The TRUTH About “SHABBAT SHALOM” (PDF of this article)

To my surprise she began to look them up and found some of the information about Shabbat Shalom I am going to share with you. Many of you have watched our ministry grow as we learn new truths about many issues, like flat Earth, Messianic beliefs, and so much more. When we find these truths, David teaches them and I write about some of them.

“ For me, Shabbat is a day of rest and of religious obligation, and it is also a shamanic journey, a cleansing descent into the depths of the spirit, ending with return to sacred work in the world.”

“The journey of Shabbat is also about encountering the faces of God, particularly the Shekhinah: the feminine presence of God dwelling in all things. Shabbat has had a long-time association with the Divine feminine. The word Shabbat originally comes from the Babylonian sabbatu, a monthly festival that, as numerous writers have noted, was associated with female divinities and may once have marked the menstrual cycle of a goddess. Jewish mystics believed that the Sabbath was a time when the male and female aspects of God came together in union. To this day, many Jews welcome the Sabbath queen or bride, a manifestation of the Shekhinah, by turning to the door of the synagogue on Friday night to bow to Her as She enters. There is a mystical Jewish tradition that couples who make love on Friday night are enacting the union of the Shekhinah and the Holy One, just as in the upper world the Shekhinah and the Holy One join to make new souls. I also like to think of the Shabbat as the union of Binah, the heavenly mother-womb of creation, with Shekhinah or Malkhut, the earthly mother who is the substance of creation. Shabbat is a time for joinings of all kinds.”

“Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi teaches the kabbalistic principle that we encounter multiple faces of God throughout the Sabbath. On Friday night, we encounter the beauty, wisdom, and gentleness of the Shekhinah, the bride and queen, and the prayers are peaceful and soothing. On Saturday morning, when the Torah is read, we encounter the Ein Sof, the infinite and unknowable aspect of the Divine, and the songs we sing are stately and joyful. On Shabbat afternoon, the liturgical music shifts to a mood of longing, and we encounter the face of the Divine known as Tiferet or Ze’ir Anpin, God the impatient male lover, the leaping deer, who longs for intimacy with us. At Havdalah, the ceremony marking the end of Shabbat, we experience the sweetness and sadness of returning to the week of work, and the Shekhinah returns to accompany us on our journey. It is said that we receive an extra soul at the beginning of Shabbat that departs from us on Saturday night at the moment of havdalah.”

“ I try to visualize the Shekhinah entering—the pearls on her gown, or her rags; the whiteness, or blackness, of her skin. The image is always different, yet always both comforting and challenging.”

“Traditionally, Shabbat ends with havdalah, the ceremony of separation between the Sabbath and the six days of the week. This ceremony too brings together fire, air, water, and earth. The ritual objects used at havdalah are the braided havdalah candle (fire), sweet-smelling spices (earth and air), and a cup of wine (water). Legend says that God taught Adam and Eve the making of fire when they became frightened of the dark. Upon striking flame for the first time, Adam and Eve uttered the blessing over fire (Genesis Rabbah 11:2). The lighting of the havdalah candle ends the day of rest as it began: with the flame of the spirit. The spices renew my energy to go out into the world and use the teachings I learned while journeying into Shabbat.”

“Maimonides (12th century Egypt) codified those and other personal practices of the Mishnaic Rabbis for every Jew and integrated the transitional time of Shabbat preparations into the observance of Shabbat. He asked that everyone make physical preparations including doing housework oneself – even if one has a servant – to prepare one’s home for the Shabbat guest as well as donning clean and beautiful clothes (Maimonides, Mishne Torah, Shabbat 30:6). But he also includes a reflective technique for enhancing spiritual readiness for Shabbat by sitting meditatively. Interestingly, though, Maimonides changed the imagery of Kabbalat Shabbat from the greeting of a feminine Divine presence – a queen or bride – to welcoming a masculine King.”

“Kabbalat Shabbat should be seen as the opening reception at the wedding ceremony, which will last all night, consummated in the love bed of the human and the Divine couple.”

“Kabbalat Shabbat is then part of a wedding ceremony between chatan v’kallah, Bride and Bridegroom, the individual soul and the Shekhinah, the male and female aspects of the Divine.”

“Shlomo Alkabetz understood his poetic invitation – L’cha Dodi / “Come my Beloved to greet the Bride” – as an inspirational act of meditation. In his commentary on Song of Songs 7:12 the poetic phrase L’cha Dodi”………

We also “accept” something in the sense of “receiving a gift.” Each and every Jew receives an Additional Soul (neshama yetera), the crown of a new soul on our heads, as we enter the Sukkah of Shalom.”  This acceptance of the Divine Presence and reception of a Neshama Yetera occurs symbolically with the recitation of the words “boi kallah, boi kallah” which are interfaced into the last verse of L’cha Dodi.”

“L’cha Dodi weaves Biblical verses and Rabbinic and Kabbalist symbols into a poem simultaneously about Shabbat whose origins go back to the mythic past – both to the Creation (Exodus 20) and the Exodus (Deuteronomy 5). However most of its verses are adapted from Isaiah’s poetic description of the messianic future – God’s desire to reunite Israel with its land and its city, Jerusalem. These concrete places and national personages described metaphorically as coming together like bride and bridegroom also represent, for the mystics, Divine forces – masculine and feminine – seeking to be reunited in a Sacred Marriage. Our intentions in actually singing of L’cha Dodi serve not only to recall or even reenact the mythic past or just envision the messianic future. Our singing actually changes the present and may contribute to the bringing of the messianic end of time. L’cha Dodi brings in Shabbat early, transforming hol, into kodesh. It draws down our Shabbat soul and crowns our head with the same crowns granted at Mount Sinai at the original revelation. The observance of Shabbat and its extension into hol serve to reverse the effect of the desecration of Shabbat that brought on exile. Thus Shabbat hastens the process by which all time and space become a long era when all is Shabbat, a foretaste of the world to come.”

Luk_17:3 Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.

1Ti_5:1 Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren;

1Ti_5:20 Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.

2Ti_4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

Rev_3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Jud_1:23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

Pro_19:25 Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware: and reprove one that hath understanding, and he will understand knowledge.

Eph_5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.