It’s Friday night. You’re seated around the Shabbos table and finally the week is over. Finally הָחּנו¿מ ‡ָּב ָּ̇בַׁ ̆ ‡ָּב. After all you can’t do anything anyhow. Like this, erev Shabbos you were frantic. What should I do? Maybe I should run to City Hall? I should speak to a politician? I should call long distance in Cleveland? All kinds of things I can do maybe in the last minute to help myself.
But now it’s Shabbos so you’re stuck. You’re stranded. You can’t do any business. You can’t make any telephone calls. You can’t do anything. You’re a frum Jew after all. You can’t pick up the telephone. You can’t touch a pencil even. So naturally you relax. Whatever it is, you’ll have to let things slide for a while. And therefore even for the simple Jew, for the frum Jew who keeps Shabbos, Shabbos is a day of healing.
But it’s more than that. Because besides for healing your anxiety; more important, is that you’re healing your mind.
You’re sitting there at the Shabbos table and you, or the master of the house, picks up a goblet of wine and he makes a declaration, םƒיַמָּׁ ַ̆הּוּלֻכ¿יַו ֹ̇וׂ ֲ̆ﬠַל יםƒ ֹ̃ל¡‡ ‡ָרָּב ר∆ׁ ֲ̆‡ ...ı∆רָ‡ָה¿ו – that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the entire universe with everything in it out of nothing so that it should continue to function. And as you’re saying these words or listening to them you attempt to picture in your mind that right now at this moment when you’re entering the Sanctuary of the Seventh Day, that’s when all of nature began functioning like a well-oiled machine. That’s what it means וּלֻכ¿יַו, from the word לָּכ. All of creation yesh me’ayin came to an end and everything was now functioning as a completed world.
