Beshalach 5785: Using Challenges to Build Your Bitachon

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Shiurimim given in 5782 & 5772


Parshas Beshalach: Using Challenges to Build Your Bitachon

Unfounded Fear Linked To Lacking Trust

In the past, we discussed how having pachad and fears does not help a person get siyatta diShmaya. Sometimes, when we see somebody who looks scared and afraid, our hearts go out to that person and we want to help them. So, many people think that if they look afraid and they act scared, Hashem is going to help them. Does that logic make sense to you? No. Why? Do you think that’s correct thinking or incorrect thinking? Incorrect is the correct answer. Now, do you know why? Why won’t Hashem have rachmanus on a person who is scared and afraid?

Let me explain. Let’s say you see a young fellow who looks scared and afraid. And you wonder what is going on. He’s sitting next to somebody who is smiling at him, next to somebody who is being nice to him. I think that maybe that guy sitting next to him is a kidnapper or some terrible person. In today’s world, you never know. Maybe he’s his therapist and he’s going to harm him soon, I don’t know. But let’s say I go to this guy sitting next to him and say, “Excuse me, what relationship do you have with this young person?” And he says, “I’m his father.” “Oh, that’s your son?” “Yes.” I talk to him for a few minutes, and I get the sense that he’s a very nice person and a very caring father. I would say to the kid, “Stop being scared. Does your father potch you? Does your father beat you?” I wouldn’t have rachmanus on that kid. I would tell that kid to man up. “Your Tatty is next to you. What are you scared about?” That’s what we would say.

When a person acts scared in front of Hashem, what he’s saying to Hashem is, “I don’t trust You. I don’t feel safe with You.” When you go to the hospital – you should never go – do you know what one of the first questions they ask you is? They ask you a funny question, “Do you feel safe at home?” They asked me this question. I said, “It’s my home. What do you mean, ‘do I feel safe’? You want to know if I’m afraid of my wife? No.” I guess, in today’s world, they have to ask this question. You never know.

Drawing on Bitachon In A Challenge

A person has to know that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is with him in every tough situation. עמו אנכי בצרה. In this week’s parsha, when Klal Yisrael is standing by the Yam Suf, and Moshe Rabbeinu tells them, “Hashem told me to tell you, don’t be afraid. This is not the end. אל תיראו” (Shemos 14:13). If you don’t get calm and relaxed, that’s a ta’anah on you. That’s an aveirah. Moshe said, “Hashem just told me to tell you that ה’ ילחם לכם, Hashem is going to fight for you.” (v. 14).

Now, the biggest problem everybody has when they face a challenging matzav is that they don’t know exactly how to get bitachon. The most common call I receive is, “I’m in a very tough spot. How can I be mechazek my bitachon?”

The problem is, most people don’t work on bitachon. Most people operate as independent people. They rely on themselves. Who do you rely on? You’re an independent fellow. You rely on yourself. But that’s a mistake because if you would rely on Hashem, you would taka feel secure, you would feel batuach, and you would never be afraid again in your life. And then when you would face a certain situation, you would go into the mode of “Okay, I’m facing a tzarah and now I will strengthen my bitachon.”

A common tzarah that a person faces is having enough money to pay their bills. Parnasah is a common thing that most people are worried about. How should a person deal with this? How would you tell a person to get bitachon? Could you tell a person to have bitachon?

One of the ways for a person to get bitachon is for him to think back over his life: “Did I ever lack for parnasah? Did I ever lack a place to sleep? Did I ever lack food to eat? No, I didn’t.” And it wasn’t because you were a very proactive person. Hashem always managed to provide for you. You have to think about that, how far-reaching your parnasah went. Hashem fed you. He gave you money. He gave you clothing. He gave you housing. He gave you money to pay your bills. He gave so many things to you! That has to give a person the belief that his parnasah is guaranteed. It’s batuach.

Do you know what the word batuach means? Do you know what it relates to? Havtachah. You ever heard the word havtachah? What does havtachah mean? A promise. Somebody gives you a promise. You’re muvtach. We say in the davening every morning and every afternoon עיני כל אליך ישברו, everybody’s eyes are looking toward You Hashem, ואתה נותן להם את אכלם בעתו פותח את ידך ומשביע לכל חי רצון. When I think for a moment about how many years, how many days, how many minutes, how many seconds Hashem has provided for me in the most fantabulous ways, I realize that if I were to express to somebody that I’m worried about parnasah, I would have to be a nut. I would have to be an ingrate. I would have to be an emese shoteh! Because Hashem never forsook me. He never expected me to go out on a newspaper route at six in the morning or 5:30 in the morning to deliver papers. He let me sleep in my bed and He provided for me. Breakfast was always there for me. Lunch was always there for me. In so many different ways. Can I tell you I was never worried? No. I was a shoteh like everybody else.

There were definitely certain times that I expressed worry. I remember being a bachur and worrying about how I was going to get some extra money in my pocket to buy the things I wanted. My parents weren’t millionaires. When I was a bachur, it wasn’t that easy to get financed. My father’s finance company was closed for business ‘due to Corona,’ (laughing) so I had to fend for myself. When you fend for yourself, you naturally become self-reliant and you don’t realize that it’s Hashem guiding you and Hashem directing you and Hashem providing for you. You don’t realize it, so that makes you worry. When you get married, you think, “How am I going to start paying my bills?” Especially if you’re learning in kollel, how are you going to start paying bills? Even if your wife works, as most kollel wives do. When I got married, most wives worked as teachers, a half-a-day job. It was a lousy job then, and it will always be a lousy job unless these ‘Dreamer people’ change things. I was just reading how this organization is now opening up. They’re trying to raise money for teachers and rebbi’im to pay them decent salaries. It’s all from Hashem, but a person has to look back and say, “I never saw a rebbi who was hungry. I never saw people that were hungry.”

Now, I did think many times that if I had gone through the Holocaust, what would I tell myself then? I thought about that question many times. If I experienced the hunger of the Holocaust, how would I resolve that conflict? And I always try to find answers to that question. I would say, “Until the Holocaust, I ate well. So there was a difficult period of time where Hashem put me through the test.” There is such a challenge of hunger, but baruch Hashem, it’s not as widespread now as before. Before I went to Eretz Yisrael, I heard about all the hungry folks there, and I was sure that I would go there and mamash see people starving on the benches. It made me think of what I read about how people described hunger in the Warsaw ghetto, during WWII, when hundreds of thousands of yidden were forced to live there, r”l. There were people dying on the streets in droves from hunger in the Warsaw ghetto.. And then afterward, things got better.

People also ask, “How am I going to pay for the bar mitzvah? How am I going to pay for the chasunah?” It gets done somehow. I can’t tell you, but it gets done, and it’s all Hashem providing, with all His myriads of shluchim.

Another common problem that people face is health. People face challenges with their own health. People face challenges with their children’s health. Physical health, mental health, emotional health. Most people lose it when they face this. They become overwhelmed with fear.

Using A Health Challenge To Build Bitachon

But a person has to understand that they can build and develop their bitachon. How do you build your bitachon? It’s very difficult. I remember once facing a big challenge. I had a close friend who suffered from a difficult disease, and I held his hand for 24 years as he deteriorated slowly. And he tried everything in the world to heal himself. He traveled all over the world. He reached out to different people and doctors. He called people in different countries. He tried medicines, snake oils. Don’t ask. Anything he could get a hold of, he tried. Nothing worked. He used to drink one of those plastic cups full of vitamins every day, hundreds and hundreds of dollars on vitamins. And then, unfortunately, he passed away. And then, one day, I found out that a child of mine had that disease. I remember the day he was diagnosed. It was in the middle of the winter like it is now. We walked out of the hospital. It was crisp and cold. And my child turned to me, and asked, “Tatty, was that my death sentence?” And I said, “My dear son, every single one of us has a death sentence. That’s the only thing that’s guaranteed. We will all die one day. But we won’t die before Hashem decides we’re going to die, and because you have this dreaded disease, it doesn’t mean you’re not going to get better.” He said to me, “But what about your friend?” He was aware of my friend. I said, “My friend never went with my mehalech. He never tried bitachon. He went more along the natural route.”

I remember we had to visit another doctor, a big doctor, at a big institute. They told us the dire news: This is what’s going to be in a year. This is what’s going to be in two years. This is what is going to be in four years. They laid it out clearly for us. And I remember telling the doctor, “Excuse me, I’m not planning on going your route.” He said, “Why not?” I said, “Because you don’t know how to cure this disease. You never learned how to cure this disease. The schools that you went to were on a low level.” He said, “No, I went to this famous medical school.” I said, “They may have been famous, but this disease, they never figured out how to look at. They do maintenance. They do this. They do that.” I said, “I’m going to the doctor who has the cure for this disease.” The doctor became very curious: “What’s his name?” “Hashem. Dr. Hashem.” “Where does he work out of?” I said, “He works out of the world. He created this disease. But He also has no problem curing this disease.”

I realized that Hashem was preparing me for a major battle. This was a battle of my life. I knew at that moment in time, clearly, that everything I had prepared for in the past three and a half decades, I was now facing on the battlefront. I could see all the enemies arrayed against me. I felt like I was on the field, and I was saying, “I’m going to win this battle because I believe in hashgachah pratis. And however much the doctor in this hospital thinks he can heal, he doesn’t heal a thing. Only my personal Big Doctor does all the healing in the world.” I had no safek about that. Hashem is the רופא חולי עמו ישראל.

And that goes for every disease in the world. I don’t care if someone is a mental case. I don’t care if you’re dealing with the worst of the worst. I tell people, “Hashem definitely has exit strategies that He uses to take people out of this world. We can’t have techiyas hameisim yet in those cases. If somebody gets so sick that it looks like the only thing that’s going to heal him is techiyas hameisim, then the story may be over. But until we get to that point we’ll work on believing in Hashem healing it.

As a side note, I know a Yid, who the doctor recently pronounced as a goses. All the dinim of gesisah. Heis imminently going to expire. And then a lot of people associated with this Yid got together, and in one afternoon, raised close to $200,000 for hachnasas kallah as a zechus for him.The person who they asked to stay with him on Shabbos when he leaves this world, called me up before Shabbos and told me, “Rabbi Brog it’s over.” I said, “It’s not over.” “Oh, but I’m giving you inside information.” I said, “You don’t have the inside info. Only if Hashem told you that directly, do you have inside info.” I called up to find out how this YId is doing. They told me, “He’s resting. He’s resting calmly.” And now it’s Monday afternoon, and he’s still resting calmly. He should have arichus yamim. Only Hashem decides.

You’ve got to be boteach in Hashem. Hashem is the רופא חולי עמו ישראל. But if you can’t wrap your head around that, then you’re bitachon-less. If you don’t trust that Hashem is your healer, if you don’t trust that Hashem has a way to help you get past that illness of yours, you won’t be helped. Hashem is going to tell you, “How dare you not trust Me? Haven’t you heard of stories of people I have helped? Haven’t you seen in your own life how many times Hashem saved you? Saved your kids? Saved your family?”

I trust Hashem fully. I don’t care if the whole world tells me otherwise. I say, “Tra la la, don’t tell me about it.” And I feel bad for the people who can’t get that bitachon.

I was talking to a father today who has a young son who’s very, very sick. I mean really sick. Frightening. And the doctors told him it’s hopeless. I told him, “What do I care what they say? That’s just a nisayon.”I said, “They told you that he could never recuperate.” Two weeks ago, they told him this child can’t recuperate at all. His lungs are shot. His heart is shot. Everything’s shot. “Don’t trust them.” I said, “Have bitachon in Hashem.” And you know what happened? His lungs came back. His heart came back, strong. I told him, “Don’t you see that Hashem could cure your son?” “No, but the brain.” I said, “They told you yesterday the body was dead, and they told you the brain was dead too. Just like they lied about his lung and his heart, they made a mistake, why can’t it be they made a mistake regarding his brain?”

You can’t accept what they say. You have to strengthen your bitachon in Hashem. Let’s say a person is given tasks in business that are overwhelming, and he gets nervous. You have to remind yourself: “Hashem helped you until now. Do you think Hashem is going to give you a task you can’t do?”

This father I was speaking to this morning, told me, “You know, I’m not prepared for it. I was thrown into this cauldron, into this pot, and now I’m in a whirlwind, facing this biggest challenge.” I said, “You rise to the occasion. I’m not telling you any chiddushim. You know that Hashem is a רופא חולי עמו ישראל. You know that Hashem is a kol yachol. You read about it in the parshah this week. Do you see what Hashem did to the Mitzri’im? Do you see what He did to the Jewish people? Do you see what He did to the Yam Suf when we were facing Yam Suf?  Why can’t He help you?”

Having The Seichel To Trust

You have to remember this vort from my Rebbi. My Rebbi (Rav Meir Halevi Soloveichik) said a moradige zach that was very insightful to me. He said having bitachon is not a matter of frumkeit. It’s a matter of having chachmah and seichel. It’s a matter of having intellect. It’s a matter of asking yourself, “Do you have some wisdom?” How do we know this? Because any hishtadlus and any action you take will never be a cause or a reason for you to see success.

No medicine is going to be the cause for your child’s improved health. No job is going to be the cause for your wealth. Any hishtadlus you do has nothing to do with the outcome. You have a separate mitzvah to do hishtadlus – but it has nothing to do with the results. Everything is from Hashem. Memeilah,he said, if you have true seichel,that obligates you to have bitachon. He said a lack of bitachon is a lack of chachmah. That’s what it is. Dummies don’t have bitachon. If you see a book called Bitachon for Dummies, you know, don’t buy it. Acquiring bitachon means acquiring the intellect, the knowledge, and the understanding of why things are going to get better.

In the Tanna De’vei Eliyahu (פרק יח)it says like this: ברוך המקום ברוך הוא, we say baruch Hashem, blessed is Hashem, שבחר בהם בישראל, He was bocher in Klal Yisrael מתוך שבעים לשונות, from amongst the seventy nations in the world, Hashem chose Klal Yisrael. Listen to what he says over here. ונתן בהם חכמה בינה דעה והשכל, He infused them with all different types of intellect. Not just one basic intellect. Mamash. Chachmah, binah, deah, haskel. For what? Listen to these amazing words שתהיו בטוחים בו בכל עת ובכל שעה, that you could be batuach in Hashem בכל עת ובכל שעה. You hear that? It’s only chachmah, binah, deah and haskel that brings a person to bitachon. A chisaron in bitachon is a chisaron in the chachmah and da’as. The whole hatzlachah that a person has is – you know why? Because of his bitachon in Hashem. Even if a person has a concern, he’s facing what seems to be a tzarah, he turns to Hashem Who’s the true manhig haolam, the true decider of things and he’s boteach in Him that he’s going to be matzliach.And in the zechus of that bitachon,he will be matzliach.

People asked me, how could you have that bitachon? I said, “Let me ask you a question. Let’s say, somebody would call you tomorrow, a big askan. Let’s say, Rav Meilech Firer, a very famous Jew in Eretz Yisrael who has helped thousands upon thousands of people with medical inyanim. He’s a tremendous shaliach from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He’s a one-of-a-kind person. I mean unreal. People send him their medical records to look at and ask, “Can you give me some advice.” The worst cases in the world. He has a whole network, a whole empire of people working on this around the clock.

Imagine he called you and told you, “I looked at your case and found a doctor in Manhattan who happens to be related to you, and I contacted him. I have a shaychus with him. I contacted him and told him he has a relative in Lakewood. I told him ‘Your relative has a sick child. The child has an illness that you are an expert in, in your own field. Would you see him?’ The doctor said, ‘My relative?! Of course I will see him! I’ll push him to the front of the line right now. He won’t have to wait six months for an appointment.’” And if somebody would call that guy back in Lakewood now and tell him, “Dear yungerman in Lakewood, I just spoke to the big doctor in Manhattan. He said he’d be happy to see you and take care of you.” You know what would happen in one second? That yungerman would now have a jolt. A jolt. His wife would have a jolt. His parents would have a jolt. His in-laws would have a jolt. Wow! This is hafladig! You would all understand this is a yeshuah!

Now, that doctor can’t bring any yeshuah. That doctor is a toothless tiger. He can’t have any effect on this disease. It’s only up to Hashem. So, if you can, why not go straight to Hashem! And Hashem is your relative, Hashem is am kerovo, and Hashem loves you and Hashem has hashgachah pratis. Why shouldn’t you believe that?

How many people are worried about shidduchim? The only one that provides shidduchim is Hashem. מה’ יצא הדבר. You should be walking around pumped. Pumped! He’s the biggest shadchan in the world. As a matter of fact, He’s the only shadchan in the world because the gemara (Moed Katan 18b) says all shidduchim come only from Hashem, and from nobody else. Even if it looks like some big shadchan came up with ideas, it’s still Hashem. It’s only Hashem. מן התורה מן הנביאים ומן הכתובים. So why aren’t you at ease and batuach that your shidduch is going to come?[i]

We should all be zocheh to chachmah, binah, deah v’haskel to acquire the wisdom needed for bitachon.

The Bottom Line

When faced with a challenge, we all want siyatta diShmaya. However, being all scared and afraid does not necessarily draw rachmanus and a yeshuah. On the contrary, feeling bitachon and knowing that Hashem is with us is the way to draw a yeshuah to ourselves. We do this by looking back at how Hashem has supported and provided for us and others until now. Rav Meir Halevi Soloveichik explains that we work on our bitachon by using chachmah and seichel. Having bitachon is the outcome of exercising our intellect to connect to Hashem, Who loves us and is close to us. This week, I will (bli neder) think about challenges I may have in the areas of parnassah, health, or shidduchim. I will try to apply my chachmah, binah, deah, v’ehaskel  to understand that Hashem is the source of all future yeshuos.


Shabbos (part 2): The Mekor HaBracha

The Source of All Bracha

In the famous piyut of Lecha Dodi, authored by R’ Shlomo Alkabetz (1500-1584), we say the following words: לקראת שבת לכו ונלכה כי היא מקור הברכה. That means as follows: לקראת שבת, to greet the Shabbos, לכו ונלכה, let us go. You know why? כי היא מקור הברכה, because it is the source of berachah. Shabbos requires a special, unique kabbalah, greeting, because it is the mekor habrachah. If you understand that you are going to the mekor habrachah, the source of all brachah, you are going to show deference to this source. You are going to be mekabel that source with great kavod.

Now, it says in the passuk, ויברך אלקים את יום השביעי, Hashem was mevareich the yom hashvii (Bereishis 2:3). What does that mean, Hashem was mevareich the yom hashvii? Chazal (Rashi, based on Bereishis Rabbah 11:2) tell us, it means Hashem was ברכו במן, He was mevareich Shabbos with mann, וקדשו, and He was mekadesh it with mann.[ii] Now, that’s a contradiction. The word brachah means increase. When we say “Baruch ata Hashem,” what we are saying is, Hashem, may Your Shechinah, may Your Presence become increased. May Your awareness become increased. When a person says, “Baruch ata Hashem elokeinu melech ha’olam shehakol niheyeh bidvaro,” what he is saying is, I acknowledge that this water is from You, Hashem, and this brocha serves to increase Your kavod, Hashem, which should continue to increase more and more. So seemingly, if you say ברכו במן, that means there was an increase in mann. Yet, on the other hand, it says קדשו במן, Hashem sanctified Shabbos, He elevated it through the mann. So how was it that He was mevarech Shabbos with mann – which means a ribui, addition and increase of mann, when at the same time it says Hakadosh Baruch Hu was mekadesh the Shabbos, which means He elevated it, He separated it from the mann by having the mann fall on all the other days and not on Shabbos?!

One of the explanations to this difficulty is given by the Ohr Hachaim (Bereishis 2:3; Shemos 16:25), based on the Zohar. The Zohar poses a question: what type of brachah is it that the mann didn’t fall on Shabbos? Usually, if something doesn’t fall, that’s the opposite of brachah. However, says the Zohar, this is what we were taught. All of the blessings, all of the brachos shel lemaaleh veshel lemata, that means any increase in anything that transpires above or below in this world, are dependent solely on yom hashvii, on the seventh day. And we learned, why on yom hashvii wasn’t there any mann? The answer is, because on that day Hashem was allocating the mann for all the other six days of the week. In shamayim, Shabbos was the day that Hashem was allocating mann for the other six days in the yamim elyanim, the upper days that correspond to our lower days. So each day provided the mann below, in this world, according to its allocation on Shabbos. Everything came from Shabbos.

The Ohr Hachaim says that according to this, the following passuk makes sense(Shemos 16:25) היום לא תמצאוהו בשדה, “today, you will not find it (i.e. the mann) in the field.” He says, why does it say you won’t find it “in the fields?” It should simply say, “today you won’t find mann.” Why does it say, you won’t find it “in the fields?” So he says, because really on that day there was mann. Hashem blessed that day. All the mann came from Shabbos. The whole brachah of mann came from Shabbos! But you know where? In Shamayim elyonim. That’s why hayom, today, you won’t find it in the fields, but lemaalah, in shamayim, you’re going to find mann. Not only today’s mann. You’re going to find mann  for the whole next week.[iii]

That’s why it says ויברך אלקים את יום השביעי, “and Hashem blessed the seventh day” (Bereishis 2:3). Mevarech means increase. Hashem increased the chelek of all the mann on Shabbos. He was mevarech the whole week from the mann of yom Hashabbos. ויקדש אותו, He was mekadesh the Shabbos. He elevated the Shabbos so that it should be the source of all the mann. That is also the reason why on Shabbos there is no mann.

When the King Allocates

The Malbim (Bereishis 2:3) actually explains this Zohar with a mashal. There was a melech that appointed all kinds of ministers and government officials to pay all of the hired workers and servants of the king every single day according to the service they provided. They were paid on a daily basis. But every seventh day, the melech would see all the needs he needed until the next seventh day and what each worker would do the following week, and he would allocate the money on the seventh day. So on that day, since they were busy allocating the money, the ministers didn’t pay anybody. They paid you the money for the seventh day on the sixth day because on the seventh day the ministers were busy going to the king and showing the rosters and schedules of what next week is going to be. But the ikar habrachah for the whole week is when? On Sunday? No. All the brachah comes from that seventh day. That’s when the melech decides on the allocation for the upcoming week. So on that day when the melech decided all his needs and what he wanted to be done, and how many workers he was going to provide with and how much he was going to provide each person, that was the hashpaa for all the days of the week.[iv]

The Malbim says that the mann was an inyan nisi, a miraculous thing that came down from the upper world, and the day designated for that nes was Shabbos. The shamayim that rained down mann every single day during the following week would have to come before the melech on yom hashvii to see what the allocation was going to be for the next week.

All Bracha is Decided on Shabbos

Rabbosai, you have to know, this hasn’t changed. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, until today, decides the parnasah and the brachah and increase in health and increase in hatzlachah and increase in refuah and increase of brachah in every single area of our lives – all on yom hashvii.

That’s why it says ‘כי ששת ימים עשה ה (Shemos 20:11).  Hashem only created the world with the ability to exist for six days at a time, for reasons that are known to none other than Hashem, as the Ohr Hachaim puts it. Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the day of Shabbos, through which he is mashpia life into the world for the next six days.[v]

So what kind of fool is going to blow his mekor habrachah? This is the source of your brachah. And a person could turn that Shabbos into the proper mekor habrachah.

R’ Shlomo Alkabetz gives us a tremendous tip. You know what he says? לקראת שבת לכו ונלכה, let us go and greet the Shabbos. Don’t let the Shabbos hit you in the face. You want to greet the Shabbos as early as you can.

The Earlier We Prepare for Shabbos, the Earlier the Brachah Comes

A person has to know that the earlier he starts to prepare for Shabbos, the earlier he taps into the mekor habrachah, the earlier the brachah of Shabbos starts to descend upon him. We mentioned the famous story of the Chofetz Chaim here many times.  It pays to say it over now.

There was a young couple. It took them many, many years to have children. Finally, they had a child. Then they got some bad news, that their child had a heart problem. They brought their child to Vienna and to all kinds of doctors. The biggest professors told them, your child will not live long. He has a defective heart, and there is nothing to talk about. They finally went to the Chofetz Chaim. The Chofetz Chaim was very old at that time. The Chofetz Chaim didn’t want to talk to him. And the mother burst out crying and crying. She couldn’t control herself. She begged, “I waited so many years to finally have a child, and there has to be something.” The Chofetz Chaim told her she should be prepared for Shabbos at the latest by chatzos hayom, midday. “You prepare for Shabbos,” he said, “then you have the brachah of Shabbos.” It’s a long story, but I’m giving it you bekitzur. Not only did her child get better, but when they brought the child back to the doctor a little while later, the big professor said, “The heart that I’m looking at today is not the same heart that I examined before.” It was like yesh mei’ayin. They told what the Chofetz Chaim said. He said, “The Chofetz Chaim created a new heart.” It wasn’t the Chofetz Chaim. You know who created the new heart? Shabbos created the new heart.

You have to know that the way a person is mekabel the Shabbos, the way a person looks forward to the Shabbos is the way the person is going to be zocheh to this berachah. The way how a person will be mekabel pnei Hashechinah will determine what brachos he is going to have.

There was a story with our zeide, R’ Zalman Sorotzkin (1881-1966), the Lutzker Rav. He writes the story because he witnessed it. There was a balabos, a very fine Jew, in his community. This fellow’s son started to go off the derech, going OTD, like they say. He even bought himself a car. And then there were rumors that the fellow was driving after shkiah. People came to the Lutzker Rav as they didn’t know what to do. And eventually, this balabos had a stroke, and they put him in the hospital. In those days, it wasn’t like today. The guy was lying there like a lump, atrophying.

One day, the Lutzker Rav was coming back from an asifas harabbanim. He comes off the train and lo and behold, who do you think he sees right there? This yid. He is hobbling on crutches. “What are you doing here? Weren’t you very sick in the hospital?!” He said, “I walked out. I’m fed up, and here I am.” He said, “Where are you going? You’re far away from your house.” He said, “I’m going to the Chofetz Chaim.” “The Chofetz Chaim?! What are you going to the Chofetz Chaim for?” He said, “My bobbe came to me in a dream, and my bobbe told me that the only one who can help me is the Chofetz Chaim. And when I went to the Chofetz Chaim, she asked me to remind him that she’s from the same town as him.”

So our zeide said to this yid, “You know, it’s mamash min hashamayim. The Chofetz Chaim is on this train right on the other side of the tracks. He just came back from the asifas harabbanim. He is right here.” They went to see him. The Chofetz Chaim was finishing davening, taking off his tefillin. So the zeide decided, you know what he’s going to do? He’s going to run over to the Chofetz Chaim and give him a wink that the guy’s son was being mechalel Shabbos, and that the Chofetz Chaim should be mechazek him. He didn’t get a chance, because as soon as the Chofetz Chaim took his tefillin off, this guy lunged forward and said, “Rebbi, you’ve got to help me!” The Chofetz Chaim ignored the guy at first. He said, “Rebbe, my bobbe from the shtetl came to me in my dream. You have to help me with my son.” The Chofetz Chaim said, “How could I help you? If Shabbos is unhappy with you, how could I help you?” He said, “Rebbe, vos redst du?” He said, “Your son is mechalel Shabbos, and your daughter is oich mechalel Shabbos.” “Vos??” He said, “Your son drives on Shabbos, and your daughter combs her hair on Shabbos in her room and is mechalel Shabbos. Shabbos is not happy with you, so you have no brachah.” The guy was mekabel on the spot to make sure that his children’s behavior changed and he became gezunt and got better. That’s what Shabbos is.

I can’t tell you how many people I have given this advice to – an untold amount of people. Look into the Shabbos. If you are ready by chatzos, that’s a wonderful thing. Start preparing already on Thursday night, even more wonderful! Start getting ready for Shabbos as early as possible. When a person looks forward to the Shabbos, he is connecting to the mekor habrachah.


[i] הָכִי אָמַר רַב מִשּׁוּם רַבִּי רְאוּבֵן בֶּן אִצְטְרוֹבִילִי: מִן הַתּוֹרָה וּמִן הַנְּבִיאִים וּמִן הַכְּתוּבִים – מֵה׳ אִשָּׁה לְאִישׁ. מִן הַתּוֹרָה, דִּכְתִיב: ״וַיַּעַן לָבָן וּבְתוּאֵל וַיֹּאמְרוּ מֵה׳ יָצָא הַדָּבָר״. מִן הַנְּבִיאִים, דִּכְתִיב: ״וְאָבִיו וְאִמּוֹ לֹא יָדְעוּ כִּי מֵה׳ הִיא״. מִן הַכְּתוּבִים, דִּכְתִיב: ״בַּיִת וָהוֹן נַחֲלַת אָבוֹת וּמֵה׳ אִשָּׁה מַשְׂכָּלֶת״

[ii] ויברך, ויקדש. בֵּרְכוֹ בַּמָּן, שֶׁכָּל יְמוֹת הַשָּׁבוּעַ יוֹרֵד לָהֶם עֹמֶר לַגֻּלְגֹּלֶת, וּבַשִּׁשִּׁי לֶחֶם מִשְׁנֶה, וְקִדְּשׁוֹ בַּמָּן, שֶׁלֹּא יָרַד כְּלָל בְּשַׁבָּת, וְהַמִּקְרָא כָּתוּב עַל הֶעָתִיד (רש”י)

[iii] עוד נתכוין באומרו כי שבת טעם למה שלאחריה על זה הדרך ולטעם שהיום שבת לא תמצאוהו בשדה, דקדק לומר בשדה לרמוז מאמר רבי שמעון בן יוחאי שאמר בזוהר (חלק ב’ פח.) כי ביום שבת ירד המזון של כל ששת ימים למעלה ומאותו מזון יורד דבר יום ביומו, והוא אומרו לא תמצאוהו בשדה אבל למעלה בו ימצא אדרבה מזון לכל ו’ ימים. 

[iv] ויברך אלהים ויקדש. ר”ל שעל כן ע”י שבו השבית מלאכת הטבע ראוי אליו הקידוש בעבור השביתה. אולם מצד האחר אינה מנוחה של בטלה שאין בה ברכה, רק בו ישפיע שפע ברכה ונדבה ממקור לא אכזב מהנהגה המעולה מהראשונה, שהיא הנהגה הנסיית, ומצד זה ויברך את יום השביעי. ומפרש שקדש אותו כי בו שבת מכל מלאכתו. ושברך אותו מפני שמה ששבת מכל מלאכתו לא היה שביתה של בטלה רק לעשות, שמעתה תתחיל עשיה אחרת מעולה שהוא מעשה אלהים בהשגחתו וידו הרמה למעלה מן הטבע. וכמ”ש במדרש ר’ פנחס בשם ר’ אושעיא אע”ג דאת אמר כי בו שבת מכל מלאכתו, ממלאכת עולמו שבת ולא שבת לא ממלאכת הרשעים ולא ממלאכת הצדיקים אלא פועל עם אלו ועם אלו וכו’, ומנין שפורענותן של רשעים קרוי מלאכה וכו’. ר”ל ששבת מכל מלאכתו שהיא מלאכת הטבע לעשות עשיות חדשות שהם מעשה הנהגת ההשגחה שמתנהגת לפי המעשה ולפי השכר והעונש, זה קרא מלאכת הרשעים והצדיקים מזה לא שבת שע”ז אמר לעשות. וענין הברכה שברך את יום השביעי, הוא כי אחר שמעתה התחילה ההנהגה ההשגחיית לפי המעשה, אשר הוא קבוע לפי מעשה התחתונים, כן נשאר ההנהגה הטבעיית קבועה לששת ימי המעשה וההשגחיית ליום השבת, כי כ”א מתעורר ביום שנברא בו כמו שהיה בעת הבריאה, ואחר שההנהגה הטבעיית הנוהגת בששת ימי המעשה היא נכנעת וירודה תחת ההשגחיית, בהכרח שההנהגה הטבעיית היורדת בימי המעשה תוגבל לפי ההשגחיית אשר תושפע בשבת, עד כי בשבת יושפע השפע על ששת ימי המעשה. וכ”ז דומה כמלך שמנה שרים רבים ונכבדים שהם ישלמו לכל השכירים והעבדים שלו בכל יום ויום שכר עבודתם אשר יוקצב להם מאת המלך, והיה דרך המלך לקבוע מכסת שכרם בכל יום השביעי לשבעת ימים הבאים, ובכל יום השביעי היו צריכים השרים סוכני המלך לבא לפני המלך לקבל מאתו שכר עושי מלאכת המלך לכל ימי השבוע, נמצא שביום השביעי א”א להם לחלק את השכר לעבדי המלך, כי באותו יום הם צריכים לעמוד לפני המלך עד שנראה שבאותו יום אין ברכה בו, אבל באמת מזה עצמו נודע כי הוא היום שבו עקר הברכה, כי בו ביום יקבלו הברכה וההשפעה לכל ימי השבוע, וזה הטעם שלא ירד המן בשבת, כי המן שהיה ענין נסיי הושפע מעולם העליון ביום השבת שהוקצה לנס, והשמים שהמטירו את המן בכל ימי השבוע דבר יום ביומו, היו צריכים לבא לפני המלך העליון לקבל ברכת המן לכל ימי השבוע ולא היה אפשר שיורידוהו באותו יום שהוקבע לקבל אותו מאת פני המלך, וכתב בזוהר כתיב ויברך אלהים את יום השביעי, כיון דלא אשתכח מנא ביומא שביעאה מה ברכתא אשתכח ביה, אלא הכי תניא כל ברכאן דלעילא ותתא ביומא שביעאה תליין, ותניא אמאי לא אשתכח מנא ביומא שביעאה משום דמהאי יומא מתברכין כל שית יומין עלאין וכו’, וע”ז אמר ששת ימים תלקטהו וזה יהיה ע”י שביום השביעי שבת לא יהיה בו, וז”ש במדרש ויברך ויקדש ברכו במן וקדשו במן, ר”ל ע”י שקדשו במן ולא ירד באותו יום עי”כ ברכו במן שהושפע באותו יום לכל ימי המעשה.

[v] עוד ירצה על זה הדרך כי ששת ימים עשה ה’ וגו’ פירוש כי לא עשה בתכונת בריאתם שיעמדו אלא ששת ימים, ומעתה יצטרך ה’ לחדש הבריאה בכל יום ובאמצעות נפש העולם שהוא השבת שברא ה’ נח מהתמדת המלאכה, וכמאמרם ז”ל (ב”ר פ”י) שהיה העולם רופף ורועד ובבא שבת עמד בקיומו, והוא אומרו וינח ביום הז’ ויום זה מעמיד העולם עוד ששת ימים ובכל יום ששי לערב שכלתה תכונת העולם יבא שבת ויקיים העולם עוד ששת ימים אחרים וכן על זה הדרך, ועיין פרשת בראשית (ב’ ב’).

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