Shabbos as a foretaste of Olam Haba

ואיתא באותיות דר"ע.

And it is brought in the Osiyos d'Rabbi Akiva (the Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva):

The Sefas Emes cites a teaching from this midrashic work about how Shabbos is a foretaste of Olam Haba.

כשהבטיח הקב"ה לבנ"י עוה"ב.

When Hashem promised Bnei Yisrael Olam Haba (the World to Come),

Hashem promised the Jewish people a share in the World to Come.

אמרו הראנו דוגמתו בעוה"ז.

they said: "Show us an example of it in this world."

Bnei Yisrael asked for some tangible glimpse, here in olam hazeh, of what that future world would be like.

והראה להם השבת שהוא א' מס' מעוה"ב.

And He showed them the Shabbos, which is one-sixtieth of Olam Haba.

Hashem answered by giving them Shabbos, which Chazal describe as a sixtieth-part taste of the World to Come.

וידוע כי עוה"ב הוא היפוך עוה"ז.

And it is known that Olam Haba is the inverse of Olam Hazeh.

The World to Come is the opposite of this world: where this world is one of concealment and physicality, that world is one of pure revelation.

ושם יהי' נשכח לגמרי כל עוה"ז.

And there, all of Olam Hazeh will be completely forgotten.

In Olam Haba this entire physical world will be utterly forgotten, no longer holding any grip on a person.

ולפי ששבת הוא מעין עוה"ב.

And since Shabbos is a foretaste of Olam Haba,

Because Shabbos is "me'ein Olam Haba" — a taste of that future world —

צריכין לשכוח בו מכל עוה"ז.

one must forget, on it, all of Olam Hazeh.

the proper avodah of Shabbos is to let go of and "forget" the cares of this world, mirroring the forgetting that will be complete in Olam Haba.

וכפי מה שכל א' זוכה לשבת.

And according to how much each one merits the Shabbos —

Each person attains Shabbos to the degree of his own spiritual achievement.

זכור ושמור בדיבור א'.

"Zachor" (remember) and "Shamor" (guard) were said in a single utterance.

The two formulations of the Shabbos command — "remember" and "guard" — were spoken by Hashem simultaneously, and the Sefas Emes will show how they depend on one another.

כי הזכירה תלי' בשמירה.

For the remembering depends on the guarding.

One's ability to "remember" Shabbos hinges on how well one "guards" it.

שמור מן ההירהור.

"Guard" — from stray thought (hirhur).

"Shamor" includes guarding one's mind on Shabbos from the intrusion of weekday thoughts and worldly preoccupations.

כי יש זכירה ושכחה שהקב"ה שם בטבע ב"א ב' המדות.

For there is remembering and forgetting — Hashem placed both these traits in the nature of man.

Hashem built into human nature two faculties, memory and forgetfulness, and both have a spiritual role to play.

וכפי השכחה בעוה"ז שעתיד להיות נשכח כך זוכין לזכור את השבת.

And according to one's forgetting of Olam Hazeh — which is destined to be forgotten — so does one merit to remember the Shabbos.

The more a person can "forget" this world on Shabbos (which will anyway be forgotten in Olam Haba), the more he merits to truly "remember," that is, to cleave to, the Shabbos.

וכל ישראל יש להם חלק בעוה"ב בכח שמירת שבת.

And all of Yisrael have a share in Olam Haba through the power of shemiras Shabbos.

Keeping Shabbos is itself what gives every Jew a portion in the World to Come.

כמ"ש התקן עצמך בפרוזדור שתיכנס לטרקלין.

As it is said: "Prepare yourself in the antechamber (prozdor) so that you may enter the banquet hall (traklin)."

Citing Pirkei Avos, the Sefas Emes notes that this world is the antechamber and Olam Haba the banquet hall; Shabbos is the preparation that grants entry.

ולכן אמרו בנ"י הראנו דוגמתו בעוה"ז.

This is why Bnei Yisrael said: "Show us an example of it in this world."

Their request makes sense in this light: they wanted to understand how a person rooted in this world could ever enter the next.

להבין איך אפשר לבני עוה"ז להיות בעוה"ב.

— to understand how it is possible for people of Olam Hazeh to come into Olam Haba.

How can beings immersed in physicality bridge to a wholly spiritual world? That was their question.

והשיב להם ע"י השבת.

And He answered them: through the Shabbos.

The bridge is Shabbos, on which a person practices the "forgetting" of this world and tastes the next.

ולכן כתיב בשבת זכרון למעשה בראשית.

This is why it is written of Shabbos: "a remembrance of the work of creation (maaseh bereishis)."

Shabbos is called a "zikaron" — a memorial — to the act of creation, which the Sefas Emes finds puzzling and will resolve.

ולכאורה תמוה מה צריך מעשה בראשית זכרון.

And at first glance this is puzzling: why does maaseh bereishis need a remembrance?

Why call Shabbos a "memorial" to creation, as though creation needed to be remembered?

הלא כל העולם קיים.

After all, the entire world exists!

Creation is right in front of us; the world stands and endures.

ורואים מעשה בראשית.

And we see the work of creation.

We plainly behold maaseh bereishis all around us, so why would it require a "remembrance"?

אבל הפי' שלעתיד לעוה"ב יהי' זכירה למעשה בראשית ע"י השבת.

But the meaning is that in the future, in Olam Haba, there will be a remembrance of maaseh bereishis through the Shabbos.

The "remembrance" refers to the future: in Olam Haba, when this world is forgotten, the work of creation will be recalled specifically by means of Shabbos.

פי' לפי שבשבת שוכחין מעוה"ז ומתדבקין בשבת שהוא מעין עוה"ב.

That is: because on Shabbos one forgets Olam Hazeh and cleaves to the Shabbos, which is a foretaste of Olam Haba —

By forgetting this world on Shabbos and attaching to the Shabbos itself, a person already lives partly in the mode of Olam Haba.

בכח זה יהי' זכירה למעשה בראשית בעוה"ב.

by this power there will be a remembrance of maaseh bereishis in Olam Haba.

Through cleaving to Shabbos now, a person secures that the memory of creation will endure into the World to Come, when all else of this world is forgotten.

ולכן כ' זכור בשבת.

This is why "Zachor" (remember) is written regarding Shabbos.

The command "remember" is specifically attached to Shabbos for this reason.

כי פי' זכור שהוא דבר שא"א לשכוח.

For the meaning of "Zachor" is something that cannot be forgotten.

"Zachor" denotes a matter so permanently fixed that it is impossible to forget — an eternal, unbreakable bond.

ולא יהי' נשכח.

And it will never be forgotten.

Shabbos, and what it anchors, will never be lost to forgetting.

אבל כל מ"ב שיהי' חרוב לעתיד אינו בחי' זכירה.

But all of maaseh bereishis, which will be destroyed in the future, is not in the category of "remembrance" (zechirah).

The physical creation itself is destined to be nullified, so in itself it is not "remembered" in the permanent sense.

רק יש זכרון למ"ב.

Rather, there is a "memorial" (zikaron) for maaseh bereishis.

What endures is not creation itself but a memorial of it — preserved through Shabbos.

להיות נזכר לעד בכח השבת.

— to be remembered forever through the power of the Shabbos.

By means of Shabbos, the memory of creation is preserved eternally even after the physical world passes.

ולעתיד כשיהי' נשכח הכל יהי' זכירה למ"ב בכח השבת ובנ"י שהם שומרי שבת.

And in the future, when everything will be forgotten, there will be a remembrance of maaseh bereishis through the power of the Shabbos and of Bnei Yisrael, who are the keepers of Shabbos.

When this entire world is forgotten in the future, the memory of creation will survive solely through Shabbos and through the Jewish people who guard it.

והנה יש לכל ישראל חלק בשבת ובעוה"ב.

Now, every Jew has a share in Shabbos and in Olam Haba.

Each Jew possesses a portion both in Shabbos and, correspondingly, in the World to Come.

דיש שכחה במעשה ודיבור ומחשבה.

For there is "forgetting" in deed, in speech, and in thought.

The "forgetting" of this world operates on three levels — action, speech, and thought.

ובמעשה כל איש ישראל שובת בשבת.

In deed, every Jew rests on Shabbos.

At the level of action, all Jews equally cease from melachah; in this everyone has an equal share.

ובדיבור ומחשבה כ"א לפי שמירת שבת שבו.

But in speech and in thought, each one according to his own shemiras Shabbos —

At the higher levels of speech and thought, the degree of one's "forgetting" of this world varies with how each person guards his Shabbos.

הוא בן עוה"ב.

— is he a ben Olam Haba (one of the World to Come).

One's true share in the World to Come is proportional to how deeply, in word and thought, he releases this world and cleaves to Shabbos.

וכמו שצריכין לשכוח בשבת במעשה.

And just as one must "forget" on Shabbos in deed,

Just as on Shabbos we cease from worldly action,

כך צריכין לזכור השבת בימי המעשה.

so must one "remember" the Shabbos during the weekdays (yemei ha-maaseh).

Correspondingly, during the workweek one must carry Shabbos in mind — keeping its light present even amid weekday activity.

ופי' זכור שיהי' דבר שא"א לשכוח והזכירה תלי' בזה ודו"ק:

And the meaning of "Zachor" is that it should be something impossible to forget — and the remembering depends on this; ponder this well.

"Zachor" means making Shabbos so fixed in the heart that it can never be forgotten throughout the week; the strength of one's "remembering" depends on this constant inner attachment.

Summary: Drawing on the Osiyos d'Rabbi Akiva, the Sefas Emes explains that Shabbos is a sixtieth-part foretaste of Olam Haba — the world that is the inverse of this one, where all of Olam Hazeh will be forgotten. On Shabbos we practice this "forgetting," and the degree to which we let go of this world in deed, speech, and thought determines our share in the World to Come. "Zachor" and "Shamor," spoken as one, are interdependent: by guarding Shabbos (even from stray thought) we attain to truly remember it. And because the physical creation will ultimately be nullified, the eternal memory of maaseh bereishis is preserved solely through Shabbos and the Jewish people who keep it — a remembrance so fixed it can never be forgotten, carried even into the weekdays.