קדושת שבת קודש
The Entire Creation Looks Different on Shabbos
Cutting Off the Oxygen to the Forces of Impurity
The Last Train Out
The Mekubalim, as well as the sifrei Chassidus, teach us that a person can elevate all his tefillos of the entire week—even those that weren’t as they should have been—during the Minchah of Erev Shabbos. Rav Reuven Horowitz, zy”a (a great student of the Rebbe Rav Elimelech as well as of the Chozeh of Lublin) writes, “Our entire avodah in Torah and mitzvos is to elevate the lost sparks (ניצוצות) of holiness.” That is, there are holy particles exiled into our העשיה עולם, the world of deed, and when we perform mitzvos with them, they merit elevation and rectification—thus we steadily repair the entire world.
“[And] At Minchah of Erev Shabbos, all the prayers of that week, and the ניצוצות that have been rectified that week, ascend upward.” Since this is the final tefillah of the week, all the previous tefillos attach themselves to it as it ascends. It’s like the last train out of the station, and it takes along with it all the straggling sparks that haven’t yet ascended throughout the week.
Reaping Rewards
For this reason, the Ba’al Shem Tov instituted that we should recite the kappitel of לה' הודו before Minchah of Erev Shabbos. There we mention צר מיד גאלם, redemption from the oppressor, which means that all the particles and ניצוצות that were rectified by a Yid through his Torah and ...
