The holy Shabbat…when it spreads its wings over us, a lofty light fills the world. Great tzaddikim are able to see this light with the eyes of the spirit; for them, it’s an experience as real as any earthly sensation. When Rebbe Nachman was a little boy, he heard the tzaddikim who traveled to Mezhibuzh, and his own holy parents, speak about the great light of Shabbat. Naturally, he longed to experience it as they did.
Hours before Shabbat, little Nachman ran to the mikvah to immerse in honor of the holy day. Then he put on his Shabbat clothes with joy and raced to the synagogue. There he walked back and forth in the waning afternoon, thinking about the light of the extra soul of Shabbat, seeking, wishing and hoping that he, too, would get to see it with his own eyes. With the purity and intensity of a child focused on his heart’s desire, Nachman stood and yearned to see the light of Shabbat…for hours.
Eventually people arrived for the afternoon prayers. When they began to recite Shir HaShirim, the Song of Songs, Nachman was filled with an overpowering longing. He sat down at one of the benches. In front of him stood an oldfashioned shtender (lectern) with a space for books beneath its pitched top. Little Nachman was so overwhelmed with emotion, he stuck his head into the space and began to weep. “When will I see the light of Shabbat?” he cried and begged.
Like children who get worked up with emotion, Nachman cried himself to sleep. While his head lay inside the dark space of the shtender, the congregation readied itself to accept the Shabbat. The shamash moved from one suspended oil lamp to the next, lighting them in honor of the holy day, and the congregation began to pray the service welcoming the Shabbat.
Soon enough, little Nachman woke up, teary and blearyeyed, with his head inside a dark and quiet space. When he extracted his head from the shtender, his eyes were unused to the light and the small flames of the oil lamps appeared to be surrounded by haloes. They looked like holy visions, like angels, like stars to his young eyes. With perfect simplicity, he sighed with pleasure. “Finally, I’ve seen the holy light of Shabbat!”
(Based on Or HaOrot I, pp. 63-65)
