The Chofetz Chaim, zt”l, explains the importance of keeping Shabbos with a parable. “God calls Shabbos a gift. Can you imagine a bride receiving a ring from her groom to symbolize their engagement and returning the ring? Everyone understands that this is a definite sign that their engagement is over. Shabbos is like an engagement ring since keeping Shabbos shows that we are betrothed to God. One who violates Shabbos is like a bride who breaks her engagement by returning her ring. How can a person act in a way that breaks his engagement with God, heaven forbid?”
We have no idea of the greatness of Shabbos. The Ohr HaChaim, zt”l, explains that no non-Jew — or even an angel — can fathom the deep connection to God that is imparted to Jews on Shabbos. But many wonder when they will actually come to feel this deep connection on Shabbos themselves.
Daf Yomi Digest
Stories Off the Daf
“Our Betrothal with God”
Chullin 36
One who is full of himself fills all the space around him. There is no room left for anyone else. Therefore, he despises another person by virtue of the space that other person consumes. He may give reasons for his disdain, but the reasons are secondary.
This is called wanton hatred. It is the reason given for our exile. It is the core of all evil. It is balanced and cured by wanton acts of love and kindness.
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
Based on letters and talks of the Rebbe, Rabbi M. M. Schneerson
“Wanton Love”
Chabad.org
It is said in Jewish mystic tradition, that before Creation, God filled all areas of existence and there was no room for anything else but God. This is to be expected from a God who is infinite. When God desired to create the universe for the sake of our world and for us, He had to deliberately withdraw some portion of His infinite being; to “humble” a part of Himself, in order to make the room available for Creation.
God made room for us.
Compare this to the words of the Rebbe I quoted above. People who fill the world around them with only themselves have no room to love others and in fact, the Rebbe calls this “wanton hatred”. This is the very opposite of what God did for us. The quote from the Daf is also an example of making room for the sake of love.
When God created the Shabbat, he “made room” in time, setting aside one-seventh of our week so we could be able to totally devote ourselves to Him. He sanctified that day and made it holy (Genesis 2:2-3). From the Ohr HaChaim’s point of view, the Shabbat is specific to the Jewish people and is a sign of His deep love for the Jews, His beloved, His treasured splendorous people (Deuteronomy 14:2). As we’ve seen, a Jew who rejects the Shabbat is like a woman who throws her engagement ring back in her suitor’s face.
A little over a week ago, I suggested that there could be benefits for Christians to keep the Shabbat in some manner or fashion, in order to honor God and to observe a day when we can be totally devoted to Him. While Jewish sages do not consider non-Jews to be “betrothed” to God and, as we’ve seen, do not believe we are able to comprehend the depth of meaning that Jews experience when observing the Shabbat (and probably we don’t), we are indeed betrothed:
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. –Ephesians 5:25-27
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.” –Revelation 19:6-8
The church is sometimes called “the bride of Christ” based on these verses and this indicates that those of us who are grafted into the root of Jesse, and who are joined to the God of Israel through the Covenant of Jesus. also are especially loved. I’m not suggesting that God has two brides and I don’t know how this will all work out in the end, but we can see that God dearly loves both the Jewish people and the non-Jewish disciples of Christ.
Before the coming of Jesus, non-Jews had no way to enter into a special covenant relationship with God. Even the Gentile God-fearers attending synagogues in the Second Temple period, no matter how devoted they became, could not enter into a fully-realized relationship with God unless they converted to Judaism. Christ came and opened the door for the rest of us. He made it possible for us to completely access God and to totally benefit from a “treasured” status with Him through Christ. We were locked out of the promises but He made room for us.
If someone asked you to marry him or her and gave you a ring to symbolize their love, would you throw it back in their face? God made room for us in the Universe and He made room for us in His Kingdom. If He also made room in time for us so we can honor Him and to rest from our cares, shouldn’t we also make room for Him?
Morning Meditations 
I have always seen the new covenant Sabbath as being a seven day a week event. Resting in God’s grace, and making room to listen to the Holy Spirit at all times in our lives. I hope that doesn’t come across sounding smug, because I don’t intend to discount Shabbat, I just see scripture revealing it in a different way in the New Testament.
I have always seen the new covenant Sabbath as being a seven day a week event. Resting in God’s grace, and making room to listen to the Holy Spirit at all times in our lives. I hope that doesn’t come across sounding smug, because I don’t intend to discount Shabbat, I just see scripture revealing it in a different way in the New Testament.
I don’t see that happening yet. If we did have a continual Shabbat, we’d all be living as described in Micah 4:1-5. World wide peace and the Messianic age isn’t here yet. I also don’t believe that “pre-Jesus”, the Jews were locked out of God’s presence except for on Shabbat. We have a record of the Prophets hearing from God all the time and I believe that God was available, through the Spirit, to the “average” Jew 7 days a week. The Psalms David wrote about crying out to God when ill or in distress seem to testify to this.
When Jesus returns, the “new covenant Sabbath” will arrive, but IMHO, not before.
It is interesting talking with you. We have such widely variant views on some things.
In the interest of that, what do you think Paul was saying in and Colossians 2:16-17? Keeping in mind that Paul is pretty consistent about the choice to prefer, or not, one day over another.
OK. Who is Paul talking to? Probably not believing Jews since they were already familiar with the Sabbath, Festivals, and such. So he’s talking to (probably) newly-minted Gentile disciples of the Jewish Messiah who were still trying to figure it all out.
The interesting thing is that Judaism was a legally recognized religion in the Roman Empire of that day but Christianity (in this case, non-Jews practicing the worship of the Jewish God without converting to Judaism) was not. Jews were exempt from worshiping the Roman gods but Gentile Christians would have been taking a risk by avoiding it, and practicing an illegal religion in the Empire was committing the crime of Idolatry (go figure).
Back to Colossians 2, though. Although, IMHO, the Gentile believers were not obligated to observe all of the Jewish “times and seasons” or the Jewish dietary laws, in order to have table fellowship with Jews who did continue to “keep kosher”, the Gentile Christians probably did keep a kind of kosher, at least a communal meals. Since their Jewish mentors worshiped on the Saturday Sabbath, it would have been a little nuts for the Gentiles to pick one day later, so they too would have kept a Sabbath if they could while avoiding Roman prosecution.
As far as These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ goes, he hasn’t come back yet. One of the reasons most Jews don’t believe Jesus is the Messiah is that he didn’t fulfill all of the Messianic prophesies, most notably, establishing self-rule for Israel and bringing world-wide peace (or world-wide “Shabbat” if you will).
The first time around, Jesus came to open the door for the rest of the world and allow us to enter into a Covenant relationship with God without having to convert to Judaism. The next time he comes, he will “fix the world” (Tikkun Olam), so to speak, and then we will have our eternal Shabbat. Revelation 22:1-5 tells the tale or to quote from Revelation 21:4: “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
The old order hasn’t passed away. We’re still here and the Messiah has yet to return. In the meantime, we have work to do (Tikkun Olam). God gave us a day to rest from that work I believe, and it behooves us not to ignore a gift from God.