Shabbat Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld
Sep 4-5, 2026 • 23 Elul 5786 • Netzavim-Vayelech (Deut 29-31)
The countdown timers to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are ticking...
Question for your table: What if you knew that tonight would be your very last Shabbat?
The countdown timers to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are ticking...
Question for your table: What if you knew that tonight would be your very last Shabbat? Would knowing that make any impact on what you do tonight and tomorrow?
Guess what: it is indeed the last Shabbat... of the year.
And just as the first Shabbat of the year (after Rosh Hashanah) will set a trajectory for your entire year, the last one of the year is your final opportunity for a Shabbat "course-correction."
This principle is true of each day of the final week—Sunday will be the last Sunday of the year and your final chance to rectify all previous Sundays, etc.
The origin of this teaching is actually regarding after Rosh Hashanah—between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur there are exactly seven days, and the Arizal (also watch this) teaches that each of those days can rectify the previous year's days (Mishnah Berurah 603:2).
Later Mussar and Hasidic traditions extend this Kabbalistic concept to the final week of Elul—the last seven days preceding Rosh Hashanah (Lev Eliyahu Vol 3). Since the year is ending, each day of this final week gives a person the immediate opportunity to repair all past Sundays, Mondays, and so on, before entering the Day of Judgment.
So we can revise our original question for your table: Now that you know that this Shabbat can rectify every past Shabbat, how will you do Shabbat?
Shabbat Shalom
PS - Yes, the above image is clickable. And if you haven't yet ordered for your family and friends the new Restoring the High Holidays, there is still just enough time, whether you/they are in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Sweden, Italy, France, Spain, Japan, etc., and in Russian.)
Guess what: it is indeed the last Shabbat... of the year.
And just as the first Shabbat of the year (after Rosh Hashanah) will set a trajectory for your entire year, the last one of the year is your final opportunity for a Shabbat "course-correction."
This principle is true of each day of the final week—Sunday will be the last Sunday of the year and your final chance to rectify all previous Sundays, etc.
The origin of this teaching is actually regarding after Rosh Hashanah—between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur there are exactly seven days, and the Arizal (also watch this) teaches that each of those days can rectify the previous year's days (Mishnah Berurah 603:2).
Later Mussar and Hasidic traditions extend this Kabbalistic concept to the final week of Elul—the last seven days preceding Rosh Hashanah (Lev Eliyahu Vol 3). Since the year is ending, each day of this final week gives a person the immediate opportunity to repair all past Sundays, Mondays, and so on, before entering the Day of Judgment.
So we can revise our original question for your table: Now that you know that this Shabbat can rectify every past Shabbat, how will you do Shabbat?
Shabbat Shalom
PS - Yes, the above image is clickable. And if you haven't yet ordered for your family and friends the new Restoring the High Holidays, there is still just enough time, whether you/they are in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Sweden, Italy, France, Spain, Japan, etc., and in Russian.)
This message may also be read at Times of Israel.
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