Friday, November 27, 2020

Shalom Aleichem & Aishet Chayil

print         Vayeitzei

On Friday night, upon returning home from the synagogue, we say or sing Shalom Aleichem. We say it to the angels who accompany us on the way home from synagogue. The order of the hymn is...

Shalom Aleichem - peace on to you. 

Boachem lishalom - come in peace. 

Borchuni lishalom - bless me with peace. 

Tzeitchem lishalom - go in peace. 

1) If the second stanza, "come in peace," is talking to the Shabbat angels. Who is the first stanza referring to, when it says, "peace on to you?" 

Answer: During the week, we have angels as well, and on Friday night there is a changing of the guards. The weekday angels depart, and we bid them, "peace on to you." And the Shabbat angels that remain with us, we welcome with, "come in peace." 

This is similar to the story of Yaakov's (Jacob's) ladder, there were angels going up and down the Ladder. If the angels come from the heavens, shouldn't it say that they were going down and up? Rashi explains that there was a changing of the guards, the angels from the Holy Land that were escorting Yaakov, they can't go out of the Holy Land, therefore they were going up the ladder, up to heaven and the angels of outside the Holy Land were coming down the ladder to accompany him the rest of the way. 

Shabbat is a holy place in time and those angels are designated and accompany us only on Shabbat. 

2) In the final stanza, we send the angels away, "go in peace." Why do we send them away? 

Answer: The Friday night meal is private time between Hashem and the Jewish people, like the intimate time between a husband and wife, Hashem is the husband and the Jewish people are the wife. Being that it is private between us and Hashem, we send the angels away. 

Kabbalistic teaching teaches all about this private moment, and how the angels want to see it, because it is a level of holiness that they are never privy to. 

To explain. We have a Neshama that is truly a part of Hashem, not the part of Him that is in the world, not even in the spiritual realms, but the essence of Hashem. On Shabbat His essence comes into the world, and spends time with us. On Shabbat we are given an extra Neshama, but it's not really an extra Neshama, but more Neshama the essence of our Neshama is revealed, the part that is one with Hashem's essence. And this is what happens on Shabbat, the essence of our Neshamas, and Hashem's essence are seen for what they are, truly one, and the angels are just aching to see that, but it is private, so we send them away. 

As with any special time between a husband and a wife, the more thought and preparation you put into it, the more meaningful it will be. Now we can understand why preparing for Shabbat is so important, and why we dress in our finest and have a candle light dinner with the most delicious foods.

This is also one of the reasons we chant Eishet Chayil, A Woman of Valor - aside for singing it to our wonderful wives - because on one level, it refers to the "wife," the Jewish people. 

Shabbat is a taste of the time of Mashiach, which is called, "The day that is totally Shabbat." May he come already. 

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