ספר שמות

The author of the central paragraph in the mussaph ‎prayer on the Sabbath, which commences with the words: ‎תכנת ‏שבת ...צוית פירושיה עם סדורי נסכיה‎, refers to the fact that the Torah ‎in the Sabbath legislation not only spelled out the commandment ‎of how to observe this day with one’s body, by allowing the body ‎to “rest” (constructively), but also spelled out how to observe it ‎with our soul.‎When referring to the creative acts that G’d abstained from ‎on the seventh day of creation on account of which we are asked ‎to sanctify the Sabbath, both in connection with the word: ‎זכור‎ ‎in our portion, and again in Deuteronomy 5,12 in connection ‎with the word: ‎שמור‎, we must remember that the “light” which is ‎described in the Torah as G’d’s first act of intervention in the ‎condition of the “world” before G’d created order from chaos, was ‎‎“direct” light, i.e. an emanation from the Creator, a light which ‎expands in all directions of the universe, performing its function ‎commensurate with the needs of the region or domain which it ‎reaches. It then assumes a character germane to that region or ‎domain. In other words, this ‎אור ישר‎, will assume a different ‎intensity in the regions inhabited by the highest ranking angels, ‎the ‎שרפים‎, from the intensity it assumes in the celestial regions ‎inhabited by a lower ranking group of angels known as ‎חיות‎. The ‎same is true when this ‎אור ישר‎, arrives in the regions of the ‎terrestrial parts of the universe, the region known as ‎עולם העשיה‎. ‎At the same time arrival of this “light” also resulted, as an ‎unavoidable consequence, in “reflected” light, a response by the ‎creature who had received it from the Creator. [Compare ‎pages 364/365 where this subject has been discussed previously. ‎Ed.] Each region of the universe receives the amount and ‎intensity of this ‎אור הישר‎ appropriate to its needs.‎In kabbalistic parlance the nature of the ‎אור החוזר‎, the ‎‎“reflected light,” is perceived as the remnant of the original light ‎which did not remain in the universe as the various universes ‎were unable to ”digest” it so that they could not make use of it as ‎it was too intense and would have destroyed these worlds. Upon ‎the return of this “light” to the Creator, the ‎אין סוף‎, it will be ‎condensed, i.e. its power will be restrained, but in a manner that ‎in the words of Michah 7,18 make it “digestible” only for the holy ‎Jewish people-as described in connection with Exodus 14,21, see ‎pages (364-366).-‎Our sages in Rosh Hashanah 17 alluded to this idea when ‎they explained the term ‎לשארית נחלתו‎, “to the remnant of His ‎inheritance,” (His own people) in Michah 7,18, as those Jews who ‎transform themselves into truly G’d fearing personalities. ‎Concerning these types of people my sainted teacher Dov Baer ‎has said that the expression ‎שארית נחלתו‎ applies only to those ‎צדיקים‎ who spend almost all of their lives trying to elevate ‎themselves to the level of sanctity of their Creator.‎The root of the concept of sanctity, ‎קדושה‎, holiness, sanctity, ‎is found where the ‎צמצום‎, the voluntary restriction G’d imposed ‎upon His essence occurs, so that He would not be a destructive ‎force in His own universe. [If we in our parlance, following ‎‎Rashi, translate holiness as “something apart,” this is no ‎contradiction, but a reflection of the difficulty of translating ‎celestial terminology into language used in the terrestrial part of ‎the universe, the part we humans inhabit. Ed.]When the Jewish people sanctify themselves by means ‎permitted to them, and in that process separate themselves from ‎the pleasures of this terrestrial world, they do so because they are ‎aware that the so-called pleasures of this terrestrial world are ‎intrinsically worthless, so that they try to elevate themselves to a ‎region outside the domain of the terrestrial, physical universe. ‎These “regions” are beyond our ability to define and therefore we ‎are unable to describe them adequately. Seeing that the nations ‎of the world have none of them been found worthy of being ‎שארית נחלתו‎ “a residue of His inheritance,” it cannot be expected ‎of them to show the least bit of understanding of this subject.‎Suffice it to say that the subject matter we called ‎אור חוזר‎ is ‎the unabsorbed part of the ‎אור ישר‎, the “direct” light that had left ‎the Essence of G’d and dispersed in different regions of His ‎universes, any “excess,” making a “return journey” in ‎preparation for further use by its Dispatcher, the Creator.‎This inability of the nations of the world to comprehend the ‎nature of the Sabbath is the reason that while they understand ‎the concept of the Sabbath being a day that symbolizes that the ‎Creator had refrained from overt creative activity, they selected ‎for themselves on an arbitrary basis a different day of the week, ‎one that had not been sanctified by the Creator for that purpose. ‎When the Torah, both in our portion and in Deuteronomy, ‎stresses the element of the sanctity of this “Day of rest,” for the ‎Jewish people, it alludes to the unbroken connection between the ‎Jewish people and the celestial regions, in spite of the fact that ‎our bodies (and, temporarily our souls) inhabit the terrestrial part ‎of the universe. [I have used some of my own wording in ‎the foregoing, for reasons of simplicity. Ed.]‎