Transcript
A good Erev Shabbos everybody. Today is not in fact Friday, today is Erev Shabbos Kodesh. We are here to turn our Friday into Erev Shabbos. Thank you so much for joining and thank you to our generous sponsor, Mendy and Tzipora Fishman. A zchus for Mendy's father's נשמה שתהא לו עליה and a zchus for yibadel l'chaim Chaya Rivka bas Tzipora Freida, in memory of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Rav Yaakov Tzvi ben David Aryeh. Smile. Whatever you're doing right now smile. Shabbos, Friday, Erev Shabbos rather is a time that many people struggle to smile. There's so much to do and so little time and it's a time of frazzle, a time of machlokes, a time of tension. It's a time of often can be feeling overwhelmed, sadness, anger. Any combination of feelings can come on Erev Shabbos. On Erev Shabbos Kodesh. And a person has to know that that nisayon, that test, is not something which someone should resist or fight back against or be resentful of. The test itself is part of what gives the gift of the light of Shabbos. I want to share a holy teaching of Rav Itamar me-Avarchka on Shabbos and specifically Erev Shabbos. He says the nisayon that we resist, we wish, why is it so hard? So much shopping, so much cooking, so much cleaning, so much setting a table, so much scheduling, so much preparing, so much to do to get ready for Shabbos. It can rob us and it can deplete us and it can steal and take from us any sense of joy, any sense of happiness. But that davka is our mission and our mandate. That's our purpose. That's what we need to overcome. Is to smile. Is to smile. Specifically this time of year, משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה. The month of Adar has started and we have to be marbin besimcha, we have to smile. He writes, בכח זה יזכה לאור השבת כי לא כמו שהיצר מרמה אותנו. Unlike the yetzer that makes us want to believe that we wish we didn't have these tests, we wish we didn't have these challenges, we wish it would go away. We need to know that after the darkness comes the light. And after the test comes the success and the breakthrough, comes the greatest joy. כאשר אדם לא כועס ולא עצב, when you don't get angry, you don't raise your voice, when you don't react and you don't lash out. Okay, so your husband didn't come home the time he said he would. Your kids didn't get ready, get in the shower, set the table, do the things they said they would. But you don't give, you don't get angry, you stay calm, cool, collected even if there's disappointment, even if you're entitled to communicate it. But how we communicate it, velo atzeiv, we're not sad. לא נפל ליאוש או חלישות בעקבות הנפילה שלו. And we don't get into a state of despair or misery or exhaustion, physically, spiritually, but we rise to the moment, arise to the occasion and we put a smile on our face even when we don't feel like it, even when we're exhausted and have nothing left for it. Davka הדבר שהיה נראה לו נפילה אמת הוא הצלחה. The thing that makes us feel like is our fall is really our success. That is really the breakthrough, that's where the light comes that follows that sense of darkness. ידע ויזכור שרק נסיון של ערב שבת. Because when a person has faith and belief, when a person knows they are where they're meant to be, when a person knows that with all their initiative, all their planning and all their best effort the things will fall the way they do and you have to accept it, lean into it and recognize that it all comes from above, that is successfully passing a test. That puts a smile on our face. ערב שבת עם מדת היסוד. Erev Shabbos is the quality of yesod. We have to be bris milah לכרות את ערלת הקליפה כדי שתתגלה השכינה. This klipa, this peel, this cover comes on Friday and that Or Ein Sof, that light, the endless light of God in us runs the risk of getting covered. It has an orlah cover covering. Inside us is an inner joy but it doesn't show itself because there's so much to do and so little time and so many people who are relying on us and maybe they're failing us and so much to scramble and so much to get done and so much to have to pay for and find the money. And so that light that's inside us there's a klipa, there's a layer, there's a peel, there's a cover, there's a shell. But we have to remove that klipa and let the light burst through. That's Erev Shabbos the midah of yesod is bris milah. It's to circumcise the orlah of the heart, to let the joy and the happiness of Erev Shabbos shine through. And it's davka, davka hazman of nisyionos, it's davka in the time of tests when we pass, we come out the other side, we come out better, it brings us the greatest joy. וזה עצמו הצלחה שמצליח להשרות באמונה בשמחה. To feel that joy, to feel that happiness, to feel that success. So that is your homework. That's today. We're turning our Friday into Erev Shabbos by smiling even if we don't feel like it. By משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה. To recognize that, okay, the dry cleaning I guess it's not meant to be in our house, table's not meant yet to be set. Don't get angry, don't get frustrated. Speak calmly, speak cool, collect. Don't throw away the baby with the bathwater, don't throw away the peace and harmony in our home but rather to stay calm, to stay focused, to remember what matters and to pass that test. And when we do there's no bigger simcha to go into Shabbos with that light. The greatest light bursts through if we can peel. peel back and remove that layer that's blocking it. If we can dig deep inside us and find that will and ability to smile even when we don't feel like it. So this Friday we turn our Friday into Erev Shabbos by putting a smile on our face even if we don't feel like it. משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה. Mishenichnas Adar when the month of Adar comes marbin we make ourselves greater. How? By being besimcha. Marbin. Erev Shabbos marbin. Be bigger, be huge, be who we can be. How? By choosing to be besimcha. Happiness is not an emotion. Happiness is a choice. Make the choice to be happy, put a smile on your face even if you don't feel like it, and you'll bring such a light into your home and into your life that'll have you the best greatest Shabbos ever. Wishing you a happy, a healthy and a holy Shabbos. Hamshicheinu beshalom, Hamshicheinu beshalom, Hamshicheinu beshalom, Hashabbat shalom, Hashabbat shalom, Hashabbat shalom, Veheshiveinu beshalom.
