Rabbi Nachum Chaimowitz - Laws of Shabbat: The Mitzvah of Kiddush - Part 3

welcome the topic for today is mitzvah's kiddish Mitzvah douche how how exactly do we follow through the procedure of making Kiddush it's a very special line in the wording of kiddish that the Sanhedrin have instituted to say foreign a day of sanctity with love and with desire you have given us as an inheritance you have given us with Love and Desire and the question becomes well why do we mention specifically the love of God to us and his desire for us specifically as Shabbos when we say by other Mitzvahs as well we don't find that by other Mitzvahs the time of Friday night is a very precious moment the gemorian Shabbos tells us a story of the great rubbish of blessed memory who lived approximately a thousand eight hundred years ago and one time he was walking on Friday evening he went outside with his son remember the age of blessed memory and they saw a man walking an older man walking on Friday afternoon right before Shabbos and he had with him two branches of Hadassah two branches of Myrtle leaves Myrtle leaves have a very good smell we know that Myrtle leaves are part of the special mitzvon sukis of the four species the four plant species that we have to take on circus so this man was walking on a regular Shabbos evening with two branches of hadasin Myrtle leaves said to him why do you have this what's the reason and his answer was the covered Shabbos I'm walking around with these leaves because it adds respect to the Shabbos said okay well why do you need two and the man answered one is for Zohar and one is for one is for that I remember all the positive obligations that we have on Shabbos and one is so that I remember all the negative restrictions so that I fulfill Shabbos completely I have two branches and said to his son when he saw this he said Israel look how Beloved the Mitzvahs are upon the Jewish people at first glance it's a little hard to understand we would think if someone did an unusual Act um that he went out of his way and he he he prayed with tremendous fervent with tremendous passion so we'd say wow look out look how desirable the midst of the Jewish people but why would she say look how beloved are the midst of Jewish people because someone was walking around with two branches of Myrtle leaves what's the deeper meaning in this Kamara the madrish on the Mitzvahs of sukkas vayikra is Parsha 30 letter 12. says the following creates harder we have four plant species that we have to take on sukis what is the meaning behind them says the medrish Alias Royal it really represents four types of Acts or different type of service that Jewish people perform to Hashem is one species is an asterisk it's the asterisk fruit the Aztec fruit as we know has both a good scent and both a good taste when you cook it says the medrish similarly Israel so too among the Jewish people there are some individuals that they have two pluses they also study Torah which is exemplified as taste and they also do good acts exemplified by the scent so the asteroid that has both the scent and The Taste represents Jewish people who have both Terror and good acts tomorrow the least of the Lilith Israel has any taste doesn't have any scents there are some individuals among the Jewish people who have Torah the aim by Massive they don't have really many good acts they just they just learned the third plant which is called the aravas plant Ali Israel also represents the Jewish people the aravas you know what they don't have any scent and they don't have any taste even if you cook them they don't have any taste is so too there are those among the Jewish people who don't have terror and don't have good acts the Myrtle Branch says the madrish yes it hasn't it a good scent doesn't have any taste so too they're among the Jewish people those who have good acts but they don't have really the Merit of learning too says the madrish La abdom is do not remove one species from the group you cannot claim that one species is not needed says Hashem let all of them come together foreign and they will in unity cause completeness one to another if you do this and you unite as a people you actually cause me feel to sense uplift it so to speak the four plants represent four types of Jewish people there are types of Jewish people who have old pluses they learn Terror they do good act they're types of Jewish people who have no pluses they're types of Jewish people who have one plus some Torah some good acts says Hashem I don't disrespect any one Jewish person whatever it is in whatever situation he is he's part of our nation he's part of one nation get together respect each other relate to each other with value and then what's going to happen you're really giving me respect so this is amazing because it means whatever we do for Hashem throughout the week sometimes we do good acts sometimes we do more sometimes we do less sometimes we learn sometimes we don't learn whatever we did it's all a value to Hashem and when we come together on Friday night with other Jewish people and they're good acts and they're terrible learning everyone together really create an Aliyah an uplifting a revelation for Hashem so it says the matters explicitly that Hadas the murder leaves have a good scent they don't have a good taste what it does is it represents good acts and so getting back to the story in tomorrow Shabbos was walking he saw an older man holding two Myrtle branches he said why are you holding this he said this is the covered Shabbos this is out of respect of the Shabbos why because a Myrtle branch has a good scent and all of our actions come together on Friday night in order to respect the Shabbos in order to remind ourselves of the good acts that's why I'm carrying around the Myrtle branch said to his son he says look how Beloved the Mitzvahs are the Jewish people when it comes Friday night it's the time for Jewish people to remember their Mitzvahs and good acts that's a time where we do an internal review of the entire week for a second before making kiddish I take out a second and I think well what did I do good this week and it starts to come back starts to come back to me all the good acts those good acts are represented in a good scent and because of this there's some Jewish people who have the custom to actually smell sweet smelling scents on Friday night before they make kiddish when finishing the davening in shul they smell something sweet to remind us of the good acts but then when we come to kiddish we say a very special line this Shabbos and Shabbos the sanctity of Shabbos you have given us with love and with desire why do we say it specifically now why do we say it by this Mitzvah not by any other it's because of the uniqueness of these precious moments on Friday night it's at that point that Friday night where everything comes together to us from the whole week it's a time of blessing but not only that it's a time where we greet the angels that were created from our Good Deeds throughout the entire week welcome the angels that were created through our good acts and with this we can understand why many Jews have the custom of saying say it's going to show them now you can go some people don't say say it's going to show them but many people do say States what's the idea why would you send away Angels who came to your house and the answer is it's the angels that were created through our Good Deeds now we're sending them up now we're sending them up to Hashem God look at what we've done as a nation over the whole week at that special moment when all of the United acts of Jewish people from the whole week come up before God turns to us and says I love you that's amazing I have a desire for you you're an amazing people the Shabbos now is the time of Love and Desire it's about building a relationship we've now created a most positive relationship between the Jewish people and God and so when we fulfill this myth of kiddish and we come on Friday night to make the proclamation it's Shabbos what a wonderful day we should know that the day of Shabbos goes even further it's not only about an experience okay so it's now an extra special experience from the whole week it's not only about that but it's a bad relationship it's about the special unique relationship Jewish Nation receives as a gift that the Jewish Nation creates between themselves and God on Friday night and so now we come to the topic for today how should we do this how do we do this in the best proper way how do we do this clearly according to the Allah to proclaim the words of Kiddush on wine first point for tonight is that there are two accepted customs among the Jewish people of how to say kiddish many Jewish people say Kiddush while they're standing they hold the cup they stand the person who's saying the Kiddush and everyone listening also stands that's one custom another customer is everyone sits a person who sells the kid is just sitting and everyone else is sitting around the table these are two totally acceptable Customs according to Allah one should not change the custom of their family if you have one certain custom passed down in your home and your family you should keep to that customer so whatever person's custom is now comes Friday night we will either be standing for kiddish or will be sitting and now we're ready to say the kiddish the second point now when we come to say the kiddish how do we hold the cup the cup beautiful cup night of Shabbos is on the table how do we hold it customarily a person should show importance to the cup and take it with two hands it's better to pick it up with two hands than to picking up with one afterwards a person should take the cup and position it on his right hand if you position it in the hand that's his stronger hand that shows importance ideally and this is also custom the cup is placed on the palm of the hand and is then surrounded by the fingers that's the way we hold the cup customarily but it's not obligatory even if you just pick up the cup it will be fine so the second point that we learned is that we take the cup with two hands put it onto our right hand ideally on the palm third point for today is that right before a person starts to make the Kiddush he should ideally glance at the candles we know that the Sanhedrin instituted the candle so we should have benefit it's a very special moment as we're about to proclaim the kiddish that's a time where we want to have benefit from this special light of the Shabbos candles it's appropriate by the first few words to look at the candles then afterwards for the rest of Kiddush it's appropriate if a person can to actually look at the cup of kiddish that's what brought down already from the gemara it shows importance to the cup of Kiddush obviously if a person has to look in the sitter and they have to say the words so a person is allowed to look in the sitter but if they can just glance even or look the rest of the time at the cup of Kiddush that's preferable so let's go over what we learned already today number one kidish is recited either everyone's standing or everyone sitting depending on custom each person should follow their customer second point is that the way that we pick up the cup is ideally with two hands we put it into our right hand on our Palm the third point is that we look right before kiddish at the candles and then afterwards during the Kiddush we look either at the sitter or at the cup of Kiddush the next point for tonight is listening listening to the Kiddush essentially each and every person should be saying Kiddush each and every person men and women included boys and girls from the age of bar mitzvah boss Mitzvah onward lead to recite the Kiddush however customarily one Jewish person can fulfill a mitzvah for another Jewish person so therefore customarily the Kiddush is usually recited by the head of the household and he fulfills everyone else's obligation if you're a listener you need to make sure to hear all the words even if you can't understand the words because they're being said in Hebrew it's necessary to hear all the words even if some words were not heard specifically it's necessary to hear the words of the blessings the blessing in the Middleburg needs to be heard in its entirety and the blessing at the end the final blessing of kiddish only if a person hears these two blessings can he fulfill his obligation by listening the last point for today is that when it comes to drink the wine only the person who actually makes Kiddush has to drink it's not obligatory for everyone around the table to drink although it's preferable when the person finishes the Kiddush he proclaimed already all the words and now he comes to drink the cup of wine it's necessary for him to drink One Cheek food and it should be done without interruption he can't just drink a little bit go off and speak with someone for five minutes come back and finish the cheek full it has to be drunk all together it doesn't have to be drunk all in one go it could be in a few gulps but it should be successive one after another to drink the amount that's required it's preferable if he then gives the wine to those who are around the table once again if he does want to do that he should first take from the Fresh wine pour a little into his wine and then distribute it to every one of the table may God help and we'd be able to perform this Mitzvah each and every Friday night in the best possible way we would be able to take advantage of these unique Precious Moments Friday night were we married as a nation to build that special relationship with God a relationship of ahava Love and Desire and may that relationship and God's love for all of his creatures be revealed in the entire world in the Merit of our good deeds in the Merit of our kidish on Friday night be revealed in the whole world speedily in our days amen