| Is Shabbos that day which allows you to sit back and
analyze what went on the week before or is Shabbos the time to refocus and
get going for the next week? Actually, if you look at this week’s parasha,
Vayakhel-Pekudei and compare it to the parasha last week, Ki Tissa, you will
see that in Ki Tissa, it concludes the discussion of the tabernacle, the
Mishkan, with the talk of Shabbat; Veshameru, our Shabbat morning kiddush
text. If you look at this week’s discussion of the Mishkan, it all opens up
with the discussion of the Shabbos. So which is it? Is Shabbat the fixing,
the tikkun of the days of work which came before, when they built the
Mishkan, or is Shabbat a tikkun of the days yet to come?
The Sefas Emes, the second Gherer Rebbe, gives two possible answers. The
first answer is that Shabbat does both. It radiates back three days to Fri,
Thurs, and Wed. And it radiates forward to Sun, Mon, and Tues. Kabbalat
Shabbat on Friday night, with its six Psalms for the six days of the week,
fixes the week that was, and Havdalah fixes the week yet to come.
The second answer is that it depends. Before the Jews sinned with the sin
of the Golden Calf, the idea was that during the week, we live good enough
lives to be able to prepare for the holy Shabbat. After the sin of the
Golden Calf we read of last week, everything reversed. Now it takes Shabbos
to fix all the days yet to come.
Can we live a good enough week that it can be a preparation for the holy
Shabbos or at least can we have a great enough Shabbos that it can serve to
fix the next week to come.
|
