Shabbat - Oneg Shabbat

The Tur is a book of Halacha that records all Halachot applicable throughout a persons day in order. In the first section of Orah Haim the Tur goes begins with the Halachot of waking up in the morning, moving on to Shaharit, all of the missvot of eating and berachot, Minha, Arvit and ending with all of the Missvot we perform at night. The next section contains the Halachot of the Holidays. Because Shabbat is the most frequent Holiday it is the first to be discussed. As we know Shabbat is the seventh day of the week, and most of the Halachot of Shabbat have to do with the day of Shabbat itself. However, the first Halacha that applies in regards to Shabbat could begin as early as Sunday when we start shopping for Shabbat spending all kinds of money on the best foods and desserts. This Missva is the Missva of Oneg Shabbat.

Tha Ba”H introduces an important question that has to do with the Missva of Oneg Shabbat. On one hand we are expected to rest on Shabbat, which, first of all, means that we get to spend time with Hashem and with our families, but it also means that we lose 1 out of 7 days of working every week. On the other hand we are expected to spend a lot of money in order to enjoy Shabbat to its fullest. The obvious difficulty is, how does Hashem expect us to spend money for Shabbat and at the same time hold back from us the money that we could have been making on Shabbat.

The Ba”H says that this is the question the Tur answers when he begins the Siman of Hilchot Shabbat. The Tur quotes a gemara in Perek Kol Kitve in Masechet Shabbat. It goes as follows:

Ribi Yohanan says: “anyone who has Oneg Shabbat is given a portion without borders.” Rav Nahman the son of Yitzchak says: “Anyone who has Oneg Shabbat is saved from the oppression of nations.” Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: “Anyone who has Oneg Shabbat is given all of his hearts desires.”

Before going into detail about how to have Oneg Shabbat the Tur informs us of the great reward we will get when we have Oneg shabbat. The reward for spending money on Shabbat surely outweighs the loss of a day of potential income.

So how much are we obligated to spend on Shabbat? To answer this the Tur divides the people into 3 categories based on their worth.

The first group is לא אפשר ליה. This group includes people who can't afford food for more than two meals. About this group R Akiva says: "עשה שבתך חול ואל תצטרך לבריות" - "Make Shabbat like hol, by skipping the third meal, and don't ask others for money."

The second group is people who can afford to have three meals and a little more. This group can fulfill their missva of oneg Shabbat with the three meals and any other small food like small fish.

The third group is called אפשר ליה. People who have a regular income are obligated to have the finest foods and drinks to the best of his ability in order to fulfill oneg Shabbat.

All who fulfill this missva to the best of their ability. Will be rewarded the rewards that we mentioned earlier.

But what do those rewards have to do with oneg Shabbat? Lets remind ourselves what they were:

Ribi Yohanan says: “anyone who has Oneg Shabbat is given a portion without borders.” Rav Nahman the son of Yitzchak says: “Anyone who has Oneg Shabbat is saved from the oppression of nations.” Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: “Anyone who has Oneg Shabbat is given all of his hearts desires.”

The Bet Yosef quotes the Mahari Abuhav who explains that all of these rewards are mida kneged mida. Because a person spends money without a limit for Shabbat he is granted a portion without borders. Because this person is accepting upon himself ol malchut shamayim Hashem removes from him the ol of other nations. And Hashem will grant this person all of his hearts desires to enable him to continue to have oneg Shabbat with any oneg he chooses.

Baruch Hashem we were blessed with the means to celebrate Shabbat like kings, and we use those means to do just that. B'ezrat Hashem we will continue to be blessed and in the zechut of the Oneg Shabbat that we practice may we merit to see the coming if mashiah bimhera b'yamenu