Shavuos: What is a Stradivarius?

This Torah class is brought to you by torahanytime.com. Okay, a good Shabbos Shabbos as we prepare for Shabbos Chazak Parshas Behar Bechukosai. Today we have a very short sheer and then I'm going to wish you a good Shabbos. I'm speaking this Shabbos in Bala Cynwyd in Philadelphia. So I'm just going to share with you some thoughts about preparing for the Yom Tov of Shavuos. And then we're going to I'm going to bid you farewell. What is a Stradivarius? I thought you might want to know the answer to that question. Stradivarius is an instrument produced by Antonio Stradivari an Italian who was born in 1644 and who died in 1737. Ah, Stradivari was a luthier, a maker of stringed instrument, violin, cello, guitar. During his lifetime he crafted more than 1,100 instruments and of those 540 violins, 50 cellos and 12 violia violas are still in existence. A Stradivarius produces magical tones unequaled by any other instrument. Many luthiers have attempted to replicate, reproduce the exact sound but none have succeeded. Over the years historians, music researchers have come up with various theories about why a Stradivarius produces such exceptional tones. Some claim it was the wood that Stradivari used. Others say it was the varnish and still others believe it was the waters of Cremona, the city that Stradivari lived, that was a key factor. Now, one of the most world-renowned violinists today is Joshua Bell who played a who plays a Stradivarius and about uh uh 15 years ago uh the Washington Post introduced and arranged an intriguing little experiment to see how people react to unexpected out of context art. So, they commissioned Joshua Bell to stand in a Washington D.C. subway station and to play classical music. Ordinarily, when Bell gives a recital, he earns about a thousand dollars a minute. Bell played in the subway station for 45 minutes, during which time more than 1,000 people passed by. But, in the 45 minutes that he played, only 27 out of the 1,075 passersby threw the a donation into the violin case, netting him a grand total of $32. And this experiment caused a tremendous sensation. Scores of articles were written about the experiment. Can people not realize and recognize quality art of on their own? Why would people shell out upward of a hundred dollars a ticket to hear a Joshua Bell perform and not stop to listen when the music is free? Does cost add value? Is it all part of our herd mentality? But, I believe that we see a very important facet of human nature from this experiment. And that is no matter how inspiring, how breathtaking, how powerful an experience may be, no matter how magnificent, it is very difficult for a human being to derive any benefit from it, to be moved by it, to appreciate it, without hakana, without preparation. The benefits reaped from any meaningful experience in life is usually commensurate with the amount of preparation that was put into getting ready for the experience. Because without preparation, the most majestic and meaningful opportunities are completely lost. Even the music of the greatest musician is lost to one who's not prepared to hear it. And if this is true in the physical world, all the more so in the spiritual world. We all know how hard it is to have kavana by davening. I think we would all want our davening to be a more meaningful experience for us. And one of the important reasons why it's not as meaningful as we would like is because we allow ourselves to fall into it. Sometimes we come slightly late or even if we come on time or even if we come early, if the punctuality is just a function of our personalities, then we're still just falling into the davening. But if somebody came even a moment before with the mental attitude of preparation for what they're about to do, it will transform the whole character of the tfila. So the truth is if a person would reflect momentarily before any mitzvah and just mentally prepare oneself, okay, I'm about to perform the following mitzvah, the mitzvah will be elevated to a completely different level. The Mesillas Yesharim advises us in perek zayin in bedarchei kniyas ha'tahara says Mesillas Yesharim shelo yi'konis b'kiyum mitzvah pesach pesach. One should not enter the performance of a mitzvah suddenly. She'ein da'ato ya'dain yishuvah alav, without your mind being settled. V'chol elohim yisbonen b'ma'aseh oseh, without the ability to contemplate what one is doing. If somebody just falls into shul, throws on the tallis, whips on the tfillin, then it's not possible for the human mind to absorb what they're doing. We're mikayem so many mitzvahs, but does it really change us? Does it affect us? And part of the reason why not is we're not prepared for the mitzvah. So, when you just do something, it doesn't impact you. Says Mesillas Yesharim, "Yazmin atzmo ledavar." By the way, tonight is the yard side of the Mesillas Yesharim the Ramchal, the 41st day of Sefirah. My good friend Reb David Hoffman told me that the Ramchal's yard side is yesod shebe yesod, foundation of foundation. The Ramchal, of course, was connected to Yosef Hatzadik. "Ela yazmin atzmo ledavar." You should prepare yourself for the matter. "Veyachin libo bemattan." Prepare your heart patiently. "Ad sheyikaneis behisbonenus." Until you enter the mitzvah in contemplation, "Va'az yisbonen mahu holeich lases." Then you'll be able to contemplate what you're doing, "Velifnei mi hu holeich lases." And before whom you're performing the mitzvah. By the way, this doesn't take long. We're not talking about grandiose preparations. It's the Just take a moment before you daven, okay? I'm about to stand in prayer before the creator of the universe. That will drastically elevate elevate the level of your tefillah. Yerushalmi, meseches Kiddushin perek aleph, halachos aleph and makes an astounding statement. He says, "What is considered the lightest mitzvah, the mitzvah which is most kal, the lowest on the totem pole?" Says the Yerushalmi, "Kalah shebakalah sheluach hakein." The mitzvah that is the smallest of all 613 mitzvahs is shiluach hakein, sending away the mother bird from the nest and then taking the eggs. That is considered the smallest and most inconsequential mitzvah in the Torah. Why is this Mitzvah considered the easiest, the least significance? The least significant nowadays by the way, people pay a lot of uh money to be mikayem shiluach hakanim. I once told you I have my good friend Reb Chanan Clagsbald and uh Yitzchok Dovid Titelbaum of uh Satmar community, they once invited me to do shiluach hakanim by the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It's uh it's not a common occurrence, not a it's not a everyday opportunity. And why is this Mitzvah considered the lightest of all the mitzvahs? Says the Ger Rebbe, shiluach hakanim is the one Mitzvah you can't prepare for. It's ki karay kan tzibor lifanecha, if you chance upon the bird's nest, you can't set it up, you can't prepare for it, and the benefit one reaps from anything in life and certainly the benefit one reaps from the performance of a Mitzvah is so limited if one is not able to prepare for it. So therefore of all the mitzvahs in the Torah, the one that is considered the lightest of all the mitzvahs is shiluach hakanim. Now, the Torah tells us in last week's parsha, parshas Emor, about the mitzvah of the dalet minim, it says the lulav should be taken ulakachtem lachem bayom hachamisha asar. No, it doesn't say that. Ulakachtem lachem bayom harishon. Take the dalet minim, the palm branch and the citron and the myrtles and the willows, take it on the first day. And the Medrash asks, what do you mean the first day? We take the lulav and esrog on the 15th day of the month. By all the other Yomim Tovim, it mentions the day of the month. Rosh Hashanah is the first day of the month, Yom Kippur is the 10th day of the month, Sukkos is the 15th of the month. What does it mean to take the dalet minim on the 15th day day of the month? Says the Medrash Tanchuma, rishon lacheshbon habayis, that the first day of Sukkot is the first day that one has the opportunity to sin. Says the um Midrash, "Erev Rosh Hashanah, nobody could sin. The Gedolim are already fasting on Erev Rosh Hashanah." On Sukkos, you make Teshuvah. The Midrash says many people are fasting. Nobody would sin on Yom Kippurim. And then, the moment Yom Kippur is over, people are running to get the best Lulav and Etrog and to put up the Sukkah and the Schach and the decorations and all the preparations for Sukkos. There's simply no time to sin. And then you come home from Shul on the first night of Yom Tov and ah, you're relaxed, kick back, a bit of Lashon Hara, a bit of Rechilus, some Chet'im, some Avon'is. So it's Rishon Lecheshbon Avon'is. It's the first opportunity to sin. Asks the Taz, Rabbeinu Dovid, Siman Tav Kuf Peh Alef, and by the way, the Pnei Yehoshua said about the Taz, "The Taz was the greatest of all the Achroinim." One time during the Chmielnicki pogroms, the Taz's city was surrounded by marauders and the Taz was leading the Tzibbur in feverish prayer and the Taz fainted. He had a dream and in the dream they showed the Taz the Pasuk, "V'ganosi Al Ha'ir Ba'avur Dovid Avdi." I'll protect the city because of my servant Dovid. And asks the Taz, there's something very suspicious over here. Because if Jews don't sin in the four days between Yom Kippur and Sukkos because they're preparing for the Dalet Minim and for the Lulav and Etrog, then certainly they're not going to sin on the first day of Sukkos because they're actually doing the Mitzvah. If you're not going to sin preparing for the Mitzvah, certainly you're not going to sin doing the Mitzvah. Asks the Taz Kushya, "Lama B'emes Odif Hachana L'Mitzvah Shel Sukkos Min Ayomim Shemekaymin Bam?" Why would the preparation for the mitzvah of Sukkah be greater than the performance of the mitzvah itself? Comes along the Sfas Emes in That's 1874 on page 176 Parshas Hazinu and the Sfas It is not far-fetched to say say your That preparing potent influences a person more than the mitzvah And just because preparing for a mitzvah of Sukkah protects a person from sin, the actual performance of the mitzvah may not be as impactful. By the way, there's a a famous comment that Rav Soloveitchik once made in his uh chew and chew joshes. And he once said that in America we have shomrei Shabbos. Something maybe 50 70 years ago it was a rarity. But he would say it is not for the Sabbath that my heart aches, but it is for it is for the forgotten Erev Shabbos. There are shomrei Shabbos in America, but there are not Erev Shabbos Jews who go out to greet the Shabbos with beating hearts and pulsating souls. What do we do Erev Shabbos? We're running. Even you know, when the days are longer, we leave things to last moment. We stay at work later. We're scrambling. The mitzvah we do, Shabbos we do, the for the mitzvah, that is sometimes where it's lacking. And the maximum benefit of Shabbos, the primary kedusha of Shabbos will come the preparation we put into it. By the way, here's another interesting matter of my time. The matter just says that he beyond call my show the hockey master Mishkan. That when the Mishkan was erected by you hear the bemoaned the preparation completion of the Mishkan. Hashem said, "Now that the Mishkan is up, there's nothing that will preoccupy the Jewish people not to sin." So the Shem Ishmael asks, "What do you mean?" If preparation to build a Mishkan stopped them from sinning, then all the more so the avoid in the base of miktash will prevent them from sinning. And the Shem Ishmael says the same principle. That the hard work in the labor and the efforts that were put that are put into doing a mitzvah have more of a potent effect and a protective effect even than the mitzvah itself. And therefore, friends, when we think about what is the most momentous occasion, the most monumental event in the history of the world, it was the giving of the Torah my mother Sinai. It's the most important event in the history of the world. God revealed himself to an entire people for the only time in history to that to that extent. Kabal Torah was authenticated by more eyewitnesses than any event in the history of the world. You know, when the president of the United States is inducted, there only a million people there. Kabal Torah was in front of 3 million people. And therefore the Yom Kippur of Shavuot which commemorates the giving of the Torah is in a way one of the greatest opportunities we have the entire year to connect to the bonus of the island. And I think this puts the days of Sefirah in a new focus. Because the more important something is, the more preparation it needs. So, for Sukkot, we only have 4 days. And for Pesach, which is so important, Shavuot, we prepare for 30 days. But for the day that we need to reenact the acceptance of the Torah, a few days are not enough. 30 days are not enough. We need seven full weeks of preparation. And the spiritual benefit that we'll reap from the Yom Tov of Shavuot will be proportionate to the preparation we do in anticipation for the Yom Tov of Shavuot. So, here we are now about uh 10 days before Kabbalat Torah. And we want to at least take advantage of the preparation we still have for the Yom Tov of Shavuot. And whatever we could do to deepen our commitment to Limud Torah, spend more time learning, be more dedicated to be more focused to whatever we could do, whether it's uh perhaps writing notes, perhaps it's review, but whatever we could do to heighten and elevate our preparation for the Yom Tov of Shavuot. Um and take advantage really of the period that Hakadosh Baruch Hu set up for us. And it is upon us to utilize this opportunity to prepare to the maximum amount. And uh commensurate with that, the Ribono shel Olam will bestow on us great spiritual treasures awaiting us on the Yom Tov of Shavuot, the Yom Tov of Kabbalat Torah. Thank you all for listening. At this point, I'm going to wish everyone a good Shabbos for this week. And uh b'ezrat Hashem, hope to see everybody Monday. Okay? Mendel, yes. Okay. Kol tuv, good Shabbos, good Shabbos. Kol tuv, Shabbos. Bye-bye. Yes, yaakov olam. 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