The Safeguard Of Sanctity | Rabbi Meir Rapoport

[music] >> The voice of Carlebach and the Polovitcher Rov, his community was destroyed, his Yeshiva was destroyed, he lost his own family during the war, but he rebuilt [music] after the war, the famous Polovitcher Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. One Shabbos he was walking through the dining room, and as he walked [music] through the dining room he notices that the table cloth on the table is slightly off the corner of the table was uncovered. And Polovitcher Rov calls the bachrum and says, let me tell you a story. This took place in the 17-1800s. This was about the Navardok Kedibuk. What's a Navardok Kedibuk? There was a bachur, a fine bachur nebuch, and there was a dibuk in a neshama, a neshama that had been wandering around, had found no rest for thousands of years. This neshama was the person who threw the first stone at Zechariah Hanavi that caused the death of Zechariah Hanavi some 2,000 years earlier. And he'd found no rest until he found refuge within this bachur. And this bachur was suffering, and as much as they tried to get the dibuk out of him, it didn't work. Ultimately, it was the Chofetz Chaim who managed to expel and get rid of this dibuk. One Shabbos they took the bachur to the house of Rav Chaim Volozhin, the talmud of the Vilna Gaon. And this dibuk he could not stand the kedusha, he was allergic to anything that had sanctity within it. If he would see a rosha, he would run and hug him. If he would see a tzaddik, he would run away from him. And being in the house of Rav Chaim Volozhin on Shabbos, he couldn't take it. He was pacing up and down and agitated because the sanctity and the kedusha that permeated the home of Rav Chaim Volozhin, he just could not take it. Until he noticed, said the Polovitcher Rov, that the corner of the table was uncovered. The table cloth was folded over. And the Navardok Kedibuk [music] sat underneath that corner of the table and hugged that corner, and there he found refuge because there was a vacuum from kedusha in that little corner. Said the Polovitcher Rov, you have to make sure that the tablecloth is fully covered so that [music] the Kedusha of Shabbos permeates every single point and every single area. Friday night, we say as we usher in the Malochim to our home, "Heelachti neirosai, I lit my candles. Ve'eetsati mitosi, and I spread out the sheets and the cloths. Ve'echlafti simlosai, and I changed [music] my garments, I changed my clothes for Shabbos." And we ask the Malochim to enter our house and bench us. There's a fascinating vort from the Bnei Yissaschar. The Bnei Yissaschar says, "The gematria of Shabbos is 702. The gematria of Malach Havaya, Malach of Hashem, is 117. 117 * 6 is 702, the gematria of Shabbos." What's pshat? Says the Bnei Yissaschar, "That Bereishis bara Elokim, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the world in six days, Bereishis stands for Yorei Shabbos. A person who truly appreciates the awesomeness of Shabbos and allows the Kedusha to think Kedusha of Shabbos to permeate not only in his home, but permeate within him, that person invites the Malochim into his house and will be protected not just on Shabbos, [music] but he will be protected six days of the week because six times Malach Havaya is Shabbos. Let us appreciate every little act we do for the preparation of Shabbos, even covering the tablecloth, that induces and permeates the house with Kedusha of Shabbos and brings the Malochim home, protects us ad me'ah v'esrim shana b'sochein. >> [music] >> Kodesh v'noiam noiam [music] Shabbos, kodesh v'noiam Shabbos. Ay ay ay, kodesh v'noiam Shabbos.