Transcript
A very good Shabbos! Today is not Friday, today is in fact Erev Shabbos and we're here to turn our Friday into Erev Shabbos. Thank you so much to our generous sponsors Mendy and Tzipporah Fischman in zechus for חיה רבקה בת ציפורה פרידל and in memory of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Rabbi יעקב צבי בן דוד אריה, as well as memory of Mendy's father's neshama should have an aliyah. I want to share a thought with you that maybe it's occurred to you, maybe it hasn't occurred to you, but you know that if you've been keeping Shabbos and davening on it, there is a switch, there is a change in our davening. We go from Vayanuchu Vah to Vayanuchu Vo to Vayanuchu Vom. Friday night, we don't normally bother to see this. The Shmoneh Esrei we say during the week is the same at Shacharis, same at Mincha, same at Maariv. Maybe Sim Shalom or Shalom Rav is a difference, but generally speaking it is exactly the same. And yet with Shabbos we say Vayanuchu Vah to Vo to Vom. And why is that switch? What is different between Friday night, Shabbos morning, Shabbos day, and what can it teach us about how we turn our Friday into Erev Shabbos, how we get ready, how we elevate, and how we experience the greatest Shabbos. Rav Dessler zatzal, the great Mashgiach of Ponevezh in his Michtav M'Eliyahu, he explains the following. He says that Shabbos has components of both Nukva and Duchra. Shabbos is both a receiver and Shabbos is a giver. What do you mean Shabbos? What is Shabbos? Shabbos is a day on the calendar, Shabbos is a moment in time, but it's more than that. Shabbos is an entity, Shabbos has an energy, Shabbos has a neshama, Shabbos is what Hashem created as the special mate for us. Sunday has Monday and Tuesday has Wednesday and Thursday has Friday, Shabbos came and complained and Hashem said you have the Jewish people. We and the Jewish people, osi beini u'veineichem. Shabbos is special. What we have? Everyone else has Saturday, everyone else has Friday we have Erev Shabbos, everyone else has Saturday we have Shabbos Kodesh, everybody else has Saturday night we have Motzei Shabbos. Those 24 hours, that 25 hours and what precedes it and what comes after, it's different, it's special. It has a relationship with us, it has an energy, there is a neshama, and it's both a giver and it's a receiver. So Friday night, Friday day and night, Shabbos is the Nukva, when we give, it receives. It receives kavod, it receives the honor, the preparation, the anticipation, the work, the shopping, the cleaning, the preparing, the cooking, the showering, the shaving, everything that we do. That's Shabbos. Shabbos is the Nukva, it receives because we're the ones who are giving it in anticipation. Shabbos holy Shabbos. Maybe we eat a little bit of To'ameha, we set the table, we put on our Erev Shabbos mixed music, we're preparing our dvar Torah, we're getting ready, going to the dry cleaner, we're doing the laundry, we're getting all set and we light the candles and we recite Kiddush and we give, we endow, la'asos es ha-Shabbos. But then Shabbos day comes, says Rav Dessler, Shabbos takes the Duchra, becomes the giver and instills the Jewish people with kedusha. Shabbos day, Shabbos is no longer receiving from us, now Shabbos is giving us. It's giving us serenity, it's giving us peace of mind, and it's giving us tranquility. It's giving us! And that's why we refer to Shabbos at night in the feminine, Vayanuchu Vah, because we're giving, it's receiving, and in the day Shabbos becomes the masculine, Vayanuchu Vo, it's giving to us, we receive from it. And the more that we give to Shabbos and the more honor and respect and preparation, the more kedusha Shabbos gives back to us, so that by the time we come to Mincha, the Rava D'Ravin, the Eis Ratzon, the holiest time of Shabbos, now Vayanuchu Vom. Now it's both directional. First we make Shabbos and then Shabbos makes us. And by the time Shabbos is coming to a close, we're making each other. We're giving to each other, we're integrated, we're united, we're one. And so this insight of Rav Dessler is so beautiful because it really transforms. If we want to get from Shabbos, you gotta give to Shabbos. If you want to get to Vom or you want to get to Vo, then you gotta go through Vah. We have to first be the ones who give. That's how we turn our Friday into Erev Shabbos by showing honor, showing kavod, showing respect, showing anticipation, showing excitement, showing energy. Friday's not when we have the least left in us, Shabbos we should be gearing up to give it the most. Friday night we don't collapse and pass out, Friday night is the payoff, it's the tachlis, it's what we've been working for to be family and friends, to sing zmiros, to tell stories, to learn divrei Torah, to spend that time together, to spend that time with Shabbos. That Shabbos is our zug, Shabbos is our zivug, Shabbos is our mate, Shabbos is what's meant for us, different than what everybody else has. We zocheh, Vayanuchu Vah to give and then Vayanuchu Vo to receive and ultimately to merit Vayanuchu Vom in both directions all together. Wishing a beautiful Shabbos, we're in the Chodesh Nissan, the month of Geulah, a Shabbos of Geulah, בשורות טובות ישועות ונחמות. המתעכב נעורינו וסוער זעקינו ספו בשיר במו רצון, פתחו שער, פתחו שער.
