598. What It Means that Shabbat Is Called “Guest” in the Work

We must prepare food and drink to honor the arrival of the guest, called “Queen Shabbat [Sabbath].”

Question: 1) Does the guest, Shabbat, eat and drink? Also, we must change our clothes in honor of the guest. In corporeality, when an important guest arrives, we prepare good food and drinks in honor of the guest, and we should also wear nice clothes in his honor.

2) We can understand having to prepare food and drinks to honor the guest, but why do we need to wear nicer clothes to honor the guest? We should say that we show the guest that we are very happy that the guest arrived, and this is why we wear respectable attire, showing that we are honoring the guest. For example, when a person is alone at home, he might wear slippers and not wear a frock, since garments means respectable attire. That is, the clothes a person wears are in order to respect others.

Hence, one who does not have nice clothes is ashamed to go into a party because he is embarrassed that everyone will know that he is poor. Hence, he puts on nice clothes. The wisdom of the meager is wretched, as it is written, “The wisdom of the poor is wretched.” Hence, even if a person is wise, he is despised and a person cannot tolerate contempt. For this reason, Shabbat, which is an important guest, requires handsome and appropriate garments.

For this reason, we should say that Shabbat being called “a guest” means that the Shabbat dresses in a person, and this is called “an additional soul” that a person receives on Shabbat. This is why it is regarded that we eat.