The church and the government of Rome set Wednesday, March 6, 1430, as the day when all the Jews of Rome must convert or face death. On that day a great earthquake shook Rome and many of the archbishops and priests who conceived the decree were killed. Following the earthquake, Pope Martin V annulled the decree.
“If only the Jewish People would keep two Shabbats as they should be kept, immediately they would be redeemed.” (Shabbat 118a)
In each Shabbat, there are two Shabbats: An outer Shabbat, and an inner Shabbat.
The outer Shabbat is but an entranceway, a liberation from work. The inner Shabbat is a world inside, a world of contemplation and delight.
As a bride is whisked away from the rest of the world to be only to her beloved and no one else, so Shabbat carries us out of a mundane life on earth into the arms of the divine.
We can breathe again, our shackles temporarily broken. There is no work to do, because we have left the world of work behind.
And that allows us entry to the inner Shabbat, where divine thought breathes here on earth.
So we stop, pore over the holy, mystical teachings of our masters, contemplate deeply their words, and wrap ourselves in prayer, in communion with the Knower of all Thoughts.
Keep both Shabbats and you will find yourself redeemed.