Transcript
A good Erev Shabbos! A good Erev Shabbos! Today is not Friday, today is Erev Shabbos, so we are turning our Friday into Erev Shabbos. A big thank you to our generous sponsors, Mendy and Tzipora Fishman, l'zecher nishmas רבקה בת ציפורה פרידא, in memory of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, הרב יעקב שמחה בן דוד אריה, and today's Turning Friday into Erev Shabbos is sponsored by P4P Team, Professionals for Positions. For inquiries, email Mark, M-A-R-C at P4P.team, P4P.team. I want to share with you a beautiful Sfas Emes. It's going into Shabbos, heilige Shabbos, holy Shabbos, who doesn't need Shabbos? Shabbos restores, Shabbos gives us life, Shabbos centers, Shabbos calibrates. Oh, the holy Shabbos. So Rav Avraham Schorr Shlita, זאל זיין געזונט און שטארק shetihyeh refuah sheleimah, in his Nezer HaShabbos, he quotes a beautiful Sfas Emes, and I want to tell you this Sfas Emes as we prepare to turn our Friday into Erev Shabbos. Back in Parshas Mishpatim, the Torah tells us ששת ימים תעשה מעשיך, six days do your work, six days. Technology, work, life, go out and kill it, go out and kivshua, conquer it, go out, earn, accumulate, amass, six days, the week is yours. וביום השביעי תשבת למען ינוח שורך וחמרך וינפש בן אמתך. And then on the seventh day rest so that your ox, your donkey, all of it rest. Says the Sfas Emes, sagt the Sfas Emes פירוש למען ינוח שורך, what does it mean so your animal rests? Well, it happens to be that the Torah obligates not only we rest, and our spouse and our children, even our slave or servant, and even our animals or possessions. They have to rest as well, they're an extension of us, they too need to feel, they both contribute to the atmosphere of Shabbos, so when they rest, they're part of Shabbos. But the Sfas Emes says something different. He says המשכת הארת מנוחת שבת גם במעשה גופניות. When a person is really experiencing Shabbos, Shabbos rest doesn't mean sleeping more, Shabbos rest doesn't mean eating more, Shabbos rest means that even the physical part of who you are is at rest. So all week long you're trying to kill it and make it rain and conquer, all week long you're trying to earn and pay the bills, all week long you're keeping up technology and to-dos, but all of a sudden comes Shabbos and yanuach shorcha, that what rests? The shor and the chamor in us, bechinas nefesh habehamiyos. Says the Sfas Emes שורך וחמרך כוחות הבהמיות שיש באדם. We're made up of two parts, it's a battle raging inside us always. There's the animal impulse, the animal instinct, the animal that wants more, the animal appetite, the animal temptation, the animal drive, the animal that wants to experience all the pleasures of this world. And then there's the godly soul, חלק אלוה ממעל ממש, the piece of God that's inside us, disciplined, regulated, the piece of God that is so much more, the piece of God inside us. So not only does the soul, חלק אלוה ממעל ממש, rest on Shabbos, but the behemah, the animal in us, that appetite, that drive, it's able to rest, turn it off, shut it down, the drive, and transform it to the spiritual שהם יבואו לידי מנוחה. The real menucha is that whatever you didn't get done during the week that ordinarily would drive you crazy. Every night you go to sleep and you can't believe you're not at inbox zero. Every night you go to sleep and you didn't check off everything on your to-do list. Every night you feel like I didn't achieve, explore, accomplish what I wanted. But Shabbos, there is no guilt and there is no shame. Shabbos, there's nothing more to do. Shabbos, even that inner animal in us that has that insatiable appetite, it comes to menucha. ששת ימים תעשה מעשיך, six days. But on the seventh day we rest, then למען ינוח שורך וחמרך, that shor and chamor in us, they can rest. Says Rav Schorr מה נקרא מנוחה כאשר יש כח באדם לעלות גם חלק הגוף. What's called real rest? Again, real rest does not... is not a competition for how much you could sleep or how much you can eat. Real rest is I'm able to turn off that drive. I can be satisfied with what I have. I can just be and exist. All week long we're a human doing, Shabbos you're a human being. All week long we're human doing, but Shabbos we get to experience what it means to be a human being by just being, by just being. That's real rest. כאשר יש כח באדם לעלות גם חלק הגוף להכניע הגוף אל הנשמה, then we rest. And that's what Sfas Emes writes back in Chayei Sarah: בשבת קודש יש הארת נשמה יתירה יש לה גם אל הגוף כמו שנאמר למען ינוח. בשבת קודש יש לאדם נשמה יתירה. Because on Shabbos we have this expanded neshamah yeseirah. extra soul because on Shabbat we're able to connect at a higher speed because on Shabbat our neshamah our soul is picking up a greater signal. Therefore, it's easier to overcome that, that guf, that body, that drive, that appetite. So that's what I want to challenge you with chevra, today, turn Friday into erev Shabbat. We're turning our Friday into erev Shabbat. How are we turning Friday into erev Shabbat by getting ready to disconnect from technology, to-do, the animal in us. Begin to lower, lower the dial of drive, appetite, amass, accumulate, more, more, more. We have to work. Not everybody can, can shut it down as of chatzot on Friday, but all of us can turn Friday into erev Shabbat when we begin to transition to that twenty-five hour respite, reprieve, refuge, twenty-five hours where we're going from being a human doing to being a human being. Already begin to withdraw, already begin to shut it down, already begin to stop checking the stock market, stop checking your bank account, stop checking. Already as Friday is turning into Shabbat, turn Friday into erev Shabbat by becoming more of a human being and not only a human doing. Wishing a holy, heilige, healthy, happy, amazing, lichtige, fantastic Shabbat. מתרצה ברחמים ומתפייס בתחנונים התרצה והתפייס לדור עני כי אין עוזר אבינו מלכנו חננו ועננו כי אין בנו מעשים עשה עמנו צדקה וחסד והושיענו Misratzeh berachamim.
