Shabbat-Morning Shemah-A Special Light

“Who illuminates all the world and its inhabitants.” The theme we are using this Shabbat is how Shabbat is an experience of the World-to-Come (See: “Kabbalat Shabbat-A Single Utterance”).

“And it shall come to pass in that day that there shall not be light, but heavy clouds [yekaroth] and thick [we-kippa’on] (Zechariah 14:6),” what does yekaroth we-kippa’on mean? Said Rabbi Eleazar: This means, the light which is precious [yakar] in this world, is yet of little account [kapuy – light, or, ‘floating,’] in the next world. (Pesachim 50a)

Application:

Kavanah: “May the Light of this Shabbat – our clarity – be beyond any of the most precious Light we have experienced in this world.”

Shabbat Before the Tenth of Tevet: Place extra candles on the Shabbat table, representing the Light of Wisdom of the World-to-Come. Kavanah: “God, Who illuminates the world and its inhabitants with the Light of Wisdom of the Future World.