Shabbat Parashat Behar 5784

Parashat Hashavua: Days of Re-establishment – How We Come Before Him in Praise – part II

We will continue with what we started last week – the two subjects of the famous and holy song, Lecha Dodi, by Rav Shlomo Alkabetz of Safed – Shabbat (openly), and the liberation with the coming of Mashiach (behind the scenes). So when we say in the chorus, “Let my beloved go toward the bride, the face of Shabbat we will accept,” the bride/groom relationship is not referring only to Shabbat and the Shabbat-observant person, but also to Bnei Yisrael and Hashem reaching new heights of connection, when Hashem reveals Himself more completely at the time of liberation.

Let us now take a look at the song’s verses. The first verse starts: “Preserve (shamor) and remember (zachor) with one speaking did the unique (meyuchad) G-d have us hear.” The “outer” meaning is focused only on Shabbat, as zachor and shamor were said in reference to Shabbat at the giving of the Torah (in Yitro and Vaetchanan, respectively). However, the word meyuchad is a classic word in the jargon of the Kabbalists (including Rav Elkabetz), which makes us believe that they are really hinting at the nimshal, which is the coming of Mashiach.

The second verse, again explicitly speaking about Shabbat, concludes “the end of the action was planned from the beginning.” The idea, taken from the Zohar, comes from the context of the liberation being in place from before the world was created.

Let us go now to the third verse (bayit, in Hebrew), which has a double meaning, as this time it refers explicitly to the Third Bayit (Holy Temple of the time of Mashiach) and the “city of the kingdom.” The kingdom is both of the kings of Yehuda and Yisrael but also that of Hashem. The verse continues that “you have been too long in the valley of crying.” This is a reference to the recent historical hardship of the expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula. The kabbalists of Safed saw this catastrophe as the heel and the pains of the coming of Mashiach.

The fourth verse talks about King Mashiach, who will raise up the people from the dirt. However, this is also done in the form of a hint, as he is referred to as “the son of Yishai (Jesse) from Beit Lechem." This is the place that the prophet Shmuel was sent to switch the anointed one from the children of Rachel (Shaul) to the son of a Judean family.

The fifth verse calls on the nation to awaken because our light has come, and we are to shine and sing. In other words, the poet is urging the people to realize that the time has come for practical human actions to hasten the liberation. People in Safed indeed started to try by renewing authentic rabbinical ordination and then trying to assemble a Sanhedrin, which is the ultimate form of the judicial system, whose existence and excellence is a condition for a full liberation. The coming of light, which is mentioned, hints at return of the special light of the days of Creation, which will occur at the End of Days (see Yeshayahu 30:26).

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