Transcript
א גוטן ערב שבת everyone. Today is not Friday, today is erev Shabbos, and we're here to turn our Friday into erev Shabbos with a tremendous thanks to Mendy and Tzipporah Fishman, zechus for חיה רבקה בת ציפורה פרידא, in memory of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Rabbi יעקב צבי בן דוד אריה, and in memory of Mendy's father's neshama should have an aliyah. Shabbos, the heilege Shabbos, the holy Shabbos, couldn't come at a better time, every one of us need it all week long, we are fragmented and frazzled, all week long we are stretched thin, all week long we are distracted, all week long we are drawn to our technology and our to-dos, and Shabbos comes, what a city of refuge, what a salvation, Shabbos comes, we immerse ourselves into our family, ourselves, and of course our creator, the Ribono shel Olam. And there is an allusion to the holy Shabbos and to what Shabbos does and provides for us in this week's Parsha ואלה שמות בני ישראל הבאים מצרימה, these are the names of the Jewish people who are coming to Egypt, את יעקב איש וביתו באו, Yaakov and a person and his family they came. Yesh l'faresh ha'pesukim, I'm reading from the Ach Pri Tevuah, the Liskar Rov, who was the rebbe of Reb Shaya'la. יש לפרש המשך הפסוקים מה שכתב בעל הטורים and the Baal ha-Turim quotes es Yaakov ish sofei tevos Shabbos. es Yaakov who came to Egypt, Yaakov ish a person, the last letter of each of those words es Yaakov ish spells out Shabbos. Because the Medrash tells us הנה אמרו חז\"ל אמרה שבת לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא, Shabbos said to the Ribono shel Olam, Ribono shel Olam, לכולם יש בן זוג ולי אין בן זוג, everyone has a partner, everyone has companionship, and I'm all alone. Sunday has Monday, Tuesday has Wednesday, Thursday has Friday, Shabbos says, who, what do I have. אמר לה הקדוש ברוך הוא כנסת ישראל היא בן זוגך, the Jewish people, they are your pair, they are your other half, they're your match, they're your companion, they're your companion. There's a connection between a Yid and Shabbos, what we connect, we are only made whole through Shabbos. If all we had was the weekday, all we had was pursuit of the material, all we had was controlling, manipulating this world, if we didn't have Shabbos, we'd be incomplete, we'd be a half and not a whole. Shabbos is not just another day of the week, another day on the calendar, Shabbos is our other half, Shabbos is where we find who we really are because the world around us is shut down, we're able to retreat into ourselves and into what matters. Shabbos gives us the margin, the space to be able to think, Shabbos is what gives us the serenity and the hope the entire the whole week, my son-in-law Hillel told me that's the idea that we say all week long, היום יום ראשון בשבת שני בשבת שלישי בשבת. The Ramban famously says that's how we fulfill זכור את יום השבת לקדשו, we observe and remember Shabbos not only making Kiddush on Shabbos but all week long. But he said it also gives the Jews solace as we're suffering in the galus, as we're making our way through a difficult week, more anti-Semites, more challenges at work, more loneliness in life, more issues that we're trying to navigate and overcome, by mentioning, by orienting our day around Shabbos, we remember that Shabbos is the תכלית של מעשה בראשית, Shabbos is the goal, Shabbos is the payday, Shabbos is the payoff, Shabbos is the mekor bracha, it is the source of all blessing. Says the Ach Pri Tevuah, the Liskar Rov, הנה מידת שבת ורמז השכינה הקדושה, Shabbos is a reference to Shechina, כמו שבת היא מקבלת מהשבוע כני מקבלת מהששה כתבות. Shabbos is a reference to the Shechina to the Ribono shel Olam himself, and therefore our ben zug, our other half really is Shabbos. על פי זה יובן הפסוקים, like the Zohar says, אלה שמות בני ישראל במצרים יעקב איש וביתו באו שבאו עם השכינה וזה את יעקב. When we went into galus we didn't go by ourselves, we didn't go on our own, we weren't left alone to figure it out, we went with the Shechina, Shechina nikreis Yankev, וגם מצרים גימטריא שכינה, אכן כולם נדבקו בשכינה הקדושה הידוע הם מקבלים ולזה רומז תיבות שבת שזה נעשה בשבת. Yaakov ish u-beiso, we didn't go alone we went with Yaakov, Yaakov is an allusion to the Shechina to the Ribono shel Olam, Shabbos is a nachala bli metzarim, it's the nachala of Yaakov Avinu, when do we feel most connected, when do we find Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Shabbos. You don't sing zmiros in the middle of the week, we don't have time and head space to be able to learn in the middle of the week necessarily as much as we do on Shabbos, we're not able to sit undistracted like we can during the week, so where is the Shechina found, when is it our other half in the holy in the heilege Shabbos, that's the idea, Yaakov is a remez to Shechina, and Mitzrayim is gematria Shechina, והידי היא ששבת היא שכינה, he doesn't spell it out but I want to suggest that maybe what the Baal ha-Turim is saying is the following, that as we're heading down ואלה שמות בני ישראל הבאים מצרימה, we were going down into galus, why is there a remez, why is there an allusion to Shabbos specifically. Specifically on our way down into galus, into Mitzrayim. And I think perhaps maybe what the Midrash is getting at, what the Torah itself is telling us is that while we're in that galus, that darkness, while we're in that place that feels helpless and hopeless, while we're in that place that feels absent of godliness, know Hashem is coming with us. And where do we find him? Shabbos. Where do we find our solace? Shabbos. A Yid, a Jew in galus, you're not in galus. There is geulah even in galus. When? On Shabbos. Shabbos is the geulah in galus. When we immerse ourselves in Shabbos, we find redemption because whatever there is on our to-do list, however many emails are in our inbox, whatever is waiting for us that we have to get to, know that Shabbos is geulah even within galus. So we too, we're in the harsh galus of this rise of anti-Semitism. We're in the harsh galus of whatever we're waiting for and struggling with. And we need to know and remember, the geulah in galus is Shabbos. Six days, we feel that galus. Six days, we're following online what's being said and broadcast and podcasted in this galus. But come Shabbos, oh, Habaim Mitzraymah, Mitzraymah Shabbos, g' Shechina, Shabbos, Yaakov is the nachala bli metzarim. So let's turn our Friday into Erev Shabbos. Let's get ready for a Shabbos. Who doesn't need geulah? Who doesn't want to get out of this galus? And how do we do it? Where can we go to experience it? How do we get a taste of it for 25 hours? For 25 hours that's mekor, it gives us everything we need to go back to the week. For 25 hours to believe, to have faith, to know, to be optimistic, positive, to be able to experience geulah even within galus. Wishing everyone a beautiful, a healthy, a holy, and a happy Shabbos. ומצדיקי הרבים ככוכבים לעולם ועד ומצדיקי הרבים ככוכבים לעולם ועד ומצדיקי הרבים ככוכבים לעולם ועד ומצדיקי הרבים ככוכבים לעולם ועד.
