The Zohar Hakadosh teaches us that Shabbos is the source of all good things. This means everything from our livelihood to our health to our spiritual blessings all flows through the gift of Shabbos. What particular aspect of Shabbos is the source of refuah, good health?
Anything a Jew does has significance and should not be taken lightly. Certainly that is the case with matters of halacha and minhag, but this also applies to things we call “culture.” A prime example is the well- known Jewish culture of the “Jewish penicillin” - a.k.a. chicken soup! If chicken soup is what every Yiddishe bobba tells us to eat when we are sick, and it is a well-known and fundamental part of our Shabbos menu, perhaps we have just pinpointed which aspect of Shabbos holds the blessing of healing and good health! But what is it about chicken soup that heals?
To answer this, we must understand the two basic needs of every neshamah. The first is the side of the neshamah that wants nothing more than to escape this earthly world and return to where it comes from — our Father in Heaven. A second part of us knows that it has a mission to achieve to make the world a better place, and that even though it entails being a little less heavenly. This mission can only be fulfilled down here, in this world.
When a person is hungry or thirsty, we must understand that it is not only a physical experience, but rather a spiritual one as well. What is the neshamah telling us? Eating ties us to this world in a very real way. For example, when we eat, we bend our head down towards the earth; it is a physical act that connects us to this world. While our body is saying that it wants food, our soul is saying that it wants to be part of this world—and it is that part of the soul that is being satisfied when we eat.
When we drink, however, we lift our heads to the Heaven. As the passuk says, “Tzamah lecha nafshi”, “My soul thirsts for You.” The body may need water and hydration, but what the soul is saying is that it wants to return to G-d and ascend upwards. When we drink, we are satisfying this other part of the soul; we detach ourselves from this world.
Where does sickness come from? The Gemara says that sickness is 1/60th of death, which is the time when the neshamah is most detached from the guf. So sickness means that the guf and neshamah are not entirely separated, but rather they are separated to an unhealthy degree. This can occur when our desire to ascend upwards is so strong and intoxicating that the soul begins to leave the body to connect to Hashem, and when that happens, that causes sickness. The body is sick for body reasons, but on a soul level, the soul is yearning to such a degree that it starts to leave the body.
So what is the remedy for this? Chicken soup! Soup is a liquid, but it is eaten like a food. Usually when we tilt our heads down, it is for solids, but soup is the anomaly—it is a liquid that we tilt down for. When we eat soup we are telling our neshamah: I know you want to ascend heavenward to cling to Godliness - but you don't need to lift your head to satisfy that desire! You can “look down” as well because Hashem's honor fills the entire world, and you can quench your thirst by clinging to Him down here as well!
This is the secret of the Jewish penicillin called chicken soup, and this is the essence of Shabbos. Everything we do on Shabbos is a mitzvah and holy; eating, drinking, sleeping, all become sanctified on Shabbos. The secret of Shabbos is that there really is no divide between Heaven and Earth. Hashem exists equally down here, and if you want to satisfy that thirst, you don’t need to go anywhere—for even down here, in your home, with your family, Hashem can be found.
May Hashem help us to be zocheh to experience this, and may the light of Shabbos bring a refuah to all things, and be the source of all goodness.
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