RABBI HASKEL LOOKSTEIN

DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!

BY RABBI HASKEL LOOKSTEIN

Have you ever noticed a glaring omission from the main section of the Musaf Amidah on Shabbat (Tikanta Shabbat)?

It is something that is in every Musaf Amidah on every Yom Tov, including on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It is in the Musaf Amidah for Rosh Chodesh too, though phrased slightly differently. But it is not even mentioned on Shabbat. Do not feel bad if you have no idea what I am talking about. I never noticed the omission all my life until very recently when I was studying the Siddur over the phone with a KJ member. I was struck by what was missing. The omission is “U’mipenay chata’einu galinu me’artzainu...” (And because of our sins we were exiled from our Land... and prevented from bringing the Musaf offering). On Shabbat, unlike every other holy day, there is no reference to our sins and the Galut which prevent our discharging our sacrificial obligations; there is only a positive plea that “Yehi ratzon...” (May it be Your Will O’ God to bring us joyously to our Land and there we will bring the sacrifices incumbent upon us, including the Musaf offering). Why is there no mention of our sins and the Galut and the destruction of the Temple? It is clear that our sages who formulated the Amidah wanted to avoid the negative confession of blame on Shabbat and stress only the positive petition that God return us to the Land of Israel so that we could fulfill the obligation to bring the Musaf offering.

Recognizing this omission helps me to understand better a teaching of the Rav zt’l, which he presented in a shiur in RIETS over sixty years ago. I vividly recall the Rav explaining that the expression in Birkat Hamazon on Shabbat: “Shelo tehei tzara v’yagon va-anacha b’yom menuchateinu (Let there be no distress, grief or lament on our day of rest), is not a plea that on Shabbat we should have no tsoros or problems about which to crechtz. Rather, it is a declaration that on Shabbat we should not speak about - or

dwell on - the tzoros that we have. This explanation elicited some humorous reactions from the students. One said: “Rebbe, does this mean that maybe we shouldn’t read the newspapers on Shabbat?” The Rav responded with a smile: “Maybe!” Whereupon another student suggested that perhaps rabbis should be discouraged from delivering sermons on Shabbat. The Rav laughed and said: “Takeh - maybe!”

At the time, I wondered from where this explanation of the text in the Shabbat Birkat Hamazon originated. Now, I understand that this idea is embedded in the Musaf Amidah for Shabbat. Our sages did not want us to express sad thoughts on Shabbat by lamenting our sins causing the Galut. Perhaps this is a source for the Rav’s comment on Birkat Hamazon.

Another source for this explanation is found in the Talmud and quoted in our Birkat Hamazon in the special Harachaman for Shabbat which describes the day as a total Shabbat, with uninterrupted rest as in Eternal Life. The reference is to the World to Come, where there are no problems and no difficulties. We pray for an earthly Shabbat on which we will not have to dwell on our problems and hardships.

The late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel zt”l, called the Shabbat an “Oasis in Time.” It is a day which is set aside from the labors and problems of the rest of the week. We may be aware of our tzoros on Shabbat: illness, infirmities, finances, familial issues, political strife and, of course, the pandemic with all of its worrisome ramifications, but we should not dwell on them on Shabbat. They should not dominate our speech, our reading and our thoughts. At our Shabbat table, we should speak about all the good things we have, all the nice things in our world and all the things for which we should be grateful, of which we all have many. We should discuss Torah, ideas and ideals which enrich our lives. We should spend Shabbat enjoying the physical and spiritual pleasures in our world and leave discussions about our tsoros for the rest of the week.

Our sages, in formulating the Musaf Amidah and the Birkat Hamazon on Shabbat, were sending an implicit and explicit message to us: “Let there be no distress, grief or lament on the day of rest.”