The Sabbath Foods

Selected Teachings From the Chassidic Masters
Translated by Dovid Sears

“God blessed the seventh day, and He sanctified it” (Genesis 2:3). [Interpreting this verse,] Rabbi Ishmael declared: “He blessed the Manna in the wilderness, and He sanctified the Manna in the wilderness” (Bereishis Rabbah 11:2). This suggests that God blessed the Sabbath foods, imbuing them with the taste of Manna. It is known that the Manna was called “Food of the Mighty Ones.” Similarly, the sacrifices in the Holy Temple were called “Food of the Mighty Ones.” Thus, partaking of the Sabbath meals is like partaking of the sacrifices in the Holy Temple (Imrei Noam, cited in Sefer Kedushas HaAchilah 299).

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Rabbi Yerachmiel Yisrael Yitzchak Danziger of Alexander taught: The holiness of the Sabbath foods is comparable to that of the sacrifices in the Holy Temple. Indeed, some say that the holiness of the Sabbath foods is even greater: for a profane thing that became sanctified through a person’s Divine service attains a higher spiritual level than that which was holy of itself (Yismach Yisrael, Likkutim, cited in Sefer Kedushas HaAchilah 304).

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Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev taught: The “Feast of the Leviathan” (Bava Basra 75a) (designated for the tzaddikim in the Garden of Eden at the End of Days) will be made up of the foods consumed by the Jewish people at their Sabbath and Festival tables, as well as when they showed hospitality to guests or celebrated a religious event (se’udas mitzvah). These are the foods they are destined to eat in the Future World. Thus it is written, “And you shall eat, eating (achol) and being satisfied” (Joel 2:26); that is, they shall partake of that which they previously had eaten [achol, a play on words] (Kedushas Levi, Likkutim, 7, as cited in Sefer Kedushas HaAchilah, 328).

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Rabbi Aharon of Karlin once remarked: Sometimes thoughts of teshuvah—remorse about one’s past, and yearning to return to God—occur to a person during the Sabbath meals; for then one comes closer to the point of truth. These thoughts of teshuvah may be even loftier than those that arise during prayer.” He later added: “The zemiros (table songs) are the wings by which the holiness of the Sabbath meal ascends... “ (Beis Aharon, as cited in Sefer Kedushas HaAchilah, 312).

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Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught: One should be extremely joyous on the holy Sabbath, and not show even the least trace of sadness or worry. Simply “take delight in God” (Isaiah 58:14), and enjoy all the pleasures of the Sabbath, in food and drink, as well as in fine clothing according to one’s means. For the eating of the Sabbath is entirely spiritual, entirely holy, and it ascends to a completely different place than the eating of the ordinary days of the week (Likutey Moharan II, 17).

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Reb Noson Sternhartz (son of Reb Avraham Sternhartz) once related the following anecdote to Rabbi Moshe Bienenstock: His grandmother Chanah Tzirel said that her father, Reb Noson of Breslov, once entered their little kitchen on Friday, while the women were preparing food for Shabbos. He told them: “You should know that the cooking you do in honor of the Shabbos is comparable to the work that the Kohanim performed to prepare the korbonos in the Beis ha-Mikdosh!” (Heard from Rabbi Moshe Bienenstock)