The Sabbath: A Taste of the World to Come
Opening Our Sages teach: “The Sabbath is one sixtieth of the World to Come.” This plainly does not mean only a reward, as if keeping the Sabbath earns you one sixtieth of the rest that waits for us in the future. It means something deeper. The Sabbath’s very nature, its inner quality, is made of the same spiritual reality that will one day be revealed to souls in the time to come. One sixtieth is a taste. Not a description, a taste. And a taste comes from the food itself. If so, your Jewish heart, and mine, asks a simple and uncomfortable question. The Question If the Sabbath is a taste of the World to Come, and the World to Come is Paradise, why do some Jews who keep the Sabbath feel its hours as emptiness rather than delight? Even young married men devoted to Torah study feel this. The hours are long. There is a tiredness that wears a mask of rest. There is a boredom too ashamed to say its own name. And sometimes there is a quiet tension, a kind of pressure you cannot quite define. How can a taste of Paradise feel so far from Paradise? Paradise and Hell Are Not Two Places Here Hasidic teaching steps in and says something that changes the whole picture. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, writes that Paradise and hell are not two separate places. They are one and the same reality: the revealing of Hashem’s light. The righteous delight in the radiance of Hashem’s Presence, because they are vessels for that light and take it in deep inside. For the wicked, that very same light burns them. This is because a soul that was not built for it cannot bear the light itself. It lived its whole life on distractions and on the surface of things. The light is not different. The one receiving it is different. The vessel decides the experience. What This Means for the Sabbath Now you can understand what the Sabbath does. The Sabbath is “a day that is wholly Sabbath,” and so it takes away the screens. There is no work and no business. There is no screen and no phone. The endless background music of the weekdays is gone. A person is left with himself. He is also left with Hashem’s light, which shines even more strongly on this day. This is exactly the reality of the World to Come, only in a measured dose. One sixtieth. So the big question is not “What does the Sabbath have in it?” The big question is “Who are you when there is nowhere to run?” The Sabbath as a Test This brings us to a new idea. It gives strength, and it also shakes us gently: The way you feel on the Sabbath is an accurate measure. If your Sabbath is comfortable, calm and full, that is no accident. It means your soul is able to sit with itself and to sit with the light. And if the Sabbath feels long and hard, like a burden, do not rush to blame the Sabbath. This is not “the Sabbath failing.” It is a signal from the soul: “My vessel still depends too much on outside things. It needs noise in order to feel alive.” That signal is a gift. It is a weekly checkup, and it is free.
Putting It into Practice
So what do we do with this? Do not give up hope. Do not change the Sabbath. Change the six working days. If the Sabbath shows that the vessel is not yet ready to receive the light, then the work is to refine the vessel during the week. Add another moment of prayer with real focus. Give another moment to inner Torah study. Notice what fills your free hours, and notice what fills your inner self. The Sabbath shows us what to work on. And so, Sabbath after Sabbath, the vessel keeps being built. Then one day, one sixtieth will become sixty out of sixty. And the Sabbath will feel like its name: complete rest, true delight, a taste of the World to Come.
Questions and answers
Q: What does "The Sabbath is one sixtieth of the World to Come" really mean?
Rabbi Landau answers: Our Sages teach: “The Sabbath is one sixtieth of the World to Come.” This plainly does not mean only a reward, as if keeping the Sabbath earns you one sixtieth of the rest that waits for us in the future. It means something deeper. The Sabbath’s very nature, its inner quality, is made of the same spiritual reality that will one day be revealed to souls in the time to come. One sixtieth is a taste. Not a description, a taste. And a taste comes from the food itself. If so, your Jewish heart, and mine, asks a simple and uncomfortable question.
Q: Why do some Sabbath-observant Jews feel emptiness on the Sabbath instead of delight?
Rabbi Landau answers: If the Sabbath is a taste of the World to Come, and the World to Come is Paradise, why do some Jews who keep the Sabbath feel its hours as emptiness rather than delight? Even young married men devoted to Torah study feel this. The hours are long. There is a tiredness that wears a mask of rest. There is a boredom too ashamed to say its own name. And sometimes there is a quiet tension, a kind of pressure you cannot quite define. How can a taste of Paradise feel so far from Paradise?
Q: What happens to a person when the Sabbath takes away the screens and noise of the week?
Rabbi Landau answers: Now you can understand what the Sabbath does. The Sabbath is “a day that is wholly Sabbath,” and so it takes away the screens. There is no work and no business. There is no screen and no phone. The endless background music of the weekdays is gone. A person is left with himself. He is also left with Hashem’s light, which shines even more strongly on this day. This is exactly the reality of the World to Come, only in a measured dose. One sixtieth. So the big question is not “What does the Sabbath have in it?” The big question is “Who are you when there is nowhere to run?”
Q: How is the way I feel on the Sabbath a test of my soul?
Rabbi Landau answers: This brings us to a new idea. It gives strength, and it also shakes us gently: The way you feel on the Sabbath is an accurate measure. If your Sabbath is comfortable, calm and full, that is no accident. It means your soul is able to sit with itself and to sit with the light. And if the Sabbath feels long and hard, like a burden, do not rush to blame the Sabbath. This is not “the Sabbath failing.” It is a signal from the soul: “My vessel still depends too much on outside things. It needs noise in order to feel alive.” That signal is a gift. It is a weekly checkup, and it is free.
Q: What should I do if the Sabbath feels empty to me?
Rabbi Landau answers: So what do we do with this? Do not give up hope. Do not change the Sabbath. Change the six working days. If the Sabbath shows that the vessel is not yet ready to receive the light, then the work is to refine the vessel during the week. Add another moment of prayer with real focus. Give another moment to inner Torah study. Notice what fills your free hours, and notice what fills your inner self. The Sabbath shows us what to work on. And so, Sabbath after Sabbath, the vessel keeps being built. Then one day, one sixtieth will become sixty out of sixty. And the Sabbath will feel like its name: complete rest, true delight, a taste of the World to Come.