Turn Friday into Erev Shabbos #217 - The 7 Week Shabbos Challenge

Good Arab Shabas. Today feels like Friday. Your calendar says Friday, but today is not Friday. In fact, today is of Shabas and we are here to turn our Friday into Shabas as we do each and every week. Want to thank our generous sponsors in memory of Rabbi Jonathan. This week is also sponsored by Jack and an MML in honor of his mother's yearite Margaret Mermstein Maria Bashman Shama Shav and Aliyah. We're turning our Friday into Shabas, which is important and critical all year round for each and every Friday, each and every Shabas. But it's even more important this time of year. We find ourselves in the period of um we are counting counting to standing at the mountain, counting to accept and receive that Torah. And we're counting not only 49 days, but the Torah formulates it and challenges us to countosimos to seven Shabbasimos, which simply means seven complete weeks, right? The first night of Shabu, we wait until nightfall. So they're complete. They're timos. We're complete. We don't cut it short. We don't start early. So the simple understanding, the simple translation is seven complete weeks. But the sunba and others say shabasos to meimos. This time of year we're meant to experience seven true, real, authentic, complete shabases. Cheva shabasos that are toimos. seven shabases that are complete, that are whole, that are authentic, that are genuine, that are passionate, that are enthusiastic, that are real. So, we're working on Shabas all year round. Shabas matters every week, but this time of year especially, we're leaning in and we're trying to experience seven Shabases in a row that are timos, that are tim, that are pure, innocent, sweet, simple, that are authentic and genuine, that are true, and that are real. How do we do that? How do we turn our Friday into Shabas? How do we utilize and lean into a shabas that transforms, that enriches, that elevates, and that uplifts? So, you'll notice here says this as well that the paras that we're reading now, there is a number. If there were a TV show maybe popular from my childhood and youth, we'd say is brought to you by the number seven. How is it brought to you by the number seven? The mitsra is isolated seven days. And the woman who gives birth is she's impure for seven days. We see the number seven appearing over and over. Every time there's tum whenever there is impurity and someone needs to rehabilitate themselves, someone needs to undergo a purification process. We always see the number seven. And we also see this when it comes to holiness. Shabbas is the seventh day. Pes and sukus are seven days. Shabu says the end of counting seven weeks. Seven. Hashem loves the number seven. Hem loves the number seven. Say all sevens are precious to Hashem. What does Hashem love about the number seven? It's not a round number, not an even number. What's lovable about the number seven? So shalom, the great points out, he says the number seven means that automatically included in seven is always shabas. What Hashem loves about the number seven is that anything operating on account of seven by definition includes Shabas and that transforms that elevates that has this incredible ability. The Zor says that Shabas is the day of the all week long we're living and operating in the physical material world. All week long we're accumulating, we're amassing, we're working to-do list, technology, tasks. All week long we are feeling our body. In shabas we tell the body take a break rest stop working stop accumulating and amassing stop with your ambition and drive rest take it easy because today is today's the day that we feed and nourish our soul dvening learning singing laughing reading talking learning storytelling playing today's the day of the naman not the goof shabas we recreate we reinvent we reinvigorate ourselves shabas is a taste of the world to come in which we won't be shackled and brought down. We won't be held captive by the body, but the nishama of the soul can thrive and can flourish. And that's the seven that Hashem loves. Anything that includes shabas, includes rejuvenation, includes reinventing, includes being able to bring ourselves up and being able to see bring ourselves higher and higher. Hashem therefore loves the number seven. So the power of Shabas is the capacity to purify anything which is impure to purify that which is impure. Shabas lean into a shabas experience a shabas count up or down to a shabas be prepared and greet and love and be transformed by shabas and that is the ability to be mire. So our para which is dealing with the tuma the tuma of a woman who just gave birth the tum of somebody who spoke ill of others and needed to be isolated. the tum of this, the tum of that, or or on the other side, the number seven of the holy holidays, the number seven of Shabas. But every time you see the number seven, it's that Shabas can be Shabas can cleanse and purify and transform and elevate. Why? Hashem blessed the seventh day and he sanctified it. And he gave that seventh day by giving us this automatic every week 24-hour vacation, an imposed vacation, a break, a rest, rejuvenation, a reinventing ourselves. He was blessed that seventh day. What a blessing. What a bar. He's sanctified that day. There's no schmutz. There's no tum. We're not watching. We're not looking. We're not going. We're not doing. We're not interacting. We're not transacting. Shabas is the kok of tahara. Shabas, if we observe it properly, if we prepare and we count up and we get ready and we enter Shabas and we put on our Shabas Pum, we're at peace. We're restful. We're excited. We're filled with love. We look into ourselves and what we need to improve. So Shabas is the mat. Shabas has the ability. It's the mccor. It's the source of all blessing in our life because we go back and we reset and we reboot and we go back to what matters to sit with family friends to be in conversation to not be distracted by this world to not be in pursuit of and chasing more consumerism to be able to lean in to the soul to nourish the soul to be in conversation with the soul that's the kak of shabas to be maher so every yiff operates the number seven anyone who's isolated and needs to rehabilitate to re-enter anyone Who's to who's impure? He needs to purify the number seven. Not because Hashem is just randomly obsessed with the number seven. But the number seven automatically means it will include Shabas. It will include Shabas. So we have this gift this and we have this chance each and every week but particularly these weeks for seven weeks in a row to experience a Shabas which is TM. What are you going to do to make this Shabas TM? How will it be different than the rest of the year? How will you make these days count? Not just count spir but make these shabases count. Make these shabases be it's the seven week shabas challenge. We're already into it. This isn't the first shabas but it's never too late. It's never too late to make this next shabas and to countosim. So what are you going to do? Will you prepare a story a thoughtprovoking question? Will you invite people so they're not sitting alone and isolated? Will you go to that cheer take advantage of that learning opportunity? Will you dive in in a different way than you ordinarily do? How can you extract yourself from the mundane, from the material, from the physical and lean into a shabas? A shabas which is the source of a shabas which is going to be mat. Where's the tom of the schmutz in us? What thought, speech or action do we do? Are we engaged in in the past week which is ti which is impure that we need to be mat that we need to uplift and transform that we need to purify. How can we make shabas tomos? How can shabas be mat? That's this week's challenge for Shabas. Wishing you a healthy, holy, and a happy Shabas.