רַב נַחְמָן בַּר יִצְחָק אָמַר: נִיצּוֹל מִשִּׁעְבּוּד גָּלִיּוֹת.
Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: One who delights in Shabbat is rescued from the oppression of exile.
(יג) אִם־תָּשִׁ֤יב מִשַּׁבָּת֙ רַגְלֶ֔ךָ עֲשׂ֥וֹת חֲפָצֶ֖ךָ בְּי֣וֹם קׇדְשִׁ֑י וְקָרָ֨אתָ לַשַּׁבָּ֜ת עֹ֗נֶג לִקְד֤וֹשׁ יְהֹוָה֙ מְכֻבָּ֔ד וְכִבַּדְתּוֹ֙ מֵעֲשׂ֣וֹת דְּרָכֶ֔יךָ מִמְּצ֥וֹא חֶפְצְךָ֖ וְדַבֵּ֥ר דָּבָֽר׃
(13) If you refrain from tramplingfrefrain from trampling Lit. “turn back your foot from.” the sabbath,
From pursuing your affairs on My holy day;
If you call the sabbath “delight,”
GOD ’s holy day “honored”;
And if you honor it and go not your ways
Nor look to your affairs, nor strike bargains—
The Baal Shem’s Dream:
The Sadigurer Hasid, Reb Leibush Istriker, related the following legend, while seated at the communal third meal of the Sabbath:
When the Besht was still seeking the proper way to serve the Lord, he found that the observance of the Sabbath according to the injunctions of the later Rabbis practically prohibited any movement, and filled a man with anxiety lest he transgress some strict regulation. He believed that this contradicted the command of Isaiah to ‘call the Sabbath a delight’ (Isaiah 58:13). He pondered on this for a long time, and in the night he had a dream:
An Angel took him up to Heaven and showed him two vacant chairs in the highest place in Paradise, brilliantly illuminated, as if with vari-colored gems. ‘For whom are these intended?’ he asked. ‘For thee,’ was the answer, ‘if thou makest use of thy intelligence; and also for a man whose name and residence I am writing down for thee.”
He was next taken to Gehenna at its deepest spot, and shown two vacant seats, burning with hellish flame. ‘For whom are these intended?’ he asked. ‘For thee,’ was the answer, ‘if thou makest no use of thy intelligence; and also for a man whose name and residence I am writing down for thee.”
In this dream the Besht visited the man who was to be his companion in Paradise. He found him living among non-Jews, ignorant of Judaism, except that on the Sabbath he gave a banquet for his non-Jewish friends, wherein he greatly rejoiced.
“Why do you hold this banquet?’ he asked the Besht. ‘I know not,’ replied the man, ‘but I recall that in my youth, my parents prepared admirable meals on Saturday, and sang many songs; hence I do the same.’ The Besht wished to instruct him in Judaism, inasmuch as he had been born a Jew. But the power of speech left him for the moment, since he realized that the man’s joy in the Sabbath for be marred if he knew all his shortcomings in the performance of the religious duties.
The Besht then departed, in his dream, to the place where his companion in Gehenna dwelt. He found the man to be a strict observer of Judaism, always in anxiety lest his conduct was not correct, and passing the entire Sabbath day as if he were sitting on hot coals. The Besht wished to rebuke him, but once more the power of speech was taken away from him, since he realized that the man would never understand that he was doing wrong.
Thereupon the Besht meditated on the whole matter, and evolved his new system of observance, whereby God is served in joy which comes from the heart.
Fun Rebe’s Hauf, by I. Ewen; New York, 1922; Yiddish.
The time: about the year 130.
The place: Palestine.
The people present: Three leading scholars and one outsider. The place and the people under the dominion of the Roman Empire.
Rabbi Judah ben Ilai, Rabbi Jose, and Rabbi Shimeon ben Yohai were sitting together, and with them was a man called Judal-: ben Gerim. Rabbi Judah opened the discussion and said:
-How fine are the works of this people (the Ro mans)! They have made roads and market places, they have built bridges, they have erected bathhouses.
Rabbi Jose was silent.
Then Rabbi Shimeon ben Yohai replied and said:
-All that they made they made for themselves. They made roads and market places to put harlots there; they built bridges to levy tolls for them; they erected bathhouses to delight their bodies.
Judah ben Gerim went home and related to his father and mother all that had been said. And the re port of it spread until it reached the government. De creed the government:
-Judah who exalted us shall be exalted; Jose who was silent shall go into exile; Shimeon who reviled our work shall be put to death.
When Rabbi Shimeon heard of the decree, he took
his son Rabbi Eleazar with him and hid in the House of Learning. And his wife came every day and brought him stealthily bread and a jug of water. When Rabbi Shimeon heard that men were searching for them and trying to capture them, he said to his son:
-We cannot rely upon a woman's discretion, for she can easily be talked over. Or perhaps she may be tor tured until she discloses our place of concealment.
So they went together into the field and hid them selves in a cave, so that no man knew what had become of them. And a miracle happened: a carob tree grew up inside the cave and a well of water opened, so that they had enough to eat and enough to drink. They took off their clothes and sat up to their necks in sand. The whole day they studied Torah. And when the time for prayer came, they put their clothes on and prayed, and then they put them off and again dug themselves into the sand, so that their clothes should not wear away. Thus they spent twelve years in the cave.
When the twelve years had come to an end, Elijah the prophet came and, standing at the entrance of the cave, exclaimed:
Who will inform the son of Yohai that the emperor is dead and his decree has been annulled?
When they heard this, they emerged from the cave.
Seeing the people plowing the fields and sowing the seed, they exclaimed:
These people forsake eternal life and are engaged in temporary life!
Whatever they looked upon was immediately con sumed by the fire of their eyes. Thereupon a voice from heaven exclaimed:
Have ye emerged to destroy My world? Return to your cave!
So they returned and dwelled there another twelve
months; for, they said, the punishment of the wicked in hell lasts only twelve months.
When the twelve months had come to an end, the voice was heard from heaven saying:
Go forth from your cave!
Thus they went out. Wherever Rabbi Eleazar hurt, Rabbi Shimeon healed. Said Rabbi Shimeon:
My son, if only we two remain to study the Torah, that will be sufficient for the world.
It was the eve of the Sabbath when they left the cave, and as they came out they saw an old man carry ing two bundles of myrtle in his hand, a sweet-smelling herb having the perfume of paradise.
What are these for, they asked him.
They are in honor of the Sabbath, the old man replied.
Sa.id Rabbi Shimeon to his son:
-Behold and see how dear God's commands are to Israel . . .
At that moment they both found tranquility of soul. (Translation from: The Sabbath by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel)