The Soul of Shabbos - Reb Shlomo Carlebach

March 12th, 1989

"G-d created the world in six days, and on Shabbos He rested." What a sad translation! On Shabbos, G-d gave the world a soul! On Shabbos, G-d created the world of souls, of depth, of tasting that which is most real. Shabbos is the Name of G-d.

The holy Shabbos, the most longed for day, is the day which gives us the strength to begin again. Three things are called chemda, which means longing and wanting in an absolute, crazy way (holy craziness): Shabbos, the Torah, and Israel. A true Jew is possessed by this holy, incurable craziness.

A Shabbos Test: 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.

The Mitzvah of Shabbos is Shabbos: When Shabbos comes I am yearning to serve G-d in the most infinite way. During the week, my finite and infinite self are apart. On Shabbos my finite and infinite self are brought together by Shabbos - the Mitzvah of Shabbos is Shabbos itself. The Yid HaKodesh said: "Some people eat fish on Shabbos and some eat Shabbos on Shabbos".

The Preciousness of Shabbos: The Sokechover Rebbe, the son-in-law of the Kotzker Rebbe, said: "Imagine if I stop keeping Shabbos; I stop not because I don't like the value Shabbos has, but because it is no longer precious to me. So, when I do teshuva I am to learn the preciousness of Judaism." Anything that is given to you by G-d you don't receive, unless you know how precious it is. I can be married, but if I don't know how precious it is, it will be nothing.

"You can keep every Shabbos to the letter of the law, but unless Shabbos reaches the deepest and highest place in your heart. you haven't kept Shabbos."

Shabbos Shalom: There are some moments when I have to feel perfect, complete (shaleim). Six days a week I work like a dog and can't have that feeling. On Shabbos I receive a divinely inspired feeling of serenity, peacefulness, completeness - Shabbos Shalom - because of its holiness one feels perfection. This day will give you the strength to 'fix' yourself during the week. You will know what to 'fix' because you will have just experienced a period of time when you had a complete soul.

Shabbos is back in Gan Eden (Paradise). Gan Eden is a place where everything is good, everything is holy, everything is beautiful. Gan Eden is a place where suddenly it's clear to me that I can fix all my mistakes. And even more so, everything I thought was a mistake, every street I thought was the wrong street was the only way to get there.

When G-d drove Adam from Gan Eden, 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 Gan Eden. 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. Gan Eden is a place I know from before; Jerusalem above, I have never experienced. Now, I must be satisfied with Gan Eden on Shabbos; in the future we hope to be brought to Jerusalem of High.

According to our holy tradition, on Shabbos you have to be in a higher place than during the week. Everybody knows that G-d created Adam and Eve on Friday, before Shabbos , on the sixth day of creation. And according to our tradition, on that very same day they ate of the forbidden fruit, and in just one second before sunset, they were driven out from Gan Eden.

But then, on Shabbos , G-d took them back into Gan Eden. So even if the world is driven out from Gan Eden during the other six days of the week, on Shabbos the whole world has a chance to go back.