Transcript
Good erev Shabbos! Good erev Shabbos everybody! Today is not Friday, today is erev Shabbos and we are tuning our Friday into erev Shabbos with great gratitude to our series sponsors Mendy and Tzipora Fishman, a z'chus for חיה רבקה בת ציפורה פייגא, l'illui nishmas of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, יעקב צבי בן אברהם אריה. And this week's \"Turn Friday into erev Shabbos\" is sponsored anonymously in honor of the West Hempstead listeners. Thank you, Mr. Anonymous. I want to share with you a beautiful teaching from the great Rav Avram Shor shlita, she-yihye l'refuah sheleimah. We say on Shabbos at Mincha, יום מנוחה וקדושה לעמך נתת. Hashem, you gave us this day of Shabbos, and what's the day of Shabbos? So of course a day to daven, a day to learn, a day to live, a day to laugh, a day to sit at our table, but it's a day of menucha u'kdusha, a day of rest, of tranquility, of peace, and a day of holiness, a day of sanctity. And then we explain, we elaborate, there are three languages of menucha: menuchas ahava u'nedava, menuchas emes v'emuna, מנוחת שלום ושלווה והשקט ובטח. The first, menuchas ahava u'nedava, there is a rest of love and graciousness, a rest of truth and faith, and a rest of peace and tranquility and quiet. Chazal came to try to define, writes Rav Shor, this menucha, this peace that we're trying to arrive at on Shabbos. Shabbos is not just about how much sleep you could get, how much food you could eat. Shabbos is about a different type of rest, a rest which is not just physical, a tranquility, a peace, a peace of mind, a sense of being whole, a sense of being complete. How do we get there? So the Chovos HaLevavos writes in Sha'ar HaBitachon that the only way to really get to peace, peace of mind, is to live with bitachon. When a person knows that there is a God, there is a Creator, He's intimately involved in our lives, everything is for a reason, nothing is random or chance, then a person can live with an inner peace. We do all we can, we make our effort, but beyond our initiative we let go and let God, the rest is up to Him. When a person lives with this bitachon, when we live with that faith, when we live with that knowledge that Hashem is in charge, Hashem is in control, we can let go and we can live with that peace. בשבת קודש אמרו חז\"ל כי השביתה צריך להיות באופן כזה כאילו כל מלאכתך עשויה. Our rabbis said that how do you have peace on Shabbos? When you feel all your work is done. All your work is done. Aye, after Havdalah your work will be waiting. Aye, after Havdalah your inbox will be full. You'll check the news and you'll find it's not a simple time. Okay, but for 25 hours, for Shabbos, kol melachtacha asuya. Everything's done. How do you get to a place of \"all my work is done\"? How do you get to that place? But there are bills, how am I going to pay? There are arrangements. There's recovery from illness, there's all kinds, but I'm still looking for a shidduch, still want to have a child. How do you feel everything is done? Because when a person lives with bitachon, there's no daiga of machar. There's no worry, anxiety of tomorrow, because if today you live with the sense of bitachon in Hashem, then even though there's work yet to do, and even though there are results that you yet crave to happen, but you know that since it's all from Hashem, therefore you can have a sense of menucha. And this is the first darga, this Chovos HaLevavos, Sha'ar HaBitachon. That's what Rav Shor writes. דרגה ראשון של מנוחה, menuchas ahava u'nedava. Ahava u'nedava in gematria is bitachon. The name of bitachon. B'gematria, כי מתוך האהבה ונדיבות לב שיש לאדם להשם יתברך בוטח בו ובא לידי מנוחה. The more we let go and let God, the more we stop being a worrier and we become a warrior. The more we surrender and submit to Him, the more menucha we can have. And which is the day to find that menucha? Shabbos. Shabbos, no technology, no to-dos, no tasks. Shabbos we disconnect and we connect to Hashem. We let go and we let God, and that's the effort, that's the preparation, that's how we turn our Friday into erev Shabbos. We get ready. Shut down the email, shut down the texts, shut down the work, shut down all the things we have to do, and realize: let go, let God. Stop being a worrier and be a warrior. That's the first level, is menuchas ahava u'nedava is bitachon. The next level is menuchas emes v'emuna. Emuna, כאשר אין רואין את הטוב בנגלה. When do you have emuna? When you can't see the good revealed. When you can't see it and you need to take a leap and you need to have creativity. שבת קודש זוכה אדם למנוחה אפילו באיזו דרגה של אמת ואמונה. Even when it feels dark and even when it feels inexplicable and even we can't comprehend why it's good, Shabbos is that breakthrough, that clarity, that light to live with the emes v'emuna. And then the third level, מנוחת שלום ושלווה והשקט ובטח. What is hashkeit? Like sheket b'vakasha. Quiet, serenity, peace. שאינו שומע כלל כל הקולות שמפריעים לאדם. We don't hear all the voices, all the sounds, all the influences that disturb us, that create... static for us. יש קולות שונות בבריאה המפריעים מנוחת האדם ובבוא שבת קודש זוכה אדם למצב של שקט. There's so much competing noise, so much noise in our lives, noise of social media, noise of the internet, noise of work, noise of inbox, noise, there's so much noise. hashket vavetach. Shabbos there is a menucha that comes from sheket bevakasha. Shabbos is quiet. So today, turn Friday into Erev Shabbos by starting to quiet our mind and our lives. What are you going to disconnect and turn off? Stop checking all those things, stop getting all those alerts. From Friday, turn Friday into Erev Shabbos when you wake up Friday morning or from chatzois, or just an hour before Shabbos. Disconnect, turn off the noise, lower the static, get to a place of מנוחת שלום ושלווה השקט ובטח. Turn those kolos down so that we can hear the voice and the sound of Hashem. So this Shabbos and every Shabbos what we're looking for is menucha, wholeness, peace of mind, peace, quiet, serenity, tranquility. We can get there when we know that all of our work is done through bitachon, the knowledge Hashem is in charge, He's in control. Shabbos is 25 hours escaping, getting away with Him. It's an opportunity to go on vacation with the Almighty. Just like you leave everything when you go on vacation, you say I'm done, it'll be there when I get back, but I'm not checking, I need to disconnect. That's what we get every week with Hashem. 25 hours, takeh, have a beautiful Shabbos, a healthy, happy, holy Shabbos, a Shabbos of a menucha, menuchas ahava unedava, menuchas emes ve'emunah, מנוחת שלום ושלווה השקט ובטח.
