When We Reflect on Hashem’s Kindness, We Recognize That We Don’t Lack Anything
Abundance and Lack—Two Parts of the Brain
Now, we must only study the path for attaining this feeling of perfection and abundance:
An ordinary person has two parts of his mind—let’s call it the “right” and the “left” side of the brain. On the right side, he thinks about all the things that are going well for him. On the left side, he stores all his regrets and failures.
As a person grows older and more settled, he leans to focus less on the side that makes him unhappy. He learns that everyone has ups and downs, times of more pain when our lacks come to the fore, times when salt is poured on existing wounds, and when the lack is felt keenly. But he learns to encourage himself, knowing that this is the trajectory of life. With some tefillah, a bit of emunah and bitachon, and a touch of distraction... we trudge our way through life.
The Superficial Approach: “On Shabbos We Don’t Think”
Now we tell the person: On Shabbos, we can’t think about the left side. On Shabbos, we pretend that all our work has been done. On Shabbos, we don’t even daven for our needs—the intermediate berachos in Shemoneh Esrei (in which we ask for our needs) have been removed—because this day is for praising and thanking for our blessings.
Anyone who has studied sifrei chassidus understands that there’s a time for everything. During the weekdays, we daven and plead for our needs, while Shabbos isn’t the time for the “left side” of the brain. A Yid wants to live with Shabbos. Shabbos should come alive for him! When Shabbos comes, he invests in expressing his gratitude and praise while reciting Nishmas, and he contemplates how much he has to be thankful for.
Reality: “On Shabbos There’s Truly No Lack”
But the Me’or Einayim asks more of us. On Shabbos, he says, we must actually feel—on both sides of our brain—that we’re not lacking anything, like we have everything we could ever want. We must conduct our day with the mindset of “no lack”; everything is one hundred percent resolved. Both the right and the left side of the brain should be utterly content, satisfied, and at complete peace.
There’s one little problem with this: It’s not exactly true... and therein lies the difficulty.
