Yearning for Malchus
A thought on the Haftara, Lecha Dodi and Elul
The past few weeks I have been trying to understand 3 seemingly different ideas. As I was exploring these ideas I realized that perhaps they are all part of one idea.
Every year as Elul approaches, we start hearing messages about “The King is in the field”1. I always had a hard time understanding this: Why is Hashem in the field? Why a field? Why doesn't Hashem come into our communities, why do we need to go out to the field?
While learning the parshiyos over the past few weeks I noticed an interesting thing. When it comes to capital punishment, the Torah seems to transition from taking matters into your own hand2, to going to a Kohen3. Then the Torah tells us about appointing judges4 and coronating a king5. We then learn about the Zekeinim who convened at the gates of the city6. What are these different roles and why are the Zekeinim at the gate?
The Haftaros over the past few weeks are known as Shiva D’Nechemta, the seven Haftaros of comfort over the destruction of Jerusalem. I noticed that some of the pesukim were familiar as they are the source for the piyut Lecha Dodi, which we sing on Shabbos. This begged the question, why are we singing about the comfort of the destruction of Yerushalayim as we bring in Shabbos?
I would like to suggest as follows:
In our ultimate state of perfection, we are one with Hashem and we do not need anyone else to help foster that connection. What happens when we are not as close to Hashem as we would hope, we must go to a Kohen for guidance. Moshe foresaw this and said we should have Shoftim who we can go to for guidance, and then we should have a king to deal with the overall. The Shoftim of Tanach were the baalei mesora7, they were much like the Zekeinim before them, and the Anshei Kneses HaGedola and Sanhedrin after them. They sat at the city gates, as they were guarding and giving over the mesora. We do not find though that people went to the king for guidance, the king remained in His palace.
In order for us to be a people and continue so, we must hold strong to the mesora, we must seek out the mesora. During Elul, Hashem gives us a shortcut to tap into the mesora and connect with Him. He goes out into the field, past the city gates and outside of the general structure of mesora, where He is now accessible. The field is where the land is worked and where the people are found. During this time, we can seek out the King directly, even where we would not usually find Him, and re-connect to our mesora.
Let’s go back to our question about Lecha Dodi and bring this full circle.
The Rambam8 writes that there are four elements of Shabbos: Shamar, to safeguard it; Zachar, to remember it; Kavod to honor it; and Oneg to be delighted with it. He elaborates that Kavod means to get oneself ready and await the arrival of Shabbos. This waiting creates a yearning for Shabbos, as it is not enough to know that Shabbos is coming, one must yearn for it too.
Rav Moshe Shapiro9 explains that to yearn for Shabbos is to yearn for the Malchus of Hashem to be in this world. Therefore, when Shabbos is coming, we go out of the city into the fields surrounding, to show how much we yearn for the Melech. We then sing about yearning for the Geula Shleima and the restoration of Malchus Hashem to the world and for a time when it will always be Shabbos10.
Attributed to The Alter Rebbe - Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi
Devarim 13;10
Devarim 17;9
Devarim 16;18
Devarim 17;15
Devarim 21;19
As heard from my father, Rav Yaacov Haber
Shuvi V’Nechzeh - Shabbos page 63-64
Hilchos Shabbos Perek 30
Perhaps with this explanation we can understand why we follow Lecha Dodi with Mizmor Shir LeYom HaShabbos as Rabbi Ephraim Epstein writes in his sefer, Davening Divine:
After the festive singing of Lechah Dodi and the ushering in of the Shabbat Queen, we acknowledge our cosmic shift from the mundane week to the holy Shabbat by reciting Tehillim 92 — “Mizmor Shir L’Yom HaShabbat — the song of Shabbat.” This perek reflects the future Messianic world of purity, clarity, and eternity.
Shabbat is a time for teshuvah, a time to return to God and to one’s own inner self; hence the root of the word Shabbat — shuv — to return. Regarding the pasuk, “Tov l’hodot laHashem — It is good to praise God,” Chazal remark that it was originally stated by the first man of the world, Adam, after he repented from the sin of eating the Forbidden Fruit. It may also be interpreted as “Tov l’hitvadot laHashem — It is good to confess to God.” Before Shabbat arrives each week, it is a time for all Jews to perform an inner search and attend to any past wrongdoings.