Yisro 5785: Ma’amad Har Sinai: A Path to Yiras Shamayim

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Shiurimim given in 5782 & 5770

• Ma’amad Har Sinai: A Path to Yiras Shamayim
• Preparing to Receive Kedushas Shabbos

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Ma’amad Har Sinai: A Path to Yiras Shamayim

Don’t Forget Ma’amad Har Sinai

What is the highlight of Parshas Yisro? Matan Torah. Matan Torah is the greatest event that happened in history. There is nothing that even comes close to that event. In Parshas Vaeschanan (Devarim 4:9-10)^[i] Moshe Rabeinu warns us, in the strongest terms, to be exceedingly careful and to guard ourselves very much. Against what? Against not forgetting the event that our own eyes saw and to never take this event out of our minds. You have to see the event, you have to remember the event, and you have to have this event at the front of your heart. The event is  the day that you stood before Hashem at Har Sinai. And you know what we heard over there? Hashem, for the only time in history, spoke live to Bnei Yisrael. There is no other nation in the world that this happened to. There are a lot of nations in the world that have no qualms about making up the biggest bubbe ma’asehs that are not shayach. But no one makes such a claim that a living Hashem came down and said to the entire nation, “I am the boss! אנכי ה’ אלקיך.” Never, ever has this happened before or after! He didn’t say it merely to one person; He spoke to the entire nation at once! There are some people who claim that they were sleeping and they had a vision. I’m not sure what kind of psychotropic drugs they had before they went to sleep. They didn’t tell you that. They didn’t tell you they had hashish before they went to bed, maybe some strong Valium, maybe some other kinds of things. A lot of things are known to play with people’s minds. Tramadol has been known to play with people’s minds. But to have a living Hashem talk to everybody in the nation – that is unbelievable!

Now, what was the reason that Hashem did this? Why did Hashem perform for us in this magnificent way? What was the performance for? I don’t mind that He did it. It was informative. It was nice. Besides the fact that it was the most amazing thing in history, it was the most amazing show with the greatest props, the greatest background, the greatest noise, the greatest music, the greatest light show that ever happened. But what was the purpose of it? This is Judaism 101. This is the basics.

What Teaches Yiras Shamayim?

The passuk says, אשר ילמודון, so that they should learn, ליראה אותי כל הימים, to fear Me all their days, אשר הם חיים על האדמה ואת בניהם ילמדו, that they live on earth and will teach their children (ibid). Now, someday, you’re going to depart from this world, as we all are, and you will come and stand before the beis din shel ma’alah,and Hashem will ask you this question: “Have you fulfilled this great, important commandment that I commanded you?” I’m sure you’ll say a lot of nice things. You may tell them you had a stomach ache. You may tell them you were tired. You had a headache. You might tell them, “I was busy with other mitzvos.” You might tell them, “I was busy writing, typing.” You might tell them a lot of things. But they don’t want to hear excuses. They want to hear that you thought about this event because this event is what teaches you yiras shamayim.

Now you know what the term yiras shamayim means? Fear of Heaven? Now, that interpretation is not the interpretation that I wanted to hear. What does yiras shamayim mean? It means awareness of Hashem, seeing Hashem. When you see an event, you see it play out before your eyes. Have you ever seen a play in your life? A movie in your life? An interesting one? A scary one? If so, it stands before you.

Once upon a time, there was a bachur, a baal teshuva. Today, he’s a very big talmid chacham. At lunchtime, he used to sit by himself, separate from all the other bachurim, and he would zone out and completely go elsewhere. He would eat slowly, smile, and his eyes would get wide. People thought he was weird like anything. One day, I decided to satisfy my curiosity. I wanted to understand it. So I went over to him and said, “Excuse me, what are you doing? Are you aware you look a little off?” He said, “Every day, I watch something else.” I said, “Excuse me?” He said, “One day, I watch a play. One day, I watch a movie. One day, I watch a musical or a concert.” The things this fellow saw were etched into his mind. He could remember entire movies scene by scene. It was pashut amazing to me. I never heard about that. And he could pashut replay it in his mind. He saw it.

Hashem wants us to replay Har Sinai. Hashem wants us to know this is one of the zechiros, one of the few zechiros. You must do this. Any time you do this, you should say to yourself: Hashem, right now I’m remembering ma’amad Har Sinai. It was the most awesome, most amazing show, when Hashem revealed Himself, and the name of the show was Yiras Shamayim. That was the name of the show. Usually, the name of the show tries to convey what the show is about.

Now, there’s a special time during the day that’s designated to remember this. Do you have any idea when that is? I’ll give you a hint. It’s in the earlier part of the day. Every morning, we say birchas haTorah.How many brachos of birchas haTorah do we say? Two. The Tur (סימן מז) says that the second brachah is to remember ma’amad Har Sinai. The Tur’s lashon is: ועוד יש ברכה אחרת על התורה, בא”י אמ”ה אשר בחר בנו מכל העמים ונתן לנו את תורתו בא”י נותן התורה, and when you say this berachah, יכוין בברכתו על מעמד הר סיני, you’re supposed to be mechaven on ma’amad Har Sinai, איך בחר בנו מכל האומות וקרבנו לנפי הר סיני והשמיענו דבריו מתוך האש, you’re supposed to think about how He chose us from all the other nations and brought us before Har Sinai, and let us hear His words amidst a fire, ונתן לנו תורתו הקדושה שהיא בית חיינו, and gave us His holy Torah, which is the basis of our lives and כלי חמדתו שהיה משתעשע בה בכל יום, a precious vessel that He delights in every day. Do you hear how the Tur refers to the Torah? It’s a dear vessel that Hakadosh Baruch Hu delights in every single day. The Bach says that since there is a lav in the Torah which says (Devarim 4:9-12): thou shalt not forget ma’amad Har Sinai, therefore you have to be mechaven, you have to concentrate in this brachah to thank Hashem about ma’amad Har Sinai.

Now, this is an extremely fundamental principle in Judaism. But you know what happens to a lot of fundamental principles and important yesodos like this? The yetzer hara goes into an all-out battle against them and tries to erase them from the screens of our minds.

Ma’amad Har Sinai Showed Ein Od Milvado

Now, why is ma’amad Har Sinai so important? The fact that we saw Hashem eye to eye? So the passuk in Devarim (4:35) says אתה הראת לדעת, You Klal Yisrael have been shown lada’as. You know what lada’as means? Don’t tell me what you heard in third grade. Tell me what you heard here. In this yeshivah you learned what lada’as means. To understand? No. I thought by now you’d have it in your kishkes. What does lada’as mean? To become one, to become attached. That’s what lada’as means. אתה הראת לדעת. The pasuk is saying that you, Klal Yisrael, were shown a special revelation to imbue you with da’as. And what is that da’as? כי ה’ הוא האלקים אין עוד מלבדו, that Hashem is the source of all power and there is nothing else besides Hashem. Do you know how important that is? That’s a struggle we go through every second of our existence. And Rashi explains over there (ibid), how did we come to that yediah of אין עוד מלבדו when we saw Hashem give the Torah? How did we see there that אין עוד מלבדו? Rashi, on the spot, says that when Hashem gave the Torah, He opened up the seven heavens. And He also opened up the seven heavens downstairs. He opened up the upstairs, seven flights up and seven flights down. וראו, and they were able to see with their eyeballs שהוא יחידי, that Hashem was alone. There was nothing else that existed. Hashem said, “Look at the whole universe all the way up and all the way down,” and they could see with their eyes and grasp that nothing else exists but Hashem. That’s why it says אתה הראת לדעת. That’s amazing.^[ii]

The Best Kiruv Strategy, According to Rambam

Let me share with you some words of the Rambam.^[iii] The Rambam once penned a letter to the people from Teiman who were going through a very difficult time and were being challenged to forsake the Torah. He writes in this letter: וראוי לכם אחינו, “My brothers, I want to tell you something that you should do. שתדגלו בניכם על המעמד ההוא הגדול, raise your children with that event. That event should play a major role in their lives. ותספרו, relate it, בתוך קהל ועדה, amongst congregations and masses of Jews. Say over גדולתו, the greatness of that event, the glory of that event.” You know it’s so important? שהוא עמוד, Because it is the pillar, שהאמונה סובבת עליו, that all of our emunah hinges upon. והטענה המביאה לידי אמת, and it’s the ta’anah that brings to the emes.

You hear what he says? I saw this Rambam some 25 or maybe even 30 years ago. I said, “Thank you, Rabbeinu Moshe ben Maimon,” because at that point in time I was in kiruv, and I was always trying to know if there’s a way to reach a secular Jew. How do you reach a secular Jew? So there are all kinds of theories out there of how to be mekariv people. Some say ply them with vodka. Some say maybe scotch. There are a lot of shitos out there. Some say, tell them heartwarming stories, emotional stories about tzaddikim and rebbes. Some people say that you can prove the Torah with computer codes. All kinds of theories. When I saw this Rambam, I said, “Bingo!” I’m going to tell them about this great event. The event of Har Sinai is the ta’anah that’s מביאה לידי האמת. Most of them don’t know the whole story, as many frum Jews don’t know the whole story either. Many frum Jews are not aware of what we saw at that event. They think it was aseres hadibros. But to know that we saw into every corner of the earth and that we saw with our eyes that אין עוד מלבדו, that’s mind-blowing.

The Rambam goes on to say ודעו אחינו, “You should know, my brothers, that this covenant, this great event that was seen physically, that all of Klal Yisrael, the greatest of Klal Yisrael, was able to testify about, this was an event that never had anything like it beforehand, and there will never be another event like this. There were eidim. And what did we witness? That an entire nation should hear the words, the speech of Hakadosh Baruch Hu and they could see His glory eye to eye. And this is the thing that’s going to be mechazek your emunah and it won’t allow you to ever deviate and change even when faced difficult nisyonos.”

So, if someone is going to come to you and say, “But maybe somebody else figured it out, or maybe the Episcopalians got it right.” You say, “Are you cuckoo in your mind? Did you hear what I just told you? Hashem came down. A living G-d came down and told us face to face! What do you have to offer me? Bubbe ma’asehs!”This is the eidus, this is the testimony, rabbosai.

An Eyewitness Is the Strongest Proof

I used to elaborate on this because I wanted to get people to know and understand this. Do you know what the strongest proof in the universe is, according to all the nations in the world? What’s the strongest proof that one could bring to prove something? You want to prove something happened. Get an eyewitness. In every country in the world, from crooked Russia, from twisted Ukraine, to every Arab country, Muslim country, with the shakranim, kazvanim. One thing that every country in the world uses to establish facts is witnesses. Now, when I used to talk to people, I saw many people didn’t know this. Maybe if they were attorneys or lawyers they knew it because that’s one of the basics they teach you in law school: everything depends on witnesses. And the whole goal of a lawyer is to figure out if the guy who claims he was a witness was really a witness. Did you actually witness it? What did you witness? Was he wearing a blue shirt or a yellow shirt? What time of the day was it? Was it nine in the morning or three in the afternoon? A witness testimony is the strongest form of proof.

I used to give them an example. What’s one of the most important documents in America? A very famous one, one of the most important founding documents of America. What’s it called? I’ll give you a hint. It starts with a D. Declaration of Independence. You went to school. You heard that. Do you believe in it? You don’t believe it? I believe it exists. I believe the event happened. Now, why do I believe the event happened? You know why? Because it wasn’t written in secret. There were, I think, one hundred and twenty people present when they wrote the Declaration of Independence, and they were witnesses. And since they were witnesses, I believe it. One hundred and twenty witnesses is enough for me.

Now, what would happen if I would go to the Smithsonian Institute, sneak in there, and pull out the Declaration of Independence. I would bring it to a professional, and I would say to him, “Can you please test this paper? When was this document produced?” He would send it to experts. It would come back, and they would say 1929. What conclusion would you reach? It doesn’t disturb the fact that the Declaration of Independence transpired because there were one hundred and twenty witnesses from 1776. Perforce the paper is a forgery, and somebody’s got the real document. “I think the paper is false, because we have witnesses that predate this.”

The Torah is אמת ויציב ונכון וקיים וישר because there are witnesses, who, the Rambam says, are choice witnesses, not buffoons. There are a lot of religions that also claim some witnesses, but witnesses that are not ראוי להעיד, fit to testify. They’re all pasul for eidus, gazlanim, ganavim, the lowest of the dregs.I told people, there has never been an event that has been so witnessed as Har Sinai was. Not only that. I’ll tell you even further. When you go to law school, they have a very interesting test they do there. Somebody says something on one side of the classroom to one person and then the next guy whispers it to the next guy and the next to the next guy and then they compare what the first guy said to what the last guy says. The first guy said, “G-d created the world,” and the last guy is saying, “Linguine is pure Italian.” That’s what they’re saying. How did you get from this to this? You know why? Because as the information is passed on, the message gets garbled. That’s the metzius. The Torah has been handed down for generations. For generations! It’s been spread all over the world. And yet, there was nobody that ever said there were six hundred and fourteen mitzvos. No one ever said there were six hundred and twelve. No one ever said it wasn’t Har Sinai. It was called Har Chorev, unless the guy is a real, certified Purdue ignoramus, and then he knows Chorev is Har Sinai and Sinai is Chorev. There’s nothing as testified as ma’amad Har Sinai. The testimony to the Torah is so magnanimous. It’s so amazing. And anybody who ever has any question should think about and visualize the event. And we all witnessed that event, as Chazal tell us. There definitely was אתה הראת לדעת, and it’s in your kishkes.

When I would tell this to people who didn’t believe, and I would tell it to them with such conviction, it shook them to the core. A fellow who was a real apikores, an intellectual, an intelligent, brilliant person, told me once that he believed in the Torah that it was just like Santa Claus עפרא לפומיה. That’s what he thought. I said to him, “You really truly think that?” “I know that,” he told me. There are people who believe in Santa Claus. They celebrate it every year. There is a lot of money made on Santa Claus. So this guy claimed the same thing with Torah: some Jews came together and made up all this bluff. And then when I began to explain to him – he was an attorney, a very chashuve lawyer – it really blew his mind.

Arguing Torah’s Authenticity In the Courtroom

At one point in time, I used to learn with a lot of attorneys. One attorney asked me, “Rabbi, are you willing to go up against attorneys and judges to prove your point?” My point used to be that it’s not about belief. Yiddishkeit is not about belief. It’s about facts. (If someone tells me, “I believe that next week it’s going to be cold. I believe it.” It has nothing to do with knowledge). I told him, “Yiddishkeit has nothing to do with belief. It has to do with facts.” I said, “I’d love to give it a try.” Then he contacted a judge. I don’t know if he’s still around anymore. It was a judge named Friedman. He had a nice, big courtroom, and he lent us his chambers, and in those chambers, I presented a court case. The court case was about Torah min hashamayim versus Torah by humans. Every guy in that room believed Torah was written by rabbis. Not even rabbis, charlatans. And I was warned beforehand by a couple of these people. They said to me, “Rabbi, this is not going to be a class of your ordinary fellows. These are all people who have studied and who mastered their material. There are going to be judges there. There are going to be attorneys who are used to taking apart arguments and ripping them apart. Are you up to the task?” I said, “Bring it on!” Was I nervous? I was nervous. I had one attorney who said to me, “You have to know the rules of evidence. When you present a court case, you can’t come to the judge and say, ‘Judge, I really feel this guy did the murder. I feel that in my bones.’ They’ll throw you right out the door. Who cares what you feel? You can’t say one emotional shtickel,” he told me. No emotion could be inserted. And I said, “Okay.” I listened to about maybe thirty hours of tapes on how you determine and decide the parameters, and the rules of the evidence. It made it a little tougher for me. If you like to make a shtickel embellishment, you like to put some ‘geshmake zachen’ in there to hit the thing home – you can’t do that.

I remember the first day everybody came with these big yellow pads. I said, “No small pads here? What are you bringing these big pads for?” And they are taking notes. I said, “I’m going to shock you. I am going to shock you in your kishkes.” I said, “You want to know something? I am going to prove to you beyond the shadow of the doubt that Torah comes from G-d, from shamayim, and that the proof conforms to the highest degree of evidence, no circumstances, no assumptions, no feelings, no emotions, no bubbe ma’asehs. Evidence. Pure evidence. You’re going to be shocked. It has nothing to do with what I believe or what I want to believe. It’s facts, and facts alone. Now, I know you can’t imagine it, and you’re thinking, ‘Where in the world is this guy coming from?’ but I’m going to present you with more evidence than there was in any other case in the United States of America!”

Now, at that particular point in time, there was a major case going on in America. It was a famous low life, a degenerate. The only thing he knew how to do was throw a football, and then he showed his extra talent. He murdered his wife. And he hired a whole slew of lawyers to disprove this. They found the guy’s socks at the scene with blood on them. They had his DNA all over the place. The guy got off because there were no witnesses. It was a major tumult. You can’t imagine! The guy hired the best, most brilliant lawyers in the country. They came together, and they made ששון ושמחה. They got the bum off. I remember I said, “I’m going to present you with evidence, not like the garbage evidence that’s going on in that show trial. Those are bubbe ma’asehs. I’m going to show you real evidence.”

It took me between ten to twelve weeks to present it, and at the end, they were speechless. I said, “Guys, I want to welcome you to the United States of America, the land of the free – freedom of religion. You may not know it, but all of you are free to wear yarmulkes. You’re all free to wear tzitzis. If you’d like to know where to get them, I will help you get tzitzis and yarmulkes. You’re free to practice your religion. You can all shed your ghetto mentality. You can all shed your Marrano mentality. We’re not living in Spain. There are no crusades going on over here. This is a free country. Before you met me, you didn’t know the facts of Judaism, but now you know. Torah is facts. Get with the program. Welcome to the US of A, the land of the free.” That’s how I ended. And they all told me the same thing: “We never saw such a thing. We never imagined there could be such testimony that would be accepted in any court of law.” That’s what the Rambam says, the “choicest of witnesses.” And everything that it taught in law school of how you knock down a case, the Torah is solid.

This is this great ma’amad. You have to remember it. You have to think about it. You have to talk about it. You have to tell your kids about it. Find out about it. Read up on it. Educate yourselves to know what you’re remembering and what happened there, and then you’ll be zocheh to be matzliach to be a believing Jew. אין עוד מלבדו.

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Part 2: Preparing to Receive Kedushas Shabbos (5770)

Acquiring Kedusha of Shabbos

We discussed in the past that there are two types of kedushah. There is a kedushah which means that a person is poresh, he separates himself from tumah. That’s called prishus. Then there’s a tzeivte sug of kedushah where a person does peulos and is mekadesh himself. He elevates himself. He sanctifies himself.

The Reshis Chachmah (R’ Eliyahu de Vidas, 1518-1587)in perek beis says that Shabbos is shayach to the second sug of kedushah.^[iv] The kedushah of Shabbos is such that a person is bepoel mekadesh himself. We have to beמבאר הנוגע ממנו למעשה, we have to be able to take out, explain what you have to do lema’aseh in order to acquire the ma’aleh of kedushah. He says ke’inyan hakedushah, the inyan of kedoshim tehiyu (Vayikra 19:2) is also a mitzvah. That means a person should be mafrish (separate)himself from the devarim which are chol. That is the geder of sur meira, removing oneself from evil (Tehillim 34:15).Then, as we mentioned, there is a positive aspect of undertaking actions of being mekadesh oneself nafsho vegufo, one’s body and soul.

He says as follows. First thing he is shtel avek (establishes) a yesod to understand a difference which we find in the Torah between kedushas Shabbos and kedushas Yom Tov. The Torah refers to Shabbos as קדש (Shemos 31:14)^[v] and to yamim tovim as מקראי קדש (Vayikra 23:4).^[vi] There’s no question that Yom Tov has a shaychus to Shabbos. Yom Tov’s kedushah is definitely related to Shabbos. We saw earlier in the Beis Halevi that whatever kedushah there is in the velt – all of that comes from Shabbos. But Yom Tov is not called kodesh be’etzem. It’s called מקראי קדש. It says in the passuk אשר תקראו אותם, you, Klal Yisroel, have to “call them” kodesh (through sanctifying Rosh Chodesh). That’s what מקראי קדש means, something which you “call kodesh.” But what is the meaning of something you “call” kodesh vs. something that is intrinsically kodesh? The Reshis Chachmah quotes a Zohar where it says that Shabbos is the mekor, the source, of all kedushah. That’s what Shabbos is. Now what does that mean that Shabbos is the mekor of all kedushah? He says Shabbos is kodesh be’etzem, it’s intrinsically kodesh. Let’s understand what that word means. He says עצם הקודש המתגלה. What does that mean?

Pulling Back the Curtain of Olam Haba

The explanation is as follows, as I understand it from Rav Yisrael Elya Weintraub, zt”l (1932-2010), he should have a lichtige Gan Eden. He said that we often talk about Shabbos being the mekor of kodesh. But we find that Shabbos has another name. What is another name of Shabbos? Oneg. It says וקראת לשבת עונג, “and you shall call Shabbos a delight” (Isaiah 58:13). That means the shem ha’etzem (the essence)of Shabbos is oneg. You should call Shabbos oneg. It’s a very strange thing. It doesn’t say you should be me’aneg the Shabbos, that you should enjoy or delight in Shabbos. Rather, it says that you should call Shabbos oneg. What does it mean that the name of Shabbos is oneg?

So Rav Yisrael Elya says something very pashut and very klohr. He says the tafkid (purpose)that Hakadosh Baruch Hu created for a person is that a person should bask in the oneg of Hashem. That’s what Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants. Hashem wants us to have oneg from basking in, what the Mesillas Yesharim calls, the ziv haShechinah, the splendor of Hashem’s Shechinah, and that’s a tremendous hana’ah for an adam. Mesillas Yesharim explains where a person could get this ta’anug. Where is the place where a person can get this ta’anug ha’amiti, this true delight, as he calls it? You know where that is? Olam haba. In olam haba you sit and you’re נהנה מזיו השכינה. You get the ta’anug from the awareness and from the chachmah – the revelation of hashgachas Hashem and darkei Hashem yisbarach and chachmas Hashem yisbarach. That’s an oneg for the neshamah that’s unimaginable!

So he says when we say Shabbos is oneg, you know what it means to say? Shabbos is the etzem kedushah being revealed to the world. That’s what Shabbos is. Shabbos is the day when Hakadosh Baruch Hu pulls back the curtain from that place, the place called olam haba – which is the ultimate source where a neshamah could bask in the ziv haShechinah and get its ta’anug. Hashem reveals and pulls that curtain back on the day of Shabbos.

Unfettered Access

Yom Tov is different. Yom Tov is something which is תקראו אותם, where we have to invite that kedushah. We who are related to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we who are niskadesh with the kedushas Hashem, we have to be mazmin (invite) the Yom Tov. We bring the kedushah of Shabbos in a secondary form to Yom Tov. But it’s not the mahus (essence of) hakedushah. When the Torah says, ושמרתם את השבת כי קדש היא לכם, “You shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy for you” (Shemos 31:14). Shabbos is kodesh for you, which means that it is the ultimate experience of kedushah, where you don’t need to bring that kedusha into the world. (It’s intrinsically there, brought down directly by Hashem). But Yom Tov is not the same. Yom Tov is not olam haba. It doesn’t say anywhere that Yom Tov is me’ein olam haba.

The Zohar says that on Shabbos the world undergoes a metamorphosis, similar to a child who is able to enter his parents’ home and enjoy time with them. That is what Shabbos is. Beli reshus, without permission. That’s the vort. You’re עולה לבית אביו בלי רשות, we can go into our Father’s house without permission. And he says, that since Shabbos is the day when the kedushah of Hashem is revealed, that’s what is gorem (causes) the tremendous simchah that כולם שמחים בה, all creations rejoice on Shabbos, elyonim, v’tachtonim, all the worlds become full of brachah, all the worlds become corrected and realigned and enhanced because Hashem reveals and permeates the kedushah of Shabbos which brings ziv haShechinah into the world and creates an unparalleled joy. 

The passuk that Hashem said, “I give you the Shabbos לדעת כי אני ה’ מקדישכם, that you should know I am Hashem who is being mekadesh you” (Shemos 31:13).^[vii] What does that mean Hashem is being mekadesh us?

Preparing Yourself to Feel Olam Haba

The Mechilta asks what the Shabbos is a ra’ayah (proof) to. It says that it’s a ra’ayah to olam haba. The kedushah of Shabbos is a ra’ayah to olam haba. That means a Yid has to know that his experience of Shabbos is supposed to bond him to the ultimate ta’anug ha’amiti that’s shayach in the velt, the ultimate joy which is the ultimate purpose. It should also bring him to remind himself that the only reason he is coming to this world is to prepare himself to be able to be נהנה מזיו השכינה and enjoy the ta’anug ha’amiti of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in olam haba. And that is what Shabbos is. Shabbos is מעין קדושת עולם הבא.

Now, one of the results of kedushas olam haba is that, as the gemara says, in olam haba there is no ra. It’s kulo tov. The Ramchal explains that in this world the fact that we can’t have the full hana’ah of the ziv haShechinah is because in this world there is ra mixed in. There are forces that Hashem created that we have to encounter and fight with and we have to overcome. But a mentsch has to know that on Shabbos, if Hashem is revealing to the world מעין עולם הבא, that means Hakadosh Baruch Hu is greatly diminishing the koach of ra in the world. If Shabbos is a ra’ayah to the kedushah of olam haba, you have to know that on Shabbos a person can experience and feel olam haba from the kedushah of Shabbos! That’s why a person must meichen (prepare)himself for olam haba – because there is no such a thing as enjoying olam haba without preparation. That metzius doesn’t exist. Only if a person is torach, he exerts himself on Erev Shabbos, will he have some food on Shabbos. So, too a person has to know that if he’s not going to be meichen himself before Shabbos, he will never experience this me’ein olam haba of Shabbos. And when you daven to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and you should daven already by minchah, don’t wait until ma’ariv, you should say to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, “Please Hashem, be mezakeh me that we should all together enjoy menuchas Shabbos.”What you want to yearn for is that you should be able to experience a diminished koach hara.

Be Aware of the Satan on Erev Shabbos

Sadly though, because this is a tremendous day with a tremendous power, the Satan is very available on Erev Shabbos to try to break up and create what’s called a matzav of ei shalom in the world. He creates a matzav of strife. He creates a matzav of anger. He creates a matzav of discombobulation. He creates a matzav where a person gets drawn into the kochos ha’ra, and nebach many frum yeshivah bachurim – in the time that was allotted to them to prepare for Shabbos nebach – they leave the beis hamedrash and instead of preparing for Shabbos, they un-prepare for Shabbos. They don’t realize this and become so bamboozledand the yetzer hara shtels avek these yesodos by them.

The first time I became aware of this yesod I really thought that it was something that was lema’aleh from this world, it was lema’aleh min hateva. I didn’t know it was shayach to even have such a thing in this world because, nebach, I was caught up in that whirlwind that Shabbos was a time when you went to sleep and it was a time that you said goodbye to Hakadosh Baruch Hu until Sunday morning when you tried to start your engine again. A person has to know that if he davens for this, to feel and experience this kedushah of Shabbos and this aliyah of Shabbos, he will mamash have a feeling, on his level, and this would give him a tremendous impetus for the rest of his life. It would give him a tremendous push. People will ask him: “Why are you doing this? Shabbos is a day off.” And he will say, “Why don’t you try experiencing this? If you had this experience, a feeling of Shabbos and a feeling of what the kedushah of Shabbos is, this would change your entire attitude to Shabbos.”  But of course just like there’s a me’ein of olam haba there’s a me’ein of me’ein. We hope to get a me’ein of a me’ein. But if you get some hargashah of this on Shabbos you’ll actually be able to say, if you try, you’ll actually be able to experience a diminished shlitah of the koach hara in you.

Work On Your Middos

You should know that on Shabbos it’s much easier for a person to be שומר פיו ולשונו. You have to try a little bit. Be’eztem on Shabbos it’s much easier for a person to work on his middos. Be’etzem on Shabbos a person can be shomer himself from chataim and aveiros much easier than during the week, because there is the velt aza matzav. Unfortunately, though, we are so distantand so keyed out of it and so disattached from it, that and to us it’s pashut unimaginable! It’s like telling a friere Yid that Yom Kippur is a really a holy day. He’ll think you’re crazy. What’s Yom Kippur?!

Until the zman minchah, let us learn, and we should have in mind to be mekadesh ourselves. How does a person mekadesh himself? Through his machshavah – a person is mekadesh by thinking. The way you’re metaher your machshavah is by thinking of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That means the first thing you think is Hakadosh Baruch Hu is rav. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is harbeh, is above and beyond anything I could imagine. You then think Hakadosh Baruch Hu is shalit, Hakadosh Baruch Hu rules over every aspect of my life. Then you should think that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the ikar and the shoresh for everything. Hashem not only controls every single thing, but He is being menik and being meizen it. He sustains everything. At this very moment Hashem is coursing through the atmosphere your ability to see, to think, to hear, to sit, to breathe, to understand chachmah. Hashem is giving you chachmah and Hakadosh Baruch Hu is opening your mind. Hashem is being חונן לאדם דעת. He’s being meishiv us (enables us to do teshuva). He’s being goel (redeems) us. He’s being soleiach (forgives)us. If you do this hachanah – it doesn’t make a difference what you learn or where you learn on Erev Shabbos – have this in mind, try to do an exercise of thinking: “Hakadosh Baruch Hu, I’m getting ready for Shabbos by learning with You.” Whatever Torah you learn, try to learn that Torah with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And if you learn that Torah with Hakadosh Baruch Hu, see if you can be zocheh, we should all be zocheh, to have some hargashah of kedushah in our lives this Shabbos and we’ll remember that this particular Shabbos we were margish, we merited to feel a little bit of that kedusha. Tell yourself, remember this, make this a point in your life. “I was margish kedushas Shabbos this week because I was meichen (prepared)myself somewhat.” If you know you have chataim that you’re aware of, you should definitely have a hirhur of teshuvah and say, “Hakadosh Baruch Hu I am mescharet (regret) for using my machshavah incorrectly. I’m mescharet.” Machshavah includes the heart and eyes. Say, “I’m mescharet Hakadosh Baruch Hu for my dibur,”and dibur is included in machshavah also. “Hakadosh Baruch Hu, I’m sorry for any peulos (actions) that I did wrong this week.” Tell Hakadosh Baruch Hu: “I want to come back to You. I acknowledge I was mesrachek (distanced from You)and I want to unload my middos raos. I don’t want to live with olam hasheker.”

Hakadosh Baruch Hu will help us. We’ll experience a hergesh of kedushah on Shabbos itself. Try it! Attempt it! Just attempt to implement small changes in different areas, not to come to the other extreme, but to at least diminish your dibur, diminish your leitzanus, diminish discussing things that are not Shabbosdik. And if you do that, you will be zocheh to be margish some kedushah of Shabbos. A Gutten Shabbos to everyone.

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^[i] רק השמר לך ושמר נפשך מאד פן תשכח את הדברים אשר ראו עיניך ופן יסורו מלבבך כל ימי חייך והודעתם לבניך ולבני בניך. יום אשר עמדת לפני ה’ אלקיך בחרב באמר ה’ אלי הקהל לי את העם ואשמעם את דברי אשר ילמדון ליראה אתי כל הימים אשר הם חיים על האדמה ואת בניהם ילמדון.

^[ii] הראת. כְּתַרְגּוּמוֹ “אִתְחֲזֵיתָא”; כְּשֶׁנָּתַן הַקָּבָּ”ה אֶת הַתּוֹרָה פָּתַח לָהֶם שִׁבְעָה רְקִיעִים, וּכְשֵׁם שֶׁקָּרַע אֶת הָעֶלְיוֹנִים כָּךְ קָרַע אֶת הַתַּחְתּוֹנִים, וְרָאוּ שֶׁהוּא יְחִידִי, לְכָךְ נֶאֱמַר “אַתָּה הָרְאֵתָ לָדַעַת.”

^[iii] וכמו כן זכרו מעמד הר סיני שצונו הקב”ה לזכרו תמיד וגם הזהירנו מלשכחו אותו וצונו ללמד אותו לבנינו כדי שיגדלו על תלמודו הוא מה שנאמר (דברים ד’ ט’ יו”ד) רק השמר לך ושמר נפשך מאוד פן תשכח את הדברים אשר ראו עיניך ופן יסורו מלבבך כל ימי חייך והודעתם לבניך ולבני בניך יום אשר עמדת לפני ה’ אלקיך בחרב באמר וראוי לכם אחינו שתגדלו בניכם על המעמד ההוא הגדול ותספרו בתוך קהל ועדה גדולתו והדורו שהוא עמוד שהאמונה סובבת עליו והטענה המביאה לידי אמת וגדלו המעמד ההוא על כל גדולה כמו שגדלו הקב”ה שנאמר (דברים ד’ ל”ב) כי שאל נא לימים ראשונים אשר היו לפניך וגו’ ודעו אחינו בברית הזאת ובסברת הזאת שהדבר הגדול הזה שנראה במציאות שהעיד עליו מבחר כל העדים שלא היה מקודם כמוהו וכן לא יהיה אחריו כמוהו והוא שתשמע אומה אחת בכללה דבור הקדוש ב”ה ושתראה כבודו עין בעין ודבר זה היה שתתחזק האמונה חזוק שלא ישנהו משנה ויגיע לנו ע”י האמת כדי להעמיד רגלינו לבל ימעדו אשורינו בעתות כאלו כשיתחדש שום רוגז או שמד על יהודים ח”ו וכשיתגבר יד האנס שכן כתוב (שמות כ’ י”ז) כי לבעבור נסות אתכם בא האלקים ובעבור תהיה יראתו על פניכם לבלתי תחטאו כלומר שזה הנגלה עליהם בענין זה כדי שתעמדו בכל נסיון שיפגע בכם באחרית הימים שלא יזוז לבבכם ולא תחטאו ואתם אחנו היו על בריתכם קיימים ובדתכם מחזיקים ועל אמונתכם נוהגים עומדים, וכו’.

^[iv] אחר שפי’ הקדושה, ראוי לבאר הנוגע ממנו למעשה, ונאמר כי ענין הקדושה שנצטוינו קדושים תהיו, הוא שיפריש האדם עצמו מהדברים שהם חול, ויקדש נפשו וגופו, שהפך החול הוא הקדש, כהפרש השבת הנקרא קדש לימי החול, וכאשר נדע קדושת שבת מה ענינה נדע שהוא ענין הקדושה שפי’ לעיל. והנה בקדושת השבת נתבאר בזוהר (פ’ אמור דף צד ע”א) בחלוק שבין קדש למקראי קדש, ופי’ ששבת היא עצם הקדש המתגלה, ועל זה נאמר (שמות לא, יד) ושמרתם את השבת כי קדש היא לכם, ואמר שסוד השבת הוא סוד הבן העולה לבית אביו בלי רשות, והיינו (שם טו, יא) מי כמוכה באלים ידו”ד מי כמוכה נאדר בקדש, ואמר בקדש ודאי, כבר דאתתקף באבוי, נאדר בקדש ולא זמין מקודש, ואמר אחר כך אמר ר”י חדוותא ונטירותא דיומא דשבת בכלא הוא, בגין דהאי יומא אתעטר באבא ואימא ואתוסף קדושה על קדושתיה, מה דלא אשתכח הכי בשאר יומי, דהא הוא קדש אתעטר בקדש אוסיף קדושה על קדושתיה, בגין כך האי יומא חדוותא דעלאי ותתאי כלא חדאן ביה, מלי ברכאן בכלהו עלמין, כלהו מניה אתקנו, עד כאן לשונו. הרי מבואר, כי קדושת שבת הוא אור קדושת אבא ואימא המתגלה בתפארת ומשם לכל העולמות. ועוד בענין קדושת שבת ושאר הימים נתבאר בזוהר (פ’ ויקהל דף רד ע”א), בענין מציאות השבת אמרו, שהיא המלכות נקודה אמצעית לכל ששה ימים, שממנה יונקים, וביום השבת היא בת עין המתיחדת בשלשה אבות שהם ש’, והיינו שב”ת ש’ בת’, ועוד יש שבת עליון שלשה אבות המתקשרים בבת עין, והם מתקשרים בעלמא דאתי, ועוד יש שבת יותר עליון כאשר יתקשר כל הנזכר בנקודה עילאה שהיא גם כן סוד בת עין, זהו קצור כוונתו. נמצא שבמקום שיעלה הבן שם תעלה הבת עמו למעלה, באופן שלעולם סוד קדושת שבת הוא אור הנשפע מאבא ואימא, ועוד יותר מלמעלה מעתיקא שהוא שורש הקדושות שהוא נקרא סבא קודש קודשיא, כמו שנתבאר לעיל, וכו’. (ראשית חכמה, שער הקדושה ב׳)

^[v] ושמרתם את השבת כי קדש הוא לכם, וגו’.

^[vi] אלה מועדי ה’ מקראי קדש אשר תקראו אתם במועדם.

^[vii] ואתה דבר אל בני ישראל לאמר אך את שבתתי תשמרו כי אות הוא ביני וביניכם לדרתיכם לדעת כי אני ה’ מקדשכם