The first Psalm on Erev Shabbat ערב שבת
that is said for the receiving of the Sabbath קבלת שבת
is Psalm 95.
Why is this Psalm chosen as the first Psalm
out of all the Psalms?
It is for a reason.
Psalm 95 contains a warning.
“Today if you will hear his voice,
do not harden your heart,
as in the provocation,
and as in the day of temptation
in the wilderness:
when your fathers tempted me,
proved me, and saw my work.
Forty years long
I was grieved with this generation,
and said, It is a people
who wander (err) in their heart,
and they have not known my ways:
to whom I swore in my wrath,
If you should enter into my REST.”
היום עם בקלו תשמעו:
על תקשו לבבכם כמריבה
כיום מסה במדבר:
אשר נסוני אבותיכם
בחנוני גם ראו פעלי:
ארבעים שנה אקוט בדור
ואמר עם תעי לבב הם
והם לא ידעו דרכי:
אשר נשבעתי בעפי
אם יבאון על מנוחתי:
The Scripture here makes the connection
between the Sabbath and the sin of the spies
in the wilderness. The judgment of this sin
was forty years of wandering.
However, there were two spies who entered
into the Sabbath, and who did not perish
in the wilderness.
These two spies were
Caleb כלב and Joshua יהושע.
Why did these spies enter into the Sabbath,
and the others did not?
The answer is found written
in Numbers 13:30 in the words of Caleb:
“And Caleb stilled the people
before Moses, and said,
Let us go up at once,
and possess it (the land);
for we are well able to overcome it.“
ויהס כלב עת העם
אל משה ויאמר
עלה נעלה
וירשנו אתהּ
כי יכול נוכל לה:
The phrase “well able” in Hebrew
is the emphatic form and it means
we “absolutely can.” יכול נוכל .
by repeating the word two times
in different verb forms.
The root of the word “can”
is formed by the three Hebrew letters
yod [ י ], caph [ כ ], and lamed [ ל ].
This same root appears amazingly
in the first declaration of the Sabbath
in the Torah in Genesis 2:1-2.
“Thus the heavens and the earth
were finished יכלו
and all the host of them.
And on the seventh day
G-d ended ויכל his work
which he had made;
and he rested on the seventh day
from all his work
which he had made.”
ויכלו השמים יהארץ
וכל צבאם:
ויכל אלהים ביום השביעי
מלאכתו אשר עשה
וישבת ביום השביעי
מכל מלאכתו אשר עשה:
The same root is used for the words
“to complete” and “to end” which
are directly connected to the Sabbath.
Caleb and Joshua kept the Sabbath
by their words,
and entered into the
rest מנוחה of HASHEM
which he spoke about in Psalm 95
when he said
“If they shall enter into my rest.”
אם יבאון אל מנוחתי:
It appears that age did not debilitate
Caleb and Joshua.
After forty five years when all the others of
their generation had died in the wilderness,
Caleb said in Joshua 14:10-11:
“And now, behold,
the LORD has kept me alive,
as he said, these forty five years,
even since the Lord spoke his word to Moses,
while the children of Israel
wandered in the wilderness:
and now, lo, I am this day
eighty five years old.
As yet I am as strong this day
as I was in the day
that Moses sent me:
as my strength was them,
even so is my strength now,
for war, both to go out,
and to come in.”
ועתה הנה
החיה יהוה אותי
כאשר דבר זה
ארבעים וחמש שנה
מאז דבר יהוה
את הדבר הזה אל משה
אשר הלך ישראל במדבר:
ועתה הנה אנכי היום
בן חמש ושמונים שנה:
עודני חזק כאשר ביום
שלח אותי משה
ככחי אז וככחי עתה
למלחמה ולצאת ולבוא:
Caleb entered into the Sabbath rest
of HASHEM when
the words of his mouth
agreed with the words
of the mouth of HASHEM.
The other ten spies and the
children of Israel who spoke words
against the words of HASHEM
did not enter into his Sabbath
and they died in the wilderness.
Moreover Caleb was able to
perform mighty feats of valor.
He was able to defeat
powerful enemies, giants,
and pull down high walled cities,
to take possession of the land
that was given to him
for an inheritance.
Joshua 14:12.
“Now therefore give me this mountain,
whereof HASHEM spoke that day;
for you heard in that day
how the Anakims there,
and the cities were great and fenced:
if so the LORD will be with me,
then I shall be able to
drive them out,
as HASHEM HAS SAID.
And Joshua blessed him,
and gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh
Hebron for an inheritance.”
ועתה תנה לי את ההר הזה
אשר דבר יהוה ביום ההוא
כי אתה שמעת ביום ההוא
כי ענקים שם
וערים גדלות בצרות
אולי יהוה אותי
והורשתים כאשר דבר יהוה:
ויברכהו יהושע
ויתן את חברון
לכלב בן יפנה לנחלה:
By entering into the Sabbath rest
of HASHEM,
Caleb and Joshua were able
to be victorious,
to defeat their enemies,
and to take posssession
of their inheritance that
had been promised
to them by HASHEM.