Transcript
ישמחו במלכותך שומרי שבת וקוראי עונג עם מקדשי שביעי. Welcome back to Turn Friday Into Erev Shabbos. Today is not Friday. Today is the holy Erev Shabbos. And we're here to Turn Friday Into Erev Shabbos, generously sponsored by Menzi Port Fishman, zechus for חיה רבקה בת צפורה פרידה, l'zecher nishmas Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, רב יעקב צבי בן דוד אריה. I want to begin this morning learning a new sefer I got recently, שבת קודש מלתא חדתא, a new sefer by רב דוד אבוחצירא שליטא on Shabbos, with very, very beautiful ideas and I'm excited to make our way through some of the sefer and learn some of these ideas together with you. We know that Friday is pregnant with possibility. Friday is not just stam another day of the week. Friday one can already feel and sense, if a person is finely tuned, that Shabbos is coming. Hopefully we wake up to a clean house, maybe even a set table, maybe even the smells of Shabbos, not just the dry cleaning that's hanging, not just the feeling physically that Shabbos is in the air, but the feeling spiritually that we can see and we can recognize and that we've been preparing and we can almost, almost measure that it's Erev Shabbos. It's not like Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Friday is not another ordinary day of the week, even though melacha is muttar, it's not yet Shabbos, it already has the energy and it already has the light of Shabbos. ביום השישי מתנוצץ הקדושה וההכנה לשבת ומקבל משני תוקף. Pasuk says when it comes to the falling of the mon, והיה ביום השישי והכינו את אשר יביאו, on the sixth day when they prepared what was brought, והיה משנה על אשר ילקטו יום יום. The Tur, in fact, in אורח חיים סימן רנ learns from here, ישכים בבוקר ביום שישי להכין צרכי שבת, that a person should wake up early on Friday lehachin tzorchei Shabbos. Don't wait for the last minute on Friday, and don't only do it on Thursday and Wednesday, but Friday morning davka. Friday is mesugal. A person should schedule, wake up earlier or wake up or allocate—I know it's not easy for everyone and there's no judgment or pressure, people work, people have responsibility, people have young children—but if we can, Friday morning, wake up to veyashkem, just like the pasuk says והיה ביום השישי והכינו. משמע הזמנה בבוקר דומיא דהוה והכינו את אשר יביאו והוה היתה בבוקר לאלתר. Just like the mon fell immediately Friday morning, therefore the preparation for Shabbos through the falling of the mon happened on Friday, so too we should schedule and organize our Friday morning that we're doing something, set a table, sweep, put something up for food for Shabbos. We should get ready even earlier. We should get ready even earlier. The holy Noam Elimelech, Rav Elimelech of Lizhensk, understands this pasuk, he says something magnificent. שכל מי שעובד עבודתו לשמים וכונתו לטוב כל ימי השבוע, a person who is serving Hashem all week long, the person who is זוכר יום השבת לקדשו, their entire week is oriented around Shabbos. Sunday, Monday are one day and two days since Shabbos, and they're one or two days towards the next Shabbos. And a person is living all week long striving, yearning, looking forward, realizing Shabbos is the payday, the payoff. A person is learning and davening, is listening to Hashem and talking to Him, a person is practicing bittul, surrendering to Hashem, putting elokus over ego all week long. בהיר הוא בשחקים ביום בוא יום השישי נתלהב בקרבו אז הבהירות של יום השבת. The measure, the metric, the indication of what kind of week you had is when you wake up Friday morning, do you already feel the sanctity of Shabbos? Even though you haven't done anything yet. You haven't set a table. You didn't put up a cholent. You didn't yet do anything technically to get ready for Shabbos. But if you wake up with a feeling that today is different—this is no ordinary day, it's not another weekday, today is different—that is an indication, that is a reflection, that is a testament to the kind of week that one had. ונמצא זה הדבר סימן טוב על ימי החול אם היו בקדושה מעשה עשייתו נוח לשמים ונוח לבריות כשבא בוקר יום השישי מרגיש קדושת שבת. So the way that you approach, the way you feel, the way you wake up to Friday tells you what kind of week you had. Or put differently, we should have the kind of week, be present and revolve our week around Shabbos, and be connected to Hashem, talking, loving, yearning, connecting, that when we wake up Friday morning, it's palpable, we're looking forward, we can't wait, we are excited. You don't wake up the day you're going on vacation, the day before, and someone has to tell you, by the way, are you ready, are you packed, we're going—a person looks forward. If you're connected with your family, if you're talking, if you're planning, if you're packing, if you're excited, then come that day that you're actually leaving, you're ready. No one has to remind you. So similarly, if we have a week all week long that we're connected to Hashem, we can't wait to spend the time with Him on Shabbos, we are in a relationship that's dynamic and vibrant and energized, then we feel it in Shabbos. And said the holy Noam Elimelech, you see this in the pasuk, והיה ביום השישי והכינו כשיבוא לכם ביום ה. והיה ביום הששי הכנה when a person wakes up Friday morning feeling that they are preparing, that this is no ordinary day, es asher yoviu, they're bringing that into Friday. You're bringing the whole week, the attitude, the experience, you're bringing it into Friday. זהו סימן והיה משנה אשר ילקטו יום יום. That is a siman, vehaya mishneh, this is reviewing, teaching, asher yilketu what you collected yom yom day by day the whole week. That's how the Noam Elimelech read the posuk. The Noam Elimelech read the posuk that if you have the kind of week that you want to and mean to have, you'll see it, you'll feel it, it'll be indicated on Friday. So chevre, we woke up today, we're turning our Friday into erev Shabbos. We're getting ready. We have to get ready physically, preparing spiritually, stories, ideas, divrei Torah. We have to be ready, guests checking in, phone calls, but we should wake up, we should have the kind of week that we wake up on a Friday that we're already feeling Shabbos, we're already feeling it. The Zera Kodesh, the Ropshitzer, says that's why Friday's called erev Shabbos. Why isn't it called yom hashishi? We should call it Friday, the sixth day, yom hashishi. Why is it called erev Shabbos? Says the Zera Kodesh, the Ropshitzer, it comes from the language of erev is taruvos. Taruvos is a mixture. Friday is not weekday, nor is it fully Shabbos. There's a mixture, there's a blend, there's an integration. Friday's the end of the weekday and you can already feel palpably, you can feel the sparks of Shabbos. Erev, taruvos, me'urav. It's mixed together, Friday's a mixture of the weekday and a mixture of Shabbos. That's the kind of Friday we should have. Not stam another day like any day of the week until the last of the eighteen minutes when we roll into Shabbos, but it should be that we wake up Friday already to this mixture. Palpable, you can feel it, you can see it, you can measure it, you can taste it, you can smell it, that we wake up to a Friday, we transform our Friday into an erev Shabbos. Wishing everyone a holy, happy, and a healthy Shabbos.
