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Shabbat - On The Way Out
Introduction
On Friday evening God gives a person a neshamah yeteirah,
an extra measure of spiritual energy, and on Saturday night He takes it away.
(Beitza 16)
On Saturday night, the holiness of Shabbat begins to fade
away. With it, the neshamah yeteirah – that extraordinary
measure of spiritual sensitivity that first appears with the
cessation of work on Friday night, and then develops and
becomes whole over the course of the Shabbat – begins to
withdraw as well.
How do we know that a person is given a neshamah yeteirah on Friday evening?
The Sages of the Talmud (Beitza 16a) derive this from the verse that states that
on Shabbat God ceased and rested from the work of creating heaven and earth (see
Exodus 31:17). The double language, “shavat vayinafash (ceased and rested),”
suggests that on Shabbat, when, like God, we human beings too bring an end to
our weekday “creating,” we have two souls that enjoy the respite: our regular
soul, and the extra soul that each of us receives on the holiest day of the
week.
How do we know that the neshamah yeteirah is taken away from us on Saturday
night? The Sages deduce this by reading the words “shavat vayinafash” as “shavat
vay nefesh” – as soon as Shabbat ceases (shavat) and comes to an end, woe (vay),
for the soul (nefesh) departs.
While we cannot prevent the departure of the neshamah
yeteirah, our longing for it enables us to retain a modicum
of its light. If we lament the loss of the “added soul,” the
additional spiritual energy we gain on Shabbat, and yearn
for the heightened sensitivity that brings us closer to God,
we can keep a spark of the neshamah yeteirah glowing
throughout the week. For the secret to soul-making is in the
longing and the yearning.
This is the lesson Rebbe Nachman taught his chassidim in
connection with the Talmud’s reading of “shavat vayinafash,”
arranging the words to read shavat vay nefesh (see insert).
On a more basic level, the Talmud relates the declaration of
these words to the end of Shabbat, but on a deeper level,
Rebbe Nachman relates them to the departure of the neshamah
yeteirah, as we proclaim at the onset of Shabbat, “Woe, for
the soul will depart on Saturday night.” On Friday
afternoon, the neshamah
yeteirah has yet to arrive, yet we lament its anticipated
loss then. By longing for the heightened spiritual
sensitivity that will inevitably depart, we actually bring
the neshamah yeteirah into existence.
The almost tangible energy created by our longing, which
allows the neshamah yeteirah to take hold, also enables us
to hold onto it throughout the week. The essence of this
neshamah departs on Saturday night, yet through our yearning
we can keep its afterglow kindled.
Our objective on Saturday night is to infuse the physical
dimension with spirit, to imprint our workaday consciousness
with Shabbat consciousness. The inspiration we carry away
from Shabbat fuels us in the week ahead. The higher
awareness enables us to focus throughout the week on life’s
subtler, spiritual aspects; through it we learn to moderate
the demands and pressures of the material world that rule
our lives and impinge on our freedom.
Our longing extends the glow of the neshamah yeterirah
beyond the boundaries of Shabbat, and the mitzvahs – the
laws, customs and liturgy – of Saturday night extend the
higher God-consciousness we gain on the seventh day into the
everyday of our lives.
On Saturday night, the workaday mentality, which we set out
to vanquish at the onset of Shabbat, begins to resurface. It
is time to begin again to stave off the allures of the
marketplace and the obstacles it places in the way of
spiritual living. By means of the liturgy of the Maariv
prayer of Saturday night, we infuse our weekdays with
Shabbat awareness and with the protection it affords us
throughout the week.
Through the Havdalah ceremony as well, we inject the
spiritual fuel of Shabbat consciousness into the week. This
is highly evident in the Havdalah blessing, in which we
distinguish the sacred from the secular, the seventh day
from the six days of the week. This discrimination, though
it underscores the differences between the holy and the
mundane, is the conduit for imparting the sanctity and
higher awareness of Shabbat to the weekdays. The other
elements of the Havdalah ceremony too – the blessings over
wine, fragrance and fire – are designed to carry over to the
week the spiritual rectifications that Shabbat affords.
And this is likewise the reason for Melaveh Malka, the meal
we eat to escort the departing Shabbat Queen. Being both the
“fourth” meal of Shabbat and the first meal of the new week,
Melaveh Malka shares in the sacred and in the secular and
can thus transform our eating into a conscious act of the
mind and soul. It accommodates our applying the higher
levels of Shabbat consciousness to our day-to-day lives.
Hence the spiritual presence of King David graces the meal
of Saturday night; it is his characteristic quality –
sanctifying the mundane – that gives Melaveh Malka, and
indeed all of Saturday night, its distinct character and
tone.
Breslov Research Institute is pleased to present this weekly excerpt from our publication, "7th Heaven -- Shabbat with Rebbe Nachman," to help you experience that taste of Shabbos during the week. Have a "good Shabbos"!
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