What Is the Difference?
The truth is that there’s a Birchas HaMazon obligation even in the weekday—but the recognition that we have everything and we are to give thanks for it is harder to attain during the weekdays. Of course, we can always try and work towards this, and we know that a talmid chacham is always in a state of Shabbos, and thus he can always access this feeling. But it’s more difficult for the average person. On Shabbos, every Yid is given the tools to feel this sensation of הבא עולם מעין.
One may ask, if the Ribbono shel Olam wants us to live with this recognition and feeling, why has He created times that it would be more difficult and times that it would be easier?
A Special Weekday Avodah
The answer is that Shabbos and the weekdays each have their own unique and specific avodah:
The Sfas Emes explains that the Ribbono shel Olam created two situations in the world, each with its unique avodah—aligned with the two missions a Yid has. One is to serve Hashem while being within the עולם העשיה, the world of deed, and then there’s the avodah of rising above the העשיה עולם and serving the Ribbono shel Olam from that exalted place.
In the weekdays, we’re enjoined to descend to the lower world, where there are many outer layers that conceal the light and the Elokus. It’s not easy to feel the Ribbono shel Olam over there. It’s a place of lack, and our chief avodah in this place is to experience how distance from Him creates a feeling of lack. If a person would always be in a situation of feeling closeness to Hashem, he wouldn’t recognize that being far from Hashem brings him lack. For this reason, it was designed that there should be times of concealment—times when we feel the pain of lack because of our distance from Hashem.
Injecting Elokus into the Weekdays
Says the Sfas Emes, how can we ensure that our weekdays too, the days of העשיה עולם too, will be permeated by Godliness? Through performing mitzvos! Every mitzvah is a commandment from Hashem, and when we perform it within the world of deed, we bring the Ribbono shel Olam into the weekdays as well as on Shabbos.
