Turn Friday into Erev Shabbos #230 - Last Shabbos of the Year

[Music] Oh y [Music] [Applause] [Music] of the year today is Friday. Today is in fact Shabas and we are turning our Friday into Arab Shabas. Our series generously sponsored by our dear friends and Meny Fishman in memory of Rab Jonathan Sax Ben David. We have been learning this wonderful cafer by the about Shabas Shabas. And one of the things that he mentioned we spoke last week is that if we can say if we articulate if we utter the words shabas kesh to honor the shabas with all the preparation we do we transform these from mundane profane objects into instruments and tools of holiness. And so I got a beautiful email this week from a holy yet a holy Jew not in Florida, not in New York, somewhere else who was determined as he went shopping for Shabas that he was going to as he purchased and ordered everything he'd say the herring, the deli, the mustard, the everything. When he got to the counter, as he writes, the non-Jewish Latino man said to him and as he handed him his package kadesh, what a kosher store that the workers are trained to say shabas kadesh. We should do that every week. We should do that especially this week and that's what I want to speak about. We'll take a break from the rebra. We'll come back to it. But this shabas this is the last shabas of the year. Rash shana is Monday night. So this is the final shabas of the year. And you might say okay that's a that's a fascinating observation of the calendar but it's much more than that. It is something much bigger than that. The priest of said that when told us that let the year and its curses end and let the year and its blessings begin, it was talking about the shabas before rash that the year can begin already. The shabas before we know that shabas already has the energy of whatever is going to come that coming week. So if rash is in that week that will follow that shabas already has that energy that character that identity of shabas of of of what's coming that week. So writes the shabas before rashash where already the new year you can taste. We don't watch a ball drop. We we see ourselves rise. We're getting ready. You could already begin to feel rashashana this shabas. Don't dip the apple in the honey just yet. Don't eat the pomegranate just yet. Don't say uh just yet. But this Shabas already carries the energy, the excitement, the anticipation, the freshness, the newness, the renewal of Sh. So what is it? We read which has all about all these themes about chuva about return and restoring about rebooting and about resetting about new beginnings and fresh opportunity about embracing the present to redefine who we are right now. Shabas is the time that we take stock as we've learned many times on Friday when we take a shower. We're not just cleaning ourselves physically. We should have the image and the idea that we're cleansing ourselves from whatever mistakes, blemishes, failures, however many times we fell this week. We're cleaning, we're rinsing, we're preparing, we're getting ready, a person has to check their clothing, their pockets. Make sure you're not carrying on Shabas. That's say to be bogate is to rebel. Check your rebelliousness. Did we rebel? Did we make mistakes? Did we come up short? Where weren't we our best selves? And how can we do better? Shabas is that time we're disconnected from all the noise and technology and to-dos of the week. Shabas, we have a peace and a serenity and a harmony. We have space to think, to be. We stop doing. We're not a human doing. And finally, Shabas, we can be a human being. And by being a human being, not just a human doing all week long, we're a human doing. Shabas comes and we're a human being. And as a human being, we have the space to think, to dream, to imagine, to grow, to change, to transform, to become who we want and who we're meant to be. So every Shabas is a man of chuva. But this Shabas in particular, the last Shabas of the year says the and so many others, we're taking stock and we're doing chuva not only on the of the week, but of the whole year, the last shabas of the year. Did we listen to enough turn Friday into Shabas? Did we practice enough turning Friday into Arab Shabas? Did we eat a little tom? Did we have the table set up when we woke up on Friday morning? Did we bring Shabas in early and experience a toephace and expanded Shabas? Did we consciously receive our nisham, our greater nishama? Did we lean into shabas like cover shabas kesh? All the things and all the themes, all the ideas and all the practices we've learned, we've promised, we've pledged. This is the shabas, the last shabas of the year that we ask ourselves. Did we fulfill? Did we do it? Did we get there? Say tell us that if the Jewish people would only keep two shabases and immediately would be redeemed. And there are many ideas which two Shabases Shabas and Shabasu Shabaso Shabu which two Shabases but one idea is the last Shabas of the year and the first Shabas of the year because if you lean in and experience if you fully embrace the last Shabas and the first Shabas then you fulfill we can be blessed in the way we go out of the year. Let's go out with a bang. Let's go out with a great Shabas. Let's go out with shambias. Let's go out with bring shabas in early. Let's go out with being ready and shabas finds us waiting for her instead of her waiting for us. Let's go out with the shabas. Shabas meals with Torah and song. Let's go out with Shabas laughter. Let's go out with Shabas ding and Shabas learning. Let's go out and then we'll be we'll go out with a great Shabas and we'll come in and bring in with a great Shabas. And lastly, one more idea. We saw a notion of Shabas. We've learned a lot about it before Shabas after Shabas. But the idea that we don't minimize, we don't keep it the bare minimum of Shabas when it happens automatically when the sun goes down on Friday and then when three stars come out on Mes Shabas. But tophace we add on, we volunteer, we expand, we dwell, we show that we want as much Shabas as we can get. So the salam says that is to tish what shabas is to shabas. Let me say that again. Preparing getting ready positioning ourselves is to tish is to tish what shabas is to shabas. So says the slutrimer if that's true that el is to tish what shabas is to shabas that means that just like there's idea of toph shabas there's an idea of toph we could bring we can shle rash shana and tish in early with our attitude towards our shabas so this last shabas of the year we're not going to meet again until next year this last shabas of the year I want to wish you a beautiful shabas a holy healthy and happy shabas and a shabas of chuva a shabas that we take stock on the shabases of the whole year what do we get right what do we get wrong What could we do better? So that we go out with a bang of beautiful Shabas and then by being better we can come in the first Shabas of the year with a beautiful Shabas as well. Maybe a Shabas turn your Friday into Shabas. Play some Shabas music. Eat some toraha. Have your table set early. Be ready and waiting for Shabas to begin. And then lean in. Be fully present mindful. Have a shabas. The singing, the detra, the stories, the games, the laughter, the love, the dvening. Let it be your most beautiful shabas yet. [Music] Oh yeah. [Music] [Applause] [Music]