The Power of Oneg Shabbos
Whoever delights in Shabbos is granted a heritage without limits. (Shabbos 118a) Whoever delights in Shabbos is granted the wishes of his heart. (Shabbos 118b) Oneg Shabbos brings a person these great rewards.
We see that the mitzvah of oneg Shabbos is very great. How do we fulfill this mitzvah? Fortunately for us Chazal tell us how: How does one delight in Shabbos? Said R’ Yehudah son of Shmuel bar Sheilas, in the name of Rav: with cooked beets, large fish, and garlic heads. (Ibid) This means that when Shabbos comes we eat delicacies, we serve delicious food: fish, meat, kugel, and other dishes. I (Rav Pincus) remember that on the Baba Sali’s Shabbos table were thirty-six different salads. (Perhaps this number was the gematria of a certain Name of Hashem.)
Hashem commands each Jew, “You shall call Shabbos a delight.” On Shabbos we are told to enjoy food, and, baruch Hashem, the women constantly work on making it as tasty as possible. Why do we have such a mitzvah? What do we gain spiritually by sitting down to enjoy a tasty meal? The answer is, eating and drinking together is no small thing. Chazal say, “Serving food is a great matter, for it... draws close those who are distant.” (Sanhedrin 103b) Sharing a meal brings people closer. We see this from when Yitzchak gave the berachos to Yaakov and Esav. Yitzchak requested that food be brought to him: “Make me delicacies such as I love, and bring them to me, so I may eat, in order that my soul will bless you.” (Bereishis 27:4)
On a simple level we may understand it as follows: food keeps body and soul together. In other words, it’s a connector. If a person doesn’t eat for twenty-four hours, he feels weak. His neshamah starts fluttering in his heart. If another day or two goes by without food, his neshamah already rises to his nose on its way out... but if he then eats, his neshamah goes back down to his heart and reconnects with his body.
Food may be understood as something that creates a connection. Therefore, when two people eat together, they begin to identify with one another. Eating connects a person to his body as well as to whoever is eating with him. The nature of food is to draw close and connect. That’s why Chazal banned pas akum, the bread of non-Jews. For food and drink draws people close to one another.
On Shabbos Kodesh we dine with Hashem, so to speak. Da hi seudasa d’Atika Kaddisha. “Serving food is a great matter, for it draws close those who are distant”! It is as if we sit down to eat and drink together with Hashem, and this creates tremendous closeness with Him!
This coming Shabbos let’s remember that Hashem gave us the mitzvah of oneg Shabbos to help us draw close to Him!
