Appreciating the Process
Thoughts on Parashat BeShalah 2020
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[1] Masekhet Shabbat 117b.
Shortly after Am
Yisrael began their trek through the wilderness, God informed them of a
miraculous source of sustenance – the man – which would accompany them
along the journey. “Look I am about to rain down bread for you from the
heavens,” He told Moshe, “And the people shall go out and gather each day’s
share on that day” (Shemot 16:4). God continued:
And
it will happen, on the sixth day, that they will prepare what they bring in,
and it will be double what they gather each day. (16:5)
By raining down a
double portion of man on Friday morning, God forced the people to
prepare for Shabbat. The Hakhamim interpreted this as a lasting
instruction: “A person should always arise early to attend to the expenditures
of Shabbat.”[1]
Shulhan Arukh underscored its importance by codifying it as law.[2]
And the medieval French commentator Hizkuni furthermore suggested that
the very missvah of “shemirat Shabbat – guarding Shabbat”
(Devarim 5:11) refers to an anticipatory preparation for its arrival.[3]
While it is clear that an appropriate preparation is necessary for all
significant endeavors, God seemed intent on teaching a particular lesson in the
context of Shabbat at this juncture. What is it?
R. Joseph B.
Soloveitchik z”l once digressed from a public lecture to share a
“private confession” with his listeners. “True, there are Jews in America who
observe the Shabbat,” he remarked, “But it is not for the Shabbat that my heart
aches, it is for the forgotten eve of the Shabbat.” While thankful for
the many shomrei Shabbat Jews in America, R. Soloveitchik bemoaned the
dearth of those “who go out to greet the Shabbat with beating hearts and
pulsating souls.” He explained that the vanishing “Erev Shabbat Jews”
spells the loss of the inner spirit and meaning of Shabbat – its “service of
the heart.”[4]
We extend the
essence of Shabbat in our lives by looking forward to and preparing for its
arrival. We thereby appreciate it as a day imbued with sanctity and meaning
that stretch beyond the confines of mere words spoken and actions performed. It
is by thinking about Shabbat during the “profane week” that we accept its
potential to affect each and every moment of our lives.
Ramban suggested
that Judaism’s traditional reference to the days of the week as “the first of
the Shabbat,” “the second of the Shabbat,” etc. is an expression of a
commandment which obligates us to “remember it always, every day.” Indeed, the
Talmud relates: “They said of Shamai the Elder: All his days he would eat in
honor of Shabbat. If he found a fine bit of meat, he would say: ‘This is for
Shabbat.’ If he found another that was still better, he would set aside the
second [for Shabbat] and eat the first.”[5]
Ramban explained that constant thought of Shabbat causes its essential message
to pervade our lives: “By always remembering it we will remember Creation at
all times and acknowledge at all times that the universe has a Creator.”[6]
The preparation for
Shabbat, then, touches on the fundamental concept of appreciating the
process. Rather than viewing the first six days of the week as disjointed
and separate from Shabbat, we are cautioned to “live Shabbat” on those days as
well.[7]
Shabbat exists as more than just a “destination day” to perform ritual acts of
sanctity. It represents the essence of a connectedness to God. And by living
the life of an “Erev Shabbat Jew,” its essence pervades all that we do during
the week.
Appreciating the significance
of the process naturally leads to enjoying it, as well. Rav Kook wrote: “All
the supportive actions that sustain any general worthwhile spiritual goal
should by right be experienced in the soul with the same feeling of elation and
delight as the goal itself is experienced when we envision it.”[8]
And best-selling author and psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi similarly
found that all creative people love what they do. “It is not the hope of
achieving fame or making money that drives them,” he wrote, “rather, it is the
opportunity to do the work that they enjoy doing.”[9]
Addressing the
nation as they began a journey through the desert to the Land of Israel, God
taught them the invaluable lesson of appreciating the process en route the
destination. By instructing Am Yisrael to prepare for Shabbat before its
arrival He furthermore expanded their general perspective. God corrected their
vision of a destination detached from the process to one that informs
it. And He perhaps hinted to them, as well, that just as the sanctity of
“destination Shabbat” might now pervade their lives, so too might the waters of
“destination Israel” moisten their seemingly dry travels through the midbar.
[1] Masekhet Shabbat 117b.
[2] R. Yosef Karo, Shulhan
Arukh: Orah Hayim 250:1.
[3] Commentary of Hizkuni to
Devarim 5:11, s.v. shamor (“davar aher”).
[4] R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, On
Repentance (New Milford, CT, 2017), pg. 32.
[5] Masekhet Beissah
16a.See, as well, Commentary of Rashi to Shemot 20:8, s.v. zakhor.
[6] Commentary of Ramban to
Shemot 20:8. See, as well, R. Jacob J. Schacter’s “To Be an Erev Shabbat Jew,” From
Within the Tent: The Shabbat Prayers (New Milford, CT, 2015), pg. 4-5.
[7] See, e.g., R. Moshe Shapiro, Afikei
Mayim: Sukkot (Monsey, NY, 2012), pg. 103.
[8] R. Avraham Yisshak HaCohen
Kook, Orot HaTeshuvah 6:7. Translated by Ben Zion Bokser in Abraham
Isaac Kook (Mahwah, NJ, 1978), pg. 59-60.
[9] Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and
Invention (New York, NY, 1997), pg. 107.