Machshava:

Shabbat 

Collections: Rabbi Weinberger: Shabbos

Description

P. 106 in Raza D'Shabbos, Eliyah Weintraub, zt'l's piece on Knesses Yisrael v'ha Zugo Shabbos. Without the Jewish people, Shabbos cannot bring her light into the world. When a person learns Torah on Shabbos, they connect to that light that existed before Creation, since the Torah existed for 974 generations before the world was created. All of the Torah is the name Havaya. The essence of nishmas Yisrael (the collective soul of the Jewish people) has not changed in its descent from the upper worlds into this world. The way of picking and choosing mitzvot is not the way, is not in line with how Hashem gave us the Torah, which was through coercion. The essence of the nations of the world is the rejection of Torah. Our essence is knowing that there is no alternative to the Torah.