This Shabbat before Passover is called Shabbat Hagadol. Shabbat has been called the wonderful gift in the divine treasure house, which faithfully comes every week, bestowing blessings of light, pleasure, and renewal. Every Shabbat, we welcome the Sabbath with songs of praise, but on Shabbat Hagadol we receive an extra measure of abundance.
There is an intrinsic energy for renewal on Shabbat, and especially on Shabbat Hagadol, which looks forward to Passover. Both Shabbat and Passover give us power to rise above the natural order of things and the forces of darkness, as when we left Egypt.
On the first Shabbat Hagadol, a miracle happened when the Jews defied the Egyptians by taking one of their gods – the sheep – into their homes, and the Egyptians saw but could not prevent it. Our sages tell us that it was through the energy and power of Shabbat that they were able to do this.
In the evening Kiddush, Shabbat is called not only “a remembrance of the creation” but also “a remembrance of the going forth from Egypt.” Moreover, in Leviticus 23:15 (the source for the commandment to count the Omer), the first day of Passover is called Shabbat.
On the first day of Passover, our sages tell us, a great abundance of light descends, enabling us to leave “Egypt” (Mitzrayim, which means “narrow places”). This is the it’aruta dile’eyla – “the awakening from above.” But in order to fully absorb this great light and prepare ourselves to receive the Torah, 49 days of inner work are required to refine our animal souls.
The second day of Passover begins the counting of the Omer, the count-up to the giving and receiving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. This is the it’aruta diletata – “the awakening from below.” Hence, our sages tell us, the Omer offering consists of barley, which in biblical times was most often fed to animals.
Ushering in Shabbat before Passover
As the sun sets on Friday evening, we usher in Shabbat by lighting candles and by the blessing over wine as we are elevated into a holy place of grace and peace, returning to our spiritual root above. The forces of darkness flee in the face of this new light. We are transformed as our souls soar up into the deep blue depths of heaven, free to shine in a realm beyond mundane time. We, like the candles, glimmer like stars illuminating the darkness.
In Yoram Raanan’s painting Kabbalat Shabbat Hagadol, there is a sense of new light coming, of being outside, with hints of candles and stars, of welcoming, a feeling of deep space and generations of light. The painting captures the feeling of being elevated into a magical space to a realm beyond mundane time, into new vistas of deep and richer colors. Red wine seems to be pouring down from heaven as the blue that symbolizes the spirit also descends, evoking the “awakening from above.” The lights in the painting could be shining from many households, all enfolded in the same boundless space.
This year, as Passover begins at the close of Shabbat, the lights of Shabbat and Passover flow into each other as we commemorate our becoming a people. May we be granted to observe these two days in the radiance of the divine abundance as one people without barriers between us.■
Meira Raanan is the author of The Art of Revelation: A Visual Encounter with the Jewish Bible, a commentary on the paintings of her husband, Yoram Raanan. She is also a teacher of Jewish meditation.
Esther Cameron is a poet, scholar, and essayist living in Jerusalem. She is editor-in-chief of The Deronda Review.