Transcript
A good erev Shabbos everyone. This is not Friday, it is erev Shabbos. We're turning Friday into erev Shabbos with a tremendous gratitude to our generous series sponsors Mendy and Tzipora Fishman, l'zechus for חיה רבקה בת צפורה, l'refuah, in memory of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, and in memory of Mendy's father's neshama should have an aliyah. Now the father should have an aliyah. This is not just Shabbos, it is Shabbos Parshas Yisro. And the Bais Avraham and others used to say it's Shavuos koton. The Shabbos of Kabbalas haTorah is a Shavuos koton. When we read about Kabbalas haTorah we don't just read it, we experience it. Whatever is in the parsha is in our lives. And so this is a big Shabbos, a special Shabbos, we're back at the mountain. And back at the mountain means we're back at the mountain together. So this is a Shabbos of achdus, of unity, כאיש אחד בלב אחד, ויחן שם ישראל נגד ההר. So part of turning Friday into erev Shabbos is to feel united, to feel one, to reach out, call someone that you haven't spoken to in a while. Get ready to stand at the base of that mountain with achdus by checking in, by caring, by demonstrating love and concern, maybe by forgiving and reconnecting with someone you haven't seen in a long time. It's a big Shabbos. It's also a big Shabbos because it is the Shabbos of the BRS Global campaign. If you enjoy, if you watch, if you listen to turn Friday into erev Shabbos all year round, and if it's added any value to your life, please help us, support us, enable us, empower us to continue to teach and spread more. Do your part. If you're a BRS member you're doing your part. But if you're not, help us. brsonline.org/global. Please do your part. Our parsha, זכור את יום השבת לקדשו. In the Decalogue, in the Aseres haDibros, in the Ten Commandments, is the obligation, the mitzvah of keeping Shabbos. זכור את יום השבת לקדשו. Now it's interesting because the Torah doesn't just say keep Shabbos, the Torah specifically formulates it as remember Shabbos, zachor. The Ramban, the Ramban famously says you fulfill zachor, we remember Shabbos not only on Shabbos, but in anticipation and preparation for Shabbos. So when you say on Sunday, היום יום ראשון לשבת. When you say on Wednesday, היום יום רביעי בשבת. When you identify and associate each day of the week in correlated with Shabbos, we are fulfilling that mandate of zachor. But the holy Rashi says Shabbos is a day of remembering, Shabbos a person is in a state of remembering. Rashi says מילה זכור נקוד בקמץ שאדם נמצא במצב של זכירה. Zachor be. It's not just remember Shabbos, but on Shabbos, remember. Shabbos is a day of remembering. We experience, we observe Shabbos by being in a matzav shel zechira. Sfas Emes explains what does that mean exactly? So the Sfas Emes says Shabbos we remember why we were sent to this world. Here's the thing. All week long we're caught up in this world, this life, pleasure, temptation, impulse, instinct, material, possessions, things, and we think that's the real world. And then we go to Shabbos and we say Shabbos is an escape from the real world. In the real world I go to work, in the real world I drive a car, in the real world I engage technology, in the real world I have to-dos and tasks. Shabbos, Shabbos is an escape from the real world. Says the Sfas Emes we have it entirely backwards. Shabbos is the real world. The rest of the week we forget what the real world can look like. After all this world is only a prozdor, this world is a hallway, it's a passage to the olam haba. The olam haba, eternity, immortality, that's reality. That's forever. So on Shabbos, which is ma'ein olam haba, when Shabbos comes and it's a taste of the world to come, that's remembering. So זכור את יום השבת לקדשו means remember. How can we remember what we really live for? How can we remember what really matters and what life is all about? How can we remember? By once a week going there. Once a week we already have twenty-five hours of ma'ein olam haba. Once a week we're already in that next place that's called immortality. We tap into immortality and eternity even in this world. How? Through Shabbos. And that's the matzav shel zechira. To be in that place of remembering is to remember what really matters. What matters is not here and now. What matters is not this world. What matters is not what's temporary. What matters is not what's temporal. What matters is eternity, immortality, and what we can do to achieve it and to position ourselves best in it. And how do we inspire ourselves to remember that? By already experiencing it. How do you experience it? Shabbos. Sheishes yamim ta'avod, six days we work, six days we're operating in here, now, in this world. U'v'yom haShevi'i it's Shabbos, Shabbos we're already in olam haba. Shabbos is me'ein Olam Ha-ba. We're in Olam Ha-ba. In Olam Ha-ba. And therefore says the Sfas Emes, that's why it's זכור את יום השבת לקדשו. Shabbos we're supposed to remember what matters and what's true, and we're supposed to forget what's fleeting and what's temporary. Sfas Emes writes that sadly often we get it backwards. We remember havlei ha-olam and we forget the tachlis of why we're in this world. So Shabbos is what reorients, Shabbos is what gets our compass back on track, Shabbos is what reminds us our priorities and what matters. So one of the ways that we can turn Friday into Erev Shabbos, we can get ready for Shabbos is to already anticipate Olam Ha-ba. It's to go into that place called remembering. Shabbos we don't let our guard down, we don't turn it off, we don't disconnect. Shabbos is not the escape and Shabbos is not the illusion. Shabbos is reality. Shabbos is truth. Shabbos is tachlis l'ma'aseh bereishis. It's the mekor habrachos. And the week long we forget. The week long is what we have to do. The week long is the work of this world. But the reality, the eternity, what we should remember is that we live for Shabbos. So yehi ratzon, the Ribbono shel Olam, help us live for Shabbos. Help us live for Shabbos, help us turn our Friday into Erev Shabbos because we want to drag eternity Olam Ha-ba into a little bit longer, start it a little bit earlier, to have a Friday which is not Friday but זכור את יום השבת. How do you remember Shabbos? By not calling it Friday. When you call it Erev Shabbos, don't call it Saturday night, call it Motzei Shabbos, don't call it Sunday, call it Yom Rishon l'Shabbos. When we orient our week around Shabbos, we are fulfilling remembering Shabbos, and Shabbos we're in a matzav of remembering, remembering what really matters, and that is the world to come. Have a beautiful Shabbos, a healthy Shabbos, a holy Shabbos, and the happiest Shabbos.
