Find Yourself

“And you shall return, each man to his ancestral holding, and each man to his family shall you return.” (Vayikra 25:10) 

The Window That Changed a Life 

A baal teshuvah was once asked: “What had inspired you to return to a life of Torah and mitzvot?” 

His answer: “Shabbat!”   

He then told the following story: 

“One Shabbat, I happened to glance out my window, and there I saw my religious neighbor coming home from synagogue on leil Shabbat (Shabbat night), just after Maariv, walking with his children. They were making their way home together, dressed in their Shabbat clothes, and you could see the joy on their faces — the Shechinah (Divine Presence) itself was resting upon them. 

  

“The father walked like a chosson (groom), his sons like shushvinim (the groom’s escorts to the chupah, bridal canopy) at his side, all of them moving as one toward the house. And there, waiting for them, was the wife, her hair covered, like a kallah (bride) adorned to greet her chosson. The candles were glowing, the table was set. The whole scene breathed a calm and a serenity I had never known. 

  

“That scene set me on fire. I gathered the courage to ask my wife if we could change the way we were living, and to my surprise she was overjoyed. She had been wanting this for a long time herself, she told me, because she had felt how empty and joyless our Shabbat was. Together we decided to begin keeping Shabbat. And once we did, we were awakened to draw closer to Hashem through all of His mitzvot, until we returned in complete teshuvah.” 

The Soul’s Yearning for Its Source 

The reason that genuine rest and joy can only be reached through  shmirat (observing) Shabbat, is explained in the holy sefer Daas Tevunos (#24): The neshamah is a portion of Hashem from on high, and so its deepest longing is to return and cling to its Source—to its Creator. This is the nature of every created being: to yearn and to cleave to its root. And therefore, the neshamah (soul) has no rest until it attains devekut (attachment) with the Borei (his Creator). 

When a person keeps Shabbat properly, he reaches that devekut. For at least once a week he has a day of rest and kedushah (holiness) on which he ceases from his work, disconnects from his businesses, from the technological devices, and from all the other concerns of the weekday. And then he has free, settled time—time in which he can pause, take an honest cheshbon hanefesh (personal accounting), and reflect on the truth that there is a Master to this great palace; that Hashem created His world during the six days of Maaseh Bereishit (works of creation); that Hashem is the One who keeps each person alive; and that a person is bound to praise Him and thank Him for every single breath, and to fulfill His will through the keeping of the mitzvot—which are the very purpose of creation. 

This is one of the central reasons for the mitzvah of Shabbat, as we say tefillot (prayers) of Shabbat: it is a “remembrance of Maaseh  Bereishis.” So the Sefer HaChinuch (Mitzvah 32) explains: among the roots of the mitzvah of Shabbat is that we should be free from our occupations in honor of this day, in order to anchor in our souls the foundation of emunah (faith). This emuna is the thread that holds together all the foundations of religion. 

This is why Shabbat Kodesh (the Holy Shabbat) is called “yoma d’nishmasa“—the day of the soul. For this day is set aside for the strengthening of the neshamah, which is a portion of Hashem from on high. When a person keeps Shabbat as it should be kept, the neshamah returns to its root to cleave to Hashem, and His true will is revealed. 

Only through this, does a person merit genuine rest and genuine joy—through the  neshamah  satisfying its yearning to cleave to the Borei. As we say in the Minchah prayer of Shabbat: “A day of rest and holiness You have given to Your people— a complete rest in which You take pleasure—may Your children recognize and know that from You comes their rest, and through their rest may they sanctify Your name.” 

And this is why we have seen, throughout the generations, that when tzaddikim wanted to bring distant Jews back to teshuvah—if they were dealing with people who did not keep Shabbat, they would first work to influence them to strengthen themselves in shmirat Shabbat. From there, the rest of teshuvah would follow. 

The Two Returns 

Beyond the gift a person receives through shmirat Shabbat—the gift of being able to reconnect to himself, meaning to his neshamah, which is the true “I” of every person and not the body—a person also merits through Shabbat to reconnect with his family. 

The strengthening of this bond, is something deeply needed, both for himself and for those closest to him. 

When a person sits through the day of Shabbat and talks and learns with his family, especially during the seudot (festive meals) taken together—without interruptions from the phone and from all the other matters of the weekday—it brings about a broadening of the mind and a closeness among everyone at the table. And from that comes genuine rest and genuine joy. 

Beyond the benefit and pleasure this brings to the person himself, there is an enormous benefit in this for strengthening the bond between fathers and children. And in our times, this is something that needs serious tikkun (rectification). From speaking with fathers and children all over the world over the years, I have come to see that a great percentage of parents do not have the bond they should have with their children. 

Disconnect to Reconnect 

The benefit of shmirat Shabbat in this regard, is felt with particular force in our times. 

People who do not keep Shabbat generally spend hours upon hours of their day staring at technological devices, instead of sitting with their children and their wives or husbands. And this leads to division and quarreling among them. They end up losing themselves—and losing their families. 

Recently, thousands of people in the United States were asked: if they were forced to give up one of two things—their smartphone or their family—which would they choose? Most of them answered that they would prefer to give up their family. 

This came about because the companies that produce these technological devices, and everything inside them, invest tremendous thought and money into designing them in such a way that whoever glances at them becomes addicted and bound to them, looking at them again and again without pause—without leaving any time to step back and consider the magnitude of the damage that comes from it. 

But a Yid who keeps Shabbat becomes accustomed, on this day, to disconnect from these tests of our generation. And then he can pause, look around, and find himself again. And he can find his family. 

Hidden in the Verse 

Perhaps this is alluded to in the pasuk (verse) before us. The one who keeps Shabbat is called “ish”—a man—because the word “ish” (אִישׁ) forms a roshei teivos  (first letter of each word)  for  “Yishmeru  Et Shabsosai” (יִשְׁמְרוּ֙ אֶת־שַׁבְּתוֹתַ֔י)—”they shall keep My Sabbaths” (Yeshayahu 56:4). 

And concerning that “ish”—the one who keeps Shabbat—the pasuk Vayikra 25:10 teaches us what he gains from doing so: 

“V’shavtem ish el achuzaso” (וְשַׁבְתֶּם אִישׁ אֶל אֲחֻזָּתוֹ)—”And you shall return, each man to his holding”: through Shabbat, the one who keeps it finds his true self, the neshamah, and returns and reconnects to the place where he is anchored—meaning, to his Creator, fulfilling the longing of his true self. 

  

“V’ish el mishpachto tashuvu” (וְאִישׁ אֶל־מִשְׁפַּחְתּוֹ תָּשֻׁבוּ)—”and each man to his family shall you return”: through Shabbat, he reconnects to the members of his family as well. 

And by this zechut (merit)—through these two returns—a person merits the genuine menuchah (rest) and genuine simcha (happiness) that no other day of the week can give. 

*** 

The Kalever Rebbe is the seventh Rebbe of the Kaalov Chasidic dynasty, begun by his ancestor who was born to his previously childless parents after receiving a blessing from the Baal Shem Tov zy”a, and later learned under the Maggid of Mezeritch zt”l. The Rebbe has been involved in outreach for more than 30 years and writes weekly emails on understanding current issues through the Torah. Sign up at www.kaalov.org.