More Kiddush Thoughts

קדש (הגדה של פסח ד"ה ענין)

Why do we make Kiddush on wine, specifically on Shabbos? On Shabbos, everyone must feel that everything in the world has occurred to bring us up to this point. The Jews, grapes, and Shabbos all are the end of a process. The world functions in a cycle of six days, and then it reaches its climax, of Shabbos. Grapes are squeezed and then the juice sits to ferment and become wine. The change in Bracha from Haetz to Hagafen demonstrates this as well. We know the Halacha is when you don’t have wine; you can use bread, for the same reason, the grain has been ground up, mixed, kneaded and then baked to become bread. The Jewish people were the last of the nations to achieve nationhood. This is because the entire concept of nationhood had to develop and finally blossom into completion with the development of the Jewish people.

One would think that that which existed earlier would be more important. In fact during Krias Yam Suf , the Yam Suf itself said to the Jews, I was created on the third day, and you were created on the sixth, why should I move?

The answer to the Yam Suf’s question is that the Jewish people are the end of the process and without the end, there was no purpose for the process. The Yam Suf’s role was only in the middle of the process, it would lose its relevance without the Jewish people who were the end. This is meaning of the phrase, Sof Maaseh, b’Machshava Techila.

We say during the Kiddush, that Hashem caused us to inherit Shabbos. Inherit it? He told us to keep it! Why do we say to inherit it? If Shabbos had existed before us, then it would not have been the end of the process, it would still be in the middle! Therefore Hashem wanted each one of us to receive the Shabbos, every Shabbos, and this reception is the end of the process and the climax of creation.