Beit Shemesh Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan Seminar- Rabbi Moshe Benovitz, Meaning Behind Melaveh Malka

with everybody here this morning. It's a great uh gathering here to people who have some connection to the broader community here and back in the United States or other places like that connected to the Orthodox Union coming together for some learning today. I see a lot of old and familiar faces. I don't mean old in the sense of age. I mean people that we've been with for a while and connected with for a while. It's a very very special and meaningful thing for us to connect in this way around such a special initiative, special learning and such an incredible topic like the kaduca of shabas. The truth is for our particular community on an U level and on a communities that are affected by the U level. It's been an extremely challenging time. We're going to begin and end just by noting and maybe also at one point in the middle noting the passing of Rabbi Mosha Howard, the executive vice president of the Orthodox Union. He had a profound effect on programs exactly like this one. He was a huge supporter of an everlasting and ever growing footprint of Torah commitment and of Torah values in the practical lives that we live particularly here in Aritzel. Not all of the people who have headed the Orthodox Union in the United States have been as committed to the idea of Torah life flourishing here in Erit Israel as Rabbi Hower was and a number of the ideas which is why we'll be able to at the beginning, middle, and end reflect upon his legacy a little bit. uh his um I it was it it would it's very very fitting to be able to share ideas that I know would have resonated with him and that he would have believed in to a great extent. A number of years ago there was a an invention of sort and there was a lot of hype before it came up that there was a fellow who was going to revolutionize the entire world. He had come up with something that he was going to call a segue. Now you and I know the end of the story if we even know what a segue is. That is not the case. It's a wonderful coloid activity that you could take around and look somewhat foolish on as you ride it. A segue didn't change the way in which we do much of anything. A couple of mall cops and like I said a few families in Kamoaid. That's pretty much the market for what a Segway is. But he introduced this idea that was going to change everything. there is a particular I don't even know what it is but with the balance and the way that it moves and the way that a Segway runs there was something that was different than what people had seen before and he described this thing that was going to be revolutionary and the first question that people had as the hype came out about it was what is it what is it that you're okay it's going to change everything but what is it okay it's going to what is it what is this thing this invention that you're talking about and when the reveal came and when he showed what it was. People were somewhat deflated and disappointed. I don't know the answer to the question 100% in what is perhaps a more updated example of the same phenomenon in in the world of technology. But we all have all sorts of all sorts of information about AI about the world of artificial intelligence about chat GBT about the way it's going to change. And some of us regardless of our age from time to time we pause and be like I get it. It's going to change everything and take every what is it? What is this thing that we're talking about that has this incredible power? In the case of AI, it may very well change the world. I don't think that everything that comes across and is overhyped is necessarily disappointing or a dud like the segue was. But before we can analyze how or if it changes the world, we need to know what exactly it is. And when it comes, we don't have the time to talk about this fully right now, but I think in general, even after an incredible morning like this one, sometimes we have that effect on chabas. Imagine a person who is talking to a person who has never heard of chabas before, who has no idea, and they've heard all about it. They've heard the fact that we have an Arab shabas and then we have special foods on chabas and we heard that it's made haba and we've heard it's the most incredible thing in the entire what is it? Okay, so then we would tell them right away what we don't do on well, it's a day in which we don't do. But what is it? What is this thing that we're calling chabas? What is this thing that we're talking about? And one of the ways in which I think we could see and focus on at least one of them is in the very very first source that we have here which is of course from the dibbros there is a curious description that we have from the get-go that we sometimes neglect. If you're like me, you might be getting hungry right now and assuming there's a bowl of chullin coming out in a minute because we're making kdish. Okay, hopefully that was not your full response to it. We could just learn the ksh without any concerns beyond that. One shall remember again a discussion for a different day about why that's the verb in the word that is used to describe our relationship with shabas. Six days we shall do all of our work. we should work and do all of our work. Shabas and the seventh day in contrast to those earlier six, the seventh day shall be a day of shabas. We'll translate it loosely for now as a day of rest. Lashem ela. It's interesting and this is not the only example of this. Shabas has a fascinating relationship with the other six days of the week. We know that the word shabas itself and this is as much the end as it is the beginning of our discussion. The word shabas itself in a dictionary has two distinct translations. Shabas refers to the seventh day of the week. It refers to our day of rest. But we know from shuis for example spir shabas timos even though inshhat we could read that as for the six day for all for you have seven shabasim. If you count the seventh day of the week seven times, you'll end up with seven full weeks. But the simple translation and the correct translation is not seven seventh days, but seven seven days. Not seventh days, but seven days. That there is a week that you count that is also referred to as Shabas. The week that we have that is defined as Shabas. And it's interesting that Shabas is not only about and is never only about that day of the week, that one day of such special and sublime importance, but that Shabas is about our the entirety of our days and about all of the days of the week at the same time. And that's why we have to pay careful attention to the implications of this basic seinal source that we find in the Asera dibbros. The Torah, as most observations are built on, the Torah did not need to start by mentioning Tuesday, by mentioning Friday, by mentioning the six days of the week. It is true that on the six days of the week, we don't have Shabas, and only on the seventh that we do. That is not as important and not as central to the discussion as we might have otherwise as as we would have thought, though. We're only used to it and we say it right away. In fact, let's ask the question even more strongly and more pronouncely. Is it true? And we'll even ask this question on two different levels. And you'll tell me if you've ever considered this before. The Torah uses the language of commandment for the six days of the week. If someone was to ask you of which is this commandment in the dibbros, the fifth commandment of the dibbros, what is it? What is this commandment in the aseras dibbros? Everybody would say the commandment is chabas. And yet the first thing that we are commanded to in the aseras dibbros is not about chabas. The first thing that we are commanded to in the aseras is about Tuesday is about today. It's about Wednesday. Is that an obligation or is that a suggestion or is it a simple statement of fact in it would seem to be it's a statement of fact. God doesn't care what we do on Tuesday. All that matters is that we don't do malika on chabas. But yet that's not what the Torah says. Since when does the Torah make statements of fact and like of this nature and especially at this point of a mitzvah as important as Shabas? We could have very very easily started with the fact and said simply on the seventh day of the week make it special and don't do work. What do we do? We have this question also in the manishana by the way that when we talk about contrast between the other days on all of the days of the year we do pretty much whatever we want to do. Some people like to eat matzah inv some people like to dip. We have all sorts of things that we do. The key is that you eat matzah on pes that we don't eat on pes that we dip and that we lean on pes what we do the rest of the times is irrelevant and if it has any relevance as the words manishtana imply it's only relevant in the sense that it is a contrast and a difference something special is going on on pes we don't need to start with the contrast right away in the mitzvah to follow through on that example In the mitzvah of matzah we have and of not eating we are not introduced to that we shouldn't eat on pes we are not told that today you could have as many bagels as you want make sure to get rid of your bagels by pes it's not the way that we des it's the way we live but it's not the way that is described in the Torah the Torah is not particularly concerned when it is commanding us to eat matzah is not particularly concerned about And yet it does seem to be particularly concerned about the six days of the week. The commandment of Shabas begins with a commandment of there are jokes about all sorts of people who don't hold down regular jobs. There are some mean-spirited jokes about those who learn in collal who are in the kared community that this is the one mitzvah that they don't want to observe ever. What happened to the mitzvah of six days a week you shall work. I'm not getting into the politics of that at all. Even if you just applied it to a freeloading son-in-law who doesn't hold down a job and plays video games all day. It's not clear that even for him the Torah is providing in these that that's the explanation that there's a work ethic and a value. I mean why would that be expressed during the time of Shabas? Also there's a flip side to this question that we should wonder about for a minute. Also it was mentioned in the very very kind introduction that I teach right down the block in ratit. That's a sha olive shaet yes yhiva for American boys learning here in Erit Israel. Some of them get more religious as the year goes on. Some of them have a growth process and I'm not sure we're going to get to the answer to this question but I think you're going to enjoy at least the question itself. It's often referred to as flipping out. this very very religious very quick religious growth type of phenomenon. So let's say you have a young man or a young woman who's learning in seminary and she is enamored he is enamored with the world of mitzvah that they have and very quickly they take on an abundance of mitzvah that are there and they start keeping chabas where they never did before. The young man starts wearing situs where he never did before. They start being very careful about which which they eat in and how they eat it and brahos and washing and there's a modi all of it bucket next to their bed and kumras and everything else like that and they're doing a lot and they're really at the head of the class when it comes to whatever this this process is and whatever this mitzvah observance is but they're not satisfied. They don't want to stop there at all. They understand there's no real obligation. They see him. They're walking into class one day and lo and behold, to every teacher's delight, oh, I don't have my cell. I put my cell phone away. Wow, that's great. You're so focused on the class. No, I'm not picking up my cell phone for the rest of the day. It's only I make havdala tonight. Havdulla tonight. It's Tuesday, right? But why would I limit Shabas to one day of the week? I'm so religious. I'm so fli. I'm going to keep Shabas on Monday. I'm going to keep Shabas on th Why wouldn't I do that? Shabas is amazing. Why do I have to have Shabas only once? If it's really good to sit with our families to put our phones away, again, we're not going to answer this question fully now. Maybe we can save that for a different day. But if it's really that great and all that it's cracked up to be, and people are writing books about Jews and non-Jews, writing books about the beauty and the sanctity of Shabas and what it means to sit around their table and to sing me. Why once a week? Why don't There's a fascinating balance between the six days of the week and the seventh day of Shabas. And it's a particular balance. And Baru goes out of his way to insist on that balance. Before he even tells us that there's a shabas, he tells us that there is something that is not shabas. He tells us six days we shall work and on the seventh day we shall have shabas. Yes, it is possible that all of that exists only to make Shabas special. There can't be. If every day was Shabas, then there would be no Shabas. Similar to the debates that just took place over the past few days around the world, particularly here at Erit Isel about the recitation of tollim even when times there's still some dangers that are there. If we say special to him every day, then we say special to him on no days. This is the gumar already says that one who recites halal even if they feel absolutely absolutely overwhelmed by the if a person says hal every day of their life they are a fool in the words of the garra you can't have that level of special and sustain that level of special without having the contrast in life around us we have to be able to have that sense of balance why that is and what the lines are also not so easy to answer as we're all experiencing Now one practical suggestion of course is when we do get a chance to say hallel like we did this morning like we will tomorrow we have in mind not just what's happening today but what's happening on other days also one possibility to explain this relationship is of course the contrast the six days of the week are the setup man they are the the they are the baseline and then we add on top of that the notion of chabas and it needs to be separate for that reason but even in the few words of the aseras that we just read it seems is possible that something more is going on. And there are a number of ways in which we could explain that something more. Some of them are deeper than others. We're going to save many of them for a different day in a different discussion. We're going to focus on one potential approach. There is a relatively well-known gam. You could read it along with me. It is the very bottom of this Gammorra source on the bottom of the first page which is six lines from the bottom at the beginning of the line. And it's a discussion of two distinct practices. One might even say two contradictory practices although we'll see about that before we're done. Two distinct practices that were attributed one to Shamai Hazak and one to Hilazak. It doesn't help our understanding of this gamarra as I will argue in a moment. It doesn't help our understanding of this gamarra to have them be the protagonist of it because we associate shamai and hillel b shamai and bass hill with very very strenuous debate and disagreement. Bas and B hill are one of the classic pairs of those who hold different opinions. And whenever we see their names, we naturally assume that that's what's going on. Especially when the garra describes them as having conflicting opinions, as we're going to see in a minute. Shame says the gumar shabas. He existed in a world not radically different than the world of this student who decides that they're going to extend chabas for the rest of the week. Shame his entire life all of the days of his life were chabas. It's an interesting you could file it away for later if you would like. Kolyov is an interesting double in tandre. Kolyov of course means as I translated his entire life but the subject here koly means every day of the week. There was less of a distinction between chabas and the other days of the week regardless of how many decades Shame lived. If you would ever encounter Sunday, Monday or Friday, if you would encounter a nice animal, a beautiful piece of steak, they have they have brisket on sale in Osher. If he would find a Baham omare zoo shabas, he would immediately say, "Ah, I found my Friday night meal. Doesn't make a difference what day of the week it is. This is for Shabas." He then goes to Ramy Levy and he finds they have an even better sale and have an even higher quality meat that's there. He would eat the brisket from Osher and he would take the meat from Ramy Levy and say had a different approach. So lowim all of his acts were shayim the garra doesn't identify exactly what it is that hill did but it is clear in the rishonim and relatively clear from the garra that hilazak didn't like that entire game of saving things for shabas nothing to do with refrigeration everything he did was lashe shamayim him and you could eat that piece of meat on a regular day of the week also and that would be exactly fine. It's a general rule in shas when we have mlo in a Mishna or in a garum doesn't even have to be the most highest level or most sophisticated of learning opportunities. Whenever we read a mahlo there's something about called a nikuda loc. What is it that they are actually disagreeing about? Hill and Shami would be going shopping in the shook and Shamai's putting stuff in a special shabas bag and the Gomorrah says Hill doesn't like to do that. Hillel only has a bag for that day for that moment and he's doing and the gar attributes that to the fact that Hill was a big believer in Shayim Hashem y there's no question that Shamai agreed with the exact same thing. There's no question that he'll What's the explanation for Shami's behavior? Why when Shamai saw a nice piece of meat or fish on Monday, did he save it for Shabas? The simple explanation is that Shamai loves Shabas. And if you love Shabas, you're going to prepare for Shabas. That you're in constant state of that kind of preparation for Shabas that's taking place. Okay, that's a plausible explanation of Shamai's behavior. It's admiral behav behavior maybe especially based on some of the earlier shirim maybe that will be something that people take away from here that when they go shopping this afternoon and when they go shopping next Sunday will always be shopping and preparing for shabas great. Did Hill disagree with that? Did Hill think preparation is not appropriate for Chabas? Did Hill think Chabas is not a big deal? Why is the Gomorrah so quick to say mida that that hill had a different approach he had a different gar says very strongly speaking of those four words mida I can't tell you the answer to this question we'd all agree that it's a lot how many times do hil and shami disagree in shas like we mentioned before many many many many times how many times is the the contra ing opinion, the argument opinion. How many times is it introduced with the heading of just say what he did and we'll know to tell me that some type of type being defined by the mid seems to be a very very strong and unusual way to describe the fact that they're having a dispute. What is their dispute? And why does the Gomorrah describe their dispute in this exact way? We're going to suggest this morning that the dispute is not much of a dispute at all and that in fact Midelo is not intensifying the argument. It's actually explaining that it's not much of an argument at all. that they are describing two ways in which a person can potentially accomplish the exact same thing. Two ways in which that a person can achieve the same goal. And that goal is not merely showing covet to chabas and preparing for it in every shopping trip that we make and thinking about shabas all of the time so that shabas itself can be special. That goal is something else entirely. When Shamai Hazakim would walk into a supermarket and always be thinking about buying food for Shabas, the goal and the effect of that was not that Shabas will be transformed. It is true that a shabas or a shir or a conversation or anything that we do that is thought about and considered days in advance and prepared for days in advance will be better transformed more valuable more intense than something that is done just on the spur of the moment or much more spontaneously. But it is also true that when we think about something days in advance, when we go shopping on Monday preparing for Shabas, not only is our Shabas transformed, but it is our Monday as well that becomes completely different. It's the Monday as well that takes on the characteristics of a shabas. And we'll see exactly how intense this work can be. and how amazing and valuable the payoff of this work can be as well. There is a lesserk known sha misa that I've heard different versions of. I heard the original version of uh the story from Mosha Weinberger and it had a profound effect on me as an educator as a person in any sort of relationship parents to children and friends. Anytime you deal with a relationship that has a great deal of intensity but also is prone to an element of distance and the story again in whatever form you like it goes as follows. There's a fellow who's very very beholden to his rebi to his community in a tinytle in Eastern Europe and they are able to be in control of their atmosphere of their behavior of their lives under the guidance of the rabbi. Some of the members of the community from time to time have reason to go outside of the community and travel distances where dangers some physical but mostly spiritual are lurking. And the Reb is not particularly fond of this risktaking and of a person being exposed to those types of challenges and to those types of dangers. There's one day that a fellow who's involved in various businesses needs to travel to Paris. Paris is the equivalent in this time period of Las Vegas or every other place of temptation and all sorts of exposures that one should never have. And he is terrified about his revy's reaction when he tells him that he has to go to Paris that he has to travel to Paris and he's wait to the absolute last minute and before he has to go the rev is going to see he's not there. He wants to tell him where he's going to be. He thinks it's only right and only respectful. He can't have any debate about it. His parnessa depends on it. He goes in and tell his Revy and he says, "Revy, you're not going to love this. You're not I'm not thrilled to tell it to you. I I promise you I don't have a choice. I'm going to come back as quickly as I can. The next few days I'm going to be in Paris. I have to travel to Paris. The Reby's face face lights up in Paris. That's amazing. Paris is such an exciting city. It's such a great city. It's such an incredible incredible place. So happy for you. You should have a vacation. You should enjoy yourself. It should be Tell you one funny story just as we're telling this when I was in Smika. So we had a particular revi who was very very very strict on all of the times. He was a wonderful kind and gentle man. Uh but he was very very strict on times. He tora very seriously. Shir never started a moment late. It never ended a moment early and he didn't wasn't a big fan of vacations that weren't really vacations. We had a challenge in SMA because the yeshiva university schedule worked through semesters and they have a winter break in the middle and uh and his schedule did not. He was on the more yeshiva schedule where he would go from pesak sukus to pesak without much of a break in the middle. It was always a thing. The year that I was in isir was the year of my shunna. I got married, my wife and I, we got married in August and we were basically going to take the first vacation of our lives. It worked out in January because of her schooling and everything else that was going on. So I was I was in this shoes. He was hypothetical. I'm real. And I had to go tell this Rebi, which we knew he wasn't going to like, uh, that I had to take this vacation. So we had I I had a friend who was in the exact same situation that I was. And we both went one afternoon to speak to the Rebi. And we literally, you know, flipped the coin about who was going to go in first, hoping against hope that the second person maybe he would be a little bit less angry about. And uh I won. So the other fellow went in first. And I heard from the other side of the door. I was shaking. It's like when you hear the drill of the dentist. I was shaking on the other side of the door. The rebby was so brutal on this guy. How can you do such a thing? And I don't know what what you're you know who ever heard of such a thing. A vacation in the middle of the man. It's the most ridiculous thing. I can't believe you have to do that. What type? He's he's raising his voice. He's yelling at him. I'm I'm sh, you know. Okay, Revy, I'm sorry. I go in right after him. I am scared out of my mind. Revy, I I I'm so sorry, but I also I'm planning to take a vacation. He looks at me and he says, you could use a vacation. It's a I'm like, what? It's the most insulting thing I ever heard in my life. Okay, so thisid this is what happens hypothetically. It's a true story. It's a I still don't know what he meant by that exactly. I I'm sure it wasn't a good thing, though. the um the this fellow the goes Revy has that type of Oh, Paris is amazing. Actually, it's so amazing. There's one particular kind of tobacco that they sell in Paris. It's the only place in Europe where you can get this tobacco. I don't want to inconvenience you, but if you could do me one little favor and pick I'm going to write down the name for you. If you could pick up this tobacco in Paris, I'd be I'd be so grateful. The Revy says this fellow is shocked. First of all, the reb rebi loves Paris. I I don't even think the rebi smokes. I never saw him smoking before, but okay, he's not gonna say no for if that's all the rebi wants and he's gonna give him his blessing to go to Paris to of course he's going to do it. And he doesn't waste a minute. He gets to Paris, he unpacks his suitcase and he goes right away to the first tobacco shop, shows him the piece of paper and says, "Can I No, we don't sell that here." Okay, fine. He goes later on that day after he finishes a couple of meetings, goes later on that day to a different tobacco store. No, we don't sell that here. This goes on for the three days that he's here. He's getting increasingly panicked. He got the blessing from the Revy. He is going to come back with that tobacco. He goes to 15 stores. None of them have it. He's going crazy. And now for the second time, he's dreading that return to the Reby's office to speak to the Revy. Now he has to give him the next. He's not going to get lucky twice. First time told he's going to Paris. The Revy was okay. The second time he's going to tell the Revy he failed at this very very simple mission of getting the tobacco. He's shaking again for the second time in a week. He goes to his re Rebby, I promise you. I I'll show you my I went to 15 stores. Nobody had that tobacco. Reby's there. There's no such tobacco. I don't know. There's no there's no such thing. I don't smoke and there's no such tobac What was with the piece of paper? He said, "Look, somebody told me you were going to Paris. And somebody told me that no matter what I said, you were going to go to Paris. And somebody told me that going to Paris, there was one thing that perhaps would keep your going from Paris to be terrible for you. And that would keep you from the spiritual dangers. And that would be if you were thinking about your rebby the entire time. If you carried me with you, if you had me with you as part of it the entire time, if you were connected to me, that would be the only way. And if I told you to do that, it would be weird. If I told you to do that, you wouldn't listen. But if I told you that I needed tobacco and you woke up every morning and went to sleep every night thinking about how to get me the tobacco, maybe that would influence the rest of your decisions. Shami says that's the way in which we deal with shabas. That's the way we deal with anything of kaduca when we feel it slipping from our fingers. When we feel it being threatened and the ability to have that kaduca at all. We're not out to utilize Monday to transform shabas. We're out to utilize chabas to transform Monday to have in our mind every moment of our lives. whole yum shamayazakin is afraid all of his days. What happens if I lose shabas when it is not as strong and not as present as it was before? I am sure that almost everybody in this room is familiar with the famous medish quoted by Rashi in the dramatic story of Yakov and Yoseph and their reconnection. The puss tells us as Yoseph prepares to send the brothers or prepares the brothers to go back to Jacob after he's revealed himself Yoseph this is now the brothers are already up there and they tell their father everything about Yseph and the bizarly tells us as the medish highlights so and he saw all of the abundance of food that was sent. He saw the wagons and Yakov was all of the sudden happy. He had he had his life restored to him. What does this mean? So everybody knows the medish. Everybody knows what Rashi quotes from the medish as cold Yoseph. What does it mean that he they communicated all about Yoseph? Simon Msarhem. He gave them a sign. He gave them a secret code. What were Yoseph and Jacob learning on the day in which they separated from one another? When Yoseph went to check on the brothers parasa arufah. They were learning about the para of arufah the calf that is killed after you find the person in between two cities. Shalom. Yoseph is the source of these agalos. And of course the simple reading of this mag of the rashi is that the word agalos is the same as the word ela. And therefore yo yakov understood the code that yose had sent to him. There are a couple of problems with this magish and with this rashi that I'm sure again many are aware of. First of all, I don't care how good you are at Wordle or connections. You no one is solving this code. No one is figuring that out. Wagons were normal basic things. Agala is not the same thing as an Egla. Many many years had passed between one and the other. He saw that he sent wagons and he remembered that they were learning Egla Arufa before. I mean it required. Tell me that Yakov had Ruahakodes and through Ruakodesh he knew what he understood and I'll believe you. Tell me that he didn't and that he saw the wagons and that broke through his skepticism, broke through his doubts. That seems very very odd indeed. Near impossible to imagine that such a code would ever work. Moreover, and this is a question which again, whatever your feelings are about it, if you're not bothered by it and you want to go with the simple explanation, it's great. What does it mean the para that they were learning when he left? What does it mean that they were learning? There are two questions we could ask about that. That on the day that Yoseph said goodbye, they were learning the para of egla arufah. First of all, in what form were they learning it? Yakov kept the entire Torah. He was aware of a mitzvah that was going to be given in param. Okay. But again, what they weren't Were they learning? Again, you could you could accept any answer you want to accept to that. That's just fine. Also, why were they learning the parish of Egla Arufa? Was it just a coincidence, a convenient coincidence that was going to allow for this type of word association later on? God runs the world and conveniently they were learning ela. In this case, the dash is so much more simple than the pat. The phat that we could have for this entire episode. The dash, excuse me, is so much more straightforward and in some ways even more compelling than that simple explanation that we learn when we are in elementary school. What does it mean that they were learning the para of egla arufa? Eglarufa as we mentioned is the response to a person who leaves a city and who is found murdered. Famously the zakanim of that city have to profess their innocence from murder which itself implies a small degree of responsibility. That responsibility is we did not actively murder this person but perhaps we were negligent in accompanying him outside of our home. Perhaps we were not careful enough about staying with him even after he left. What is the message? What is it that Yakov and Yoseph were learning that day? That even when you must leave, you can take something with you. Why were they learning that on that day? because Yoseph was leaving potentially and in reality for a very very long time. And his father with love and concern came to him and said, "Yeseph, you may be leaving, but when you leave, you don't leave alone. It's not the end of a relationship. It's not the end of impact. You can take me with you. I can hold on to you even when that's what it means that they were learning ea arufah they were learning that Torah value and mitzvah of being able to navigate distance and take something which is not tangibly present in front of us and carry it with us very very close to our hearts that we have the ability to do that that's what it meant that they were learning eufa And perhaps not my idea, but perhaps this is exactly what happened when he returns. It is the agalos that he sent, not word play, not the connection between an eggla and agala. It was the fact that Yoseph when the brothers left sent things with them that the vehicle is not a vehicle to carry fruits and bananas and spices but the vehicle is carrying Yoseph himself. Abba I learned the lesson. You can leave. You can say goodbye without leaving. You can have distance without being separated. You can carry it with you. Nevertheless, you can sustain and maintain even when it's not right there in front of us. We are obligated to go out to the world out of the cocoon of we can't have this program last forever. We have to end in a minute. We have to end at 1:00 and we have to go to Osher and we have to drive carpool and we have to pick up all we have to do all of the things that we have to do. And we could imagine that this room or a yumto season or the kaduca of shabit. We could imagine that any of those things are stuck exactly where they are. Or we can learn the para of egla arufaha. Or we could load our wagons with things which indicate both in the rear view mirror and looking forward that there is and will be a shabas to come. And even when we're not in Shabas, we are not disconnected from Shabas. Last point before we wrap up in the way that we promised at the beginning. We know famously a different maj the in the the ultimate union between Yitzk and Rifka. And we know the puss tells her that the ultimate acceptance of Rifka as a wife after Eleazar had done his research and brought back this potential mate. He brings her into the tent of his deceased mother Sarah. Without getting into how that makes us feel and how interesting or odd that may be, what's its significance? Why didn't they have their own tent? What does it mean that they went into the tent? And of course, Rashi famously comments, "The scent that was established by because that there were these miracles that the dough the kala lasted without getting stale and that the candles of Shabas lasted from one week to the other. This was the greatness of Sarimeu. That she had a magic candle that you put on a birthday cake that you can't blow out. That she figured out how to get enough wax. That she had a yardite candle in her house. Of course, that's not what any of those examples mean. The anan of Kaduca stayed even when Chabas left. The kala stayed fresh even as time went on. And the nare that was lit on Friday night lasted throughout the entire week. The malava mala which also bizarrely the malava mala that we're speaking about and we have been speaking about it the entire time just by building to it by speaking first about chabas then about Monday about malava mala is that suga is that para of ela that is its secret. We're going to say goodbye but we will not be separated. We are going to end something but let its impact continue and linger and go further and further and without any any and and the word malava mala again bizarrely or not is the same way we use for a leva. The most important part of our leva is not the eulogies unless the eulogies are done right. It's not even the kura when it comes to the mitzvah of levia. It's those moments in which we say goodbye without saying goodbye. We say goodbye and we accompany for another few steps. Not because we want to savor every last minute, but because there's no such thing as a last minute because it's a symbol of the fact that it goes on that you left the city or that Chabas has come to an end, but there's no such thing as coming to an end. I'll just say really by way of conclusion and by wrapping up the way that we began in tribute to Rabbi Hower who would have loved this program and who certainly embodied and lived these ideas that of the many things that were mentioned in the Hespum and were inspiring one of his sons described the fact that Rabbi Hower who was a very busy man and exhausted on chabas would always after the meal ended would always go to the couch and fall asleep there instead of leaving and I was thinking about the fact how that's a form of Levia, a form of unfortunately in his case quite literally, but that's a form of even when I I'm going to fall asleep. We can't have the meal last forever. But instead of an abrupt end that leaves us bereft and confused and questioning, there's a level even at the end of easing into a state of continuity and a state of everlasting effect. And we should be za to be able to have that to say goodbye to shabas and to make havdala only in the spirit of a levoy only in the spirit of continuing and having it with us and finding its kaduca and its grace even in the darker moments of a Monday or a Tuesday recognizing that the kok of chabas can transform even that and even then. Thank you very much.