Shabbat
The mystery of Shabbat is the unification of the Shechina and the K”BH, the masculine and feminine aspects of the Infinite One. Shabbat is a celebration of this divine marriage through a balance and harmony we can emulate in ourselves.
Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, begins on Friday evening and ends on Saturday night. In the Genesis creation story, each day ends with the words, “and there was evening and there was morning.” Therefore, in the Jewish calendar, days begin and end in the evening. In the story, the process of creation ended as the sun set on the sixth day and on that evening a seventh sacred day of rest and renewal began. In our post-creation world, this pattern is emulated each Friday evening when the traditional workweek ends and the Sabbath (called Shabbat, from the Hebrew word for seven, sheva) begins.
The onset of Shabbat is symbolized by the return of the Shechina, as bride, queen, beloved. The kabbalists of Safed, singing, praying, and reciting psalms, would go out to the fields to greet her. Even today, the custom is to turn west to the setting sun to welcome her as she arrives.109 The Zohar describes in beautifully poetic language how the K”BH waits for her as well as how, when the two are finally One, they are both surrounded in supernal holy light. The K”BH as Creator and Shechina as the Creation spend Shabbat blissfully merged in divine marriage. In the physical world, many categories of work are expressly forbidden in order to sanctify this oasis in time.
This beautiful passage from the Zohar (135a) is found in many siddurim in the Friday evening service that ushers in Shabbat. It is a poetic description of the arrival of the Shechina and her reunion with the K”BH (here called the holy King, Oneness). The K”BH as Creator and Shechina as the Creation spend the day united in divine marriage.
The mystery of Shabbat is Shabbat herself: Shechina is called Shabbat when she is united with the mystery of Oneness. During the prepations for her arrival, the Shechina is liberated from all forces of evil and harsh judgments, leaving her free for intimate union with the supernal holy light. When Shabbat arrives she merges into Oneness, adorned with many crowns by the holy King. Her face glows in heavenly light while receiving a crown of Shabbat prayers from earth, from the holy people … happily blessing Her, joy on every face … Shabbat blessings and peace begin to flow.110
Shabbat traditionally begins with ritual candle lighting. The candles symbolize and sanctify the reunion of the K”BH and Shechina. They are lit at eighteen minutes before sunset, the time, it is said, when creation ceased.111 At this moment a powerful wave of candlelight travels around the world following the setting sun. The two candles are identical and white, reflecting the equality of the K”BH and Shechina. and the sacredness of their union.
The eighteen minutes between candle lighting and sunset, marking the joyful return of the Shechina, can be the most charged moments of the week. This time is an opportunity to both celebrate and emulate the Divine Union in ourselves and strengthen our own vessels to hold more light. To this end, candle lighting time is a particularly powerful time to practice Kabbalah/energy exercises.
Candlelighting Practices
Here are some suggested practices to accompany candlelighting. Try some or all. If you have other candlelighting rituals please include them.
1. Before lighting and blessing the candles, practice the Ana B’Koach/Seven Spirals exercise in chapter 24. This connection to the forty-two-letter Name symbolically unites the six days of creation and the seventh, Shabbat, the K”BH and Shechina, and sets an energetic framework for welcoming the Sabbath by harmonizing all the directions.
2. Practice connecting heaven and earth (chapter 19) and feel your heart and every cell resonating with the power of this connection.
3. After lighting and just before blessing the candles observe the flames. The flames look like yuds, and the two flames together create the divine Name yud/yud, 
, also a union of divine masculine and feminine. Stare at the flames for a few moments and you will see the infinity shape the flames create. Trace infinity signs of love between the flames themselves, between your heart and the flames, and then around your entire body.
4. Bless the candles, adding any customary practices.112
5. Candlelighting provides an opportunity to use the Shiviti spectacles (Infinity Eyes, chapter 22) Continue to face the candles with the eyes still covered by your hands. Imagine that the space between the candles, where the light of the flames meets, is the center of an infinity sign connecting them. Feel that point resonating with the golden chuppa at your third eye. Experience the 
of the YHVH spectacles coming from you as a reflection of the infinity signs of created by the candle flames and vice versa. Stay in this meditation for as long as you like.
6. Open your eyes slowly, returning from the realm of spirit into the physical body, and maintaining your connection to both realms. The Hook-In Sh’ma can be added here to help connect grounding and centering to the sacred (see chapter 20).
7. End with the hands over the heart, breathing deeply in the nose and out the mouth.
Sacred Sexuality
An Energy/Kabbalah Practice for Shabbat Evening
This practice strengthens the bonds of intimacy between partners and also strengthens and expands the vessel of their relationship.
An Extra Soul
To prepare for Shabbat after a week of intense study, the kabbalists of the Ari’s circle would purify themselves on Friday afternoon in the mikva (ritual bath). Afterwards, they would welcome the Sabbath, sometimes going out into the fields to greet the Shechina. It is said that the Shechina arrives with an extra soul called the neshama yiteira 
for each of us to enjoy. There have been many discussions throughout the ages of what this “extra soul” might be. One kabbalistic explanation is that the neshama yiteira is an actual part of one’s unique soul light that enhances the pleasures of Shabbat.
After prayer, the men of the Ari’s circle would return home to enjoy a festive dinner with their families. Shabbat was the one day that pleasures of the body, such as eating and sexuality, were not just allowed but celebrated. Such pleasures were celebrated because on Shabbat the neshama yiteira expanded physical pleasure from the realm of the mundane into the level of the spiritual.
Specifically on Shabbat, sexual intimacy was regarded as an emulation of the divine marriage. The kabbalists of the Ari’s circle honored their wives on Shabbat as embodiments of the Shechina, and sexual intimacy was part of their Friday evening tradition.
Without the spiritual componant, the presence of Yah/
in a relationship, man and woman are simply 
/fire, and passion can quickly burn their union into ashes. When is present, the hei/
can face the yud/
creating a chet/
, the first letter of chuppah, the holy container in which their passion can be contained and elevated.
Sexuality as Healing/Tikun
As mentioned in chapter 1, we are now in the Hebrew year of 5778, coming to the end of the sixth millennium. Each of the seven days of the creation story in Genesis correspond to a specific sefira. Similarly, each millennium is related to a specific sefira. For example, Chesed marked the first day of creation and the first thousand years. Through the millennia we have been moving down the Tree coming closer and closer to Malchut as the manifestation of a cosmic Shabbat, the full expression of the Shechina. We are now, in 5778, at the lowest sefira in Z”A, Yesod, coming ever closer to the border of Malchut. Yesod, representing the phallos of Adam Kadmon, is the place where the resolution of masculine/feminine balance will either be successful, or it won’t. Truly uniting the six of Z”A to the seven of Malchut/Shechina would create the ultimate thirteen of love and Oneness. My Zohar teacher, Sarah Yehudit Schneider, refers to sexual healing as the last frontier of tikun olam, for this connection requires elevating the physicality of sex to the realm of the spiritual.113 Sexual healing is a tikun within the realm of possibility for each of us, and our efforts matter.
A Beautiful Teaching
Remember that in Kabbalah, the letters of a word carry its essence.
The word for Man (
/eesh), is made up of the word for
fire/
/aish + the letter yud/
MAN = Fire + yud
The word for Woman (
/eesha), is
fire//aish +the letter hei/
WOMAN = Fire + hei
is a sacred Name of God, Yah = yud//hei +
The Practice
The Zohar describes sacred sexuality in great detail. Some sections were guarded so carefully that they are still in the process of being translated. The following Kabbalah/energy exercise is not in the Zohar, as far as I am aware. It is a way to weave your energies with the energies of your partner in an aligned face-to-face, head-to-toe connection. According to the Ari, this is the highest level of intimate relationship.114 Like Eastern practices of tantra, kabbalists believe that sexual relationships can be both spiritual and transformational. The following practice can be a prelude to sacred sex, but it can also provide healing through deep and intimate energetic connection without a sexual component.
Energies need to be in communication with each other in order to function with maximum vitality. In healthy individuals this communication is often reflected in an abundance of infinity patterns throughout the energy body, including the surrounding auric field. Similarly, the more infinity shape connections exist between two people, the stronger and deeper is their energetic relationship. In this Kabbalah/energy practice, rhythmic infinity-shaped movements, first with the hands and then with the entire body, unite and ignite the spiritual and sexual energies.
The partners imagine their individual Trees of Life linked through a shared central column. Together, they focus on the sefirot of that central column: Da’at, Tiferet, Yesod, and Malchut. Unlike tantric practices that move up the body, this practice moves down, to activate, strengthen and expand Malchut into a vessel that protects and surrounds the partners. Because of the balance created between the partners, the central column becomes a conduit for higher consciousness that can help to heal whatever issues arise in the relationship.
The sacred sexuality practice can be done at any time. However, if it is actually Shabbat, you may choose to visualize the neshama yiteira (the extra layer of Shabbat soul) as a river of light that intensifies the light emitted by the letters.
Individual Preparation
Start by bringing balance to your own Tree. Balance the sefirot of the right and left columns with each other by tracing horizontal infinity signs of love and oneness. Begin at the head. Trace the infinity signs from side to side, down the body and back up again. Use one hand or both. Balancing the right and left columns of your Tree will activate its central column to connect through the practice with that of your partner.
Imagine that the infinity signs penetrate through you so that they simultaneously cover your back. Tracing or imagining horizontal infinity signs on the back activates the radiant circuit called the bridge flow which helps to connect body and spirit.
With Your Partner
This practice is an extension of Infinity Eyes from Chapter 22, so you may want to review it. Sit in a comfortable seated position across from your partner, close enough to touch.You may choose to verbalize your intention for the practice. Place your left, receiving, hands over your own hearts and rest your right, giving, hand over your partner’s left. Close the eyes and take some deep breaths together, in the nose and out the mouth.
Activating Da’at
Open your eyes. Gaze gently at your partner’s third eye, the space between the eyebrows which represents Da’at.115 Da’at is the realm of sacred sexuality, the source of pleasure, and in the Torah refers to knowing one’s partner totally. Feel the special intensity of your connection at Da’at.
Stay close enough to your partner to be in physical contact, perhaps cross-legged, touching at the knees. Keep your left hand on your own heart and with the right, trace infinity signs between your heads at the level of Da’at. Imagine a chuppah at the center point between you.
Note: In Infinity Eyes, a chuppa is created at the Da’at visualized between your own eyes. In that practice, the golden letters of the four-letter Name flow out from between the cherubs who reunite under the chuppa of your personal sanctuary (mishkan). In this partnered practice a mishkan for two is created, and the letters of the Name YHVH flow from the shared chuppah resting between you. Remember that the gematria of YHVH is twenty-six, the same as love/ahava/13 + love/ahava/13. In addition to the power of the letters themselves, the flow of Y/H/V/H generates an ever-growing bond of love between the partners throughout the practice.
Image 110—Facing Partner with Da’at
Continue to trace horizontal infinity patterns between you, at the level of the third eye. Between you, at the center of your combined Da’at infinity pattern, lies your chuppa. You can imagine the chuppa resting between you there or mentally expand it to cover you. Perhaps imagine yourselves as the cherubs that are guarding the sacredness of your relationship. As you trace the horizontal infinity patterns to your partner and back, visualize the golden letters of YHVH/
flowing out from the center of your shared chuppah.
The letters weave around and through each other in the light of the infinity path that connects you. They expand to create an infinity sign of golden intertwined letters encircling your heads. If you wish to add a vocalization, exhale with the continual sound eee, as in the word “see.”
This is the special vowel sound of Da’at.
Stop tracing but continue to see the golden letters flowing from the chuppah between you. Gently place your hands on each other’s knees. Begin moving your heads and bodies together in slow horizontal infinity patterns, back and forth. Circle toward each other and away. Reverse direction whenever desired. Between your two foreheads lies the chet of your chuppah. Eyes can be open or closed. As you smoothly and slowly move together in the infinity shape, continue to visualize the golden letters encircling your heads.
Tiferet
Continue breathing and slowly moving your bodies in the infinity shape as the letter flow expands down to the area of the heart, activating the sefira of Tiferet, beauty. At Tiferet, the golden letters harmonize, balance, and connect your deepest hearts.
If you wish to add a vocalization, exhale with the continual sound of ohhhh (as in the word “slow”). This is the special vowel sound of Tiferet.
Send love to your partner from the depths of your heart. Open your heart to safely receive their love and the light of their inner beauty. Continue to breathe and move together. When the connection at Tiferet feels complete, move the focus to the area of Yesod in the low belly.
Yesod
Yesod is the center of sexuality and relationship. As your bodies continue to move rhythmically and slowly, back and forth in the infinity pattern, allow the letters to move down further, to the area of the low belly. Stay connected at Da’at and Tiferet as you visualize the lights of the golden letters of the Name activating Yesod. Feel the harmony and connection between your Yesod and that of your partner.
If you wish to add a vocalization, exhale with the continual sound uuu, as in the word “you.” This is the special vowel sound of Yesod.
Malchut
Stop moving. You have connected at Da’at, Tiferet, and Yesod. The central column in your shared Tree is activated and glowing. When the connections between the upper sefirot have been made, the light finally reaches the level of Malchut—the stabilizing, grounding force of the Tree. Malchut is like an empty vessel waiting to be filled. She has no light of her own and like the moon, reflects back light she receives. Malchut receives the intense energy generated from the higher sefirot, and in a geyser of fireworks, sends the light back out. The letters of the Name weave around you, and the weaving strengthens the vessel of your relationship. Together, you are grounded and protected by your shared Malchut. You have created a vessel strong and flexible enough to hold and process whatever arises between you.
The space between you is charged, electric with anticipation. End as you began with your left hand over your own heart and your right hand over your partner’s. Gaze softly at each other. Breathe together. Experience the joy of being surrounded by the letters of the Name. You are in harmony with the divine union which Shabbat ushers in.
109 This occurs during the last verse of the welcoming hymn, Lecha Dodi (“Come, My Beloved”).
110 Excerpted and adapted from the following sources: Siddur Tehillat Hashem, trans. Rabbi Nissen Mangel (New York, Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, 1978), 133–134; Siddur Sim Shalom, trans. Rabbi Jules Harlow (New York,Rabbinical Assembly, 1985), 278.
111 Candle lighting times specific for your location can be found at www.chabad.org. There is also an app with this information called Shabbat Times.
112 The traditional candlelighting blessing for Shabbat is:
Baruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha’olam, asher ki’di’sha’nu b’mitzvotav
v’tzeevanu l’had’leek ner shel Shabbat.
Blessed are You, Source of blessings, Who commands us to light the Sabbath candles.
113 Recently formed movements and groups such as #MeToo and Time’s Up are making progress in this tikun by revealing and healing a societal aspect of masculine/feminine imbalance.
114 Sarah Yehudit Schneider, Kabbalistic Writings on the Nature of Masculine and Feminine, chapter 3.
115 The physical location of Da’at is subject to interpretation. Although sometimes placed in the area of the throat, for this practice, as in Infinity Eyes, it is visualized at the third eye.