Last Friday I was in Johannesburg, South Africa.
As I was getting ready to upload and send out the weekly ETORAH email, suddenly there was no WiFi. In fact, there was no power at all in the home I was at. Nor was there power in the entire neighborhood.
Turns out that I was ‘fortunate’ to receive the ultimate South African experience – load shedding. My friends told me it was not an issue. They had not had load shedding for about ten months – don’t worry about it.
But, then – right before Shabbos – it kicked in. Unfortunately, I was unable to send out the weekly ETORAH. And, we had to scramble to make our Shabbat preparations and prepare for eating the Shabbat meal in the dark. The Shabbat candles suddenly became more crucial and celebrated – the way it was designed to be!
Due to economic issues, mismanagement, and unknown causes, South Africa’s electricity grid has been unable to keep up with demand in recent years. To avoid a complete meltdown of the system, the authorities randomly shut down electricity in various locations at a time for hours at a time. This can make life very challenging and unpredictable.
However, when Shabbat arrived, the load shedding didn’t really bother us as much. We weren’t as dependent on power anyway. We were in a resplendent zone of bliss.
This reminds me about the first time the Torah gives us any instructions about Shabbat is in this week’s parsha Beshalach. The Torah tells us about the manna, the miraculous food from heaven that sustained the Jews in the wilderness. It fell from heaven daily, except for Shabbat. Moshe instructed the Jews that they will receive a double portion on Friday and must keep some for the next day because it is “a day of rest, a holy Sabbath unto G‑d.”
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, whose ascension to leadership is marked tomorrow, notes that it is appropriate that Shabbat observance is first explicitly mentioned in the Torah in relation to the manna, because they both share a theme.
As explained in Daily Wisdom, Shabbat and the food from heaven both, “underscore our complete dependency upon G‑d as the true source of all sustenance. Belief that human effort is the sole determining factor for success makes it hard to justify giving up a full day’s income. Not working on the Sabbath is a clear affirmation of our faith that sustenance lies in G‑d’s hands and that our work is no more than a vessel through which G‑d’s blessings can flow.”
The government in South Africa may be struggling to manage the electric grid, but Almighty G-d has our every need figured out in Heaven. We just need to throw our trust – and efforts – into the right place.