Transcript
Okay, good morning everyone. I'm so impressed how many people braved the elements. I was sure it was going to be me and my parents here this morning. So, so grateful for you for coming. Last week we gave the פרשה שיעור Parsha shiur in the middle of the ocean, somewhere between South Florida and the Bahamas, the first inaugural BRS Empty Nester Cruise. Those who were on it, we had a wonderful time. I understand Rabbi Moskowitz gave an incredible class last week here, and it's amazing to know that always in good hands with Rabbi Moskowitz. And I can I can go on cruises more often, so it's good to know. And I'm very grateful to my dear friend Rabbi Moskowitz. Our פרשה Parsha class this morning is generously sponsored by Meyer Berkowitz in memory of his beloved mother, Lena Berkowitz, and by David and Helen Levitsky in honor of their Torah dedication, in honor of their children and grandchildren, Juliana and Ilan Rosenblatt, Abby and Benjamin and Maya. We're very grateful for the sponsorship. This week we have the privilege of studying פרשת ויקהל Parshas Vayakhel. It's a short פרשה Parsha. Usually we often we read ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei together. With the leap year, you've got to fill more פרשיות Parshiyos, more more שבתון Shabbaton with פרשיות Parshiyos, so we read it separately. It's a short פרשה Parsha, and it's a difficult פרשה Parsha to study. Not because the פרשה Parsha itself is so complicated or difficult, but we've just seen these very themes, we've just seen everything in פרשת ויקהל Parshas Vayakhel. ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei are the exact repetition of תרומה תצווה Terumah Tetzaveh. It's repetitive, it's redundant. We were just there. We just saw this movie. We just saw תרומה תצווה Terumah Tetzaveh, and we got a little break כי תשא Ki Sisa, an unwelcome break with a very sad story, the smashing of the לוחות Luchos and the terrible miscalculation with the חטא העגל Cheit Ha'Eigel. And here we are back again, immersed in the dimensions, immersed in the ingredients, the engineering, the architecture of the משכן Mishkan, of the כלים Kelim, of the utensils, everything that is in it. So we'll try to review פרשת ויקהל Parshas Vayakhel and understand, well, first we'll suggest why why repeat it? Why repeat it?So the רמב\"ן Ramban says, you know why ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei needs to be repeated? Torah's real estate is the most valuable real estate on the planet, in the universe, in the world. There is no more valuable real estate. Every letter, every תג tag, every crown of a letter is only there if it serves an important purpose. There's nothing gratuitous, there's nothing extraneous. Everything is there to teach a lesson. So why would we take up so much space to repeat? So the רמב\"ן Ramban says because, true, השם Hashem gave us the משכן Mishkan before the עגל Eigel. And when the עגל Eigel came, it significantly diminished, it significantly injured our relationship with השם Hashem. And so, if you recall, השם Hashem said, you know what? After you can do what you did to me, after you could have such an act of disloyalty, of infidelity, after you could cheat on me, a חטא העגל Cheit Ha'Eigel, I will no longer have a direct, immediate, close relationship with you. Now, it'll be through an intermediary, through an angel. And that severed the promise of השראת השכינה Hashras HaShechina. After all, what was the mission, the purpose of a משכן Mishkan? משכן Mishkan, שכינה Shechina. משכן Mishkan means a house, משכן Mishkan, it's the same root. ש' כ' נ' Shin, Chaf, Nun is the same root as שכינה Shechina. It is a building, it is a home for השראת השכינה Hashras HaShechina, for God's divine dwelling. To feel his presence, to know that one is in his shadow, to feel his love, his support, to turn to him for guidance, to ask of him, to thank him, to protest or to object to him, but to feel השם’s Hashem's presence intensely, השראת השכינה Hashras HaShechina.Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks says שכינה Shechina is from the word שכן Shachen, means neighbor. השם Hashem is not the one who's distant, is far away. He's close, he's accessible. So השם Hashem says, that works well when we're moving in together. We're married, we're building a life, there's love, there's loyalty. But if you're not going to be loyal, and there's not going to be love, I don't want to live with you. And so he withdraws his השראת השכינה Hashras HaShechina in last week's פרשה Parsha after the חטא העגל Cheit Ha'Eigel. He withdraws and says, yeah, I'll connect with you. We made a contract, we have a covenant. But you know what? My lawyer will be in touch with you. My executive assistant will be in touch with you. השם Hashem says, from now on, speak to my lawyer. We'll communicate and commune through an intermediary, through a שליח Shliach. He withdraws and says, I don't want to be near you. After you can do what you did to me, I don't want to be near you. So that severed the promise of the משכן Mishkan, of שכינה Shechina, of feeling like a שכן Shachen, through an intermediary. ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei is now that the relationship's been repaired, we reinstate and we restore the promise of שכינה Shechina, of השראת השכינה Hashras HaShechina. The משכן Mishkan has to be given a second time because it is a second משכן Mishkan. It's not the same משכן Mishkan. This is a stronger משכן Mishkan. This is a משכן Mishkan that has more integrity, more dignity, more loyalty, and more love, and therefore it'll be more lasting. The first command, the first promise of the משכן Mishkan lasted only as long as the Jews were loyal. And when they withdrew their love, השם Hashem withdrew his שכינה Shechina. And now that they have properly atoned, which is in itself a whole story, the atonement was the result of remorse, regret, shame, guilt. Moshe doesn't smash the לוחות Luchos when he hears about the חטא העגל Cheit Ha'Eigel.We did the פרשה שיעור Parsha shiur on the boat last week, not in person, so I'm still getting out some of the פרשת כי תשא Parshas Ki Sisa. You'll forgive me. I'm without the room spinning. So Moshe doesn't smash the לוחות Luchos because he hears the Jewish people worshipped the calf. When does he smash the לוחות Luchos? Only when he descends from the mountain and sees with his eyes, they're dancing and singing and hopping and popping and פארברענגען farbrengen and טיש tisch and עונג oneg. Wow, it's געשמאק geshmak. We'll all be leaving to dance and sing and toast לחיים l'chaim to the עגל Eigel that we built. And Moshe says, well, you know, everyone's entitled to make a mistake. We all have bad judgment, we make mistakes. We are distracted by temptation, by desire, by our appetite. The question is when we wake up and recognize what we've done, do we celebrate it? Do we toast it? Are we nostalgic for it? Do we take pride in it? Or are we filled with regret and shame and embarrassment and remorse? So when he sees them במחולות b'mecholos, dancing in circles, he smashes and he says, this is an incorrigible and hopeless people. And השם Hashem says, you're right, I'm out of here. השראת השכינה Hashras HaShechina. And Moshe says, מחני נא מספרך Mecheini na misifrecha, erase me from the book. It's as if Moshe and השם Hashem go hand in hand and say, you know what? We give up on this, we're out of here. We got each other, we don't need them, we're out of here. But then it says the Jewish people mourned. It's an incredible פסוק pasuk in last week's פרשה Parsha. The פסוק pasuk says וישמע העם את הדבר הרע הזה ויתאבלו Vayishma ha'am es hadavar hara hazeh vayis'ablu. They heard and they mourned, they grieved. The same word ויתאבלו vayis'ablu is used in the context of the מרגלים Meraglim. Because we're prone to make mistakes. We have a pattern of poor judgment. And soon enough, the מרגלים Meraglim are going to make a mistake. They're going to go to Israel, come back, give a negative report, fail again to trust in השם Hashem, again, negatively impact that relationship. And when they understand the implications, the consequences, again, ויתאבלו vayis'ablu, they mourned. What does mourning have to do with a mistake?Rabbi Soloveitchik explains mourning means, what is mourning? Mourning is the acknowledgement of a loss. Not a loss that's replaceable. People experience a loss of money and they're sad. They're sad. Hurricane Sandy wiped out people's basements and photo albums, it's sad. A person's car, God forbid, gets totaled in an accident, it's sad. You lose something of value, your stock portfolio goes down, it's very sad. Very sad. But it's money, and it's replaceable. But when you lose someone who's irreplaceable, ויתאבלו vayis'ablu, you mourn, you grieve. אבלות Aveilus. You become a mourner. Real mourning is for that which is irreplaceable. Something replaceable, it's inappropriate, it's excessive to react with mourning. So why would the Torah describe the recognition of making a mistake as mourning, as grieving? Says Rabbi Soloveitchik, you are mourning, and you are grieving. Who? Whom? Yourself. Yourself. That lost opportunity, that lost moment in time, that miscalculation, that relationship which now is a wedge has been driven into it. There is mourning and there is grieving, something that can't be replaced, namely, the lost opportunity, the lost time, the lost piece of ourself in that mistake, in that miscalculation. So Moshe smashes the לוחות Luchos and השם Hashem hand in hand says let's get out of here when they seem like they have no regrets. And then ויתאבלו vayis'ablu when they grieve, when they realize, whoa, what have we done? When the reality of their bad choices sets in, and they grieve and mourn its consequence, both Moshe and השם Hashem are ready to say, let's start again. And when they're ready to say let's start again, now the רמב\"ן Ramban says, now the משכן Mishkan is reinstated. שכינה Shechina. משכן, שכן, שכינה Mishkan, Shachen, Shechina. השם Hashem says, I'm ready to move back in. I'm ready to move back in. And that's why we have ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei.ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei we read differently than we read תרומה תצווה Terumah Tetzaveh. It's השם Hashem saying, I'm ready to move back in. Let's remarry. I'm ready to start again. I officiated at the wedding of a couple who got married for the third time. There are couples who remarry, and they keep struggling, and they come back together. ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei is the remarriage of השם Hashem and the Jewish people. And when one addresses the deficiency or the fault with the challenge, the stress in the relationship, and we address it sufficiently, the new marriage, the second, the third, the tenth marriage is stronger than it ever was. I've probably mentioned to you before, there's a, we tried to bring her this year, we were unsuccessful. Hopefully next year. There's a therapist, ברוך אתה ה' אלוקינו מלך העולם שהכל נהיה בדברו Boruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha'olam shehakol nihiyeh bidvaro. אמן Amen. We went two weeks ago, last week? Two weeks ago. We took a group from the shul, the חברא Chevra from the community on a בית מדרש Beis Medrash fly-in to New York. In two days, we met with twelve ראשי ישיבה Rashei Yeshiva from twelve different ישיבות yeshivas all over the New York area. It was incredible. It was an extraordinary two days. One of them, the first meeting we had, we landed in שער אשר Shariashiv, we met with רב יעקב Rav Yaakov, the ראש ישיבה Rosh Yeshiva of שער אשר Shariashiv. So he told us in passing in the conversation, each one gave us a דבר תורה d'var Torah, a שיעור shiur, and then we had question and answer. We were really able to in a very intimate setting connect, learn from these from these truly great people. So רב יעקב Rav Yaakov said that in in the בית מדרש Beis Medrash in שער אשר Shariashiv he's instituted, he tells the בחורים bachurim, the boys and the כולל יונגעלייט kollel yungeleit, that they shouldn't drink out of a bottle. Always pour into a cup. Pouring through a cup is more dignified, it's more appropriate, it's more proper. Said in the dorm, outside the gym, when you're having lunch in the cafeteria, drink however you want. But in order to try to promote and to cultivate a sense that this place is more dignified, this place is more special. So, and now he got this in my head, now I always pour, so when I'm here, that explains to you why I poured it into a cup. I have become more dignified. Finally. ברוך השם Boruch Hashem. So, anyway, לחיים l'chaim from my cup. Does anyone know what I was talking about before I explained it? Can anyone help me get back? Where was I? What was I talking about? Oh! Oh! The therapist, yes. We have a פרשה parsha class still to get to, but this therapist, her name is Esther Perel. She's a traditional Jew, her parents were survivors. She grew up I think in in Austria, moved to Israel, lives in America. She has written several books, bestselling books, and has a podcast. She's really, really excellent insight into marriage and into therapy. Aren't you impressed? I'm not quoting Dr. Gottman. Somebody else, Esther Perel. P E R E L. She has a Ted talk that she gave, like all Ted talks, it's I don't know, ten minutes long, twelve minutes long. It has millions and millions of hits, and I highly recommend watching it. She later turned it into a book. But her thesis in the Ted talk is how to come back from infidelity. How to come back from a strain on a relationship in its harshest, most extreme form, when one spouse cheats on another, but whatever form of a stress or a strain on a relationship, there's all forms of cheating that can take place. There are physical affairs, emotional affairs, financial affairs, when a person is doing things with the finances without disclosing it to their spouse or giving access or transparency. There's all kinds of strains that are placed on relationship. And she and her thesis is, everyone will be married in life more than once. The only question is, will it be to the same person or to a different person? That's her thesis. And her argument is that when that moment of poor judgment, when that חטא העגל cheit ha'eigel, when that sin happens, will it be a revelation, will it reveal something that was wrong, that was broken in the relationship and now it can be fixed, it can be repaired, it can be healed, and the second marriage will be stronger and better than ever? Or will it reveal a fundamental flaw that compounds itself or that escalates or that spirals and that can't come back from? That choice is up to the couple. Again there are הלכתי halachic implications here, we'll leave that out for right now, depends on who did the act of disloyalty, of infidelity. But if one can heal, it can be better than ever. And I've seen that with my own eyes in couples that I counsel. And why am I bringing that up? First of all, it's worthwhile to watch. If you just Google Ted Talk Esther Perel, P E R E L. But it's exactly what ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei are. It's the second marriage. There was a חטא העגל cheit ha'eigel. There was infidelity, there was a cheating spouse. We, the Jewish people, cheated on the רבונו של עולם Ribbono shel Olam. We panicked. Moshe didn't come back. We built an עגל eigel. We panicked. We cheated on him in a moment of fear, of anxiety, of panic. ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei is our second marriage, is our coming back. And when one can come back, it's stronger than ever. So that's number one is the רמב\"ן Ramban.I'll tell you the second is the בית הלוי Beis HaLevi. בית הלוי Beis HaLevi says if you'll notice something in ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei, we have all over ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei that we did not have in תרומה Terumah and תצווה Tetzaveh. It seems like it's exactly the same. We have the same dimensions and ingredients and materials and architecture and design and so on. It looks exactly the same. But there is an expression, a phrase that appears over and over in ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei that wasn't in תרומה תצווה Terumah Tetzaveh. And the phrase is, כאשר ציוה ה' לעשות ka'asher tziva Hashem la'asos. As השם Hashem commanded you. Why over and over the expression as השם Hashem commanded you? And the answer is the עגל eigel came in between. See, according to, we say this many times, according to the כוזרי Kuzari and others, the חטא העגל cheit ha'eigel was not an act of infidelity. It wasn't an act of cheating, but it was a miscalculation. The Jewish people wanted to draw close to השם Hashem. They needed a physical, tangible means through which to do it. Moshe disappeared, he was their physical embodiment. They panicked, they built an עגל eigel to represent השם Hashem. They didn't build an עגל eigel as an alternative to השם Hashem. They built an עגל eigel as a means through which to connect with השם Hashem. Where did they go wrong? We're not allowed to have religious creativity, innovation. We're not supposed to explore what feels good or is meaningful to us. If we're really trying to meet the needs of another, we have to do what they ask us to do. That's what contributes to the relationship. And that's why we had the משכן Mishkan as the רפואה refuah before the מכה makah, the healing before the the plague, before כי תשא Ki Sisa. Then comes כי תשא Ki Sisa, the חטא העגל cheit ha'eigel where we miscalculate and do even a noble end but through an ignoble means. And then we have ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei with כאשר צוה ka'asher tziva. As God commanded. You need something physical to connect to God, that's legitimate, it's understandable, that's reasonable. But you can't create it, invent it, innovate it. It has to be כאשר צוה ka'asher tziva. It has to be what God commanded you. I liken it again to marriage. Imagine your spouse says to you, I need you to do A, B, and C. I'd like you to do A, B, and C. It'd be meaningful to me, it would help me, I am asking you to do A, B, and C. You say A, B, and C? That's such a good idea. I understand why you need that. But I'm going to do it like X, Y, and Z. I think it's so much better to do it through X, Y, and Z. I'm going to do it differently, or in a different place, or at a different time, or I have a different way of doing it. So what's your spouse going to say? I appreciate that you want to still do it, but I asked you to do it the way I asked you to do it. I didn't ask you to reinvent how to do it, or do it differently, or do it in a way that doesn't work for me. I asked you to do A, B, and C. So true, you're doing X, Y, and Z, and you're looking at me like, well, I was doing it for you, I was doing it better, so what's your problem? The answer is if you care about me and you care about the relationship, it's not about how you think the best way to achieve that goal is, it's doing what I asked you to do. So השם Hashem says, I asked you to have a משכן Mishkan, you can't go build an עגל eigel. And even if you say, well, we built the עגל eigel because we want to connect to you and we need a physical, tangible means to connect to you. השם Hashem says that's nice, but that doesn't help us. That's not our relationship. So ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei are repeated, says the בית הלוי Beis HaLevi because of those words כאשר צוה ה' ka'asher tziva Hashem. As השם Hashem commanded you. Stick with A, B, C. Don't reinvent X, Y, Z.Okay, there's other interpretations. I don't want to spend all our time on why we have ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei. The bottom line is we have ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei, so let's study it. ויקהל Vayakhel. At least this week let's study ויקהל Vayakhel. ויקהל Vayakhel begins, ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל ויאמר אליהם אלה הדברים אשר ציוה ה' לעשות אותם Vayakhel Moshe es kol adas Bnei Yisrael vayomer aleihem eileh hadvarim asher tziva Hashem la'asos osam. Moshe gathers all of the Jewish people and he commands, here are the words, and the opening פסוק pasuk אשר ציוה ה' לעשות אותם asher tziva Hashem la'asos osam. As God commanded them to do. Don't try to discover new spiritual paths. Don't have such creativity. Don't be so independent. We have a sacred Torah, it's got 613 מצוות mitzvos. There's a lot of room for individuality and creativity within the system that we have. But don't try to deviate or ignore or mold or conform the system to what works for you. The whole essence of ויקהל פקודי Vayakhel Pekudei is אשר ציוה ה' לעשות asher tziva Hashem la'asos. As השם Hashem commanded us. ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה וביום השביעי יהיה לכם קודש שבת שבתון לה' Sheshes yamim ta'aseh melacha u'vayom ha'shevi'i yihiyeh lachem kodesh Shabbos Shabbaton l'Hashem. Six days do work, the seventh day is holy. כל העושה בו מלאכה יומת Kol ha'oseh bo melacha yumas. And if you do work on that day, bad news, capital punishment. לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם ביום השבת Lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem b'yom haShabbos. Don't burn a fire in your homes on שבת Shabbos. This is the one מלאכה melacha that we have that's spelled out. The rest of all מלאכות melachos were given as one category, don't do מלאכה melacha. The one that is named, that is identified, that is that is separated, it's given explicitly is לא תבערו אש Lo seva'aru eish. Don't burn, don't burn a fire. Why was it, it's a מחלוקת תנאים machlokes Tannaim, why was it taken out? Is it לחלק l'challek, is it to teach us that... let's not get into this. But why was it taken out is a is a debate. לא תבערו אש Lo seva'aru eish is the one. So the first section we have of our פרשה parsha, and then we're going to get into the מלאכות melachos of the משכן mishkan, is שבת Shabbos. שבת Shabbos. In the past we've had משכן Mishkan then שבת Shabbos, now we have שבת Shabbos then משכן Mishkan. So why are we starting out with שבת Shabbos? I want to ask you three questions. Why are we starting out with שבת Shabbos? Why is שבת Shabbos given כל עדת בני ישראל kol adas Bnei Yisrael, everybody together? Why can't it be like the other מצוות mitzvos that are given independently, individually? Why does it have to be given in a gathering, collectively? Why does it have to be given to a community, עדת בני ישראל adas Bnei Yisrael? And what does it mean לעשות אותם la'asos osam? To do it? You don't do שבת Shabbos. שבת Shabbos is all about inaction, not action. It's about what we're abstaining or refraining from, not what we're called to do. Six days a week we do, and we've spoken about this in the past, you can listen to פרשה שיעור parsha shiurim of the past, that in Judaism work is not a concession, work is a mandate, is a mission. If one won the lottery, you're still not entitled to just sit back and do nothing. For us, work is not just a concession, it's the only way I can eat and have a roof over my head and a car to drive, so I guess I have to work. No, ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה sheshes yamim ta'aseh melacha. מלאכה Melacha, and I have countless sources to support this, not for now as I said you can listen and we've discussed it in the past, but work is in itself a value. השם Hashem invites us to be his partner in conquering the world, the וכיבשוה v'kivshuha. Go discover, go manipulate nature, go make progress, go advance, go do work, be my partner, be productive, contribute, achieve, accomplish, have ambition and aspiration. ששת ימים Sheshes yamim, six days do work. Because after all the Torah could have just said, on the seventh day rest. Ah, I want to be a מחמיר machmir and rest all seven days. I don't want to do work all seven days. It's a new חומרא chumra. If resting one day is good, resting all seven days is even better. I'll introduce a new חומרא chumra to the world. So the Torah says that's not a חומרא chumra, it's a קולא kula. ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה Sheshes yamim ta'aseh melacha, do work. Abstaining from work is designated for the seventh day. But the six days, go out there and change the world. Go out there and make a difference. Go out there and do something. I know many, some, a handful in this room are retired. Judaism doesn't believe in retirement. You're retired from your profession. You're retired from your career. But from being an עבד ה' eved Hashem, from being a Jew, from having a mission to positively impact the world. Maybe you've changed careers. You went from your job as a lawyer, doctor, accountant, teacher, whatever the case may be, and now your career is as a grandparent. Now your career is as a volunteer. Now your career is as a friend. Now you have a career to go to doctor's appointments and get through the day with אמונה emunah. I'm not joking, I don't mean that in a joking way, I mean it. Now the career is to get through the day with challenges and trials and tribulations with אמונה emunah and optimism and faith in השם Hashem and still do what you need to do. Which can become, as many of you know too well, a full-time career. And I'm not saying this in a joking way. I'm being serious. But the point is, we don't as Jews wake up ever and say, I'm retired, I'm done. My entire life is defined by golf, tennis, mahjong, and early bird supper. That's not my whole life. There's nothing wrong with those things. Nothing wrong with those things. I can't wait to have time to do those things. There's nothing wrong with those things. But that's incidental to our life. It's the recreation part of our life. It's not who we are, it doesn't define our life. People make a mistake, they confuse making a living with living. So when they're done making a living, they're done living. But even while we were making a living, that should never have been our life. So that when we're done making a living, now we can really live life. Maybe coming to the afternoon כולל kollel, going to a פרשה שיעור parsha shiur, volunteering for ביקור חולים Bikur Cholim. Whatever the case is, we're never ever done. ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה Sheshes yamim ta'aseh melacha, to be created in the image of God. God, God didn't have to just rest on the seventh day. God too could have created the entire world in a moment, in an instant, and then had seven days of rest. God could have started life, the world on a sabbatical. But he didn't. He worked six days and rested on the seventh because he's our role model. If the רבונו של עולם Ribbono shel Olam worked for six days, you think you're retired? Never. ששת ימים Sheshes yamim. As I said, we've spoken more about that in the past.But why is it לעשות la'asos? So שבת Shabbos is all about what I refer, so six days a week I work, I create, I mold, I shape, I repair, I advance, I conquer. And the seventh day I rest. I'm at peace with nature, I'm at peace with the world. So the seventh day is all about what I'm not doing. So why would it be expressed as לעשות la'asos, to do? So why is it given in a community? And why is it expressed here as as לעשות la'asos? And why is it here? Why is it here to begin with? Why is it here to begin with? So, the Rebbe answers, I mean offers a few answers to this question. We'll start with the Rav. The Rav in the Rav explains the reason that it's given by the entire community is because the definition, he writes, one who violates שבת Shabbos publicly denies the creation and the creator. One who violates שבת Shabbos in private does not involve heresy since by definition testimony is a public declaration. We talk about a מחלל שבת בפרהסיא machal Shabbos b'farhesia. Somebody who desecrates שבת Shabbos in public is כופר בכל התורה כולה kofer b'chol haTorah kulah. Somebody who desecrates שבת Shabbos in public is in denial of the entire Torah, is a heretic, is in denial of God. We'll we'll come back in a moment to talk about the modern day application of that. And that comes from here, says the Rav, because שבת Shabbos was given in ויקהל Vayakhel, כל עדת בני ישראל kol adas Bnei Yisrael. השם Hashem gathered everyone, put them together, created a community, and said, I want you to know what it means to be part of the community is to embrace שבת Shabbos. If you publicly observe שבת Shabbos, you're part of the community of the faith community. And if you publicly desecrate שבת Shabbos, you have extracted yourself from the community. We all know that for time immemorial, an observant Jew has been defined as a שומר שבת shomer Shabbos. Are you a שומר שבת shomer Shabbos? Rabbi Soloveitchik spoke last week, שבת שיעור Shabbos shiur, says, שמור וזכור בדיבור אחד Shamor v'zachor b'dibur echad. Why don't we describe somebody as a זוכר שבת zachor Shabbos? We always ask are you a שומר שבת shomer Shabbos? What about are you a זוכר שבת zachor Shabbos? But שומר שבת shomer Shabbos. Famously, it has been said that more than the Jews have kept שבת Shabbos, שבת Shabbos has kept the Jews. So, since this moment of ויקהל Vayakhel, when Moshe gathered the Jewish people and he looked at them and he said, if you want to define yourself, if you want to identify or associate as a member of the observing community, what it means is שבת Shabbos. If you say, I don't keep שבת Shabbos, it's hard for me, but I keep שעטנז shatnez. I'm having all my Uggs tested. I I keep uh כלאיים kilayim in my backyard. I'm not mixing different in the hybrids of, nobody knows what I'm talking about. Uggs? It's a crisis in the Jewish people going on right now. We don't know because we're blessed to live in a warm climate like smart people, but there are people elsewhere. There are people elsewhere. On that trip to New York, it snowed, that I was telling you about a moment ago. And as we're slipping and sliding in the car and our feet which are still defrosting two weeks later, and I'm looking at all these people, I used to be one of them, I was raised there, I was saying, don't you know you could have it better? I wanted to just like save them from themselves and redeem them. Don't you understand? Don't you know you could have a better life? Anyway, so Uggs. So, the people of the north, Uggs, there's a question if Uggs may have שעטנז shatnez in them. So people are panicking. This is, it's called a first world Jewish problem, but it's a but it's a crisis. It's a crisis that has spun out of control. It's right after the shidduch crisis. The shidduch crisis, and then the Ugg crisis. Sometimes there's overlap between the two. Anyway, so, so you say I don't keep שבת Shabbos, but I keep שעטנז shatnez and I keep כלאיים kilayim and I keep all these other things. So we say that's nice, but שבת Shabbos. Why is שבת Shabbos so important? So the Rav describes because שבת Shabbos is a public testimony, I believe God created the world. Why does one observe שבת Shabbos? Why does one observe שבת Shabbos? Because what you're saying is God created the world in six days and rested, and I am emulating him. So I too control work, manipulate for six days and then I rest. So when I rest on the seventh day, I am paying homage, I'm paying testimony that God created the world, that he is the creator. And if I don't work, rest on the seventh day, and I say I'm not bound by this whole seventh day resting thing, what one is saying is I don't believe that there was a God to emulate, to follow in his footsteps, to walk in his way. And that's why Rabbi Soloveitchik says, ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל Vayakhel Moshe es kol adas Bnei Yisrael. Why are they called an עדת adas? Why are we called עדת בני ישראל adas Bnei Yisrael? Some shuls use the term עדת adas. Why is עדת adas a congregation? Said the Rav because the word עדת adas comes from the word עדה edah. In the construct form, comes from the word עד eid, which means a witness. Moshe assembled the entire nation to teach them the Jewish charge to act as a witness through keeping שבת Shabbos. When we observe שבת Shabbos, we are paying testimony. We are a witness that God created the world. We're offering עדות aidos. He doesn't explain it this way, the Rav, but I will take his explanation to answer, now we understand why לעשות la'asos. Because שבת Shabbos is not just passive. שבת Shabbos is not just about being inactive. שבת Shabbos is being active as a witness, giving testimony. By being passive on שבת Shabbos, one is actively testifying that God created the world. So why did it have to be in a congregation? Because that's the definition of what it means to be part of this religious community. Why the word עדת adas? Because we're giving עדות aidos, we're an עד eid, we're giving testimony. Why לעשות la'asos? What are we doing that's active? By being inactive, we're actively testifying that God created the world.Now just a brief tangent is that of course, we don't apply this today. What do I mean? Somebody who was not raised with a Jewish education, a Jewish background, Jewish observance, who's מחלל שבת בפרהסיא machal Shabbos b'farhesia. Someone who drives to our shul on שבת Shabbos, and it's wonderful and we welcome them, and it's fantastic because it's certainly is better than driving to the beach or the mall or the concert. And yesterday's driver becomes tomorrow's walker. I wish more. We have 134,200 Jews in South Palm Beach County. It's embarrassing how few are driving to our shul. It means that we are not a magnet. They don't view us as a place to come to explore their identity and their religious growth. So do we say, מחלל שבת בפרהסיא machal Shabbos b'farhesia? כופר בכל התורה כולה Kofer b'chol haTorah kulah, get out! You're not in the מנין minyan. You can't get an עליה aliyah. Or do we say that maybe this definition has changed? So there are שובות chuvos that go back 150 years ago, already, in Europe yet, that said, when was it the מחלל שבת בפרהסיא machal Shabbos b'farhesia is a דין din of a כופר kofer, can't be counted in a מנין minyan, can't get an עליה aliyah and so on? When the community was insular and was and was worked together as one, and a person who chose to be מחלל שבת machal Shabbos was spitting in the face of the community. He was an act of rebellion. But today, where someone's חילול שבת chillul Shabbos is not an act of rebellion either to community or to God, they no longer have that status. שובות Chuvos go back to Germany in particular, they began, not... Incidentally with the enlightenment, but those תשובות teshuvos have have, the חזון איש Chazon Ish himself writes in his ספר חזון איש Sefer Chazon Ish, the הלכה halacha about מורידין ולא מעלין moridin v'lo ma'alin that you lower a heretic, you don't save their life. All these הלכות halachos have changed today with the principle of a תינוק שנשבה tinok she'nishba, like a baby who was captured and raised among captors with no exposure to Torah education, to Torah life, and then they were freed and now they're מחלל שבת mechalel Shabbos. You're going to say מחלל שבת בפרהסיא mechalel Shabbos be'farhesya, heretic, כופר כל התורה כולה kofer kol haTorah kulah. So there are people who, even in freedom, are as if they're captured by a secular background, a secular lifestyle. They've not been exposed to Torah. So going back to Germany in the late 19th, early 20th century, and חזון איש Chazon Ish and others. So the the application of of this rule, מחלל שבת בפרהסיא mechalel Shabbos be'farhesya, is different today. So anyway, all that is is Rabbi Soloveitchik, number one. Why is it the word עדת adas? Why is it given as a community and why is it לעשות la'asos, something which is active? So סלונים רבי Slonimer Rebbe gives a second perspective. The סלונים רבי Slonimer Rebbe says, \"You know why it's right now? Last time we had משכן Mishkan then שבת Shabbos. Now we have שבת Shabbos then משכן Mishkan.\" Says the סלונים רבי Slonimer Rebbe, this is part of the repair for the damage of the חטא העגל cheit ha'eigel. How do you come back from a חטא העגל cheit ha'eigel? How do you recover from such a poor choice, such a mistake, such a miscalculation, such an egregious indiscretion? How do you come back? The power of שבת Shabbos. You can't as an individual come back. When you make a horrible mistake and you try to remain an individual, distinct and separate and apart, you're still judged by your decision. But when you choose to integrate and to blend and to join the Jewish people, the community lifts you up. Like a stock that's part of a sector that's on the rise, even if the particular stock doesn't have good news or even maybe has a little bit of bad news, but the sector is on the rise, it rises with the sector. And when a person sees themselves as part of the community, then we rise with the community and we're no longer evaluated and judged by ourselves as individuals. It's kind of like we spoke about last week with the חלבנה chelbonah, one of the ingredients of the קטורת ketores of this, even though it had a repugnant odor, when it surrounded itself with ten pleasant fragrances, the overall mixture was pleasant. So when we join the community. And that's why סלונים רבי Slonimer Rebbe says, what's the antidote to a חטא העגל cheit ha'eigel? Joining a community on שבת Shabbos. שבת Shabbos, לעשות la'asos, create a sense of community. I want to read to you not from the סלונים רבי Slonimer Rebbe, I want to read to you from the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim, the ויז'ניץ רבי Vizhnitzer Rebbe, which again, I'm grateful to my friend Mendy for giving me this gift and I love this ספרא sefer. Short little insights by the ויז'ניץ Vizhnitz. So he says the following: ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל ויאמר אליהם אלה הדברים אשר ציוה ה' לעשות אותם Vayakhel Moshe es kol adas Bnei Yisrael va'yomer aleihem eileh ha'dvarim asher tziva Hashem la'asos osam. ודאי קא המפרשים מה הוא לעשות אותם v'dafk'a ha'meforshim ma hu la'asos osam? What does it mean to do? Where is there activity with שבת Shabbos? It's all passive inactivity. הלא מצות שבת בשב ואל תעשה halo mitzvas Shabbos b'shev v'al ta'aseh. כמה שכתוב בסמוך ויום השביעי יהיה לכם קודש שבת שבתון לה' k'mo she'kasuv b'samuch v'yom ha'shvii yiheye lachem kodesh Shabbos Shabbason la'Hashem. שבת Shabbos is defined by passivity, by by not doing. So he says maybe the answer is, ודאי יש לנו בשבת גם כן מקום ועשה v'adai yesh lanu b'Shabbos gam ken makom v'asei. There is one thing you do on שבת Shabbos, and you know what it is? For the Rav it was giving testimony. For the ויז'ניץ רבי Vizhnitzer Rebbe, you know what you do on שבת Shabbos, you know what the לעשות la'asos is? We also had in פרשת כי תשא Parshas Ki Sisa לעשות את השבת la'asos es ha'Shabbos. ושמרו בני ישראל את השבת v'shamru Bnei Yisrael es ha'Shabbos לעשות את השבת la'asos es ha'Shabbos. וְשָׁמְרוּ safeguard, don't violate 39 מלאכות melachos. That's inactivity. לעשות את השבת la'asos es ha'Shabbos, to make שבת Shabbos. What's the לעשות la'asos? הוא על ידי שמתאספים יחד באהבה ואחוה לשיר שירות ותשבחות לבורא יתברך שמו hu al yedei she'mis'aspim yachad b'ahava v'achva l'shir shiros v'tishbachos la'borei yisborach shmo. והוא עשיה של שבת קודש v'hu asiyah shel Shabbos kodesh. You know what you create on שבת Shabbos? I love this insight. You create community. שבת Shabbos is all about not creating. Six days a week you create. Six days a week you work. Six days a week you make something, you fashion something. And שבת Shabbos you rest. But לעשות la'asos, there's one thing that you create on שבת Shabbos. And you know what it is you create? Community. Community. What does that mean that you create community? Well it means you come to shul. Maybe those who don't have time or ability to come to shul during the week, but they make that time on שבת Shabbos. Those who can't come to מנחה מערב Mincha Maariv, come to מנחה מערב Mincha Maariv on שבת Shabbos. It means that community around your שבת Shabbos table. Some people's greatest dream in the world is to have a שבת Shabbos where they're all alone on a deserted island with a ספר sefer or a magazine, a חלות challos, some קוגל kugel, a piece of chicken, and a pillow and a blanket. And maybe once in a blue moon that could be a dream. Once in a blue moon that could be a dream. But that's not שבת Shabbos. The לעשות la'asos, what we create on שבת Shabbos is community. To be around a table filled with people like he says, בישיבת חברים באהבה b'yeshivas chaverim b'ahava with a sense of unity להודות להשם יתברך l'hodos l'Hashem yisborach, בחיזוק דקדושה לכבוד שבת קודש b'chizuk d'kedusha l'kvod Shabbos kodesh. And to sing and to share דברי תורה divrei Torah and to feel elevated and uplifted and enriched, to be revived from the week. All week long, we have a to-do list and tasks and chaos and מחלוקת machlokes. Am I for or against the merger? Is this just the the left is unreasonably critical or the right wing crossed the red line with this merger? Should I be happy, you're against? What's going on in America and Venezuela? What's going to be with the stock market and the economy and a shutdown and a all spring training, will my team make it this year? All week long, I've got these enormous anxieties. Dog have shatness, doesn't have shatness. And שבת Shabbos comes and I unplug, I disconnect and I connect to what matters, I revive myself. I come alive again. How do I do that? בישיבת חברים b'yeshivas chaverim באהבה b'ahava. When you sit with people you care about with a sense of unity. So I'll tell you what will not revive you. A three hour שבת Shabbos meal debating politics. That will not revive you. I'll tell you it will not energize you. A four-hour שבת Shabbos meal with which schools, the tuition crisis of the community, did you hear the rabbi's announcement? Is he staying, is he going? Did they hire him? Did he pass? Did he fail? What's going to be the RCBC? That's not going to revive you. I can promise you what will not give you חיות chiyus, what will not bring השרשרת השכינה hashra'as ha'Shechina, what will not be עדת בני ישראל adas Bnei Yisrael, what is not לעשות la'asos. He says בישיבת חברים באהבה b'yeshivas chaverim b'ahava. We should have policies at our שבת Shabbos table about conversation that is not allowed. Not allowed. We're allergic. It's simply not tolerated, it's not allowed. Only conversation that energizes, that uplifts, that unites, that's meaningful. Now you can have intellectually stimulating conversation and you can talk about issues of the day in a way that brings people together and is enriching. I'm not suggesting that we have to just talk about the weather, which we seem to be obsessed talking about here in Florida. There are other things that we could talk about, sophisticated things we could talk about, but things that unite, not things that divide. We will say ה' ישמור את צאתך ואת בואך מעתה ועד עולם Hashem yishmor tzeischa u'voecha mei'ata v'ad olam. So הקדוש ברוך הוא HaKadosh Baruch Hu can't command us that there is something that you need to create on שבת Shabbos, you know what it's called, community. We say we have no idea how to create that, what does that look like, what is that? He couldn't command us to do it without first experiencing it. ועל זה כאן כשבא משה רבנו, הוא לא השלים את צוותם על זה, הוא הוכרח מקודם להקהיל קהילות בשבת קודש v'al zeh kan k'sheba Moshe Rabbeinu, hu lo hishlim es tzavtam al zeh, hu huchrach mikodem l'hak'hil kehillos b'Shabbos kodesh. So before commanding the people that you know what שבת Shabbos looks like, it's community. It's a shul community, it's your שבת Shabbos table community, it's your בונגלו bungalow community, it's your backyard community, it's your walking group community, it's your, it's communities. That's what שבת Shabbos is. לעשות la'asos, you're creating something. 99.9% inactive. The one active, the one active creation on שבת Shabbos, is creating community. So how does he communicate, what does that community look like? He practices it. ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל Vayakhel Moshe es kol adas Bnei Yisrael. So beautiful. כדי להראות להם דוגמא לעבודת קודש זו kedei l'har'os lahem dugma l'avodas kodesh zu. וזהו ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל ויאמר אליהם כמורה באצבע אלה הדברים אשר ציוה ה' לעשות אותם v'zehu Vayakhel Moshe es kol adas Bnei Yisrael va'yomer aleihem k'moreh b'etzba eileh ha'dvarim asher tziva Hashem la'asos osam. You hear what the vision says? Moshe gathers everyone. ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל Vayakhel Moshe es kol adas Bnei Yisrael. He has the nation, the people, the community gathered. ויאמר אליהם va'yomer aleihem and he said to them, and the vision says כמורה באצבע k'moreh b'etzba, he pointed with his finger and he said אלה הדברים אשר ציוה ה' לעשות אותם eileh ha'dvarim asher tziva Hashem la'asos osam. This, what you see right now, all being together, this is what God commanded לעשות אותם la'asos osam. This is what he wants us to create. This is what he wants us to experience. Not private מנינים minyanim in every home on a Friday night, not adults running to a teen minyan to escape having to sit with their fellow adults and hear a rabbi's דרשה drasha. That's not שבת Shabbos. That's not שבת Shabbos. לעשות אותם la'asos osam, to create community, to be together. To have the walls reverberate with the sounds of a community. Not talking about an endless דאבענען davening, a נזדבנינג nizdavening should be a streamlined דאבענען davening, a meaningful דאבענען davening, doesn't have to go on forever. We should make an effort, we've been trying here. But לעשות אותם la'asos osam. כדבר מעלה כעסיפה זו שהייתם בעצמכם כי זו צריך לעשות בכל שבת ושבת קודש k'dvar ma'aleh ka'aseifa zu she'heyisem b'atzmachem ki zu tzrich la'asos b'chol Shabbos v'Shabbos kodesh. So ויקהל משה Vayakhel Moshe, what you see here, is לעשות אותם la'asos osam, it's what God's commanded you לעשות אותם la'asos osam to do each and every שבת Shabbos. That's what ה' Hashem wants. That's what ה' Hashem wants you to achieve each and every שבת Shabbos. That's what it's about. That's what it's about. And then he continues to explain now that last פסוק pasuk, the one מלאכה melacha which is spelled out, לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem. Don't have a fire burning in any of your dwelling places. says the Vizhnitzer, כשהיושבים בבית ביחידות אי אפשר להבעיר אש שבת קודש k'she'yoshvim b'bais b'yechidus, ee efshar l'havir eish Shabbos kodesh. When you're sitting at home alone, you can't feel the fire of שבת Shabbos. When you're home alone, לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם ביום השבת lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem b'yom haShabbos. כשהיושבים בבית ביחידות אי אפשר להבעיר אש שבת קודש k'she'yoshvim b'bais b'yechidus, ee efshar l'havir eish Shabbos kodesh. If you're sitting alone, the meal's over as quickly as possible, you're flipping through your magazine, you're done, you can't wait to get to sleep. That's not the fire of שבת Shabbos. The fire of שבת Shabbos. לא תבערו אש ביום השבת לא רק ביום השבת דבר במחיש קודש אלא גם בימות החול תרגיש קדושת שבת קודש lo seva'aru eish b'yom haShabbos, lo rak b'yom haShabbos davar b'machish kodesh, ela gam b'yemos ha'chol targish kedushas Shabbos kodesh. He says, not just do you feel the fire burn on שבת Shabbos, but all week long you anticipate, you're ראשון לשבת, שני לשבת, שלישי לשבת rishon l'Shabbos, sheni l'Shabbos, shlishi l'Shabbos. You feel, you look forward, you anticipate, you countdown to שבת Shabbos all week long. לא תבערו אש ביום השבת lo seva'aru eish b'yom haShabbos says the Vizhnitzer, שבת קודש צריכה הכנה מימות החול ואז אפשר להרגיש כראוי נועם קדושת שבת Shabbos kodesh tzricha hachana m'yemos ha'chol v'az efshar l'hargish k'rauy noam kedushas Shabbos. When you work all week long, then you'll feel the pleasantness, the holiness of שבת Shabbos. וזה לא תבערו אש ביום השבת, אל תתחיל להבעיר אש שבת ביום השבת עצמו כי אם תתכונן לשבת קודש עוד בימות החול v'zeh lo seva'aru eish b'yom haShabbos, al taschil l'havir eish haShabbos b'yom haShabbos atzmo ki im tiskonen l'Shabbos kodesh od b'yemos ha'chol. You hear how he homiletically reinterprets the פסוק pasuk? When it says לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem don't burn a fire in your dwelling places ביום השבת b'yom haShabbos, he says what the Torah means is don't wait till שבת Shabbos to feel the fire of שבת Shabbos. Don't light that fire ביום השבת b'yom haShabbos. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, buy the best food, get nice flowers, set the שבת Shabbos table early, set aside a good דב'ר תורה dvar Torah, have a good story, make an effort, prepare. Only those who prepare can eat from שבת Shabbos. So he says לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם ביום השבת lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem b'yom haShabbos. Don't kindle a fire in your house on שבת Shabbos, it's too late. It's too late. You get to the שבת Shabbos table and now, what should we talk about? What's a good דב'ר תורה dvar Torah? How do we make this meaningful? Anyone have anything here to eat? It's too late. The תבערו אש seva'aru eish you gotta light that fire not ביום השבת b'yom haShabbos, that's too late. You gotta do it early so by the time you get there, your house is already on fire. That's the Vizhnitzer's answer to this question, why is it ויקהל, עדת, לעשות Vayakhel, adas, la'asos, in the positive, what is the act of creation that we're doing here? What is the act of creation that we're doing here? Okay, we're ready to start? Good. Good. Oy, there's so much just on these first three two פסוקים psukim. Just שבת Shabbos alone there's so much to talk about. I'll tell you one other thing because I love this perspective. It says ויקהל Vayakhel. Why ויקהל Vayakhel? The בעל הטורים Baal HaTurim writes, כתיב לאל כי קרן עור פניו סמוך לפרשת שבת לומר אינו דומה קירן פנים של שבת לשאר ימים ksiv l'el ki karan or panav samuch l'parshas Shabbos lomar eino domeh kiyran panim shel Shabbos l'sha'ar yamim. He quotes a מדרש בראשית רבה Midrash Bereishis Rabbah who says the following: What was the very end of פרשת כי תשא Parshas Ki Sisa? Moshe has these rays of light that radiate from his head, misinterpreted by by Christians and Renaissance artists as horns. And Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses, there's little horns protruding from his head. And that is the misconception that Jews have horns because the end of last week's פרשה parsha Moshe has these rays of light that radiate. Where'd they come from? The leftover ink he didn't use in the תורה Torah, תורה שבכתב Torah she'bichsav, תורה שבעל פה Torah she'baal peh. Maybe next year we'll talk about it. There's a lot to talk about where where did these rays of light, and why then? Why did they come from the second לוחות luchos? Why didn't they come from the first לוחות luchos? There's a lot to talk about. But the בעל הטורים Baal HaTurim is quoting the מדרש Midrash that says, what's the connection between the end of last week's פרשה parsha and the beginning of this week's פרשה parsha? He says because שאינו דומה קירן פנים של שבת לשאר ימים she'eino domeh kiyran panim shel Shabbos l'sha'ar yamim. The radiance from your face on שבת Shabbos should be categorically different than the way you look during the week. Your שבת Shabbos appearance should be different than it is during the week. Now simply put, what does it mean your שבת Shabbos appearance should be different than it is during the week? It means your dress. We know that we have designated dress for שבת Shabbos. We dress more formally, we dress more respectfully, we have designated clothing. The משנה ברורה Mishnah Berurah talks about having a different שבת Shabbos טלית tallis from your weekday טלית tallis. שבת Shabbos shoes from weekday shoes. Suits that you wear on שבת Shabbos only versus the suits that you wear on the weekday. We have שבת Shabbos, we have clothing only for שבת Shabbos. Some people wear תשב\"כשה tishbekesha. On שבת Shabbos they come to the table and they look radiant and regal and royal. It's שבת Shabbos, there's a different לבבוש levush, a different מלבוש malbush. This past Friday night I had a sitting congressman wearing a תשב\"כשה tishbekesha at our שבת Shabbos table. I started wearing one. I give it out to whoever else wants to wear one at the table. And it's a regal, it's a probably the first time in history, but it's a regal look of a of a of a שבת Shabbos look. So superficially, minimally it looks like what does it mean to have a שבת Shabbos look means your clothing. That's not what the מדרש Midrash is talking about. Moshe's Moshe's light didn't come from his clothing. It didn't radiate from Moshe's clothing. It wasn't from the suit lady in Tinac. Where did the light come from? It came from his own face was radiant, was radiating. He was alive, he was vibrant, it was light. What the מדרש Midrash is saying is just as Moshe achieved a radiance, a glow, so too שבת Shabbos we have a glow. And here I want to quote, I've said it many times before but it bears repeating. The insight of מנחם ציון Menachem Tzion of מנחם ציון זקס Menachem Tzion Zacks. I love this insight. He says in order to recite שבע ברכות sheva brachos, you have to have פנים חדשות panim chadashos. You have to have people who weren't at the wedding or weren't at the meal part of the wedding. תוספות Tosfos says שבת Shabbos is פנים חדשות panim chadashos. I've said this in the פרשה parsha class before. What does it mean שבת Shabbos is פנים חדשות panim chadashos? So the simple understanding is that this criteria, this is something that you only need during the week. On שבת Shabbos everyone's so happy, you don't need it. You don't need, you don't need new people. What does it mean שבת Shabbos is that new person? So the מנחם ציון Menachem Tzion says, you know what it means? שבת Shabbos is פנים חדשות panim chadashos. It means שבת Shabbos gives us פנים חדשות panim chadashos. We are the פנים חדשות panim chadashos. You went to a wedding on Sunday night, on Tuesday night, on Thursday night, you were wearing your weekday face. You were on your phone, you came late, you had to leave early, there's a million things going on, you had to work the next day, you got a thousand things on your mind. You had your וואכעדיג פנים voch'dige ponim, your פאביסענע farbisseneh, miserable, distracted, distracted, worried, anxious, envious, angry, tired, complaining weekday face on. When you came to the שבת שבע ברכות Shabbos Sheva Brachos, you're not recognizable. It's a new person. You're wearing your שבת'דיג פנים Shabbos'dige ponim. You are the פנים חדשות panim chadashos. When a Jew enters שבת Shabbos they put on a new face. And so he says that's what we sing it, I've never sung לכה דודי Lecha Dodi the same after seeing this insight. When we sing לכה דודי Lecha Dodi on Friday night, לכה דודי לקראת כלה Lecha Dodi likras kallah, come my beloved to greet the queen, פני שבת נקבלה pnei Shabbos nekabelah. We're going to greet פני שבת pnei Shabbos. Who's פני שבת pnei Shabbos? Says ר' מנחם ציון זקס Rav Menachem Tzion Zacks, פני שבת נקבלה pnei Shabbos nekabelah means come, let's put on our שבת'דיג פנים Shabbos'dige ponim. I lit candles, I've come to shul, I'm singing לכה דודי Lecha Dodi. Come, let's take off that worried, that anxious, that angry, that divisive, that complaining face and let's put on our שבת'דיג פנים Shabbos'dige ponim. Community, unity, happiness, serenity, tranquility. פני שבת נקבלה Pnei Shabbos nekabelah, I'm putting on my שבת'דיג פנים Shabbos'dige ponim. So the מדרש Midrash says, why is the end of כי תשא Ki Sisa, Moshe has these radiating rays of light and all of a sudden now we have the gift of שבת Shabbos to tell us when שבת Shabbos comes like Moshe, your face should radiate light. שבת'דיג פנים Shabbos'dige ponim. You could wear a תשב\"כשה tishbekesha and be a miserable, anxious, a פאביסענע farbisseneh, complaining, negative person. So the external clothing don't change the person. You have to put on your שבת'דיג פנים Shabbos'dige ponim. We have to be the פנים חדשות panim chadashos. פני שבת נקבלה Pnei Shabbos nekabelah, you got to put on your שבת'דיג פנים Shabbos'dige ponim. Okay. Let's get into the פרשה parsha. We have a few minutes left. What else? לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem. Oy, there's so many things to say here. So I'll tell you very quickly לא תבערו אש lo seva'aru eish because this is also one of my favorites. I there was so many things. You guys are killing me. לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem. Don't light a fire in all of your dwelling places. It's referring to the מלאכה melacha you can't light a fire on שבת Shabbos. If you listen a couple years ago we spoke about this is the origin of cholent. As Rabbi had mentioned it in his class this afternoon, this afternoon and also it it dates all the way back to the time of the בעל המאור Baal HaMaor that the קראים Karaim used to not eat hot food on שבת Shabbos because it says לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem. You can't have a fire in your dwelling place. How are you gonna have hot food שבת Shabbos day if you can't have a fire? And they take the Torah literally. So you can't have a fire means you can't even have an existing fire from before שבת Shabbos. So already dating back to the time of the בעל המאור Baal HaMaor of זרחיה הלוי Zerachya HaLevi, we said no, how do you show, how do you affirm that you are not one of the קראים Karaim? By דווקא dafka eating hot food שבת Shabbos day. It's a mitzvah. The משנה ברורה Mishnah Berurah quotes it is a virtuous practice to eat hot food שבת Shabbos day. You don't want hot food? You should make hot food anyway. Eat hot food anyway. There's no seasons, cholent season, not cholent season, this season, that season. Hot food שבת Shabbos day. A Jew eats hot food שבת Shabbos day to show we're not one of the. There's a whole, there's a whole history to the origin of cholent and חמין chamin and where it developed in different countries. But that's why we're obsessed with eating hot food שבת Shabbos day. We don't get by with figuring out how we have good food without it being hot. We דווקא dafka try to eat hot food in order to show our proper understanding or interpretation of this פסוק pasuk. The של\"ה הקדוש Shlah HaKadosh of ר' ישעיה הלוי הורוביץ Rabbi Yeshaya HaLevi Horowitz in the 16th early 17th century has a homiletical interpretation. What does he say לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem means? He said אש eish is a fire means anger and rage. And the פסוק pasuk is telling us לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם ביום השבת lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem b'yom haShabbos. You cannot get angry on שבת Shabbos. בכל מושבותיכם b'chol moshvoseichem, in your home, in your dwelling places, there's no room for anger. So what does that mean? You're allowed to be angry Sunday through Friday? No. Anger of course is a categorically bad quality. The רמב\"ם Rambam and רמב\"ן Ramban both agree that even though all qualities we should do with the golden mean, all qualities we should walk the middle of the road, although the קאצקער Kotsker I mentioned last week in our class on the סוכת שובר Sukat Shover, the קאצקער Kotsker said the middle of the road is for horses. That was the קאצקער Kotsker's, the middle of the road is for horses. But the רמב\"ם Rambam and the רמב\"ן Ramban both say when it comes to מידות middos, when it comes to interpersonal qualities, we should moderate, but there are two things that we should be extreme about. We should be extremely humble and we should be exceedingly slow to anger. So there's never room to get angry. Sunday through Friday don't get angry either, but שבת Shabbos especially, which really fits with the last thing that we said. When you put on your שבת'דיג פנים Shabbos'dige ponim, you can't get angry. Or it knocks the, it knocks off your פנים ponim. A שבת'דיג פנים Shabbos'dige ponim never gets angry. The Zohar says מושבותיכם moshvoseichem guard your house from fire refers to your heart and guarding it from being filled with fire means anger, bitterness, or negativity. לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem. מושבותיכם moshvoseichem, where are the dwelling places of your life, your heart. And לא תבערו אש lo seva'aru eish means don't have any fire raging in your heart on שבת Shabbos. שבת Shabbos is not a time for competitiveness or for anger or for disappointment or for frustration or for any form of negativity. It'll all be waiting for you after הבדלה Havdalah. Your weekday פנים ponim is waiting for you after הבדלה Havdalah. You're going to put it back on. I promise you. And it's sad. It's sad to put it back on. That's why we, the נשמה יתירה neshama yeseira, we long to keep our שבת'דיג פנים Shabbos'dige ponim. We have to comfort ourselves with a good בשמים besamim. We're so saddened by taking off our שבת'דיג פנים Shabbos'dige ponim. But בכל מושבותיכם b'chol moshvoseichem means in our hearts, לא תבערו אש lo seva'aru eish, don't have any anger, bitterness, negativity, you can't have anything, anything which is negative at all. And understand that what's אסור assur on שבת Shabbos is מלאכת מחשבת meleches machsheves. Only thoughtful מלאכה melacha, creative מלאכה melacha. Anger is not an emotion, anger is something we create. You don't have to feel angry, you don't have to respond with that emotion. Anger is a decision that we allow ourselves to be angry. It's a מלאכת מחשבת meleches machsheves, it's forbidden, it's a creative labor. Don't create anger, be in control, resist the urge, have peace and tranquility and serenity. It's what שבת Shabbos, it's what שבת Shabbos is all about. לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem. So that's how he interprets the, the של\"ה הקדוש Shlah HaKadosh interprets what this פסוק pasuk really means. I'll tell you, I think we only have time. I, we have a whole פרשה parsha here that we're not going to get to. The good news is it's basically the same as טרומה Terumah, so go see טרומה Terumah, everything we said on טרומה Terumah. I wanted to get to more parts of it. We have the building of the כיור kiyor, I mean there's a lot of really important stuff here. בצלאל's Betzalel's identified, I was going to go through the אור החיים Ohr HaChaim, why does he have the name בצלאל Betzalel, אורי Uri, חור Chur, אהליאב Oholiav, where do the names come from and how when they have their name was it a description of their destiny? But ברוך השם Baruch Hashem, I'll tell you phenomenal news, we're going to read this again next year. So there's more to talk about. But let me end with one one last insight. I guess we're not getting past the first two פסוקים psukim today. So let me end with one more insight which I think actually correlates very well with something that we said. It's an insight from Rav Schechter's sefer on the פרשה parsha. They now have Rav Schechter on the פרשה parsha, Rav Schechter on מועדים Moadim, and Rav Schechter on the הגדה Haggadah just came out. The best part of Rav Schechter on the הגדה Haggadah, I haven't looked at it yet, but the best part of it is the cover, because the הגדה Haggadah is והגדת לבנך v'higadeta l'vincha and his family surprised him by on the cover it's pictures, it's a collage of him learning with each of his children and grandchildren. והגדת לבנך Vigadeta l'vincha, it's a beautiful cover. It's a beautiful cover. והגדת לבנך Vigadeta l'vincha. So Rav Schechter here on the פרשה parsha, this is not on the הגדה Haggadah on the פרשה parsha, he points out the Torah singles out the מלאכה melacha of הבערה hav'arah, לא תבערו אש בכל מושבותיכם lo seva'aru eish b'chol moshvoseichem, as we just said. In the Gemara in שבת Shabbos דף ע' daf ayin brings two opinions, why is the מלאכה melacha mentioned separately from everything else. ר' יוחנן Rabbi Yochanan explains that this is the reason the Mishna specifies the total of 39 מלאכות melachos when it enumerates the prohibited מלאכות melachos to teach the principle of חילוק מלאכות chiluk melachos. If a person was aware of the קדושת שבת kedushas Shabbos but was unaware of the prohibited nature of all of the other 39 מלאכות melachos and he violated each of them. So let's say you know it's שבת Shabbos, you know it's שבת Shabbos. You know today is שבת Shabbos. But you didn't realize that all 39 of these things are forbidden. You had no idea. So now you violated all 39 of them. You plowed, and you planted, and you harvested, and you ground, and you kneaded, and you baked, you went through all 39 מלאכות melachos, you did all of them. Are you liable for each one of those violations or do you say you only violated one thing called שבת Shabbos? Did you violate 39 things, or did you violate one? Did you do the same איסור issur repeatedly so you only have to bring one קרבן חטאת korban chatas, one sacrifice, or do we view it that you committed 39 separate requiring 39 separate sacrifices? So that's what the Gemara concludes that that if you knew it was שבת Shabbos, the קדושת שבת kedushas Shabbos, but you did these separate, that's the מחלוקת machlokes whether you say חילוק מלאכות chiluk melachos. So the Gemara continues and says what does it mean that a person knows it's שבת Shabbos? I understand what it means to not know these 39 things are forbidden. My six year old son and I go to אבות ובנים Avos U'banim every Saturday night. We have a great אבות ובנים Avos U'banim program. So most of this year we were learning is a beautiful book by Rabbi Chait, the picture book on 39 מלאכות melachos. It's fantastic. It's made for children with pictures, but it's got little footnotes and it tells you each הלכה halacha, דאורייתא d'Oraisa, דרבנן d'Rabbanan, what's מותר mutar, what's אסור assur. It's a great, great book. So in fact the שבת Shabbos that Rav Schechter was here, my son, ברוך השם Baruch Hashem, as is the קדושה kedusha, as a holy חוצפה chutzpah, asked Rav Schechter if he could come to אבות ובנים Avos U'banim and learn with us. So Rav Schechter is a little intimidating learning with Rav Schechter at אבות ובנים Avos U'banim. So we were going through the 39 מלאכות melachos book and it's really an experience learning that with Rav Schechter where he looked at a picture and says, according to תוספות Tosfos on דף daf this, this picture is not exactly right, according to this פסוק pasuk over here, this one's a little that like that and so on and so forth. The 39 מלאכות melachos. So in that book, so let's say a person says, I know today's שבת Shabbos. It's קדושת שבת kedushas Shabbos, I know today's שבת Shabbos, but they didn't know about these 39 categories of forbidden things and they violate each one of them. So what does it mean to know it's שבת Shabbos? To not know that these 39 things are forbidden, that's easy to understand. What does it mean, what is the threshold of what it means to know קדושת שבת kedushas Shabbos that today's שבת Shabbos? So the Gemara answers, what does it mean that you know it's שבת Shabbos? It means you know it's שבת Shabbos with regard to the דין תחומיו din tchumin. You know that you're not allowed to carry beyond 2,000 אמה amah. You're not allowed to walk, sorry, beyond 2,000 אמה amah. So regarding the law of תחומיו tchumin, of knowing that there is a דאורייתא d'Oraisa prohibition, a biblical prohibition on the limit of how far you can travel, that's what it meant that you knew it was שבת Shabbos. So Rav Schechter points out the underlying message of the Gemara is that there's no concept of abstract holiness. If your sole knowledge of the concept of שבת Shabbos is that it's a holy day, endowed with ethereal קדושה kedusha, that's tantamount to a complete lack of awareness of the entire concept of שבת Shabbos. In order to be considered someone who is aware of the קדושת שבת kedushas Shabbos, you have to be aware of a practical application of קדושה kedusha such as the איסור תחומיו issur of tchumin, because the very definition of קדושה kedusha entails an obligation to observe additional איסורים issurim in practice. What does it mean to know today's שבת Shabbos? What does it mean to know that it's holy? Holiness has to have meaning. Holiness is not the abstract. Well, I feel holy and I feel good and spiritual and kumbaya and ooh. That's not what it means to know it's שבת Shabbos. What does it mean I know it's שבת Shabbos? I feel the energy and time that it's שבת Shabbos. That wouldn't qualify as knowing it's שבת Shabbos for this הלכה halacha. To know it's שבת Shabbos, Rav Schechter points out, means to know in a very real, practical way. For example, and that's what he's saying קדושה kedusha, the whole point of his essay on this פרשה parsha is that קדושה kedusha is rooted in action. קדושה Kedusha is not in the abstract, קדושה kedusha is not the ethereal, קדושה kedusha is not the ego, creativity, I've invented my own קדושה kedusha. This makes me feel holy, this makes me feel the energy of holiness. That's not authentic holiness, it's counterfeit. Real holiness is in action and real holiness is the action as prescribed by השם Hashem. So for example the קדושת הכהן kedushas ha'kohen forbids him from coming in contact with a corpse from marrying a divorcée. The קדושת תרומה kedushas trumah makes it forbidden to the טמא tamei individual, to the non-kohen. The קדושת בית המקדש kedushas ha'Beis HaMikdash forbids entry of one who's טמא tamei allows the offering and consumption of קרבנות korbanos. קדושת ישראל Kedushas Yisrael obligates its produce in various מצוות mitzvos that are dependent on the land and so on. This discussion has relevance to the mitzvah obligation on women as well. When השם Hashem declared to בני ישראל Bnei Yisrael ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש v'atem tihiyu li mamleches kohanim v'goy kadosh. You are a kingdom of ministers, a holy nation, who was said equally to the בית יעקב Beis Yaakov, to the בני ישראל Bnei Yisrael. This indicates that the level of קדושה kedusha of the women among כלל ישראל Klal Yisrael is equal to that of men. It's quoting אגרות משה Igros Moshe of Moshe has a whole תשובה teshuva, אורח חיים חלק ד' Orach Chaim chelek daled about this, that the קדושה kedusha of men and women is equal. Rav Soloveitchik elaborated on this point in explaining the ruling of the רמ\"א Rama, based on the opinion of רבינו תם Rabbeinu Tam, that women are permitted to recite a ברכה bracha on time-bound positive מצוות mitzvos. Women can volunteer a ברכה bracha on a מצוות עשה שהזמן גרמא mitzvas asei she'hazman grama. So a woman does not have to hear the שופר shofar or take a לולב lulav or sit in the סוכה sukkah. But if she wants to volunteer, does she make a ברכה bracha? It's a מחלוקת machlokes רמב\"ם Rambam, תוספות Tosfos, מחבר Mechaber, רמ\"א Rama, אשכנזים Ashkenazim, ספרדים Sefardim. ספרדים Sefardim say she can't volunteer ברכה bracha. How can she say with any honesty, אשר קדשנו במצותיו וציונו asher kidshanu b'mitzvosav v'tzivanu, she's not commanded. אשכנזים Ashkenazim follow the opinion of תוספות Tosfos, the רמ\"א Rama, that she can volunteer. So Rav Soloveitchik explains, how does that work? He said, since the קדושת ישראל kedushas Yisrael of women is equal to that of men, the definition of קדושה kedusha entails practical mitzvah obligation, the correct way to view the relationship of women to time-bound מצוות mitzvos is as follows. Women were commanded to perform time-bound positive מצוות mitzvos, then they were exempt from the obligation. In other words, it's not that they were never commanded, everyone was, קדושת ישראל kedushas Yisrael, commanded in all מצוות mitzvos, then women became exempt. So when they say אשר קדשנו במצותיו וציונו asher kidshanu b'mitzvosav v'tzivanu, they're being honest and accurate to when they were originally commanded before the exemption. All of this essay is to reinforce this notion that קדושה kedusha means practical, action. קדושה Kedusha is not the abstract. קדושה Kedusha is not the heebie-jeebie spiritual energy makes me feel good. This relates back to what we said about the חטא העגל cheit ha'eigel, כאשר ציוה ה' ka'asher tziva Hashem. קדושה Kedusha is following what השם Hashem told us is the prescription and the formula to holiness. We can't invent it, we can't create it, we can't come up with our own alternate path to achieve it. קדושה Kedusha, real holiness, is rooted in following the will of השם Hashem and only then does he descend with a sense of his שכינה Shechina and can we feel that he is our שכין shochein.
