Transcript

Rashi at the end of Vezot Haberakhah quotes the machlokes in Chazal about who wrote the last eight pesukim of the Torah. Rashi quotes that according to one opinion, Torah, all of Torah had to be written by Moshe Rabbeinu. Ai, how can Moshe Rabbeinu write וימת שם משה עבד ה'? Moshe Rabbeinu was koseiv bedama. So the simple peshat Moshe Rabbeinu koseiv bedama is lashon dima, dima'os, that Moshe Rabbeinu was crying. So when he wrote about his own petira, he was crying. But the Vilna Gaon says another peshat. The Vilna Gaon says that Moshe Rabbeinu koseiv bedama is lashon dimua, lashon medameia. When you mix terumah and chullin, so that's called medumma. So medameia means to mix. And the Gaon says that what it refers to is that we have a tradition that the nigla-dike form of Torah that we have with the osiyos arranged the way they are, בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ, all the way through Le'einei Kol Yisrael is just one arrangement of the letters. But there are other arrangements of the osiyos hatorah as well. And what this view in the Gemara is saying is that the way it reconciles the need for Moshe Rabbeinu to have written Torah with the seeming impossibility or built-in contradiction of Moshe Rabbeinu writing וימת שם משה עבד ה' is that Moshe Rabbeinu wrote it bedama. Moshe Rabbeinu didn't write it in that sequence of osiyos and words as we have it in the nigla form of Torah. And that's what it means that Moshe Rabbeinu koseiv bedama. So there is such a tradition regarding the arrangement of the osiyos hatorah. Standing in that tradition, one of the very first comments of the Baal Haturim in Al Hatorah is that if you rearrange the osiyos of Bereishis, the very first word of the Torah, so the letters spell Yere Shabbos. That a person is supposed to have a mora Shabbos. A person is supposed to have a sense of fear and a sense of awe of Shabbos. So apropos of this comment of the Baal Haturim, I'm hoping that tonight briefly and beli neder im yirtzeh Hashem in the next few weeks that we'll try to understand a little bit about kedushas Shabbos. So what is this notion of mora Shabbos? According to the Baal Haturim, it's so central to everything. It's the very first thing or one of the very first things which simultaneously the Torah is meramez, Yere Shabbos. The emes is that this is a halakhah as well. That there is a notion of mora Shabbos is also a halakhah. The Rambam in Perek Yud Beis Hilkhos Ma'aser, it's based on a Mishnah in Demai, explained in the Yerushalmi, the Bavli as well, the Rambam quotes the following din. Like this, there is a din of demai, that amei ha'aratzos are not ne'emanim on hafrashas ma'asros. Despite the fact that רוב עמי הארץ מעשרים הן, that's a takanas chachamim that they're not ne'emanim on ma'aser. Now, it's a shevus derabbanan not to be mafrish terumos u'ma'asros on Shabbos. So what happens if you have demai, you have produce from an am ha'aretz, and the person forgot to be me'aser on Erev Shabbos?

הלוקח פירות ממי שאינו נאמן על המעשרות ושכח לעשרן ונכנסה שבת או יום טוב שאינו יכול לעשר הרי זה שואל אותו.

You ask the am ha'aretz. The am ha'aretz who has no ne'emanus on ma'aser, you ask him, were you me'aser?

ואם אמר לו מעושרין הן אוכל על פיו בשבת. וכן אם אמר לו אחד שאינו נאמן,

meaning lav davka the one from whom you bought it, but any am ha'aretz, anyone who's not a chaver, who doesn't have ne'emanus,

אוכל על פיו בשבת. ואפילו היו לו פירות אחרות מתוקנין מאותו המין.

Nevertheless, you're allowed to eat it. Why?

מפני שאימת שבת על עמי הארץ ואינו עובר בה עבירה.

Because even the am ha'aretz, even the am ha'aretz feel, have an appreciation for eimas Shabbos. So what is this din of eimas Shabbos? What is this idea of eimas Shabbos? We spoke a little bit before Rosh Hashana that the Torah emphasizes that Shabbos is ba'yom hashvi'i. Shabbos is on the seventh day. Rav Pincus quotes in his kuntres Shabbos Malkesa that it's explained in the sefarim that of the midos of Hakadosh Baruch Hu which are enumerated in the pasuk of

לך ה' הגדולה והגבורה והתפארת והנצח וההוד כי כל בשמים ובארץ לך ה' הממלכה, הגדולה והגבורה והתפארת והנצח וההוד כי כל בשמים ובארץ לך ה' הממלכה.

So Lach Hashem hamamlacha is the seventh mida enumerated. That malchus is associated with shvi'i. And that what Shabbos is, the essence of Shabbos is, it's a day of malchus shamayim. Shabbos is ba'yom hashvi'i because Lach Hashem hamamlacha, because shvi'i is associated with malchus. It's a day of malchus shamayim. It's a day the issur melacha is that all else stops and everything is battel to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. A day of malchus shamayim. All pretense of human activity stops, everything recognizes its bitul to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. A day of malchus shamayim. ישמחו במלכותך שומרי שבת. We spoke then also how the three Shabbosos, the three different zmanim of Shabbosos which the sefarim all explain, with which the tfillos of Shabbos are coordinated. The Friday night is

כנגד שבת של מעשה בראשית. אתה קידשת יום השביעי לשמך תכלית מעשה שמים וארץ.

So that was the first moment and the first stage of giluy malchus shamayim. The first moment, the first stage of giluy malchus shamayim is when there was a briyah and when there was an Adam to recognize Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That was the first stage, the first moment of malchus shamayim. And hence, Shabbos is correlated with Shabbos of ma'aseh bereishis. The second stage, with which Shabbos, the tfillah of Shacharis, ישמח משה במתנת חלקו, is Shabbos of Matan Torah. Shabbos of Matan Torah when Hakadosh Baruch Hu again was nisgaleh as a melech metzaveh, a melech mechokek, a melech who is bocher be'am Yisrael. And the final and ultimate stage of Shabbos is the Shabbos le'asid lavo of אתה אחד ושמך אחד. So Shabbos is a day of giluy malchus shamayim. Now Chazal tell us that by melech basar vadam, so the essence, the essence of malchus is שום תשים עליך מלך שתהא אימתו עליך. The very essence in terms of the relationship between a subject and a king is that a subject has to have a sense of mora. שום תשים עליך מלך שתהא אימתו עליך. And the melech can't forgo that. He can't be moichel al kvodo. That's the essence of the relationship between the subjects and the king. So accordingly, eimas Shabbos, why is there a din, why is there a concept in halacha, why is there an experience of mora Shabbos? Because שום תשים עליך מלך שתהא אימתו עליך, because Shabbos is a zman of giluy malchus shamayim. A zman when Hakadosh Baruch Hu's malchus is nisgaleh ba'olam. This idea of Shabbos... as a zman of malchus shamayim is also reflected in the Gemaras in Kol Kisvei which the Rambam quotes in perek lamed of Hilchos Shabbos:

איזהו כבוד זה שאמרו חכמים שמצוה על אדם לרחוץ פניו ידיו ורגליו בחמין בערב שבת

mipnei kovod haShabbos.

ומתעטף בציצית ויושב בכובד ראש מייחל להקבלת פני השבת כמו שהוא יוצא לקראת המלך.

So the Rambam defines again al pi the Gemara in Kol Kisvei, the Rambam defines Kabbalas Shabbos, the kovod Shabbos, when a person gears up on erev Shabbos, it's כמו שהוא יוצא לקראת המלך, because Shabbos is a day of gilluy malchus shamayim. The Rov already comments on the parallelism between the Rambam's description of kovod Shabbos, the hachana for Shabbos or the hachana for tefillah. The sense of mora Shabbos has to overflow into erev Shabbos. In order for a person to experience mora Shabbos, certainly to its fullest extent throughout the day, the mora Shabbos has to overflow into erev Shabbos. The same way היכון לקראת אלוקיך ישראל for a person to be omed lifnei hamelech in tefillah, it's mechayev in the hachana. It's a tremendous mussar haskel, this din of the Mishna in Demai that eimas Shabbos on amei ha'aretz, on amei ha'aretz. So Shabbos was a living reality. It wasn't, it wasn't a compilation or an aggregate of dinim, of chiyuvim, of issurim, of muktzah, of issur melacha. But Shabbos was an experience. Shabbos was something a person felt, lachush, eimas Shabbos. Once upon a time, once upon a time, Jews experienced ta'amu u'reu, they experienced kedushas Shabbos and they had a mora Shabbos. The Ba'al HaTurim, Bereishis, the very first word in the Torah is meramez to mora Shabbos because the world exists for that purpose, the world exists that we should have a mora Shabbos, that we should be able to recognize gilluy malchus shamayim in the world and that we should be able to feel and to experience that sense of mora. You know, the Yomim Tovim, Yomim Tovim, Yomim Tovim receive a lot of hype. They come once a year, we gear up for them. We're reminded of the infrequency by the Shehecheyanu. Yom Kippur, so we're bombarded with the holiest day of the year. But the emes is that the holiest day of the year is not Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year is Shabbos. Every week, temidi. A Jew has an opportunity to experience a reality of gilui malchus shamayim in the world. Not just to be nizar from issur melacha, that’s the prerequisite for experiencing the gilui malchus shamayim in the world. That’s the instrument. Every Shabbos a person has the opportunity to experience gilui malchus shamayim in the world. משל למה הדבר דומה. So in physics, we’re told that there are all kinds of different frequencies of sound waves. And the different people, or different, maybe different types of species and genuses, have different sensitivities to different frequencies of sound waves. So some people can hear certain sound waves that are inaudible to others. So the same way that’s true in the physical world, it’s true in the spiritual world as well. For instance, the famous Gemara in Taanis with Ilfa and Rabbi Yochanan. Both Ilfa and Rabbi Yochanan were both destitute, very destitute. So they said, we’re going to leave the beis medrash וקיים בעצמנו כי לא יהיה בך אביון. Then they’re sitting under a bridge, so they stopped to eat something. And two malachim say, we should kill them because they’re מניחים חיי עולם ועוסקים בחיי שעה. And the other one responds, no, one of them is destined ligdula, one of them is going to be oleh ligdula, so we can’t kill them. So Rabbi Yochanan says to Ilfa, did you hear anything? Ilfa says, no, I didn’t hear anything. So Rabbi Yochanan says, well apparently, I’m the one the malachim were referring to. And Rabbi Yochanan tells Ilfa, I changed my mind. Eich shehu I’m going to persevere, despite the dire poverty, I’m going back to the beis medrash. So when you learn the Gemara, the obvious question which is troubling is Rabbi Yochanan was trading on inside information. If Ilfa had heard the same, had the same inside information, so mistama Ilfa also would have run back to the beis medrash. So the answer is, no, that potentially that kol was equally accessible and equally audible to both Ilfa and Rabbi Yochanan. That Rabbi Yochanan heard it was a reflection on Rabbi Yochanan, that Rabbi Yochanan was still thinking, Rabbi Yochanan was still wrestling with his conscience and hence Rabbi Yochanan was attuned, he attuned himself to a certain frequency that Ilfa didn’t. Ilfa was going more for menuchas hanefesh. Rabbi Yochanan wasn’t going for menuchas hanefesh. So Rabbi Yochanan was attuned to a higher frequency. It wasn’t that Rabbi Yochanan was given inside information, it’s that Rabbi Yochanan tuned in to that frequency which Ilfa didn’t. The same thing is true, the same way Rabbi Yochanan was able to hear that kol, so kedushas Shabbos or גלוי מלכות שמים בעולם on Shabbos, which is what creates, which is what imposes the issur melacha, is a reality. The same way that kol that Rabbi Yochanan heard was a reality. The challenge is as much as possible for a person to be mekadesh himself to be able to experience the reality. The fact that a person says, well, I’m x years old and I don’t think I’ve really felt it, is no kasha. There’s no kasha on what we’re saying. The same way Ilfa’s inability or failure to hear the kol was no kasha, was no pircha on Rabbi Yochanan having heard the kol. So that kedushas Shabbos is there, that gilui malchus shamayim in the world is there, and Shabbos, Shabbos is the opportunity to feel it, to experience it. Another mashal from the physical world. The physical world is a mirror of the spiritual world, so it helps us understand what happens in the spiritual world. In the physical world, what's most important is what's available all the time. What's most important to a person's existence, what's most vital is the oxygen that he breathes, is the warmth of the sun in the atmosphere. It's what's most basic is most vital. What's most common is most vital. The fact that Shabbos comes every week is not an indication that Shabbos is less, less important, less prominent than a Yom Kippur, than a Rosh Hashanah, than the Shalosh Regalim. On the contrary, on the contrary. A person can do without, a person can exist, he can survive without seeing the Alps every day. He can't survive very long without oxygen. The entire atmosphere has to be suffused with oxygen. Without it, a person can't survive. Similarly, similarly we survive with one Sukkos a year, with one Shavuos a year, with one Pesach a year, we survive. Shabbos, גילוי מלכות שמיים בעולם is so basic, so vital, so elementary, it comes once a week. The frequency is mayid again on just how basic, how vital it is. The goal to which we strive, and again, this is not, the Rama writes in Shulchan Aruch that if a person has Oneg Shabbos from sippur shmuos, from shmoozing, so it's Oneg Shabbos. And it's mutar to shmooz on Shabbos. That's what the Rama says in Shulchan Aruch. So that's a din. And without overlooking or downplaying that din, it's also important to know in terms of what we strive for, that the sefarim quote from the Zohar HaKadosh that if a person talks devarim beteilim on Shabbos, it's a chillul Shabbos. It's a form of chillul Shabbos. In order, in order to be successful to experience that reality, again, there's some sound waves that most people don't hear, they don't pick up on. In order to experience that reality of giluy malchus shamayim on Shabbos, a person has to be focused on Kedusha Shabbos. Hence the Zohar HaKadosh that a person talks devarim beteilim, so the Zohar HaKadosh says that's a bechinah of again, obviously on the level of the Zohar HaKadosh, is a bechinah of chillul Shabbos. The same way it's true with regard to every Yom Tov, as explained in the sefarim, that to the degree that a person feels and cultivates simcha on Sukkos zman simchasenu, to that degree his avodas Hashem throughout the year will be infused with simcha. To the degree that a person is mekabel Torah on Shavuos, to that degree throughout the year he'll be propelled by that kabalas haTorah. To the degree that a person on Pesach, mesugal l'emuna, that a person cultivates and deepens the midas ha'emuna, so that then carries him through the year. So the same is true for every Shabbos. To the degree, to the degree that a person feels and experiences and concentrates on, and strives for the, to feel the גילוי מלכות שמיים בעולם on Shabbos, so that carries him through the week as well. So a proper Shmiras Shabbos, being focused on Shabbos, striving to experience that Gilui Malchus Shamayim on Shabbos is something which then carries a person through the week and then allows him the following Shabbos to experience it on even a higher level. In one of the haskamos to Shmiras Shabbos Kehilchasa is from Rabbi Breuer zecher tzadik livracha. And he quotes from his father, others say this as well, what's the pshat in the maimer in the Bavli that אלמלי שמרו ישראל שתי שבתות is Miyad Nigalin? What's up with Shtei Shabbosos? So he says the emes is really means one Shabbos. But in order to observe one Shabbos properly, you have to have a proper Sheshes Yimei HaMaaseh. In order to have a proper Sheshes Yimei HaMaaseh, you have to have a Shabbos. And what it means אלמלי שמרו ישראל שתי שבתות means that Ilmalei if we're shomer the first Shabbos properly, so then that carries us through the week. That experience of Malchus Shamayim carries us through the week when Malchus Shamayim is behester. And then having had a proper week, a proper week, then a person can have the real, the real Shabbos. So halevai Bereishis Bara Elokim, the world was created that we should be Yerei Shabbos, halevai the Ribono Shel Olam should help us to be mekayem that.