Once upon a time just as Shabbos was approaching a person greeted his friend and said “Have a good Shabbos.” That was once upon a time and long ago. Today to have merely a good Shabbos is not enough. Today what you hear is: “Have a fabulous Shabbos ” “a wonderful Shabbos ” “a terrific Shabbos ” or at the very least “a great Shabbos.” As for “Have a good Shabbos ” that is passé.
A parallel dialogue occurs after Shabbos. Someone will inevitably ask “How was your Shabbos?” If you say simply that it was good or fine that comes across in today’s hyperbolic times as if you barely made it through the day: Good? You only had a good Shabbos? You mean it wasn’t amazing or fantastic or terrific or even great? Only good? Sorry to hear that. Maybe next week will be better.
So in order not to be a killjoy and in order to satisfy your interlocutor you say “Baruch Hashem great” or “fabulous” or “wonderful” or “terrific.” But just between us what do these adjectives mean? “Great” could mean that halachically you violated no Shabbos laws or that neither the davening nor the drashah took too long — which is rather minimal. “Fabulous” is a step higher and could mean that the cholent was excellent or that your Shabbos nap was long and satisfying. “Wonderful” could refer to the chicken and kugel and “terrific” could refer to the very special salad served at Seudah Shlishis or that you had very interesting guests for the meals.
Of course “terrific” could refer to the vort you heard at the seudah “fabulous” could refer to the zemiros and the atmosphere of holiness around the table. These terms could signify that you were able to slow down and fully realize what Shabbos means in essence: that G-d created the world and that He is the Author of everything. That would truly be “great-fabulous-wonderful-terrific.”
But then again why is the plain simple unadorned unaffected classical “good Shabbos” considered inadequate? After all when G-d created the world the Torah does not say “And G-d saw that it was amazing ” even though it was. Nor does it say “And He saw that it was fantastic/terrific.” It doesn’t even say that it was “great.” G-d Himself is content with the simplest of terms: “And He saw that it was tov ” which means unvarnished old-fashioned “good.” And when He is extremely pleased as when He views all of creation after the sixth day even there He does not say “terrific.” He simply says “tov me’od — very good.”
The fact is that every single Shabbos is by definition good. It is the day that G-d blessed and sanctified — Vayevarech … Vayekadesh — and on which He paused from His creative endeavors. Shabbos is a precious gift to us from on high: the opportunity to shift gears to focus on things other than ordinary mundane pursuits. But the essence of Shabbos is that it is an intimation of the World to Come and thus it cannot be reduced to transient human vocabulary.
For us sophisticated moderns however “good” is insufficient. We have relegated it to the dustbin tossed it off the wagon without so much as a “fare thee well ” an innocent victim of our contemporary verbal inflation in which good is not good enough and must be transmogrified into fabulous and its puffed-up self-important cousins.
In truth the question — “How was your Shabbos? — cannot really be answered adequately. How does one measure calibrate judge form an opinion about “how” a Shabbos was? Still as a service to our loyal readers here is a suggested all-purpose answer: Thank G-d there is a Shabbos in the world for us to experience. We tried to keep it maintain it protect it and honor it in every appropriate way. It was our entrance to another realm a realm of spirituality that was enhanced — because we are after all only physical creatures — by fine food and some extra physical rest. But we tried to remember as we let go of the physical world of gadgets and things and electronics that entrap us that G-d created the world that He is still in charge and still the Author of everything. So thank you for asking. It was in fact an amazing Shabbos and fantastic and wonderful and terrific and great and extraordinary and remarkable and stupendous and unparalleled and literally out of this world. But most of all it was tov/good.
Friendly warning: Try this answer only on good friends. If you try it on anyone else be prepared for the possibility that you will never ever be asked to join them even for a light Seudah Shlishis snack. They will certainly never ever again inquire about your Shabbos.
Until then have a very good Shabbos. —