״הוֹכֵחַ תּוֹכִיחַ אֶת עֲמִיתֶךָ״ (ויקרא יט,יז), אֲפִילּוּ מֵאָה פְּעָמִים (בבא מציעא לא,א)

"You shall surely rebuke your fellow" (Lev. 19:17), even one hundred times (Bava Metzia 31a). There is a mitzva from the Torah to rebuke one's colleague if he is observed acting in an unseemly manner. As is the case for several other mitzvot (such as sending away the mother bird from the nest and returning lost property), the Gemara asks how many times one is required to repeat this mitzva, and the answer given is that one must do it "even one hundred times," i.e., there is no upper limit. Since the mitzva is for a person to perform an action, not that the task itself must be done, it follows that it has no limit. Even if it seems to him that he is repeating the same act over and again without reason, it does not matter if it is the first or the hundredth time. This is especially true in the case of the mitzva of rebuke, since here the significance of one's persistence goes beyond the fact that he is not relinquishing or limiting the mitzva; he is thereby demonstrating his refusal to give up on the other person.

וְלָזֹאת לֹא אוּכַל לְהִתְאַפֵּק וּלְהַחֲרִישׁ מִלִּזְעוֹק עוֹד בְּקוֹל עַנּוֹת חֲלוּשָׁה

Accordingly, I cannot hold back and remain silent from shouting out more, in a "sound of a cry of weakness": The phrase a "sound of a cry of weakness" was uttered by Moses upon his descent from Mount Sinai, in reference to the noise he could hear from the sin of the Golden Calf (Ex. 32:18). As explained by Rashi, it means the sound of a people fleeing in war; that is, a sound of distress, a cry of despair. The author of the Tanya uses this harsh language to express the sense of crisis he feels, after he has already spoken and reproved his audience many times to no avail, so that he does not know what else to say. His message is that even so, because the idea is so important and serious, he cannot refrain from articulating it yet again.

בְּמָטוּתָא מִינַּיְיכוּ בְּרַחֲמִין נְפִישִׁין חוּסוּ נָא עַל נַפְשׁוֹתֵיכֶם, וְהִשָּׁמְרוּ וְהִזָּהֲרוּ מְאֹד מְאֹד עַל הַתּוֹרָה וְעַל הָעֲבוֹדָה שֶׁבַּלֵּב זוֹ תְּפִלָּה בְּכַוָּונָה

I implore you, with great mercies, please have compassion upon your souls, and be watchful and exceedingly careful with regard to the Torah and the "service of the heart," which is prayer with intent – This is an exceptionally severe warning, that one must be extremely careful with respect to both Torah study and the service of the heart, which is prayer with intent. As will become clear below, this grim warning refers specifically to the public services of communal Torah study and congregational prayer. The author of the Tanya pleads with his hasidim to "have compassion upon your souls," as their very lives will be endangered if they fail to listen to him. The importance and power of public service is immeasurably greater than that of any single individual. At the same time, an individual who is part of the collective is usually unaware of the power he shares, as part of the community. It is true that each individual is only a small portion of any collective, but he is an indispensable part, and if he does not function properly he might interfere with and disrupt the service of the entire congregation. Furthermore, the service of the community, the minyan, is not merely the sum of its parts, for the collective together discovers the encompassment that lies beyond the dimensions and vessels of all the particulars. Therefore, it is precisely with regard to public service that warnings and precautions are most necessary. The author will start by speaking about prayer, and later he will also address the issue of communal Torah study. While it is necessary to be "watchful and careful" with regard to all the mitzvot, it has been accepted from the earliest generations that special caution is necessary when it comes to all requirements of public prayer, such as praying together, refraining from talking, and not disturbing the communal prayer. Any lapse here can lead to a tangible and immediate danger. These requirements of communal prayer are the minimum. The author is not addressing especially holy individuals to encourage them to do more, but all Jews, exhorting them not to diminish what they can and are obligated to do.

לְהַתְחִיל כּוּלָּם יַחַד כְּאֶחָד, מִלָּה בְּמִלָּה וְלֹא זֶה בְּכֹה וְזֶה בְּכֹה, וְזֶה דֹּומֵם, וְזֶה מֵשִׂיחַ שִׂיחָה בְּטֵילָה, ה׳ יִשְׁמְרֵנוּ

that everybody should start together as one, word by word, not this one here and that one there, this one silent and that one engaging in idle conversation, may God preserve us. Everyone should begin the prayer together, and also continue in this manner, as much as possible, throughout the entire prayer, reciting it word by word along with the prayer leader. The phrase "this one here and that one there," which is derived from I Kings 22:20, means that each person is in a different place in his prayer. The final comment, "may God preserve us," applies specifically to someone "engaging in idle conversation," since he is disturbing those who are trying to pray. When a communal prayer is recited together, it pierces through all the heavens and there is nothing greater than this. However, when not everyone prays together, and some do not even pray at all but actively disturb others, "may God preserve us" from such danger. The loftier the sanctity, the more severe the impurity when it is negated; the steeper the ascent, the harder and more dangerous the fall.

וְעִיקַּר הַסִּיבָּה וּגְרָמָא בִּנְזָקִין הוּא מֵהַיּוֹרְדִים לִפְנֵי הַתֵּיבָה, שֶׁהוּא הֶפְקֵר לְכָל הָרוֹצֶה לִפְשׁוֹט רַגְלָיו הַחוֹטֵף אֶפְרָתִי אוֹ מֵחֲמַת שֶׁאֵין גַּם אֶחָד רוֹצֶה וכו׳

The main reason for and cause of this harm is due to those who pass before the Ark as prayer leaders, a position that is free to whoever wishes to stretch forth his legs to snatch it, someone who considers himself an Ephrathite, that is, a member of a distinguished family, or because there is not even one other person who wants to do it. The clause translated as "to stretch forth his legs to snatch [it, someone who considers himself] a member of a distinguished family" is literally rendered as "to stretch forth his legs, HaḤotef the Ephrathite." This is a poetic turn of phrase, referring to a specific tanna, because whoever snatches [ḥotef ] the position of prayer leader considers himself a person of distinguished lineage, an "Ephrathite." The author adds that if no worthy individual agrees to serve as prayer leader, the role will be taken up by someone who is unsuitable. The author of the Tanya thus lays the blame for this state of public prayer, where people are not praying together and there are other problems, on the prayer leader. He considers this a kind of an "administrative defect," which means that correcting the situation depends on the proper organization and leadership of the praying congregants, under the supervision of the prayer leader. This is, after all, the function of the prayer leader: to serve as the public leader and guide during the course of the prayer.

וְאִי לָזֹאת, זֹאת הָעֵצָה הַיְּעוּצָה וְתַקָּנָה קְבוּעָה, חוֹק וְלֹא יַעֲבוֹר עוֹד חַס וְשָׁלוֹם, דְּהַיְינוּ לִבְחוֹר אֲנָשִׁים קְבוּעִים הָרְאוּיִם לָזֶה עַל פִּי הַגּוֹרָל אוֹ בְּרִיצּוּי רוֹב הַמִּנְיָן

As such, this is the devised plan and the permanent enactment, a statute that shall no longer be violated, God forbid, namely to select people in a fixed capacity, who are worthy of this, by lottery or through majority consent. The beginning of the solution is to choose the right people, and that they will be the only ones to serve regularly as prayer leaders. The author adds that the "permanent enactment," i.e., the order of when each of them will lead the prayers, should be determined by lottery. The advantage of a lottery is that it eliminates the possibility of arguments, since it is independent of any specific person's opinion or wishes, and thus it is equally binding upon everybody. Another option, which is preferable, is that the majority of the congregation should express their preference for a particular individual.

דְּהַיְינוּ שֶׁמִּתְפַּלְּלִים מִלָּה בְּמִלָּה, בְּדֶרֶךְ הַמִּיצּוּעַ, בְּקוֹל רָם, וְלֹא מַאֲרִיכִים יוֹתֵר מִדַּאי, וְלֹא מְקַצְּרִים וְחוֹטְפִים חַס וְשָׁלוֹם

Specifically, it should be those who pray word by word, in a moderate manner, out loud, who do not overly prolong the prayers, nor do they shorten them and swallow the words, God forbid. That is, a prayer leader must know how to articulate each word separately, and he should neither hurriedly swallow his words nor stretch them out too much. His voice must be loud enough that the congregation can hear him and join in with him. Overall, he should not take longer than the majority of the congregation can bear and still maintain their concentration, and conversely he must take care that each word is enunciated properly and audibly.

וַעֲלֵיהֶם מוּטָל חוֹבָה לֵירֵד לִפְנֵי הַתֵּיבָה, כָּל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד בְּיוֹמוֹ אֲשֶׁר יַגִּיעַ לוֹ, וְלֶאֱסוֹף אֵלָיו סָבִיב סָמוּךְ כָּל הַמִּתְפַּלְּלִים, בְּקוֹל קְצָת עַל כָּל פָּנִים וְלֹא בְּלַחַשׁ וְלֹא חוֹטְפִים חַס וְשָׁלוֹם

They have the obligation to descend before the Ark as prayer leaders, each one on his designated day, and to gather around him, next to him, all those praying, with at least some voice, and who are not whispering or swallowing the words, God forbid. As stated, the main task of the prayer leader is to ensure that the congregation will recite the prayer together.

וְכַמְבוֹאָר בְּתַקָּנוֹת יְשָׁנוֹת בְּכַמָּה עֲיָירוֹת. וְעַתָּה בָּאתִי לְחַדְּשָׁן וּלְחַזְּקָן וּלְאַמְּצָן בַּל יִמּוֹטוּ עוֹד לְעוֹלָם חַס וְשָׁלוֹם

This is as explained in the old enactments of some towns, and I have now come to renew them, and to strengthen them and adopt them so that they should never fail again, God forbid As already implied at the beginning of the essay, the author of the Tanya is not saying anything new here; rather, he has repeatedly issued such demands in different places and on various occasions. In some towns these requests have even been accepted as written, binding enactments. In this essay, he is not seeking to add any new requirements, but simply to reinforce those existing decrees.

(בִּכְתַב יָד: גְּוַואלְד גְּוַואלְד)

(in the manuscript: Gevald , gevald !). In this essay, which the author composed in his own handwriting, the author of the Tanya adds a colloquial Yiddish expression that comes straight from the heart: "Gevald, gevald!" This phrase, for which there is no adequate translation and which does not appear elsewhere in the Tanya, shows how deeply he was affected by this issue of public prayer and prayer in general.

עַד מָתַי יִהְיֶה זֶה לָנוּ לְמוֹקֵשׁ (שמות י,ז)

"Until when will this be a snare for us?" (Ex. 10:7). The "snare" is the fact that the public prayer is not as it should be, with everyone joining together in their recitation and intention, without any talking or interruptions, Heaven forfend. This quote is based on what Pharaoh's servants said to Pharaoh when he refused to learn the lesson from all the calamities that were befalling Egypt, and insisted on acting as though there was no connection between the plagues and Moses's demands. The same applies here: After all the retributions from which have been inflicted upon them, can they still fail to understand that these are due to improper prayer?

וְלֹא דַּי לָנוּ בְּכָל הַתּוֹכֵחוֹת וְהַצָּרוֹת שֶׁעָבְרוּ עָלֵינוּ ה׳ יִשְׁמְרֵנוּ וִינַחֲמֵנוּ בְּכִפְלַיִם לְתוּשִׁיָּה, וִיטַהֵר לִבֵּנוּ לְעָבְדוֹ בֶּאֱמֶת

Are all the punishments and troubles that have befallen us not sufficient for us, may God protect us and comfort us with a double measure of wisdom, and purify our hearts to serve Him in truth. As stated, it was an accepted view that all the material troubles that had befallen the Jews, which were such terrible events that he does not wish to specify them but merely states "may God protect us," were to a large extent the result of this corruption of public prayer. After his harsh comments, the author concludes this section with words of comfort and encouragement: May God "comfort us with a double measure of wisdom," i.e., they should rise up through the strength of their repentance and rectifications, and then they will receive a double portion of goodness than what they had before. The salvation will come through the very thing that was corrupted, for God will "purify our hearts to serve Him" in the service of the heart, which is prayer. In order that our prayer will be "in truth," assistance is needed from Heaven. On our part, we can only serve God as best we can, but in order for our speech to be true, appropriate, and connected to the higher will, as an embodiment of "O Lord, open my lips so my mouth may declare Your praise" (Ps. 51:17), we require purification from above. This is the truest response of the Holy One, blessed be He, to our prayers.

חִזְּקוּ וְאִמְּצוּ לְבַבְכֶם כָּל הַמְיַיחֲלִים לה׳

Be strong and have your hearts take courage, all of you who hope in the Lord. This phrase is derived from Psalms 31:25. In order to attain this prayer, it is first of all necessary to work hard, because prayer always starts from below, from where we are situated. In this regard, the author states: "Be strong and have your hearts take courage." We must await God's response and hope for His salvation, for no matter what we do, say, and strive for, it will never match up to that for which we yearn, which is achieved only through the beneficence of God. This concludes the first part of the essay, which focused on prayer. The second section deals with the study of Torah. Here too, the author addresses the congregation rather than individuals, as his request is specifically for a communal form of service.

גַּם לִגְמוֹר כָּל הַשַּׁ"ס בְּכָל שָׁנָה וְשָׁנָה וּבְכָל עִיר וָעִיר

Also, it is important to complete the Six Orders of the Talmud each year in every city, This is also a reproof, albeit not as severe a criticism as the previous one. As is the case for prayer, so too there is extra value and worth to Torah study performed in public. However, unlike public prayer, there is no fixed framework to public Torah study (mandated by halakha or custom) that must be observed carefully. Nevertheless, it is necessary to create and maintain such structures. The author of the Tanya's idea is to create a framework that unifies time, place, and people in a shared study of Torah. Indeed, ideas of this kind are applied nowadays almost everywhere, on various topics, including the study of the Talmud, Bible, Rambam, Zohar, and more. The aim here is "to complete the Six Orders [of the Talmud] each year in every city."

לְחַלֵּק הַמַּסֶּכְתּוֹת עַל פִּי הַגּוֹרָל אוֹ בְּרָצוֹן

and I would suggest dividing up the tractates by lottery or by consent. The author of the Tanya's suggestion is to divide up the tractates in a similar manner to the arrangement he proposed earlier with regard to prayer leaders. In order for the service of the public to succeed in general, all the details must be organized in a fixed order, which does not depend on people's constantly changing will or possible lack of will. He therefore suggests that the order be determined by lottery, since this removes any considerations of preferences or personal motives. In a lottery everyone is treated equally, which is why it is a suitable framework for the service of the collective. He adds "or by consent," since there is certainly no reason to prevent someone who has a personal preference to study a particular treatise from doing so. If a person's will and heart draws him to a specific topic, he will be more engaged there, and his study will accordingly be more successful.

וְעִיר שֶׁיֵּשׁ בָּהּ מִנְיָנִים הַרְבֵּה יִגְמְרוּ בְּכָל מִנְיָן וּמִנְיָן

If a city has many congregations, each one of them should complete it, It is not only the collective that is important, that the community should study the entire Talmud in the same place, but each individual is also of significance. Every person should study at least one tractate a year. Therefore, where there is a large community, they should not allow a portion of the public to fulfill the duty on behalf of everyone, but rather they should divide the Talmud many times over, so that everyone will be allotted a tractate.

וְאִם אֵיזֶה מִנְיָן קָטָן מֵהָכִיל, יְצָרְפוּ אֲלֵיהֶם אֲנָשִׁים מֵאֵיזֶה מִנְיָן גָּדוֹל, בְּבַל יְשׁוּנֶּה חֹק וְלֹא יַעֲבוֹר

and if one congregation is too small to manage it, they should be joined by men from some other, larger congregation, without deviating from the requirement, a statute that shall not be violated. The main thing is that each person should study some part of the Talmud, as part of the study of the entire Six Orders. The author of the Tanya presents another requirement to those who study the Talmud:

וְכָל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד מֵהַלּוֹמְדִים הנ״ל יִגְמוֹר לְעַצְמוֹ בְּכָל שָׁבוּעַ הַתְּמַנְיָא אַפֵּי שֶׁבַּתְּהִלִּים קי״ט

And each and every one of those students shall complete by himself, every week, the eightfold verses of Psalms 119. Psalm 119, which is the longest in the book of Psalms (and, indeed, the longest chapter in the entire Bible), is structured alphabetically, eight times over. In other words, it comprises eight verses, all of which start with the letter alef, followed by eight that begin with a bet, and so on for the whole alphabet. This lengthy psalm consists entirely of praises of the Torah, which is blessed with every possible laudatory name, such as "Your statutes," "Your precepts," "Your mitzvot," "Your saying," "Your laws," "Your edicts," and others. All this in one psalm of eightfold eight verses, for each letter of the alphabet. The author of the Tanya addresses this request specifically to those studying the Talmud, that they recite this chapter every week. This is to ensure that the Torah does not become like other professional activities and fields of knowledge, since it will help them remember and reflect at all times that it is the Torah of the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself. Since the Torah has been brought down to us, and it deals mainly with the affairs of this world, its connection to its higher source is not evident in most cases, and thus we have to establish a framework in order to remember that we are dealing with not only oxen and donkeys, agriculture and tort law, but the wisdom and will of God Himself, which He revealed to us and desires from us. Furthermore, when we contemplate the Torah we are united in God's wisdom and will, and with Him Himself, in a unity that has no equal anywhere in any world. When one reflects upon this, while reciting the eightfold verses of praise of the Torah that is within each letter, he will not only remember but actually feel like one who can see before him the Giver of the Torah Himself, as he keeps his focus on the Torah. The author of the Tanya expects that each person should complete the eightfold verses himself, because this connection of the Torah to its Giver should be fully experienced by everyone, not only as a part of a community but for himself, in his personal being, his "measure," so that it touches him and enters the interiority of his heart. No person can share this engagement with anyone else; one cannot receive or give it. It is here, in his innermost self, that he must complete the entire eightfold chapter. It can be said that in this request to recite Psalm 119, the author of the Tanya links the study of the Talmud to the prayer he discussed in the earlier part of the essay. Accordingly, these are not two unrelated topics that he just happened to address in the same essay, but part of the same idea and message that he wishes to convey to his hasidim. This idea continues, it can be suggested, into the third part of the essay as well.

וְלִהְיוֹת מֵחֲמַת חֲלִישׁוּת הַדּוֹר אֵין כֹּחַ בְּכָל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד לְהִתְעַנּוֹת כָּרָאוּי לוֹ

Since, due to the weakness of the generation, not everyone has the strength to fast as he should, This sentence appears to be a continuation of some comments that are missing. Whether there is an omission here or not, we ourselves should be able to fill in any possible gap. It appears that in this essay, which comes at the end of the book of the Tanya, the assumption is made that we have already studied the previous sections. Indeed, the background to this sentence can be found in Iggeret HaTeshuva (chap. 3), from which one can at the very least gauge what the author is referring to here. The subject of that chapter in Iggeret HaTeshuva is the atonement for one's sins by means of fasts, and the weakness of recent generations, who are unable to complete the number of fasts required by the Tikkunei HaTeshuva of the Arizal. It is stated there that as a result, one must nowadays give more to charity, a mitzva that corresponds to the fasts. Here he takes the same idea in a different direction. The "weakness of the generation" is more a spiritual than a physical weakness. The issue of fasting does not only raise the question of what it does to the body, but mainly relates to a person's spiritual attitude toward the fast. It is clear that nowadays it is more difficult to fast; people are used to eating more, several times a day and between meals, and thus one's psychological dependence on food is greater. A person who has not eaten for several hours can hardly think of anything else apart from food. If a person fasts and fails to do anything useful on that day, the harm this causes outweighs any potential benefit of fasting. Furthermore, if one successfully completes the fast, he will feel so proud of himself that it would have been preferable for him not to have fasted at all.

לְזֹאת עֵצָה הַיְּעוּצָה כְּמַאֲמַר רַבּוֹתֵינוּ ז״ל (שבת קיח,ב): כֹּל הַשּׁוֹמֵר שַׁבָּת כְּהִלְכָתוֹ מוֹחֲלִין לוֹ עַל כָּל עֲווֹנוֹתָיו כְּהִלְכָתוֹ דַּיְיקָא

accordingly, the devised plan follows our Rabbis' statement (Shabbat 118b): Whoever observes the Sabbath in accordance with its halakhot , God forgives him all of his transgressions – "in accordance with its halakhot " is meant specifically. What is the connection between the Sabbath and repentance [teshuva ]? There is indeed a conceptual link between them, apart from the similarity of the letters of which the two words are comprised. Repentance involves the return to one's roots, the homecoming of someone who has wandered off, back to his place of origin. The Sabbath is also, in its inner meaning, the ascent of all things back to their roots, as they were before they were created, and their return to the One who created them. Therefore, one who observes the Sabbath in accordance with its halakhot, like one who repents, will reach the root of his existence, which is above the array of laws and definitions that constitute this world. In that place, he can also obtain forgiveness for his sins. Although any action he has performed cannot be undone, when he is above the restraints of the causality of the world in which he performed the act, he may no longer be bound by its results. However, in order to be with God alone, without any interference from anything else, one must be within the Sabbath in all its perfection, which means observing the Sabbath in accordance with its halakhot. If one fails to keep the Sabbath in accordance with any single halakha, it is as though a limb, hand, leg, or ear has not entered the Sabbath to be there with God, but has remained outside, separated.

לָכֵן מוּטָל עַל כָּל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד לִהְיוֹת בָּקִי בְּהִלְכְתָא רַבָּתִי לְשַׁבְּתָא

Therefore, each and every person must be expert in the great halakhot of the Sabbath. The "great halakhot " of the Sabbath are very severe: One who willfully desecrates the Sabbath, in the presence of witnesses, is liable to death by stoning. And yet they are among the most common halakhot, since once every seven days there is a whole day of the Sabbath. Whatever a person does on the Sabbath, such as eating, walking, or talking, he must know if it is permitted or not. It is related that Rabbi Bunim of Peshischa once said: "When I was a boy and I first understood matters, I was afraid to stand up after having sat down on the Sabbath, and after I arose I was afraid to sit down again, for I was worried that I might be desecrating the Sabbath. Therefore, for my own preservation I had to study the laws of the Sabbath."

וְגַם יִזָּהֵר מְאֹד שֶׁלֹּא לָשׂוּחַ שׁוּם שִׂיחָה בְּטֵילָה חַס וְשָׁלוֹם

He must also be very careful not to engage in any idle conversation, God forbid, The prophets taught that certain forms of speech are forbidden on the Sabbath; see for example the verse "[You call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's sacred, honored, and you honor it by refraining from doing your business,] from seeking your needs and from speaking of matters" (Isa. 58:13). We learn here that one may not speak on the Sabbath about issues that are "your needs," which do not concern the Sabbath or God. The author is stating that in order for the Sabbath to be an atonement for one's sin, he must observe the holy day in accordance with its halakhot, not only in deed but also in speech, and as much as possible in thought as well, in order to be connected with God in all the garments of one's soul. The sanctification of one's speech and thought on the Sabbath, even with respect to what is permitted according to halakha, has a far-reaching inner meaning:

בִּהְיוֹת מוּדַעַת זֹאת לְיוֹדְעֵי חֵן, כִּי בְּכָל הַמִּצְוֹת יֵשׁ פְּנִימִיּוּת וְחִיצוֹנִיּוּת

as it is known to those initiated in the esoteric wisdom of the Kabbala that all the mitzvot have internal and external aspects. The esoteric wisdom is also called "the internality of the Torah," because the most basic concept it reveals is that there an internality to the Torah and the mitzvot. In the internality of the Torah we are taught that even on the Sabbath there is both a visible layer, of one's deeds in the physical external reality, and also more internal layers of speech and thought, through which one observes the Sabbath as well.

וְחִיצוֹנִית מֵהַשַּׁבָּת הוּא שְׁבִיתָה מֵעֲשִׂיָּה גַּשְׁמִיִּית, כְּמוֹ שֶׁשָּׁבַת ה׳ מֵעֲשׂוֹת שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ גַּשְׁמִיִּים וּפְנִימִית הַשַּׁבָּת הִיא הַכַּוָּונָה בִּתְפִלַּת הַשַּׁבָּת וּבְתַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה – לְדָבְקָה בה׳ אֶחָד

The external aspect of the Sabbath is the rest from physical activity, just as God rested from making the physical heavens and earth, while the internal aspect of the Sabbath is one's intent in the Sabbath prayers and in Torah study, to cleave to the one God. The general rule is that we must strive to be like God. The Sabbath of God consisted of a rest from the creation of the physical heavens and earth, as described in the second chapter of Genesis. The same applies to our Sabbath, on which we rest from similar activities. Just as God rested from the creation of the world, which is separate from Him, as it were, so too for us the rest is from all our actions in the world. We leave them behind and return to the soul itself. We do not carry out tasks, nor do we speak of or think about them, but rather we transcend them in order to relate to the Divine Himself, as He is in His rest from the labor of the world. How can one observe "the internal aspect of the Sabbath," in one's speech and thought, in the higher reality that is above this world of physical actions? As on the external level, so on the internal level, there is a division between positive and negative commands, between what must be done and what has to be avoided on the Sabbath. This is a division that the Sages attribute to two verses that appear in the Ten Commandments: "Remember the Sabbath day" (Ex. 20:8) and "Observe the Sabbath day" (Deut. 5:12). The "positive commandment" of the inner Sabbath is to have "intent in the Sabbath prayers and in Torah study, to cleave to the one God." On the external level, in practice, the mitzvot of the Sabbath are mainly negative commandments, since the mitzva is to rest as God did, and rest involves refraining from activity. What did God do on the day of the Sabbath; what did He create? Nothing. We too do nothing on the Sabbath, as much as this is possible. This applies on the external level, but when it comes to the internal aspect of the Sabbath the situation is different. For just as God Himself did not create heaven and earth but was Himself, so we do not take action on the Sabbath, but we exist, to a greater extent than on other days, as ourselves: in our thoughts, we focus on the intention to cleave to the one God. Cleaving to the one God, as He is incomparably Himself, is our Sabbath. It is thus like the Sabbath of God: We become ourselves by resting from all activities that operate in and are connected to another world. Then, when we are ourselves, at our roots, beyond all actions, thoughts, feelings, and cognitions, we are truly one with Him. The author here emphasizes one's intent, not necessarily the recitation of prayer or the words of the Torah, but one's intention at the time. Of course, as long as we live in this world we cannot literally do nothing, not think or not feel anything. However, we can reach the stage where our action or speech will not be important for itself, but merely the framework for the pure intention, which is one's cleaving to the one God. We pray on the Sabbath, with words, from a siddur, in the synagogue, and so on, but this is nothing more than the vessel for our intention to cleave to God. An expression of this idea is that on the Sabbath we do not pray for the affairs of this world, for healing or a livelihood, and the like. Instead, the eighteen blessings of the standard Amida prayer are shortened to a mere seven, and these focus on praising and thanking God and describing the nature of the Sabbath day. Likewise, Torah study on the Sabbath is not like the study of the Torah on weekdays, but is mainly geared toward helping one cleave to God alone. Accordingly, this is the way to observe the Sabbath on the internal level: to meditate on and intend to cleave to the one God.

כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: ״שַׁבָּת לַה׳ אֱלֹקֶיךָ״ (שמות כ,י) וְזוֹ הִיא בְּחִינַת "זָכוֹר" (שמות כ,ח)

As it is written: "A Sabbath for the Lord your God" (Ex. 20:10), and this is an aspect of "Remember" (Ex. 20:8), A person's Sabbath day, his actions, words and thoughts, indeed his whole being and existence on the day of the Sabbath, transcend the world "for the Lord your God." This is of course a consequence of one's intention, since a person's actions on the Sabbath are basically the same as those of the weekdays, with regard to eating, drinking, and his other deeds. The difference on the Sabbath lies in one's intent behind those actions and words, that they should be "for the Lord your God." Whereas for the external conduct of the Sabbath one must "remember" the limited halakhic requirement of sanctification, with respect to the internality of the Sabbath this "remember" has a much broader meaning, that one's intent in all his actions and speech must be "for the Lord your God."

וּבְחִינַת ״שָׁמוֹר״ (דברים ה,יא) בִּפְנִימִיּוּת, הִיא הַשְּׁבִיתָה מִדִּיבּוּרִים גַּשְׁמִיִּים, כְּמוֹ שֶׁשָּׁבַת ה' מֵעֲשָׂרָה מַאֲמָרוֹת שֶׁנִּבְרְאוּ בָּהֶם שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ גַּשְׁמִיִּים

while an aspect of "Observe" (Deut. 5:12), in the internal aspect, is resting from physical speech, just as God rested from the ten utterances with which the physical heavens and earth were created. On the external level the rest is from activity, while on the internal level it is from speech: to refrain from discussing the affairs and building of the world, just as God rested from the speech of the ten utterances with which the world was created.

כִּי ״זֶה לְעוּמַּת זֶה״ (קהלת ז,יד).

For "God made this corresponding to that" (Eccles. 7:14). With respect to both the Sabbath and the internal aspect of speech there is "this speech corresponding to that speech." There is a speech of the Sabbath, of ascending and cleaving to God, while corresponding to it there is a mundane, material speech, which desecrates the Sabbath on the internal level. Thus, the choice to observe the Sabbath applies on all levels, from the physical level of an actual violation of the halakhot of the Sabbath, through the kind of speech that opposes holiness, diverting one's thoughts away from the Sabbath to secular concerns, to a thought that desecrates the Sabbath in the soul.