Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

Menuchat Shabbat

Previously, in Ma Nishma, I shared that “Shabbat”, often mistranslated as “rest”, means “cessation” (from work). The purpose of Shabbat, in turn, is to promote our entering into the realm of menuchah/מנוחה, rest.

Menuchah/מנוחה is of another dimension, aptly described in the Shabbat Minchah/מנחה prayer service. Being said in the afternoon, these words might best express what one has been blessed to experience.

“A day of rest (menuchah) and sanctity (kedushah), You give to Your people. A rest bringing forth love and expansive spirit (menuchat ahavah u-nedavah), a rest wherein we may encounter what is true and enduring (menuchat emet ve-emunah), a rest of peace and tranquillity, quietude and contentment (menuchat shalom ve-shalvah, ve-hashket va-vetach), a holistic rest (menuchah sheleimah)”.

This prayer of menuchah is remarkably different from the piyyut traditionally sung at the incoming of Shabbat, when the anxiety and stress of the work world has yet to be fully left behind. Hearkening back to the dove of Noach/נח (which name means rest), who is seeking a place of rest (manoach/מנוח) in a world overcome by turbulent waters, we sing “Yonah Matsah Manoach”. In a voice willing a yet to be experienced reality, we join in saying “The dove (which traditionally represents the Jewish people) finds a resting place”. To these words we add, in hope and anticipation, “and there may the weary come to rest (yanuchu/ינוחו)”. Significantly, these last words are from Job who, in experiencing a world of turmoil, says “I was not tranquil (lo shalavti), nor did I experience quietude (lo shakatiti), I could not rest (lo nachti/לא נחתי).

When allowing ourselves to be immersed in menuchah, as reflected in the minchah service, shabbat is intended to bring to mind the Temple, the “resting place” of God. David is told that because his kingdom was rife with strife and bloodshed, he could not build the Divine resting place. Rather, it is an Ish Menuchah/איש מנוחה (a Man of Rest), Shelomo (whose name denotes wholeness), in whose time Israel will experience shalom and quietude (sheket), that will build the Temple.

Upon finishing the Temple, Shelomo blesses the “entire community of Israel” with the words: “Praise the Lord who has granted rest (menuchah) to His people Israel”. Shabbat is God’s Temple in Time if we could be at peace with and at rest in the world.

Shabbat shalom u-menuchah