" If all the seas were ink, and all the trees were pens, there would not be enough to fully describe the gift of Shabbos...Its sanctity, its holiness, its meaning. "
To truly appreciate the holiness of Shabbos, we have to follow a important explanation of Shabbos itself. There are 39 melachos that are not permitted on Shabbos, with these 39 melachos we used to build the Mishkan.
As Shabbos is a sanctuary in time, we needed the 39 melachos to create a holy place. Unlike creating the Mishkan it is not necessay to create Shabbos, which is fundamental to the creation of the world.
When Shabbos begins, after we put some coins in our tzedakah box, we light our candles at 18 minutes before sunset, we enter a sanctuary in time, before this we must prepare ourselves acordingly by purifying ourselves and dressing with dignity. As long as we are in this sacred time, we enjoy of wat we merit every week, and we must use every minute to take in the Kedushah of the day.
Shabbos is a 25- hour period, when we are meant to stop working and focus on HaShem. The holiest time is Shabbos Kodesh as we sing the beautiful Lecha Dodi on friday night.
Shabbos is a day of music and song. Every moment of Shabbos, we are living in ืืืืืจ ืฉืืจ ืืืื ืืฉืืช A Tehillim, a song for the Shabbos day. Yet, in order to hear the music, we must make ourselves into a vessel that can pick up the sound and remove all the static of the week. Only then can we truly feel the inner sanctity and holiness of Shabbos Kodesh.
This wonderful Mitzvah is given to us by HaShem and should be treasured and expressed with gratitude.
Keeping the Shabbat
Most of us are observing the Shabbos, its special and a holy day. A day of rest given to us by HaShem.
But why do we observe Shabbos? According to Halacha, with observing Shabbos we commit ourselves to HaShem and to His Torah.
And as this day, is a day of rest, the Torah forbids activities, which is more than not using electricity and the use of modern technology, many still think this is enough to observe Shabbos.
In reality The Torah forbids 39 Melachos in 6 categories which built the Mishkan.
Lighting the candles and saying the Bracha for Shabbos and the Challah and before our meal recite the Kiddush, its Shabbos.
The Sages outline a number of Aliyos for basic Torah reading, three in total, which are given to the Kohen, the Levi and the Yisrael, this on a regular monday and thursday, as well Mincha and Shabbos, there are three Aliyos as not to burden the community as people has to go to work. On Rosh Chodesh and Chol Hamoed which are holier in the sense of musaf offering was brought to the Holy Temple, we add a Aliyah, as four people are called up to the Torah.
Friday night we sanctify Shabbos with Kiddush, after 25 hours we take leave of Shabbos with Havdalah. Havdalah which means separation is a ceremony of rituals, of blessings, just like with Shabbos. We make rituals over speech, smells, sight, hearing and also taste to separate the Holy and the mundane.
Havdalah is performed after nightfall on saturday evening, when it is dark enough to see the 3 stars become visible, also important not to do Havdalah earlier as it is forbidden lighting and putting out flames untill after Shabbos.