Turn Friday into Erev Shabbos #36 - Only Smiles on Shabbos

[Music] go put your hands together it's time for our arab shabbos parties [Music] are [Music] all right everybody welcome to turn friday into era of showers great to be back together again i want to thank the sponsors series for the year mending support fishermen and schools for high rivassi for alfredo thank you for your generosity and today's particular share is also sponsored in memory of doctor howard trachtenberg heinz ben binyamin which is today by elaine trachtenberg and of course by andre and allen lieberman hillary lefkowitz it's the championship he was a wonderful person howard tremendous amount of faith in hashem a community leader and a builder of our shul of our greater bokeh community he's missed and howard's neshama should have an aliyah thank you to the track and works for your generosity the lieberman's left court says for a sponsor we have been going through and defining different interpretations different understandings of what it means to have an ishamiyasera what does it mean to have an endowed soul an extra soul an extra layer of a soul we could all use it this was a grueling week because the gemara tell us very insightful to human psyche that there's nothing worse than living with uncertainty there's nothing worse than doubt in simcha kataras has suffered the greatest joy is resolving doubt and when you resolve that doubt you don't always resolve it in your favor it's not that you got the best news people can be disappointed in either direction and of course i'm not referring to anything specific however the need to resolve doubt that closure is what gives us simcha living with doubt is uh anxiety written living with doubt is paralyzing this comes when we're able to resolve that sense of that sense of suffix this was a week where many people were deprived of sleep walking on edge checking the news and here we are going into shabbos still waiting to find out although the uh indications seem to be in one direction but with certainty who the next president will be who will be the leader who will what impact that will have others would panic you're disconnecting you're turning off you won't know you can't follow you can't hear i can't wait i'm so excited how much we need this how desperately we could use disconnecting and to remember we're going from a place of uncertainty a week of uncertainty to that place of certainty shabbos is the place of absolute knowledge of knowledge that hashem is the one who runs the world and you know how great it is when you live with faith when you live with the moon then you can know that whatever the outcome is the one that's meant to be and whatever the outcome it's the way that god drew it up it's the way that he's planned it so there's no reason to panic there's no reason to fear there's no reason to worry one can simply let go and let god we can have the confidence that's all of hashem and that's why the ninth interpretation of what it means to have an ashame again it's not a hebrew newfangled neo hasidis concept the notion of having an extra or a more endowed soul traces itself back to the gemara and baits and elsewhere it goes all the way back to the time of our rabbis to the time of our ghazal the shabbos once a week we get a paid vacation once a week we disconnect from the troubles of this world once a week we get to experience what it means to have serenity and tranquility peace once a week we get to know what it means to be disconnected from all that distracts and all that makes us worried and anxious and to reconnect to what matters so the ninth interpretation of the nishami hisera was the ability to be happy to smile to be joyous we talked about that last week it was the message in the whatsapp group this morning the importance of smiling on air of shabbos and smiling as we transition into shabbos you're not happy and then you smile once you start smiling you'll find that you're happy so don't wait wipe off that bison upon him that miserable frown put a smile on your face smile at one another while you say good shabbos while you set the table while you mop the floor smile at one another while you light the candles smile when you make kiddush smile even if you don't feel it because the smile is what's going to result in the happiness that is the notion that is the idea behind the nishama yasera the shlock tells us you'll not have a fire burning in any of your dwelling places on shabbos it means not only a literal fire it means not only are you not a light of fire it's one of the malacca's one of the categories of creative labor you cannot ignite or light a fire on shabbos but a fire means fire of rage the fire of worry the fire of anger the fire of resentment the fire of panic the fire of fear it cannot burn inside you on shabbos shabbas is a place where we cool that fire it's a place where we just are we just exist we just live and we live with a sense of confidence of hope of faith that hashem is the one who runs the world which leads us to the tenth explanation the one we're going to offer for today and he says the following and this wonderful safer we've been learning called safer he says the following isa bizarre the zora and borussia says the following to allah he explains the notion that in shabbos one is endowed with the sera which gives us a window into the world to come this world is riddled by choice free will we have to exercise ours and we experience the consequence of others exercising their free will and therefore the world is filled with challenge we have to decide the choices we're going to make and we have to live with the results of the choices that others make but in the world to come where we're purely in a shama in the world to come where the soul is extracted from the body and it's returned to where it came the soul reattaches reconnects to its source to the almighty to a place of perfection a place of eternity a place of immortality so the soul no longer has choices to make soul no longer lives with panic with concern with choice with consequence the soul experiences the bliss of being connected to the eternal to the immortal to the almighty and that's what it means to have an ashame essentially it means that we have the capacity to taste to experience to get a glimpse and a glance into the world to come shabbos 24 25 hours shabbos is a taste of the experience of the world to come in 160th of the world that comes it is a glimpse a window in the future world there is no worry there is no doubt there is no uncertainty there is no fear similarly we too once a week can set aside all those feelings and we can experience the bliss the wholeness we can experience the joy of submitting the joy of surrendering to hashem because of [Music] all week long we do the things that nourish our soul we do the things that make us realize and identify with our soul all week long we need to remember that we are a soul that has a body not the reverse it's not that during the week we're an animal pursuing animal pleasure giving it to animal impulses and all of a sudden shabbos comes and we discover that we have a soul we have a soul all week long as well however shabbos shabbos it's a more endowed soul shabbos that soul is more palpable it's more accessible it's more identifiable shabbos we're able to be more in touch with it more attuned to it shabbos it's more expanded and expansive um we are able to connect we see ourselves as an extension or a part of the almighty above so an individual who denies that that reconnection is there and if we if we deny that if we cut that off then we are responsible that we are accountable then there is the most heinous punishment we learned about earlier this week in the people of the book where is you know it's not just doing an act of creative labor an act of labor that's prohibited on chabas it's an act of creative labor malachis macheves intent consciousness mindfulness you're not allowed to do creative labor with the intent of a creative labor if it lacks creativity if it lacks intentionality or mindfulness then you're not liable for it so you see that the laws of shabbos revolve around our ability to be present what are we thinking about what are we mindful of are we just on this autopilot is momentum carrying us you can make it at the end of the week and you don't even remember the week passing you by the days blend in with one another but that's a mindless life that's not who we're meant to be we're meant to live mindfully and shabbos is our anchor shabbos we return to that sense of mindfulness and when are we accountable when we're mindless it's not just our actions what reflects our mindfulness what reflects our attitude and our intent even our thought and our speech obviously you don't do calculations you're not reviewing your business your income your to-do list shabbos you don't speak about those kinds of things moratorium how lucky are we that we have a 25-hour moratorium on an election i don't want to hear about count recounts legal bounds illegal ballots candidates platforms policies and again i'm not tipping my hat which way or what i care about it's a political but the point is while the rest of the world is so caught up in veda davar we're mindful we're intentional we're conscientious about what we speak about because that creates the reality in which we find ourselves so many people measure the blood pressure and anxiety and the loss of productivity and efficiency and sleep from the american people this week well for the next 25 hours we have a taste of the world to come there is no election there's no president there's no consequence it'll all be waiting i promise you make abdullah and you turn on your device you'll find out maybe not but you may find out whatever progress has been made or claimed we're challenged it'll all be waiting i'm not saying we live in a state of denial denial is not just a place in egypt i'm not suggesting we live in a state of denial what i'm suggesting is that we have the luxury we have the blessing we have the gift of going into a place of refuge of 25 hour time out a time out a hard reset on our mental health spiritual health physical health how desperate and how badly do we need that particularly after a week like this no election talk no politics talk no candidate talk no party talk know what will be talk know what is no it should be know what was simply being pashas miros board games laughter fun thoughtful questions challenges we get a taste of the world to come we don't have to wait till we get there and we're certainly in no rush to see it please god we should all live 120 years and well beyond however we get a glimpse of it once a week we get a vacation once a week a sabbatical once a week a day to reset and re-establish ourselves um we have to make that nashamah that comes about through conscious living through mindfulness by being present then you say according to this tenth interpretation is the gift of a window of a glimpse and a glance at the world to come don't neglect it and don't ignore it take advantage of it choose it choose it it's not going to happen by accident and it's not going to happen by itself it has to happen with consciousness here are the rules that our shabbos table here are the rules of what i'm going to read here are the rules of what i'm going to allow myself to think about it's conscious living and with the conscious choice the conscious living to create a cocoon to create a place of refuge of shabbos we truly can get a taste of the world to come if a happy healthy and a holy shabbos [Music] everyone is [Music]