Turn Friday into Erev Shabbos #76 - Let Your Soul Shine

shabbos a very special thank you to our heir of charlotte sponsors series mandy and super fishman fradal memory rabbi lord jonathan sacks of yakuza arya thank you for your generosity and today's turned friday into arab shabbos is sponsored by melanie and bernie kaminetsky in memory of melanie's mother mimi miro bastranos your site is this week thank you so much to the fisherman's and to our difference the kaminetskys that is the siren it means it is time to get ready for shabbos we're turning friday into erev shabbas and we continue with we continue with rav tsumeier mm-hmm excuse me richard who says the following we have been learning about the process of getting ready what does it mean to long for what does it mean to look forward to what does it mean to count down towards the beautiful shabbos first of all is khonenko that our entire week revolves around our entire work is anticipating and is exciting whether it's buying the food or planning our menu inviting our guests deciding what story we're going to tell with our torah what song we're going to sing but shabbos is on our minds throughout the entire week the preparation for shop is actually getting ready are we preparing are we preparing early are we invested the attitude and the effort and the timing of when we prepare shows how much we value and how much we care about it and then surmera where we last left off is studying the third part of it is not only to actively and proactively initiate getting ready in terms of preparing and longing and mindset of transforming ourselves from weekday jews to shabbos jews but it's also about distancing ourselves from the impediments removing the barriers we have all kinds of temptation desire we are distracted by the material or physical world and we need to transcend we need to rise above we need to elevate we need to remove we need to extract the impediments there are these barriers there is this shell there's this peel and we need to remove it we need to peel it back so friday is no ordinary day obviously every day of the week we have aspiration and ambition to be pure to be holy and to strive for sanctity and sacredness but friday more than any other day and the closer we get to shabbos the more guarded we should be with what we see and what we listen to and how we speak the more judicious we should be with our mind and where our thoughts go we should strive for that holiness we're trying to immerse ourselves we're trying to transition as seamlessly and as smoothly as possible so the more that we are defined by the physical material world the more that we are controlled by our temptation and our drives the harder it will be to define ourselves and to feel ourselves as connected spiritually but the more that we extract and the more that we transcend and the more that we redefine ourselves by our soul by our spirit then the holier and the happier of the shabbos than we will have it's not just about taking on the good it's not just about initiating the positive it's not just about singing this near us and eating the delicious food and being prepared but we also have to be mindful and intentional of what are the distractions and temptations what are the barriers what is bringing us down and how can we elevate from it and says richard meyer there is no clear-cut formula or definition each person each family each unit has to identify or define this on our own level according to the aspiration and the ambition according to the drive for holiness for sanctity according to the level of being on fire that we want yo you know if i had to liken if i had to give a metaphor so if you want to compete if you want to compete athletically then you need clean living a person who's eating unhealthy person is putting poison into their system a person who is experimenting with substances it's going to slow them down so it's one thing if you want to be able to be healthy living as an amateur what if you want to be healthy living because you're a high school athlete or you're competing in some local tournament you play some intramural league so again you want clean living but let's say you're a professional athlete let's say you're striving to be an olympian you want to compete in the olympics so if you want to be an olympian you're not living a level of mindfulness of your sleep and of what you put in your body of your health of your exercise your mobility you're not living the same life as the amateur person who's just trying to generally be healthy the more and the higher for what you strive what you strive for you want to be a professional athlete you want to be an olympian the more mindful the more intentional the more disciplined you are in the lifestyle and the life that you're living says richard meyer what's true physically and athletically is true spiritually you want to be an armchair spiritual person you want to be an amateur spiritual person then have amateur goals but if you want to be a professional jew you want to rise you want to elevate you want to be on fire you want to be connected you want to be fulfilling the purpose for which we are here if you want to get the next level then the cleaner the spiritual living we have to have so as we get ready for shabbos as we prepare to enter the 25-hour place of holiness and sanctity that refuge elevated and protected have this tremendous beautiful cocoon from the distractions the temptations the workload the chaos the tasks that to do then a person needs to begin to transition this is a core component of what it means to serve hashem when we close ourselves off and when we are protected from the drive and the temptation of this world the female gossip is according to our level we strive and we elevate that means we'll merit to accept upon ourselves the light the spiritual light um little by little incrementally small steps to grow to improve to advance to be able to elevate to be able to purge and to rid ourselves from our addictions from our temptations from the things that have a mastery and ownership over us if we want our soul to shine through then we have to pull back the shades we have to pull back the curtains we have to remove that which is blocking the light that will nourish our soul and enable our soul to shine through le fresh madmah taivos in order to discipline to be to be a little bit distanced from that world of temptation takes effort takes effort so many people think that friday's the end of the week and friday's when you have the least energy and friday is the end of a hard grueling week not a lot of sleep not eating right not time to exercise not time to take care of nourish or neshama in our souls and we stumble and we trip and we collapse into shabbos we collap hashem tgif thank god it's friday tgis thank god it's shabbos we think that we collapse into shabbos i'll make up on my sleep i'll make up on me relaxation that shabbos will give me that nourishment but we can't let go we can't let down on friday it's the opposite we're not taking our week and we're going down until we collapse into shabbos we are rising until we're ready to enter from a position of strength from a longing from an excitement from an anticipation from an electricity that as friday comes we are more and more purging the temptation and the distraction and the drive we're living better and better version of ourselves we're elevating higher and higher so that when we enter shabbos when we are inside and part of shabbos it's our best selves we're bringing our best we're bringing our most you know shabbos is like going on a date with our spouse you finally are able to secure date night so you don't say oh finally a night out i've been working every day every night now i can collapse at this dinner barely pay attention fall asleep at the table be distracted it's the opposite gear up and get excited come into shabbat come into that date with a position of strength with planning with excitement with conversation with curiosity shabbos is our date night it's our date day with hashem we don't collapse we don't come down we don't let go we don't trip into shabbos we come into shabbos excited energized coming to shabbos ready to be able to shine through so wishing everyone a beautiful and holy shabbos big thank you to our dear friends the kaminetskys and the fisherman's for sponsoring today until next time stay happy stay healthy and stay holy have a beautiful shabbosham [Music] everybody get ready get excited get holy get intentional may it be your best shabbos yet have a great job as everyone here comes this island [Music]