Turn Friday into Erev Shabbos #218 - Observe Two Shabboses This Week

A good er of shabas to everyone. Today is not Friday. It may feel like Friday. Your calendar may say Friday, but today is in fact air of shabas. And we are here to turn our Friday into error of Shabas. I want to thank our dear friends and sponsors in memory of Rabbi Lord Jonathan. It's so hard to still not be listening to music. You see the power of music to stir the soul. Power of music to prepare you for Shabas. It's hard. Shabas we sing. We produce our own music during the week during this period of we're still morning the students of we couldn't behave. We couldn't get along. We couldn't respect one another. But it's almost like Bmer for those who keep the first. We're almost there. Back turn Friday of Shabas going back to the music back to back to the uplifting stirring melodies in our home because it's one way to get ready for Shabas. But we have to make the music ourselves in these days that we can't listen to music in these days that we're mourning and grieving. these days that we're trying to be inspired to be bigger and to be better. The music has to be in our hearts and in our souls. In our par the Torah tells us that a man has to have a healthy awe and fear of their mother and father and observe their shabas. What's the connection? What's the juxtaposition? Why do we compare observing shabas with honoring or having awe and fear of parents? Because even though we must have awe and fear and respect and deference towards parents that we should not listen to them if they say violate chabas there are boundaries and borders there is a hierarchy. Yes we observe and listen to our parents but our parents have to listen to their father who's our father namely Hashem. So in a conflict and a tension between what they want us to do and what Hashem wants us to do the observance of shabasim in those moments we do not listen to our parents. But I want to share with you another interesting suggestion. the Epstein who was the in writes the following it's quoted in Ben Ley and he says the following these are two mitzvah what do they have in common observing Shabas and honoring our parents and I'll tell you how it's going to help us turn our Friday into Shabas how this will help us get ready and sing the music in our soul and prepare and count up and down towards Shabas's beginning what these two mitzvah have in common is that both are potential to be described to be considered as mitzvah. These are both rational, logical mitzvah. So easily, you can say, you know why I honor my parents? Because it makes sense. I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have life. I wouldn't have what I have without my parents. So, one of the ways that I give, the way I say thank you is to show them to give them some honor. And why do I observe Shabas? Because it's healthy to take a sabbatical once every seven years, to take a sabbatical, a vacation during the year, and to take every week one day off. Maybe a technology break. the technology Sabbath there's something becoming popular the technology Sabbath you don't have to be religious or observant you don't have to believe in God to realize that it's good to disconnect once a week in order to connect to what matters so these are two mitzvah where so easily a person could be motivated or inspired a person can say you know why I do it or keep it not because God said not because he commanded not because he prescribed that it's good for me I do it because it makes sense I do it because it's rational I do it because it's reasonable so says and that's why the Torah comes along and lumps them together and says that is not why we do it. You know why we do it? So therefore have awe, have respect, have reverence and deference to your parents. Realize where you come from. You're not something from nothing. Be grateful and appreciative and show it to them. You know why? Not just because it's logical and rational because I am Hashem and I told you to and you are doing it connects you not only to them, it connects you to me. And similarly, Shabas is not just about about a a technology Sabbath. It's not just about disconnecting. It's not just about relaxing and resting. Do what God says because you're imitating me. You're emulating me. Do it because I asked you and told you to do it for you. Do it because we're going to spend time together and develop a relationship. Why do I share this insight? Because my suggestion this week that we turn Friday into our era of Shabas is to realize that going into Shabas is about the mindfulness and meaning that we give it. You can just say, you know, it's good for me to rest and relax. It's good for me to disconnect and take off. It's good for me to take a technology Sabbath. And then we are not observing Shabas. then we are just observing our rational thinking. We're observing the will and the want of our heart. But if we really want to tap into the holiness, the kadusha of Shabas, God bless the seventh day. So he gave it holiness. If we really want to elevate and enrich and transform, if we want to tap into the holiness, if we want to draw from the mccor, the place that is the wellspring, the source of all blessing in life, then we can't just do it because it makes sense. Can't do it because we want. We can't do it because it's reasonable or rational. We should do it because because God said so. And so the mindfulness and the meaning, the kavana of going into shabasem. I'm going to spend time with you. I'm not just taking off from work and technology and to-dos and tasks. I'm going to spend time with you to be in conversation with you to talk to you and to hear you and feel you talking to me. I want to sing your song. I want to tell your story. I want to share the insights of your sacred and timeless Torah. I want to be with your other children, my family. I want to connect with community which is really what this is all about. Is given in the context of isel in order to achieve holiness you have to gather is a community to be unified to be together to be with others and only then we have to observe the shabas. Why is it the plural? It doesn't say observe my shabas. It says observe my shabases. And we've spoken about this previously. There's so many insights. What does it mean when Hashem says observe my shabases in the plural? This week and next week, last week and this week at one level, sure means plural. Shabas is not something we do or try once. It's something we keep and look forward to each and every week. It's part of the rhythm of our lives. It's part of what restores our soul. It's what we live for. We don't rest on chabas. So we could work all week. We work all week. So we get the payday, the braha of Shabas. And therefore it's recurring. It's a recurring date we put in our calendar. Not a one-off, not a one-time. Shabosai, my many Shabases. But it also means Shabosai. It means observe. They're the positive commandments of Shabas and the negative ones. We bookend Shabas with Kdesh Abdullah. We light the candles. They're positive components. And then the sham. Don't do the 39 categories of creative label labor. Those are the two categories of Shabas as well. We have the Shabas of the and the Shabas of the and twice it's repeated. So the two times in the ten commandments we have observing Shabas. Maybe that's what it means by multiple Shabases. Or maybe maybe my many Shabases. It means observe the theme in Shabas of commemorating creation and observe the theme in Shabas of honoring freedom and emancipation of liberating ourselves and freeing ourselves. Observe both parts renewal and restoration and reboot. My bracia start again and also liberate and free yourself. Don't be addicted to technology. Don't be obsessed with the pursuit of the material. Liberate and free yourself to experience the freedom of a beautiful Shabas. Shabas also has two other components. There's the Shabas that happens automatically. Shabas that happens automatically is when the sun sets on Friday. The Shabas ready or not. Here it comes. When the sun goes down on Friday, it is Shabas. There's the Shabas that happens to us. The Shabas you can't avoid. But then there's the Shabas that there's the Shabas that we create, the Shabas that we make. There's the Shabas that we do and that is what we put into Shabas. Turn Friday into Shabas by not just having Shabas happen to you. It's not just that Shabas will fall and descend upon you and you'll be bound by it. There's no escaping it, but make Shabas create Shabas. What story are you going to tell at the Shabas table? What are you going to repeat? What song are you going to start to sing? What book are you going to read? What safer are you going to learn? What shar are you going to attend? Which menu will you davin at? How will you elevate your Shabas table? How will you not just pass have Shabas happen to you and observe and avoid the 39 categories of creative labor but lassos? How will you make Shabas? How will you be a true shmer Shabas? Me make and create. Turn Friday into Arab Shabas. Prepare. Get ready. Let Shabas let Shabas see you waiting for her. Don't catch her waiting for you. It should be a Shabosai, a plural Shabas among the many beautiful Shabases that we're going to keep. Shabas of a Shabas of creation and liberation. And it should be a Shabas that not only the Shabas that happens to us that's automatic that's on the calendar but the Shabas that we create. Go create a beautiful Shabas. Go put in the time given the thought be mindful not just the rational part of Shabas but also to spend the time with Hashem. So may the Shabas be a murha. It should be a Shabas that is a source of tremendous braha and blessing in your life and ours. is a Shabas of Yeshua, a Shabas that brings great miracles, a Shabas that brings great news.