Turn Friday into Erev Shabbos #258 ー All Your Work is Done

[music] [music and singing] >> Turn Friday into Erev Shabbos. >> [music] >> The music is back. >> [music] >> Our music is back cuz we are turning our Friday into Erev Shabbos. Today is not Friday, it is Erev Shabbos. And I want to thank our generous sponsors, Mindy and Cipporah Fishman, as close to kind of as it could be for a fellow memory of Jonathan Sacks, Yakub Arieh, and the memory of Mendy's father, this turn Friday is sponsored by P4P Team, Professionals for Positions. To find out more, email Mark with a C, m a r c at p4p.team. p4p.team. Thank you for your generosity. The music is back. What a difference it makes, the power of music. Lag Baomer is now behind us. We're back to listening to music, and it has a powerful influence in helping us prepare. One of the ways I try to turn Friday into Erev Shabbos is having a special Shabbos mix. And playing Shabbos songs on Friday transforms the home. If you wake up to that music, if you walk into your office, in your car, to your workout, and you're listening to Shabbos Erev Shabbos music, ah, the sweet flavors, the taste. There's an element of a tosefes Shabbos. You're starting Shabbos early. So, consider making a Erev Shabbos playlist and play it different than the other days of the week. Part of the way you turn Friday into Erev Shabbos is not only the sights, the flavors, but it's also the sounds. It's the smells. It's the food cooking for Shabbos. It's the scene. It's the table being set for Erev Shabbos, but it's also the sounds. It's the music that's playing. Not the typical, but the music of Erev Shabbos. So so wonderful to have it back. Nothing holier than K Erev Shabbos, the Karliner Baruch Hashem, Baruch Hashem. Our parsha at the very end has a possuk of mikdashi tiro ani Hashem. Observe my Shabboses and have awe and reverence for my mikdash. Shabbos and mikdash always go together. They represent sanctity and holiness, one in time and one in space. They represent our ways to connect to Hashem. I'm sure. So strong and be well. In his wonderful sefer parsha, he says another connection between the two, Shabbos and mikdash is avodas midas habitochon. Both are incubators, laboratories, platforms, places we work on bitochon, our relationship, our trust in Hashem. The mikdash is a place of revelation. The Beis Hamikdash is a place of certainty, of confidence. The 10 miracles that happened there daily, you saw, you felt, you connected to Hakadosh Baruchu. Shabbos, we enter, we go in and it's also a place we leave our doubt behind. We walk in with confidence, with certainty, with conviction. We see the revelation, we feel the presence of Hashem. Shabbos is to time what mikdash is to space. And we feel a sense of bitochon. That's our avoda. That's our work. That's our effort. That's what we are trying to transform ourselves to be. Coin is b'may gematria bitochon. The avoda of the Beis Hamikdash work of the coin in the Beis Hamikdash is bitochon, the same gematria, because the work, the example, the model, the inspiration is to show bitochon. Whatever's happening in my life, whatever's happening around me, in this place called mikdash, Hashem is in charge, he's in complete control. I'm not nervous, I'm not anxious, I'm not worried. But I I rest entirely on him and in his hand. And the avoda of the coins mishulchan gavoa is to to eat at the table of Hashem. The sefer korbanos are b'chinus man. Shulchan shel os. The korbanos were the recreation of the man, the holy man, that fell from shamayim. The carbonos were to recreate. The coin worked and he ate from the meat of bitachon. In this place, there is no doubt. There is no confusion. There is no tension. It's all Hashem. Ein od milvado. He's in charge. He's in control. And therefore, everything by definition is good. I have what I need. And therefore, there are challenges in life and they'll be waiting there for me, but they're not random and they're not chance. They're all from Hashem. And that's the avodah He writes, "V'chein avodas Hashem b'bitachon." As the Mechilta Parshas Yisro writes, "K'ilu kol melachtecha asuya." Shabbos, as we go into Shabbos, and this is what we're meant to do today. Turn our Friday into Erev Shabbos by feeling "Kol melachtecha asuya." All of our work is done. I but it's not done. I'm not at inbox zero. You know how many emails, WhatsApp messages, phone calls? Do you know my checklist, my to-do list, how many things I didn't get done? Do you know what's waiting for me? Do you know how many bills there are to pay? How could you say "Kol melachtecha asuya"? Because that's Shabbos. Shabbos is the middah of bitachon. I leave it at the doorway of Shabbos. After Havdalah, it'll be waiting. I'll pick up where I left off, but I go into Shabbos middas habitchon. Bitachon zeh inyan haParsha Mitzvas Hashem That's what Parshas Behar is all about. From beginning to end, Shmittah till Shabbos at the end. That's what it's all about. And everything in between, the laws of ona'ah and the laws of ribbis, we should be scrupulous with integrity in business practices cuz when you trust in Hashem, when you have bitachon, you know he's in charge, he's in control, he gives us what we need, then you have no reason to cut corners. You have no reason to compromise or be corrupt. You have no reason to extort or charge interest cuz you know Hashem is in con- in charge, in control. It's what the entire Parsha is about. It's what Shabbos is about. So, that's what turning our Friday into Erev Shabbos is about. Turning our Friday into Erev Shabbos is working our bitachon. When you light those candles, when you go to shul, is to take a moment, to take some deep breaths, to meditate, and to realize, "I'm leaving it all at the door of Shabbos. Whatever to-do list, whatever tasks, whatever's in my inbox, how much work there is still to do? No. Kol hamlacha hasira. My attitude, my mentality, my feeling is that all my work is done and now Shabbos. Shabbos is menucha. Shabbos is rest, a real rest, the rest of the feeling that I'm good. I'm done. I can rest. There's nothing more to do. I'm just experiencing the pleasure of being with Hashem, my family and friends, and myself. I can rest cuz all my work is done. I How can I ever feel all my work is done when it isn't? Because of bitachon, with the mida of bitachon. So let Let us succeed in turning our Friday into erev Shabbos first of all with some beautiful music. And not only with the beautiful music, but by transforming ourselves to feel all of our work is done, to grow our midas of bitachon, have a restful Shabbos, a truly authentically restful Shabbos, have a happy, holy, and healthy Shabbos. >> [music and singing] [singing] [music]