Breslav Shabbat III

Many Jews don’t know what their status is. “Am I really special? How? Are we Jews really chosen? In what way? Is “the garden,” the Land of Israel, really ours? If I am and we

are and it is, why does Godmake us suffer so?” Where can we look for a solution?

The prince understood that success depended on this man. Who is this man?! The man is Shabbat and Shabbat is many things.

Shabbat is protection. As a result of his sin, Adam was sentenced to expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

Shabbat protected him and he was not expelled till after Shabbat. This is reflected in the psalm Adam composed, Psalm 92.

Shabbat is Torah. The Torah was given at Sinai on Shabbat and Moshe Rabbeinu’s final transmission of the Torah in toto was on Shabbat.

Shabbat is understanding. The self-control to step back and not impose one’s ego on Creation is born from a seed of understanding that one is not the final arbiter. This seed yields fruit of deeper understanding.

Shabbat is peace. “The holy name is ‘Peace.’ Come, see. The world can only endure if there is peace.

When the Holy One, blessed be He, created the universe it couldn’t stand until He and placed peace on it.

What is ‘peace’? Shabbat” (Zohar 3:176b).

Why do we have Eretz Yisrael? As a reward for accepting Hashem’s mitzvot (Rashi on Leviticus 25:38).

Accepting Shabbat—outwardly as well as inwardly – is equivalent to accepting the entire Torah. If one keeps Shabbat it is as if he keeps the entire Torah (Zohar 2:47a).

One who can stand next to Shabbat has no fear of being in the garden. One who can has to make Shabbat an integral part of the garden. Then every Jew can say, “Now I understand, that in fact I am the true prince….”