Shabbos!!

Imagine that you walk one morning to your favorite candy store only to find, to your chagrin, that it is closed. There’s nothing you can do, so you simply hope they will be open tomorrow, and perhaps you’ll go somewhere else for today.

But when you return the next day, it’s still closed. “Oh, well,” you think, “the owner must be on vacation. I hope he’s not sick or anything like that.”

This could go on for a while, without you ever knowing for certain what has happened. As far as you know, the store is only temporarily closed and will reopen as soon as the owner either gets back from vacation or gets better or whatever the case may be.

But once the sign above the store is removed, the sign that says CANDY STORE, the sign you’ve looked for in delightful anticipation every day as you walked towards the store -- once that sign is taken down, you know that the store is closed, and that it will never reopen.

Shabbos is the sign of a Jew. A Jew might at times falter, he might slip and slide and sin from time to time, but as long as he’s keeping Shabbos, you know that person is still attached to Judaism. Once a Jew stops keeping Shabbos, the Torah says that he has, Heaven forbid, officially severed ties with true Judaism. He has removed the sign that identifies the store. He has closed the shop.

Shabbos is a sign between Hashem and His people. It is part of our special and personal relationship with Hashem. It is part of our “contract” with Him.

And Shabbos is indeed so much like a candy store.

When someone keeps Shabbos properly, his face shines on Shabbos in a way that it doesn’t shine during the week. The delight that Jews experience on Shabbos is incomparable. It begins when we hurry to complete our preparations on Erev Shabbos (the day before Shabbos, i.e., Friday), steadily increases as we near Shabbos, reaches its peak on Shabbos itself, and remains in full force until Motza Shabbos (when Shabbos departs). And when we fully immerse ourselves in the experience of Shabbos, we feel this delight and holiness to a smaller degree throughout the week as well.

Like in the story above, we look forward to Shabbos all week. We long for it, and can hardly wait for it. Whatever we buy, we buy for the honor of Shabbos. We plan our entire week around Shabbos.

So lets all have a wonderful spiritual shabbos!!