Welcome to Embrace Shabbat. We previously cited the Chidah’s commentary on the passuk לְךָ֤ ה' הַצְּדָקָ֔ה וְלָ֛נוּ בֹּ֥שֶׁת הַפָּנִ֖ים , to You, Hashem, is the righteousness and the shame and embarrassment is on us. The Chidah highlights that the letters of בֹּ֥שֶׁת can be scrambled to spell שבת . Shabbat is the source of our בֹּ֥שֶׁת , embarrassment. How? Rav Avraham Schorr in his sefer Ha’Lekach v’Halibuv: Elul & Tishrei (page daled) quotes from his father’s sefer, Ohr Gedalyahu, that there are two sources for Jewish בושה . First, we are descendants of incredible forefathers- Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. How can a Jew who has such great lineage sin and act improperly?! Secondly, we stood at Har Sinai and reached such high levels of clarity. When we think about where we are holding now, it also brings a sense of בושה . The Gemara (Nedarim 20a) even teaches that one who doesn’t have a sense of בושה did not stand at Har Sinai! Rav Avraham Schorr teaches that Shabbat is a source for both of these aspects of בושה . The three meals of Shabbat correspond to the three forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. As we connect more deeply to our avot on Shabbat, we feel a stronger sense of embarrassment, knowing where we have been and what we have done during the week. It is beneath our dignity to act in such a way- it just doesn’t fit! Secondly, all agree that the Torah was given on Shabbat (Masechet Shabbat 26b). Therefore, on Shabbat there is a heightened feeling of maamad Har Sinai, and we have a clarity of the level we used to be at. לְךָ֤ ה' הַצְּדָקָ֔ה וְלָ֛נוּ בֹּ֥שֶׁת הַפָּנִ֖ים - G-d, to You, Hashem, is the righteousness and the shame and embarrassment is on us. Where does the embarrassment come from? When a person receives charity from a wealthy individual, he doesn’t feel a deep sense of shame- this wealthy man has a lot of money to spare! Rabbi Schorr explains with an illustration from Sefer Divrei Shmuel: what would happen if someone would receive a large donation and then gamble away the money? For example, he takes the money that he received for his daughter’s wedding and gambles it away in Atlantic City. Now, THAT would be a בושה ! HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us so much. Do we use it properly? On Shabbat, we connect to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, recognize our potential, and ask, “are we using it properly?” The Chidah teaches that בֹּ֥שֶׁת scrambled spells תשוב , return . On Shabbat, we can focus on these two sources of בושה , both stemming from our greatness. We are not ashamed of who we are; we are ashamed because we are so great and we are not using our resources the way we should. Have a Shabbat Shalom.