My interview with Rabbi Yitzchak Schwartz about how Shabbat is good for my soul
Mia Sherwood Landau: Rabbi, why is Shabbat so good for my soul?
Shabbat is a time of the week when we have a taste of a higher consciousness, a higher world, an elevated reality, a taste of a future world. In that future world we have a glimpse of what it will be like to perceive reality at a time when there will be nothing in the way for our soul to have full expression. Our soul will be unfiltered, our soul will be at one and fused with God; our body and our soul will be at one and fused with God in this futuristic consciousness. Shabbat gives us a glimpse of that, gives us a taste of that. And we are given this taste every week for our entire lives if we are open to receive it.
One of the reasons why that experience is so good for our soul is because when we are able to have a feeling, an experience of what it feels like to be “ensouled,” to look at the world through the eyes of soul. The more we have a taste of that, the more it can spill over into the other six days of the week when we don’t have that same experience, when the soul is more hidden away, when the body is more prominent. We have a person who is a true scholar often referred to as Shabbat. They, themselves, are already holding at the level of Shabbat full time. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai was called Shabbat. Moshe Rabbeinu, if I’m not mistaken, was also called Shabbat.
Shabbat is the soul-way of looking at the world. The more exposure we get to perceiving the world through the glasses of the soul, the more that spills over into the way we encounter the world the entire week. So that’s one huge advantage for our soul that we get from being truly connected on Shabbat.
Another big advantage is that there is an inter-relationship between Shabbat and the weekday, in that Shabbat itself feeds the weekday and the weekday feeds Shabbat. Meaning, the higher level of weekdays we have, the higher spiritual level we experience, the higher level of Shabbat we will have, and so, too, the other way around; the higher level of Shabbat we have, the more that it’s drawn down into the rest of the week.
Another big advantage is that there is an inter-relationship between Shabbat and the weekday, in that Shabbat itself feeds the weekday and the weekday feeds Shabbat. Meaning, the higher level of weekdays we have, the higher spiritual level we experience, the higher level of Shabbat we will have, and so, too, the other way around; the higher level of Shabbat we have, the more that it’s drawn down into the rest of the week.
So, therefore, that inter-relationship is one that will be felt with our soul as well. A higher level weekday will elicit a higher level of Shabbat, and a higher level of Shabbat will elicit a higher level weekday. It’s an anchor, it’s like an apex that draws from one and gives to the other. And since Shabbat is the day of being fused with God, which is what the soul experience is all about, the more we are fused with God on Shabbat, the more we are going to be fused with God the entire week.
Those are two different angles that show how the connection with Shabbat is of incredible benefit for the soul all seven days of the week.
Rabbi Yitzchak Schwartz of www.ParadisePrinciple.com
Those are two different angles that show how the connection with Shabbat is of incredible benefit for the soul all seven days of the week.
Rabbi Yitzchak Schwartz of www.ParadisePrinciple.com
Solitary Splendor.com
