Kiddush, a Purified Mind, and True Remembrance

1a“I will rebuke you and set it out before your eyes” (Tehillim 50:21). “I will rebuke you” means a reckoning in which Hashem makes the sin clear. “And set it out (v'e'erchah)” means that He will assess the erech, the weight, of the sin. “Before your eyes” means according to what you are in your own eyes. When a person has sinned, the sins and transgressions are forgotten as time goes by, and he comes to think of himself as a wholesome, upright man who has served Hashem from his youth. So Hashem will weigh the sin “before his eyes,” by his own estimate of himself: “If you are such a wholesome and upright man, how could you commit so great a wrong and rebel against the Creator? It does not fit your dignity or your precious standing!” That is “I will set it out before your eyes”: He will weigh the sin against who you think you are. And this is what the Midrash means: “When the Holy One, blessed be He, comes and rebukes each person according to what he is” [Bereishis Rabbah 93:10]: according to his worth in his own eyes.

1bThis is the meaning of Chazal's teaching: “‘Remember the Shabbos day to sanctify it’ [Shemos 20:8]: remember it over wine” (Pesachim 106a), that is, with Kiddush. All holiness is rooted in Chochmah, wisdom, as the holy Zohar says, and “Chochmah is the mind” (Tikkunei Zohar, Introduction, Pasach Eliyahu). If a person merits to sanctify and purify his mind, he merits to cleave to the Creator with a wondrous closeness. As Chazal say (Shabbos 119b): “Whoever prays on Friday night and says Vayechulu, Scripture considers him a partner with the Holy One, blessed be He, in the work of Creation.” Through the precious words of the Shabbos Kiddush, a person merits to repair and purify his mind, and to become holy, set apart from the concerns of this world. Through this he merits remembrance: he remembers his own low state and his earlier days, for all remembering is in the mind.

1cThis is what our holy Torah says: “Do not stray after your heart and after your eyes, after which you go astray, so that you will remember” (Bamidbar 15:39–40). If a person guards himself from every trace of sin and from the empty desires of this world, then there is no forgetting before him, and he merits remembrance. He remembers his Creator, so as not to sin, “so that His fear may be upon your faces” [Shemos 20:17]. He also remembers the past, all he has sinned until this day. All this comes through the light of Shabbos's holiness and its Kiddush. The verse continues, “and you will do all My commandments,” which hints at Shabbos. As the Yerushalmi says (Berachos 1:5): “Reish Lakish said: The Ten Commandments are included in the Shema.” “‘So that you will remember’: Rebbi says, this is the mitzvah of Shabbos, which equals all the mitzvos of the Torah.” See there. So “you will do all My commandments” hints at Shabbos, the mitzvah equal to them all. And it comes through the precious words of Kiddush too. This is hinted in the next words, V'heyisem Kedoshim L'Elokeichem, “and you will be holy to your God,” whose initials spell kol, voice. Through the speech and voice of the Shabbos Kiddush, a person purifies his mind, and remembrance follows naturally.

2aThis is what the holy Arizal wrote in his song for Shabbos night [Azamer Bishvachin]: “We will make crowns for You with precious words, with seventy adornments”: the seventy words of the Kiddush. Through the precious words of Kiddush, which is Chochmah, a person merits a crown, keser. A crown signals a free man, who is subject to no one, like a king. Through the light of holiness and purity that comes from the seventy precious words of Kiddush, a person merits to make form rule over matter, the spirit over the body. He becomes a free man, free of slavery to this world's desires. This is why talmidei chachamim are called kings, as Chazal say: “Who are the kings? The Rabbis” (Gittin 62a). For talmidei chachamim and the tzaddikim make form rule and prevail over matter.

2bThat is the meaning of “The tzaddikim sit with their crowns on their heads” [Berachos 17a]: they make crowns for themselves. Through the precious words of Kiddush they become free men, free of slavery to the yetzer, and all their soul's longing and desire is only to serve Hashem. As David HaMelech said, “My soul yearns, indeed it pines (kalsah), for the courtyards of Hashem; my heart and my flesh sing out to the living God” (Tehillim 84:3). This is what Chazal mean by “whoever sanctifies and says Vayechulu” [cf. Shabbos 119b]. Through Kiddush he sanctifies himself with every kind of holiness. And he “says Vayechulu,” a word related to kalsah, “my soul pines”: he longs only to cleave to Hashem's holiness with a wondrous closeness. Of such a person, “Scripture considers him a partner with the Holy One, blessed be He, in the work of Creation.”