Turn Friday into Erev Shabbos #93 - Preparing the Salt

buddy it's time to turn friday from friday a mundane regular weekday friday into arab shabbos special thank you to our series sponsor for the um dancing for a fishman our dear friends is jonathan sacks thank you so much here comes that siren we are getting ready to turn friday from a regular friday into heir of chavez the countdown has begun the clock is ticking get ready and here we go it is the siren it is out of shabbos my dear friends and let us get ready quick thought connected to the parsha but if you're listening to this and it's not parsley's vayikra if it's parshasava later earlier it is still relevant each and every week because what is on our shabbos table salt we know we deparchala in the salt there are some who hold that we dipped the hole in the salt to give the chala a flavor when it was bland it was just flour and water it wasn't deserving of the bracha it wasn't deserving of the honor of the shabbos table so we dip it in salt to give it a flavor in order to elevate the experience and its honor today our challah is very flavorful my wife makes incredible amazing outstanding one-of-a-kind homemade challah each and every week there's everything on top cinnamon on top there's all kinds of spices it doesn't need salt it's delicious so why is there salt on the table why do we have salt there's a notion of the brismellah it actually appears in pasha's vayikra if you're listening to this pasha's vayagra it is this week's parsha and there the torah tells us that all of the carbonus all of the sacrifices have to be offered with salt salt is ever present we don't have a mesbah we don't have an altar today but we have our dining room table our shabbos table is our altar so we have salt present on it all the time in fact according to some we have salt on the table even when we don't use it when do we not use it we may not use it on seder night when we are alel shimuram it's a safeguard it's a night of safeguarding we don't need the salt there to protect us in between the washing and the hamotzi when we can't speak in torah and mitzvos we're not vulnerable because it's but we have salt ever present on the table rosh hashanah many people dip khala in honey from rosh hashanah all the way through sukis so do you have salt on the table even when you dip in honey according to the ash of zama according to many the answer is yes even when you're not dipping or using the salt the presence of the salt is significant nonetheless what is the significance of the salt why today friday make sure your salt shaker make sure your salt bowl or dish is filled with salt make sure it's on the table and don't remove it just because you finished the hamotzi portion of the meal don't remove it what is the significance how do we turn friday into arab shabbos by preparing the salt why is the coke up why does the salt need to be present the great ishmael cerebra says that malach mura salt reflects awe fear of hashem an awareness a mindfulness of hashem salt is the affirmation or statement that we are always in a relationship with hashem no matter how far we've fallen no matter how distant we may stray no matter how much we may fail him but even a grain of salt we hold on that's why the sheer you know a carbon sacrifice had to be offered with salt but while so many other aspects of the carbonus had minimum requirements minimum measures when it came to the salt one grain of salt was enough why was it enough the answer is salt preserves salt is able to freeze something the way it is when you marinate it or soak it in salt salt has this ability to preserve something the way it was lot's wife she turns into a pillar of salt why because she turned around instead of looking forward instead of her next step instead of her best yet to come she turned around she was nostalgic and she was holding on to the past she was stuck in the past when you're stuck in the past you become a pillar of salt salt is what it means to be stuck but we can use that in the positive that grain of salt that's ever present on his back and on our table when we look at that salt and we see it as something that preserves as something that makes something get stuck we realize hashem is stuck with us and we're stuck with him our relationship with hashem is preserved our relationship with hashem is something which the salt holds on to no matter how far we've fallen no matter distance we may stray and so one had to have salt on the mesbah there was no dwash or saur divas or is leaven and dwashes honey because though the reflection of arrogance and pretense and luxury that had no place on the mizbeh but what had a place salt because our relationship with hashem is always there and ever present we see that salt whether we dip into it or not whether we're making our mostly or later on in the meal when we see that salt we remember that covenant that promise we remember that connection we remember that no matter what's going on or what kind of week we've had what kind of week we anticipate we will have hashem is always with us he's always by our side he's always holding us up he's always connected to us and so there's a very beautiful thing some people have salt shaker and they shake the salt on there's a hasid shaminic of assault a little salt bowl and there's an idea based on kabbalah we dip the challah three times into the salt we dip it three times into the salt but to have the salt sitting there i have a mahouten the holy minski's they mix different colored salts different kinds of salt and the salt becomes an experience a ritual a ceremony spread across the challah board cut the khala and put it in that salt salt is very significant symbol we connect with it so part of turning friday into arab shabbas is taking friday to prepare and one of the things we prepare among all the delicacies and the delicious things with many ingredients is the simple salt simple salt a grain of salt was enough on the masbach a grain of salt is enough on our table it's enough to remind us that we have this everlasting connection and relationship with hashem back to be um a few minutes of ravicharmer and then we'll let you go because shabbos has to find us waiting not the other way around remember has been going through the days of the week and talking about how we connect to sunday monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday and then we build up to the culmination the tactless of massaboracious the goal and the essence and the purpose of it all we work all week long for shabbos we don't rest on shabbos to be able to work during the week we work all week long in order to experience and to enjoy shabbos so we last left off that we have three expressions of our soul and they are the nephesh the ruach and the neshama the nephesh of the animal soul we have in common with the animal kingdom the ruach the spirit inside us and the sham of course is the holy spirit and when we talk about inshallah we talk about being endowed with a greater antenna a more intense awareness a mindfulness a capacity to pick up the signal of hashem that is not competing for time for attention with technology with to do lists but we are singularly and exclusively tuned in we are able to pick up the signal of hashem so our nephesh is expanded we have more ruach we have more capacity you know on a monday or a thursday a tuesday or a wednesday to sit in the sing how do you find the ruach you know we've got ruach yes we do how do you have ruach but shabbos it's a ruach we have we have the capacity to feel to be moved to think to experience our soul is connected the feelings they flow we have love and awe and clinging the yes or o's of the heroes be yes it is a deeper place within ourselves all week long we're scrambling we're living on the surface we can't go deep we can't afford there's too much to do it's too much vying for our attention it's too much going on so we're barely barely floating above the surface but shabbos we go deep shabbas we go deep we're not competing there is no technology there is no to-do list all there is is to go deep within ourselves our thoughts our feelings to be able to live not only for our nephesh but of our ruach to be sarah for aruh to be expanded to have a greater clarity and a greater strength and a greater capacity to feel to sing to be moved to experience that even higher than this efficient so we have a a nephesh which is expanded arua which is expanded and of course the highest level level is in the shema in the summer which is yasera we spent a long time at the very beginning you can go back and listen the podcasts are on youtube or at goldberg.com.org or you torah you could find our earliest installments of turn friday into arab champions and we gave i don't know 10 or 12 different explanations of what now you say what does it mean to be endowed with a greater soul not a recent kabbalistic idea not neo hasidis the gemara vai of the nefesh vaina the gemura learns that when shabbos comes we have an expanded extra layer we have a deeper a more profound a more elevated soul so a more expansive extended a more attuned soul is the capacity to think so we talked about the ruach gives us the ability to feel you see that it comes as if i bring in an own egg and you feel just that song moves you to tears you feel goosebumps you feel moved the ruach are feelings the neshama is the world of makshava it's the world of thought and mindfulness and analysis and contemplativeness to be contemplative to be thoughtful to be present and when we are tuned in with our thoughts when our thoughts are operating on all cylinders when our thoughts are elevated then we have a longing a yearning a teshuka to feel connected to hashem on the one side on the one hand we're drawn close we feel connected we feel we belong and on the other hand we recoil with a sense of humility a bittle we nullify any sense of our own existence all there is is hashem we'll pick up with that next time that simultaneous what sounds like conflicting on the one hand to feel connected like a magnet pulled in how are you pulled towards and yet recoil away at the same time that is unique our relationship with hashem we're still going with our global campaign if turned friday into arab shabbos has changed your era of shabbos if it has positively impacted your shabbos and you're not a brs member already doing your part please consider joining turnfro consider joining the brs global campaign brsonline.org brsonline.org global brsonline.org global please help and do your part till next time stay happy stay healthy stay holy have a fantastic shabbos [Music] recovery [Music] coverage go get ready be ready and that siren receive rings let shabbas find you waiting and ready have a holy and healthy happy shabbos go into shabbos having given