Turning the body's toil from curse to blessing

וכתיב אדם לעמל יולד ואמרו חז"ל ע"ז אשרי מי שעמלו בתורה.

And it is written: "Man is born to toil (amal)," and Chazal said about this: "Fortunate is the one whose toil is in Torah."

Man is created for labor; Chazal teach that the fortunate person channels this inborn drive to toil into the toil of Torah.

והוא בחי' עבד משכיל כמ"ש באליעזר כבר קללתו בידו כו'.

And this is the aspect of "a wise servant (eved maskil)," as it is said regarding Eliezer, "his curse was already in his hand..."

Eliezer, though descended from the cursed Canaan, became a "wise servant" — turning his servitude into faithful avodah and thereby rising from curse to blessing.

כמו כן הגזירה אחר החטא לעבוד את האדמה אשר לוקח משם והוא הגוף שנלקח מאדמה.

So too the decree after the sin "to work the ground from which he was taken" — this is the body, which was taken from the earth.

The post-sin decree to toil the earth alludes to the body itself, which was formed from the ground and must now be labored over.

וכשהגוף משכיל לשרת את הנפש באמונה יוצא מכלל ארור לכלל ברוך.

And when the body wisely serves the soul with emunah (faith), it passes from the category of "cursed" into the category of "blessed."

When the body faithfully labors as servant of the soul, it transforms its "curse" of toil into blessing — like the eved maskil.

וכן הכנת ימי השבוע אל השבת שהשבת נותן ברכה לכל ימי השבוע לצאת מכלל ארור.

And so too the preparation of the weekdays toward Shabbos, for Shabbos gives blessing to all the days of the week, to bring them out of the category of "cursed."

Just as the body is redeemed by serving the soul, the toilsome weekdays are redeemed by being directed toward Shabbos, which pours blessing back over them.

ולכן סעודת שבת נק' סעודתא דמהימנותא.

This is why the Shabbos meal is called "the meal of faith (se'udasa de'mehemnusa)."

The Shabbos seudah is named for emunah because partaking of it expresses faith in Shabbos as the source of blessing.

כי לפי האמונה שמאמינין בשבת ומבטלין כל המעשים אל השבת כך מקבלים ממנו הברכה כנ"ל:

For according to the emunah with which one believes in Shabbos and nullifies all his deeds toward Shabbos, so does one receive blessing from it, as above.

The measure of blessing one draws from Shabbos matches the emunah and bittul with which he subordinates all his weekday labor to it.

Summary: Man is born to toil, and the fortunate one directs that toil into Torah, becoming an "eved maskil" like Eliezer who rose from curse to blessing. The body, "taken from the earth" and decreed to labor, likewise passes from cursed to blessed when it serves the soul with emunah — just as the toilsome weekdays are redeemed by being directed toward Shabbos. This is why the Shabbos meal is the "se'udasa de'mehemnusa": one receives blessing from Shabbos in exact measure to the emunah and bittul with which he subordinates all his deeds to it.