmud that "Shabbat is one sixtieth of the world to come," then that implies that the neshama yiterah we receive on Shabbat must be one sixtieth of the neshama yiterah we receive from God in order to enter into the World to Come!

I believe this is in fact a teaching of Yeshua, when he said in a discourse to one of the teachers of Israel:

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3)

Yeshua taught that in order to see the kingdom of God, a person had to receive from God a second soul. This is no less than the fulfillment of the promise God made to Israel through the prophet Ezekiel

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. (Ezekiel 36:26a)

So, when we sanctify the Shabbat, let's thank God for the little neshama yiterah with which we can enjoy the beauty of the day. And let it also remind us each week to thank God for the greater neshama yiterah by which we will one day enter into the great Shabbat which is the World to Come.

Shabbat shalom, friends.

Shabbat and Jerusalem on High

Another great Shabbos quote from Reb Shlomo (z''l):

When G-d drove Adam from Paradise, he retained part of his soul to remain there. On Shabbos, G-d releases that part and gives it back to man. This is our extra soul of Shabbos. On this day we are given the opportunity to return to Paradise. The question is asked, where would Adam have gone on Shabbos if he had not been driven out of Paradise? G-d would have taken him to Jerusalem, the Jerusalem of High, which has not yet been revealed to us. Paradise is a place I know from before; Jerusalem above, I have never experienced. Now, I must be satisfied with Paradise on Shabbos; in the future we hope to be brought to Jerusalem of High.

from The Soul of Shabbos.

I have always thought that the idea of an 'extra soul' received by all Jews on Shabbat is a beautiful idea. At the same time, I wasn't really sure what to do with it--that is, until recently. After Shabbat I will post some more thoughts on this subject. Until then, perhaps thinking over this idea will lead you to insights of your own! If so, please share them!

Shabbat shalom.

A Shabbos Test

From Reb. Shlomo Carlebach z''l, whose 15th yahrzeit passed this week:

If you want to know how much you like a person, see if you can sit with the person without doing anything. Shabbos is therefore given to you. Do nothing and show your love for Hashem.

from The Soul of Shabbos.

This Shabbos I'm thankful to have recovered from my bout with illness. Good Shabbos everybody!

How do I go about doing teshuvah?

Elul is a season of teshuvah (repentance, turning). Last week we ended the week with the question, "And have you nothing to mend?" I want to start the week off with a different question: how do we do teshuvah?

The dangerous irony is that I could spend all month blogging about Elul and repentance and never actually get around to doing it. But how do I go about doing teshuvah?

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach ("Reb Shlomo" to his followers) was known as "the singing rabbi." He was one of the most influential Jewish religious songwriters in the 20th century. He was also a pioneer in the baal teshuva movement, through which countless Jewish young people have returned to the Jewish faith and way. Reb Shlomo told two stories:

The first one is someone came to the Holy Rizhner* and said, “Can you please teach me how to repent?” and he answered, “Listen, man, when you did your sinning you didn’t come to me to ask me how to do it. If you know how to sin. You also know how to repent.”
The other story is, someone came to the Mittler Rebbe**, who’s like a master of Teshuva and has written many books on Teshuva. “You have written so many books; please teach me how to do Teshuva.” So the Mittler answers, “To tell the truth, after all the books I’ve written, I still don’t know.”

Reb Shlomo said "Even if you study all the books in the world about repentance, nobody can tell you how to do it, just you alone."

I think the truth Reb Shlomo was communicating is that teshuvah is something that comes from faith--it comes from the heart. Thus, there's no fool-proof formula that can be prescribed.

But just because there's no exact formula for teshuvah doesn't mean we should be discouraged. Rather, we should see it as an opportunity to serve God. Most of the practical advice I've read on doing teshuvah during the season of Elul has involved several things:

• Set aside time to prayerfully consider your life before God. Go somewhere where you can be in solitude for a time.
• Ask yourself questions like, "What regrets do I have from the previous year? What mistakes did I make? Is there anyone I need to ask forgiveness from? Are there any wounds in my heart that affect how I think of or relate to certain people--my spouse, my family, friends?"
  
• Be specific--list out your realizations so that you can take them with you and continue to do the process of making things right. Then at the end of the high holy days you can dispose of the list as a way of showing that God forgives sin and accepts the penitent.
  
• Don't go overboard in being introspective! Teshuvah isn't about beating yourself up. As much as possible, let your teshuvah be characterized by gratefulness (to God for revealing these things to you) and joy--the kind of joy you get when you return home after a time away.***
  

I'm committing to putting my money where my mouth is (as it were), by working through these practical steps in order to "bear fruits in keeping with repentance." (Matt 3:8) How about you?

For more practical advice on doing teshuvah, I recommend checking out Rabbi Russ Resnick's article "The Month of Elul."

* Yisroel Friedman (1797-1850) (Der Heyliger Rizhiner)
** Dov Ber of Lubavitch (1773-1827)
*** Returning home is how Reb Shlomo described the most fundamental way of teshuvah.