Imagine this:
In a few days a favorite friend will arrive to stay with you for over-night and one full day. This friend always brings out your best self. Looking around you, you come up with a list of ways to ready your home to be welcoming for your friend. You clear your calendar for the whole day. There are favorite things you will want to do together.
Dinner. Hmm. You begin to plan something special. You shop in advance for just the right wine, the perfect bread, and as a real treat, a seriously decadent dessert. As you shop, the pleasure this visit will give your guest is a warm, happy place in your thoughts.
Now, take the metaphor up a level, the guest is your beloved. Time changes when you are together, you feel different, more alive. When you are both together you cannot think of other things, work does not matter, errands do not matter, just being together is everything. At the thought of your beloved, your soul leaps like a candle flame, dancing, flickering in anticipation, "S/he will be here soon!"
And you want to look your best, to wear something s/he will enjoy seeing you in. You pick a fabric that feels pleasurable against your skin and highlights the color in your eyes. You find clothes for the occasion that make you feel special.
All week you can feel your beloved coming toward you in time. No other days are like the ones when s/he comes. Other days seem so full of effort. When S/he arrives, time is pure Being. An ode to such love catches your eye, you save it to read when you are both together. S/he is coming, this weekend, as the sun sets s/he will arrive. You want your family and friends to meet your beloved and so you decide the dinner will be a party, a reception, to welcome your bride.
Oh, but when S/he has to leave, it is so bitter-sweet to let go, to return to the rhythms of the mundane week. Your time together has been magical, it is as though you are departing the palace of a Queen; leaving behind a time of sensuous living and sweet connection. Mourn not. Next week the Beloved will come again, for S/he is God wrapped in veils of time wearing a garment of light. Her name is Shabbat. The mystics also call her/him Shekhinah, the Bride, Malkah, the Queen and Tiferet, compassionate heart, and Meleh, King, Kodesh Boreh Hu, Holy One Blessed be He and Yesod, Foundation, the place of letting go and letting flow. And you are Her/His partner.
The sages say:
Sunday had Monday, Tuesday had Wednesday, Thursday had Friday. Only Shabbat was left alone. The Sabbath came before the Holy One and said: "All the others days have a mate, am I to be without one? The Holy One of Blessing said to it: "The Community of Israel shall be your mate. As it is says in Exodus 20:8 "Remember the Sabbath day l'kaddsho, "to betroth It." [Genesis Rabbah ll:8]And should you engage in this practice, you may find as I did while single, that a Jew who has Shabbat is never alone. By the week's end your partner in time has arrived, you line your table with guests to greet the Beloved and no matter what transpired that week, you too, will experience the mystery of being filled with Her light. If you are in a committed relationship, Shabbat can also bring a special kind of healing for you.