Atqinu Seudata
Shalosh Seudos, the Third Meal of Shabbat
The third meal on Shabbos is designed as a time for banishing fears from within and without so that we can go back into the everyday moments of our week, post-Shabbos, unobstructed by fears and doubts and worries which might otherwise paralyze us in our tracks and keep us from moving forward. This process is addressed simultaneously through the realms of the shamanic, the psycho-spiritual, and through faith in HaShem to mediate on our behalf, and is accomplished through the physical meal itself, through the invocations of the Atqinu Seudata and through the recitation or singing of Psalm 23. This process is also reflected in Reb Nachman’s famous words, Kol HaOlam Kulo, Gesher Tzar Meod, V’HaiIkar Lo L’Fached Klal, “The whole world is a very narrow bridge– but we must face our fears and walk through them.”
The Holiness of Physical Pleasure
In Hebrew, the root of the word “Kadosh”, most often translated as “Holy” means “to set-apart”. Thus, the Hebrew concept of holy is imbued with the characteristic of set-apartness, of mind-fulness and of intentionality. In this way, even the regular normal everyday moments of life can be made Holy, through the mindfulness with which we approach them. This is a special calling of the Jew. To elevate the regular normal living moments into a state of Kedusha, holiness. For Jews, the physical world and physical pleasure are important, even essential to bringing the world into an elevated/holy way of being.
The third meal on Shabbos exists for this reason. Because the third meal has no necessary function in the regular eating cycles– we do it just for the pleasure of it. And in this way we tap the light of the previous Sabbath meals and draw that light into this third meal, so that all three Sabbath meals become present in this one moment. Which is one of the reasons we call it Shalosh Seudos, three meals, and not seuda shlishit, the third meal. Because the light of all three Sabbath meals come and are present together in this third meal of Shabbos.
Shalosh Seudos, the third meal, is a time of great significance because in the making holy the pleasure of this extra meal for its own sake, and amplifying the holiness of the previous Sabbath meals, in this way we activate the agents of Chesed, compassion and loving-kindness, which will answer our joy-for-its-own-sake moment with like energy– and in this way the third meal becomes a gateway directly to the attributes of loving-kindness and to G-d’s Grace.
At other times, we are similarly able to activate the agents of love and compassion– by chanting the 13 attributes of mercy; by blowing the shofar; by ourselves performing acts of loving-kindness; and by meditating on the sefira of Chesed. But with the third meal on shabbos, we open the channels of G-d’s love and grace soley through the act of Joy and Pleasure– by elevating a joyous moment in the physical world, just for the sake of the pleasure it gives us to do so– this resonates up to the spheres as strongly as the shofar, resonating and activating the agents of love and compassion and drawing them to us. For this reason, the third meal is known as the Time of Favor of Favors. And it is a great lesson for us who want to bring more love and compassion and mercy into our lives, that we have available to us to do so by placing ourselves in moments of Joy and Pleasure, and that HaShem not only accepts, but encourages these offerings of the heart.
The Invocations of the Atqinu Seudata:
The opening invocation “sets the table” so to speak. Here we are announcing our intentions, creating a mindful space of intentionality and knowingness. This is similar to when we blow the shofar at the hidden moon, when we “know” the sound of the shofar; in this first invocation we are mindfully, knowingly, with real intentionality setting the space both externally and internally so that the knowingness resonates through our whole being, and we literally become a resonator in our body and mind and spirit of this intentionality.
Seudata Dimheymnuta
We lay for ourselves a “feast of faith”. Having joy for its own sake in the faith that it will be accepted as an offering of the heart by HaShem. We call on HaShem to answer our energy of love and compassion with like energy, trusting that our Joy will become HaShem’s Joy, and we invoke HaShem as melech– as counselor or mediator, who will mediate on our behalf with the agents of Chesed, love and compassion.
Atqinu Seudata Dimheymnuta Shleymata Khedvata D’Malka Qadisha. Atqinu Seudata D’Malka Da Hee Seudata Diz’eir Anpin. V’Atiqa Kadisha V’Khaqal Tapukhin Qadishin, Atyan L’Saada Badei.
In this first invocation we prepare three feasts, another reason this ritual is called Shalosh Seudos, three meals– we prepare our own feast, the feast of faith. We prepare the feast of HaShem as melech, mediator, who we trust will answer our Chesed energy with like energy. We prepare the feast of the Zeir Anpin, the microcosmic presence of HaShem, the aspects of the divine which we can “see” and relate to in our reality as human beings in this physical plane of existence. And we invoke the Ancient Holy One, Atiqa Qadisha, the Sacred Wellspring, and the Shechinah, the In-dwelling presence, the masculine and feminine principles of the Divine, inviting them to join together and be present as one.
Atiqa Qadisha
One of the more beautiful moments of the opening invocation of the Atqinu Seudata is the use of Atiqa Kadisha as a name of HaShem. A lot of people ask, where do we get the term “Sacred Wellspring” as a name for G-d in the Hebrew tradition? Where does that come from? And this is it, right here. Atiqa, which means “ancient” begins with the letter Ayin. And Ayin means, among other things, “spring”, a welling forth. Qadisha, begins with a Kuf– which carries the attributes of this word it is beginning here, Qadosh. Putting them together, the Ayin and the Kuf, we get “Sacred Wellspring.” Ayin also means “to mirror” like the surface of a pool or spring. Atiqa Qadisha then is the both the Sacred Wellspring and the Cosmic Mirror, giving us sustenance and reflecting ourselves back to us. And this is so important because the whole point of this ritual is to look into our fears, know them, and push through them. HaShem as Sacred Wellspring then is our source of life and sustenance, and as the cosmic mirror, is going to reflect the energies we put into the Universe, in this case reflecting back the Chesed which we are resonating through the joyous festive meal, AND ALSO, in a very coyote shaman kind of way, mirroring our inner selves back to us, so that we cannot hide behind the veils of illusion we create for ourselves, and must confront, face to face our places of fear, of doubt, of wounded-ness, a necessary step to letting them go and moving beyond them.
B’Nei Heikala… Y’Hon Hakha, B’Hai Takah
The second invocation draws in the ancestors, both the tribal ancestors and our own personal ancestors, and brings forth attributes of strength and courage up out of our past for us to manifest now as we go forward into our future. This is a heavily Eastern Wind invocation, for it is from our past that our places of strength flow as we walk into the future.
Qiribu li, Khazu Kheili
In the third invocation, after drawing up strength from our ancestors and from our past, we now boldly declare that strength, “Approach me, see my strength, see my courage, see who I am as a warrior.”
L’Bar Nat’lin V’Lah A’Lin, Hanei Khalbin Dakhatzifin
And then immediately in the next invocation, while we are standing fully in our warrior strength, now we banish our fears and doubts and anxieties beyond ourselves to the outside. “May they remain outside, unable to rise up, those dogs of brazenness and resistance.”
V’Ha Azmin, Atiq Yomin
The fourth invocation invites the Ancient Holy One, known here as the Atiq Yomim, Ancient of Days, to be present. The timeless eternity of the Divine presence cracks open the “husks”, the illusions we create for ourselves which trap and bind us– because in the presence of all that endless eternity, we realize the insignificance of these petty doubts and fears we carry, and we are liberated to see ourselves truly in the eternal flow of the universe.
Y’Shavei Lon B’Noqbeihon
The fifth and last invocation of the Atqinu Seudata calls on the obstructions we carry within us to return to their source, to the roots of our fear and wounding which created them, so that in facing, through the cosmic mirror, the source of our fears, we are then able to send them forth from us, investing them in the stones, the carriers of memory, which will hold these experiences for us, so that we can draw on them when we need to, but will no longer need to carry around with us in our everyday living in the world.
This then is the basic structure of the Atqinu Seudata and its invocations. We lay a feast of perfect faith so that we give up our inhibitions and give over completely to the process of healing and transformation, inviting the attributes of Chesed, love and compassion fully into our lives. Next we invoke the threefold presence of the Divine– the Cosmic presence, the Micro-cosmic presence, and the Indwelling presence… and the attributes of HaShem that are the Sacred Wellspring and Cosmic Mirror, and the unification of the masculine and feminine principles of Creation. Third, we call in the presence of the Ancestors, drawing strength and courage from them as well as up from out of our own past experience. Then, taking advantage of the over-balanced toward Chesed environment we have created in this ritual, we banish judgement and obstructive thoughts and patterns, using the strength and courage we have drawn in to face our fears, doubts, anxieties, wounds and loss– and banish these things outside of ourselves, back to their causes/roots of origin, and to the rocks, the holders of memory, where they can reside no longer able to obstruct us.
Psalm 23:
In the ritual of the third meal of Shabbos, Shalosh Seudos, after completing the shamanic invocations of the Aqinu Seudata, we now recite or chant or sing Psalm 23, which mimics the pattern of the Atqinu Seudata, but through a complete lens of faith in HaShem. In the Atqinu Seudata, WE are the ones banishing our fears. But in the giving over of Psalm 23, we now enter into a complete faith zone where it is HaShem who we trust will banish fear and obstruction from us.
HaShem Ro-i, Lo Ekhsar
“HaShem is my shepherd, I shall not want.” This parallels the “feast of faith” of the Atqinu Seudata. We are establishing complete faith in HaShem. Augmented further by “In lush meadows He lays me down, beside tranquil waters he leads me. He restores my soul.”
Gam Ki Elekh B’Gei Tzalmavet, Lo Irah Rah Ki Ata Imadi
“Though I walk in the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” “Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Here, we give over our fears to HaShem. We may or may not be able to “banish” them as we have tried previously with the Atqinu Seudata, but whatever fears and doubts and anxieties we still carry with us, we give these over to HaShem, trusting that HaShem will carry these for us, and that we will be able to move forward in life, unimpeded by these agents of destruction.
Taarokh Lifnei Shulkhan Neged Tzorrai
“You prepare a table before me in view of my tormentors” Now it is HaShem who is preparing the table, and in full view of these things that torment and obstruct us. In full view, unveiled, so that we must face them as we sit down to the table, in faith that despite seeing and knowing these destructive forces are right there before us, HaShem will keep them from us, banished to the outside.
Dishanat B’Shemen Roshi, Kosi R’vayah
“You anointed my head with oil, my cup overflows”. Just as we elevated the holiness, the set-apartness of HaShem in the Atqinu Seudata, nor HaShem elevates our own holiness, our own set-apartness, our worthiness and merit… and brings to us the agents of Chesed, overflowing goodness to us.
Af Tov V’Chesed Yird’funi Kol Yimei Khayah, V’Shavti B’veit HaShem L’Orekh Yamim
“May only goodness and kindness pursue me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the House of HaShem for long days.” We ask that Chesed as Goodness, that which comes to us, and Chesed as Kindness, that which flows from us, that these are the primary qualities of our lives. And reminiscent of inviting HaShem as Atiq Yomin, Ancient of Days in the Atqinu Seudata, here we call on the days of our own life, and declare with mindful intention that we will bring our lives into alignment with the ways of our Creator, “dwelling in the house of HaShem.”
This is the ritual of Shalosh Seudos, the banishing of fear and obstruction before leaving the light of Shabbos and going back into the week. Followed by lots of feasting and singing and good times by all!
