The beautiful month of the holidays is over and we now settle into the year with a bag full of all the special gifts we received over the month of Tishrei. In order to use all these wonderful gifts we received we must have a proper vessel to contain all of those “goods.” The first Shabbat after the holidays and Shabbat in general is the precise vessel that holds it all together.
After all the celebrations and joy of the holidays pass, along comes that first special Shabbat. Why is that Shabbat so special? It comes after such a high emotional time. What can be so great about that Shabbat. It isn’t spoken of in any special manner and yet I call it the most special Shabbat of the year. We prayed so hard on Rosh Hashanna and fasted on Yom Kippur, shopped for new clothing and food for about 200 meals all, built our beautiful sukkah, and moved into it for a week, and danced daily with our lulav and esrog. Then came Hoshana Rabba, Shmini Atzeret and the greatest joy of celebrating with the Torah all day long on Simchat Torah. What can possibly be so special about the Shabbat right after?
With no special additions in any of the prayers, after such celebrations one can fall into sadness thinking the next holiday is Chanukah and it’s so far away. What great spirituality we had throughout the holidays. How can we keep going now? After any great event or celebration or a great vacation, it’s not so easy to get back to the mundane and boring everyday life.
But we Jews are very blessed. Not only does G-d send us the most wonderful holidays all year round, Hashem sends us Shabbat every single week. Just imagine coming came back from an amazing month long trip. You come back home not knowing what to do first, and where to begin settling back into the real world. You are not too enthusiastic about anything. Just then your neighbors and some friends and family that missed you very much come over to you singing and hugging you and tell you how much they all missed you, and waited every day for your arrival. They cooked you a welcoming home dinner and put balloons all over the house with a great big welcoming home sign on the front door. This would definitely lighten up your mood. You would have a great big smile on your face and for a few minutes you might even forget about your vacation, and think how fortunate you are to live here and have such amazing family and friends. This great hug and support is what will give you the strength and ability to get back on track and be able to focus on whatever it is that you do.
This first Shabbat and the few after that are those family and friends reminding us that they are and will always be there for us. This of course is a mashal and a nimshal. In Jewish teaching, there is a device called “mashal/nimshal,” in which the mashal is a parable or metaphoric tale from which the nimshal or moral is drawn.
Any talk regarding our spiritual worship with our creator is a form of Jewish teachings. Our awareness of these thoughts regarding these first few Shabbosim helps us get back into our physical and spiritual life even without having great highs and celebrations. Our sweet Shabbat is our best reminder and friend of how to begin again. Each week she returns, and no matter how many wonderful holidays we have, Shabbat is what keeps us connected. That’s why it is written if all the people of Israel were to keep just one Shabbat the entire world would be redeemed. Why is that written about Shabbat and not about any one of the holy holidays that we have? Shabbat and Mt. Sinai are like one, so simple yet so deep and holy. In order to receive great depth you must have a clean vessel that can hold all that wealth. Mt. Sinai was the simplest of all the mountains, yet G-d chose that one to give the holiest present in the world, the Torah, on that mountain specifically because of its simplicity. Only on that mountain was there enough “room” to receive the greatest gift in the world. All the other mountains were filled with themselves leaving no “room ” for anything else. So too, our Shabbat, comes every week with no special fanfare. Shabbat is so deep and all encompassing, that it has “room” to redeem us from all that we are so filled with that steers us away from the truth. This is why after all the highs we were on during the past month, we land softly into the arms of Shabbat who week after week helps us get our focus back. Then we can serve Hashem with strength and vigor, and thus make a real go at this new year and a new beginning.
This Shabbat happens to be the Shabbat Project all over the world. Thousands of Jewish people that have never kept Shabbat or even know what it is, will experience this wonderful gift, and thus truly bring redemption to the entire world.