The Missing Piece of Creation

By Rabbi Moshe Krieger, Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah (www.bircas.org)

The Torah tells us about the very first Shabbos: “And on the seventh day Hashem finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done” (Bereishis 2:2). Wait a minute. Did He finish on the seventh day, or did He rest on the seventh day? If He was finishing His work, He was still working. If He was resting, then what was left to finish?

Rashi gives an explanation, based on a Midrash. What was the world still missing after six days? Rest. Shabbos came, and with it came rest, and that was the last piece of the work. So the rest itself is part of Creation. But that is hard to understand. Rest means you are not doing anything. How can not doing something be the final step of the work? And what exactly was the world missing without it?

The Beis HaLevi explains it this way. For six days Hashem made the world. On the seventh day He rested, and that means He continued Creation, but in a different form. He stopped making new things, and He kept holding up everything that already exists. And He is still doing that today. The world could not exist for a single moment if Hashem stopped holding it up. This is what Shabbos tells us. Yes, Hashem created the world. But don’t think that once He created it, it runs by itself. Hashem holds the world up, and Hashem can change it. That is why we say every day in davening, “Hamechadesh betuvo bechol yom tamid ma’aseh Bereishis” — in His goodness, He renews the work of Creation every day, always.

And notice what we do on Shabbos. If Shabbos were only a reminder that Hashem created, we would be told to create something in His honor. Instead, we stop. We are showing that even the rest belongs to Creation, because He is still there. A carpenter builds a table and walks away, and the table stays. This is different. It’s more like a driver with a wagon and horses. He stops to rest, but he never lets go of the reins. If he did, everything would fall apart. Hashem is still holding the world and still directing it.

On Shabbos itself, we can see that Hashem directs the world. The Gemara in Beitzah (15b) says that if a person doesn’t have the money to make Shabbos, or doesn’t have enough to make it the way he usually does, he should borrow, and Hashem will pay it back. Whenever the money is due, Hashem will see that you have it. The Gemara (16a) also says that a person’s income for the year is decreed on Rosh Hashanah, except for what he spends on Shabbos and Yom Tov. That Hashem sends him specially, whatever it costs. Think about what that means. Just from keeping Shabbos, you can see how Hashem runs the world.

The famous story is Yosef Mokir Shabbos, in the Gemara in Shabbos (119a). He was always buying the best he could find for Shabbos, and Hashem paid him back with a priceless gem. And we have stories like this even today. When America was first being built, keeping Shabbos was a tremendous trial. People looked at a Jew and said, “What do you mean, you don’t work on Shabbos?” And still, the ones who held on never lost out. Someone who refused to sign a contract that required working on Shabbos found that Hashem gave him a livelihood anyway. In the end, the same people respected him, and gave him even more business.

Hashem is still watching over the world. He takes care of everyone who keeps Shabbos. That is one message of the Shabbos rest.

But there is a second way to understand it. Others explain that this rest isn’t physical at all. It is spiritual. Hashem made this day a day when you don’t have to work, and shouldn’t be working. You step away from everything going on in the world, from all the money matters and the physical matters, and you put yourself into kedushah — holiness. You think about Hashem and make yourself holy. We say it in davening: – menucha — rest, and kedushah, together. A Jew can step away from everything else and cling to Hashem, and this day was made for that.

Hashem even gave us the tool to do it. The Gemara in Beitzah (16a) says that Hashem gives every Jew a neshamah yeteirah — an extra soul — on Shabbos, so that he can really cling to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That is why Chazal tell us not to talk about business on Shabbos, and not even to think about it. The Mechilta (Parshas Bo) says that when Shabbos comes, you should feel as if all your work is done. And the Gemara in Berachos (57b) says that Shabbos is like a taste of the World to Come. You are already partly there. You leave the physical world for a while and you are with Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

The Jew was given the strength to step out of the world on Shabbos, and the extra soul to cling to Hashem – so we have to use it! Look at the davening on Shabbos. It isn’t about our needs. It’s about clinging to Hashem: “Make us holy with Your mitzvos, give us a share in Your Torah, purify our hearts to serve You in truth.” At the meals, we speak words of Torah and sing zemiros to Hashem. And the Torah itself is different on Shabbos. Rav Shach said that certain sevaros in the Ketzos HaChoshen he could only understand on Shabbos. Hashem gives a special clarity, because the extra soul is working.

Rav Yosef Ben Porat says that we have to plan this out ahead of time. Prepare yourself. Ask yourself, “How will I use this Shabbos to rise higher?” Don’t wait for Shabbos to arrive and hope it happens.

Rav Shlomo Wolbe, who learned by Rav Yerucham, described how Rav Yerucham looked on Shabbos. During the week he looked one way. But on Shabbos everyone saw it: his face was shining. A new boy would walk in and wonder, “Is this the same mashgiach we saw all week? He looks different.”  The extra soul was so clear that it showed on his face. Rav Eliyahu Lopian told the same about the Saba MiKelm, whom he learned by. The Saba MiKelm was anemic and pale all week, but on Shabbos he suddenly lit up, and everyone saw it.

Maybe most of us don’t see it so clearly. But sometimes I look at my students on Shabbos, and if you look carefully, they look different. That is the neshamah yeteirah. Even when we can’t see it, we all know it is there. Hashem gives us special strength on Shabbos for rest and for kedusha.

May we be zocheh to prepare ourselves for Shabbos and to use the extra neshama Hashem gives us to come closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.