Turn Friday into Erev Shabbos #37 - A Glimpse of the World to Come

welcome back everybody we're gonna start [Music] momentarily it's heir of shabbos it's time to turn friday into arab shabbos [Music] so get ready and be ready that's the siren shabbos is coming it is time to turn friday into arab chavez welcome back to our weekly series as we transform our friday we transform those moments from chaos hustle and bustle to peace and serenity to welcome shabbos from the proper place i want to thank our generous sponsors and dear friends of mine in support of fishman israel and in memory of rabbi lord jonathan saxon of yaakov ben david arya i want to begin with an insight over by sacks on air of shabbos it is a short insight i saw it quoted someone turned it into a meme and yet short but like so many of our by sax's insight insights packs a powerful punch and it is that rabbi sax wrote that shabbos is the day that we stand still to let all our blessings catch up with us what did he mean by that shabbos is the day that we stand still to let our blessings catch up with us and i want to suggest you that he meant the following i want to suggest it based on an insight on our parasha i mentioned this briefly in the pasture class but i want to elaborate on it for a moment the end of our parasha passages are sent on a mission to bring back a wife for yitzhak and he completes his mission he finds rifka he brings her home she meets all the criteria and the qualifications not only that a miracle is done for her revealing or affirming her righteousness but she herself exhibits the kindness eliezer was not looking for a size 2 eliezer was not looking for yijos eliezer was not looking at the parents bank accounts elias was not looking at some of the superficial foolish criteria that are used today eliezer's criteria which should be the model for us were she kind is she's sensitive is she thoughtful is she giving and of course he succeeds he comes back is called and eliezer tells yitzhak the evid it tells yitzhak it's called all the things i should i saw that he did says rashid what were all the things that he eliezer did says he told him about the miracles that happened shakov to allah it normally would have been a long journey to get from where eliezer was with avraham too rifka basuel and lavan and yet kaftaharit it took only three hours and he merited the miracle that he found rifka bitsvillaso with his prayers and the question is why is eliezer taking credit these are god's miracles the fact that he had a criticism it took him a short amount of time the fact that he found rifka the fact that the water rose to reveal their greatness these were god's miracles what do you mean i saw the things that he did review in his eighth time it says you know why elias is taking credit rashford gives us a hint rashi tells us with his last word says rasheed bit feel so with his prayers what eliezer was saying to yitzhak is yes miracles happen but you know what precipitated them you know what caused them and stimulated them my prayers might feel us and so i can ilu take credit yes he acknowledges god yes he thanks hashem but he could kill take credit for them because he says my prayers you know all too often we daven for our health our well-being our children we pray for fertility and livelihood and peace in our homes we pray for all the kinds of things that are the most worthwhile that we should be praying and dominating for you know what happens the next day we move on and we dive in for the next thing and do we ever stop and pause and say that the blessings of today are an answer of yes to the prayers of yesterday do we ever stop and say hashem thank you do you know i dove in for this and you came through before i move on to my next prayer before i ask my next request before i submit my next supplication let me pause for a moment and say thank you thank you for answering yes to yesterday's prayers do we ever pause for a moment to celebrate to lean in to experience and express gratitude for the yes that we got for the prayers of yesterday too often we fail to do so and i think perhaps that's what rabbi lord jonathan sacks so irreplaceable whose shiva concludes and yet the lost the world will feel that void forever that he captured in that one sentence shabbos is the day we stand still and let all our blessings catch up to us we have so many blessings we have the blessing of our livelihood we have the blessing of our children of our family we have the blessing of our health but we're operating at such a super speed where an object is always in motion that we don't pause to stop and say thank you for that blessing thank you for answering that prayer so you know what shabbos is my dear holy arab shabbos friends my dear holy la covered shabbos friends do you know what shabbos is shabbos we stop the momentum shabbos we press pause on this supersonic speed that we're operating in shabbos we hesitate we pause and we stop and we say let the blessings catch up with me let me find out for my family about their week about school about work about their interactions let me look at the blessings i have about my health and what happened to me let me appreciate the gifts that have legacies i'm enjoying that i was able to earn and acquire and cook let me thank hashem for the people who helped prepare and present we let the blessings catch up because if we're an object that's always in motion then the brachas can't catch up they can't keep up then we don't ever pause to say thank you for the yes on the prayers of yesterday and i love that image the idea that shabbos is the day that we pause to let the blessings of our life catch up with us what a beautiful what a magnificent image okay let's get back to what we've been studying for the last five minutes of today and then shabbos is coming you heard the siren we got to get going so shabbos is coming so i want to share a new interpretation of the show me what does it mean to have this extra endowed soul that we say since ghazal this is not this is not some newfangled new age idea that we have an additional soul which traced back to our rabbis it is sourced in the talmud itself the arizaw the ariza said you know what then show me sarah there is a great capitalist there is already what gloria said you know what the great what it means to have an additional soul the gemaran shabbos the talmud and tractor shabbos page 88 says when the jewish people we stood at cni and we received the torah the greatest gift from hashem in the most seminal moment of all time and normally people are told do you accept this and they say what's in it let me find out first tell me the deal and then i'll tell you whether i'm willing to accept it we didn't say that what did we say famously these iconic words the iconic words of nasa venusma first we said i'm in i'll do it now vaneshma tell me what you want me to do so the gemara tells us that when the jewish people so beautifully so virtuously preceded nasa to nishma they said amen before we even knew what it entailed angels came down and they tied two crowns they gave us crowns on each of our heads they came in but when we made the mistake when we made the fateful error when moshe came down from the mountain and he saw that in such a short time on our honeymoon on our wedding night we were cheating on god we built an egg we were worshiping a golden calf so soon after standing under the hupa called har sinai and making that romantic commitment what happened he said give me back the ring give me back those crowns we adjusted under the mountain called harsinai and hashem tied these crowns to our head reflecting as if giving us a ring proposing betrothing we had this romantic connection this promise and when we cheated on hashem when we had infidelity disloyalty so hashem came he took those crowns he said give me back the ring and he gave it to moshe moshe took all the crowns yes i'm not going to do this version of yes moshe i will spare you all i want to break my microphone on my computer yes yes moshe was overjoyed he was so happy in the gift of his portion he only wanted his portions he wanted his portion he didn't want the crowns of the six hundred thousand he didn't want to profit off of the jewish people's poor judgment and mistake so what did he do every shabbos we revisit our sinai every shabbos we get to put the crown back on every shabbos we get to slip the wedding ring back on every shabbos we re-earn we turn to a place of purity an innocence a place of commitment and devotion every shabbos that nishama yasera that's how the arizona understands for the arizona for the great kabbalist the arie the niser the extra the endowed soul is going back to our sinai going back to the innocence going back to the purity going back to the period and the point before we made that critical mistake and [Music] and so many others this notion that shabbos those crowns weren't taken from us forever that relationship there wasn't tension put on it forever shabbos we go back shabbos is reprieve shabbos we have this incredible ability to have a time machine to go back in time to the point in the relationship before we place the damage to it to put the crown back on to go back to that place of love and romance love and romance of the nephesh ambassador we get on shabbos we lose those crowns come off and the ring comes off of the nefesh a little more to say on this but as people are putting their ties on and lighting their candles and getting ready to go we're running out of time i have i'm now entered the hour before shabbos and some places they're entering minha which is making it more complicated but we will persevere the holy era of shabbos jews that we get together want to wish everyone a happy a healthy and the holiest of shabboses have a beautiful beautiful restful peaceful shabbos enjoy the crown on your head enjoy the purity and innocence of that relationship enjoy the trip and the journey back to our sinai and to start it all over again afresh and the new have a great shabbos are you shabbos [Music] look a good job have a great shot everybody here comes the siren you know what that means go get ready for shabbos