Why We Wish Each Other a Peaceful Sabbath

The Torah says: “On the seventh day Hashem finished the work He had done, and on the seventh day He rested from all the work He had done.” A Question to Begin Why do we wish each other a “peaceful Sabbath”? When the Sabbath arrives, the world outside is no more peaceful than it was on Friday. Wars do not stop. Quarrels do not forget themselves. The troubles of many people do not wait for the weekend. So the “peace” in our greeting cannot be about the outside world at all. It must be about the inside, about the human soul. The War Inside Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, explains that inside every Jew live two opposing forces. One is the divine soul, which thirsts for Hashem and for holiness. The other is the animal soul, which pulls toward physical cravings and the pleasures of this world. During the six days of the week, the war between them does not stop for a moment. Every Jew knows this. You stand and pray. You want to focus. You want the words to go deep inside you. Then suddenly a thought pops up about your business, about the afternoon meeting, about what you need to tell a certain person. The soul pulls up, and the body pulls down. This is a real exhaustion. It is the exhaustion of being torn apart inside. The Holy Sabbath’s Ceasefire This is where the Sabbath comes in. It does not come to crush the body or to cancel its desires. It comes to do something much deeper: to make peace between the body and the soul. On the holy Sabbath the body still wants pleasure, and of course it does. But the pleasures of the Sabbath are also the soul’s pleasures: the taste of the warm Sabbath bread, the warmth of the songs rising around the table, the light of the candles filling the home. When one and the same act brings joy to the body and to the soul, and the two are now singing with one voice, that is peace. This is the simple meaning of the “delight of the Sabbath.” The body does not have to suffer and give things up, and the soul does not give up its holiness. Instead, the physical itself is lifted up and becomes a vessel for the spiritual. So too Rabbi Schneur Zalman rules in his code of Jewish law that the commandment to delight in the Sabbath includes eating, drinking and rest. On the Sabbath, the body’s enjoyment is itself the fulfilling of the commandment. The Parallel: Hashem’s Rest Now we can understand what it means that Hashem Himself rested: “On the seventh day He rested from all the work He had done.” Heaven forbid that this means Hashem was tired. It means that creation had reached its completion. Heaven and earth, spirit and matter, the higher worlds and the lower worlds all came together as one. What came “last in deed” revealed what was “first in thought.” It revealed the purpose of all creation: that physical matter should become transparent, letting Hashem shine through it. The same is true of a person. When the body stops fighting the soul and begins to serve it, the person himself reaches completion. That is his rest. It is not laziness and it is not emptiness. It is purpose.