Zachor Es Yom HaShabbos

Generally Thursday we have a different limmud, but whatever will be on a more regular basis, bli neder, maybe for today we'll talk a little bit about parsha, specifically the mitzvah of Shabbos. Rashi on זכור את יום השבת לקדשו. Rashi says זכור לשון פועל הוא, k'mo achol v'shaso, holeich v'bacho, meaning it has this sense of an ongoing action. That's according to Rashi, that's what Rashi's telling us the difference between zachor with a shva and zachor with a kamatz. Zachor with a shva is remember, it's sort of a self-contained limited action. And with the kamatz it has this sense of something which is ongoing, which is continuous. V'chein pishuto: תן לב לזכור תמיד את יום השבת. You should be mindful constantly of Shabbos. שנזדמן לך חפץ יפה תהא מזמינו לשבת. If you're in the store and you see a nice cut of meat, so then put that aside for Shabbos. Ramban agrees with Rashi's understanding. He takes issue with Rashi's example. He says the yesod is correct, that that's what zachor means. But the mitzvah of זכור את יום השבת לקדשו is not only on Shabbos gufa by making kiddush, but it means all week also. And that's why the Ramban says we don't have names for days of the week. We don't have Monday, Tuesday. But it's echad be-shabbos, sheini be-shabbos, etc. He doesn't, he takes issue with Rashi's example, because he says if you look in the beginning of the second perek in Masechet Beitzah, so it seems to be a machlokes Shammai and Hillel. That Shammai would do what Rashi is counseling us to do. And Hillel, מדה אחרת היתה בו, שכל מעשיו לשם שמים. And so he would eat it, and he had bitachon that HaKadosh Baruch Hu would send him something even better later in the week for Shabbos. So maybe just an important yesod before we really get to more inyonei Shabbos proper. But I think the, what's the sefer's name? It was written by a Gerer chassid in Poland between the wars on Bereishis, Shemos, and Vayikra. Pnini Yosef. Thank you. So the Pnini Yosef really was a baki nifla. He was not involved in learning by vocation, only by avocation. He was a businessman. And his bkiyus is haflei va-fele. So he quotes, I think there he quotes a Ksav Sofer. Ksav Sofer sort of gives a teretz for Rashi on the Ramban's kasha. Says if you look at the lashon ha-gemara, the lashon ha-gemara is very interesting. When normally you have a machlokes, whether it's Shammai and Hillel, one of the handful of machloksim whether it's Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel. So Shammai says like this, Hillel says like that. Lismoch, she-lo lismoch, whatever the machlokes is. Here it's a very unique way of introducing it:

והלל מדה אחרת היתה בו. והלל, שיטה אחרת היתה בו?

No, מדה אחרת היתה בו. So the Ksav Sofer says it's a very, very important yesod, that in most areas in halacha, there's sort of an objective definition of what's right, and the subjectivity of who the person is, subjectivity in that sense of who the person is, isn't relevant to the determination of what's right, what's not right. But there are some areas in where who the person is is crucial in determining what's the right thing to do. Hillel who had a mida of כל מעשיו יהיו לשם שמים Hillel who on the one hand had this mida of כל מעשיו יהיו לשם שמים and the other mida Hillel had is that he is a was a very very big baal bitachon. So for Hillel it was appropriate if he found a nice piece of meat so on Sunday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday, so Hillel was eating it l'shem shamayim then also. Combination of the fact that Hillel would be doing that l'shem shamayim that the achila all week long was l'shem shamayim plus the fact that he consistently was a very big baal bitachon on on on the highest madregas so for Hillel it was the right thing to do to eat the piece of meat or fish on on on Sunday, on on Tuesday. V'ein hachi nami that's what Rashi is saying, if you're not if you don't have Hillel's mida so then the right thing to do is what is what Shammai says and this would be an example again of the type of case where what's right where what's most appropriate what's most correct really is to large degree a function of of who the person is what his what his madregah is. Especially too when it comes to bitachon especially too when it comes to bitachon that that for us to sort of selectively invoke bitachon is let's say questionable highly questionable maybe revisit this example from for different reasons in a few minutes b'ezrat Hashem. A person is setting out from from Washington Heights to I don't know to one of the communities forty minutes away an hour's travel away on erev Shabbos. So all of a sudden on erev Shabbos at three thirty we become big baalei bitachon and okay it's factor that it's the beginning of rush hour and it's factor it's the winter and it's factor that the the roads are not as easily passable because of the snow but bitachon that. So whether or not this is an occasion for bitachon even for the biggest baal bitachon is also also a very big question but a person can't sort of selectively invoke bitachon that when it sort of suits my purposes so then I'll I'll know I'll I'll invite the siyata d'shmaya and otherwise no I'm very very aggressive in sort of pursuing in in my hishtadlus in trying to to get to get what I want. That's what the Ksam Sofer says הלל מדה אחרת היה בו Hillel was was consistently such a such a baal bitachon so for him it was appropriate the combination of כל מעשיו יהיו לשם שמים with that consistent bitachon that he had so for him it was it was the right thing to do and for the rest of us and that's why Rashi quotes Shammai he doesn't doesn't quote Hillel here at this pasuk. But this halakha again whether whether in terms of the Ramban's application of אחד בשבת שני בשבת whether in terms of Rashi's application so either way the thrust of of this mitzvah the thrust of this halakha is that our lives should be oriented towards Shabbos. Our lives should be oriented towards Shabbos. But what does that mean? So for rubo kerubo, so 99% or more of the time, so what that means is that all week long, we're involved in a mixture of kodesh and chol. What what form the chol takes depends upon what stage of life you're at. So at this stage of life, so the the chol translates as the as the limudei chol, the college classes. At primarily at at a later stage of life, so the chol can translate in terms of profession, in terms of hishtadlus that one makes for parnassah. Doesn't mean that that during the sheshes yemei ma'aseh that we're involved only in inyanei chol. That's not the case. Doesn't mean that that we're not davenning three times a day at tefillah, doesn't mean that we're not koveia itim and learning as as much as we can and being involved in in in מצוות בין אדם לחברו. But lema'aseh, there's there's a mixture of of kodesh and chol. The idea that everything a person does, that that our lives supposed to be oriented towards Shabbos, means that whatever in our lives is not inherently kodesh has to be towards some goal which is kodesh. Means that there there are all kinds of things we do which are not inherently kodesh, whether it's I don't know, whether it's sleeping enough, whether it's eating and drinking enough, whether it's attending to personal hygiene, whether it's hishtadlus for parnassah in any of those in any of those areas. There are lots of things we do which inherently are are mundane, they're not inherently kodesh. The idea of זכור את יום השבת לקדשו, that that everything is oriented towards Shabbos, means that yeah, those things, they they are a part of life, but they have to be calibrated and they have to be oriented towards a goal of kedushah. It's not the pshat that that there's room for anything mundane in our lives without being a stepping stone towards kedushah. Everything, everything in our lives that's mundane, so the the what the mitzvah זכור את יום השבת לקדשו tells us is it has to be measured and and it has to be geared towards an an a goal of of kedushah. I remember many many years ago, a friend of mine once asked me, what what what does Shabbos mean to someone who who has I don't know, maybe he's retired or or for whatever whatever allows for for this lifestyle, but is basically able to devote all his time to Torah and avodah all week long also. So pashut, what's Shabbos about for that for that person? So takeh the the seforim point out, I think Piskei Teshuva has it in Shabbos malkusa, but it's it's it's quoted far and wide, that the Zohar HaKadosh says that a talmid chacham is bechina of Shabbos. So ein hachi nami, so the question is takeh a good question because there there is a certain equation between the routine is the wrong word, because it has the seder hayom, the seder hachayim of of a talmid chacham and and Shabbos. Okay, so lema'aseh mistama even a talmid chacham turns on lights during the week and doesn't turn on lights on Shabbos. I don't think he was asking the kasha of the Rambam's kasha of shvisa nikeret. I don't think he was asking that kasha for Shabbos, but the the question the question is is a good question. The answer is that besides Shabbos being time being a a a 25-hour period which is blocked out for tefillah, for talmud Torah, for for zemiros accompanying the the seuda Shabbos, besides the fact that that we carve out those 25 hours from our week, but there's also a reality of kedushas Shabbos. Kedushas Shabbos is a It's not just that again in one's appointment book so one blocks out this time and one doesn't have any business meetings and one leaves the time open again for mikra kodesh, for Torah, tefillah, for seudos Shabbos, but Shabbos, there's a reality of kedushah. So most of us don't really, I don't know to what degree if at all, we really experience that dimension, that reality of Shabbos, of kedushas Shabbos. Some of the answer to the question that that person asked some minutes ago is that the talmid chacham who all week is takeh יושב על התורה ועל העבודה, mistama he has a sensitivity to the fact that on Shabbos the very time itself is different, that there's a reality of kedushas Shabbos. So for him also there's a tremendous tremendous aliyah. We relate to Shabbos, and halevai we should relate to Shabbos this way, and halevai we should observe Shabbos this way and take advantage of Shabbos this way. We relate to Shabbos again as that period of time which is blocked out for mikra kodesh, laasos oneg linafsheinu, to give delight to our neshamos. The Siddurim have a minhag that erev Shabbos before Mincha, they say the kapittel in Tehillim, I think the minhag goes back to the Baal Shem, I don't know if it maybe predates or from the shul of the Baal Shem, I'm not sure which, but they say the kapittel

הודו לה' כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו יאמרו גאולי ה' אשר גאלם מיד צר ומארצות קבצם ממזרח וממערב מצפון ומים.

The Chasam Sofer says that's what he feels when he survives shishes yemei hamaaseh and he comes into kedushas Shabbos, יאמרו גאולי ה' אשר גאלם מיד מיד צר. So that's the answer. So the answer is that everyone has reason to be oriented towards Shabbos. For us to be oriented towards Shabbos it means to take all the chol in our life, it should be oriented towards Shabbos, and Shabbos is a day which is kulo kodesh. And for the talmid chacham what it means is that he's oriented to that higher level of kedushah which even for him, even given his seder hayom, his seder hachayim, that higher level of kedushah and kedushas zman which only exists, which only comes into the world on Shabbos. On a deeper level, the mitzvah of זכור את יום השבת, again that everything should be oriented towards Shabbos, points to another very fundamental orientation that a Jew should have. We all know the Gemara in Berachos about Shabbos being a me'ein Olam Haba, and the relationship of Olam Hazeh to Olam Haba is that of erev Shabbos to Shabbos. So on a deeper level what the mitzvah of zachor, being oriented towards Shabbos means, that a person's entire life and Olam Hazeh should be oriented towards Olam Haba. Meaning when I decide on a profession, when I decide who to marry, when I decide where to live, when I decide what I'm going to devote my time to, when I try to assess what the yakrus hazman is, what the value of time is, that all of that should be made with a single orientation, that Olam Hazeh is supposed to be oriented towards Olam Haba. It's not the having to take a higher paying job to be able to buy a house which has a bigger backyard. Which will then necessitate my working an extra two hours a day and the commuting an extra hour every day. So one has to make that call and make that judgment against the orientation of זכור את יום השבת לקדשו. That, what a person does all week long has to be oriented towards Shabbos. Whatever we do in Olam HaZeh, again, whether it's the inherently kodesh or whether it's the inherently mundane, but everything should be measured, everything should be calibrated, everything should be assessed, everything should be evaluated against that standard, with that perspective and vantage point of Olam HaZeh being oriented exclusively towards Olam HaBa. That, that's maybe one of the biggest nisyonos of living as we do amongst the ummos ha'olam, so that it's not a, I don't know whether there's any such hasagah, but it's certainly not the way life around us is lived. The way life around us is lived is very, very much oriented towards Olam HaZeh. The way it, you have to get as much enjoyment and pleasure and success and fame, and everything is, they're all Olam HaZeh commodities. And what it's important for us to be aware of is not only, I think this I think we do get by and large, hopefully, not only not to sort of buy into that lock, stock and barrel, but even not to measure ourselves against it. Even not to measure, sometimes what happens is that we end up measuring, we end up measuring, we end up measuring our moderation against the excesses of the world around us. So even when the sort of the hashpa'ah isn't so overt that we just sort of sign up and totally embrace the whole value system or the whole way of life, chas v'shalom, sometimes it exerts a less obvious influence that we measure ourselves against it and we then can be living what from a pure Torah perspective is really a very, very materialistic life, and it seems Spartan in comparison to the world around us. We can think we're living modestly, and again, in relative terms, relative to the excesses around us, it takeh is moderate. We have to be aware of that also. The Ramban has an extraordinary, extraordinary comment here. Ramban says v'taam l'kadsho, זכור את יום השבת לקדשו. What's the point of being oriented towards Shabbos, remembering Shabbos, looking forward to Shabbos?

שיהא זכרונו בו להיות קדוש בעינינו, כמו שאמר וקראת לשבת עונג לקדוש ה' מכובד.

V'hataam, listen to these few lines here in the Ramban, rabosai, it's remarkable, absolutely remarkable.

והטעם שתהא השביתה בעינינו בעבור שהוא יום קודש להיפנות בו מעסקי המחשבות והבלי הזמנים.

The ikkar of Shabbos... is that a person's mind should be freed of all the mundane burdens and preoccupations. His mind.

להיפנות בו מעסקי המחשבות והבלי הזמנים ולעסוק בעונג לנפשנו בדרכי השם וללכת אל החכמים ואל הנביאים לשמוע דבר השם כמו שנאמר מדוע את הולכת אליו היום לא חודש ולא שבת שהיה דרכם כן וכן אמרו רבותינו זכרונם לברכה מכלל דבחודש ושבת בעיא למיזל וזה טעם שביתת הבהמה שלא תהיה בלבינו מחשבה עליה.

The Ramban says something absolutely extraordinary. The Ramban says the whole point of issur melacha on Shabbos is not ultimately, what the Torah's interested in is not the abstention from melacha per se. I mean that is obviously an absolute inviolable requirement. But ultimately what the Torah wants is because a person's attention, a person's thoughts inevitably are focused on what he's doing. So if I'm in my, in my, in my workshop working, so then that's what I'm going to be thinking about. If I'm in the office, so then that's what I'm going to be thinking about. The issur melacha is intended to free us from all preoccupations, all mundane responsibilities, obligations, so that our minds will be open and free to focus on on the devar Hashem. And that's what the Ramban says. That's why does the Torah have a shevisas beheima? Why does the and and if the and the chamor needs a day off and the parah will work seven days a week, what what's so terrible? אלא מאי סבר הרמב"ן, no, because if my animal's working then I'm going to be thinking about it. I'm going to it's going to be my responsibility to make sure it's not overworked, to make sure this, to make sure that. It's going to represent a a preoccupation, a distraction a distraction for me. That's what the ikkar of Shabbos, the ikkar of Shabbos is where a person's thoughts should be for for those for those precious hours. Torah says that Shabbos is zecher lema'aseh bereishis. For that reason, rachmana litzlan, if a person is a mechallel Shabbos, he is a מומר לכל התורה כולה. It it's virtually impossible to exaggerate the importance, the centrality of Shabbos. And אף על פי כן, as obvious as that is, it's a big nisayon for us to stay focused on that because human nature is such that what comes infrequently generates excitement and we we look to make the most of opportunity and what comes regularly, what what comes tamid kesidran, so that doesn't generate excitement and often goes underappreciated. And borrowing from the from the pasuk as as the saying then becomes, ein navi be'iro, that that someone that we have access to all the time, so whatever we have access to all the time we the nisayon is is that that we tend to take it for granted and therefore we tend to to underappreciate. So the emes is, the emes is, despite despite what one will hear or or read in in various media as as Yom Kippur approaches the holiest day of the Jewish year, the holiest day of the Jewish year is is Shabbos. The aliyos that they have reflect kedushas hayom. The aliyos: three on Sheni veChamishi, four Rosh Chodesh and Chol Hamoed, five Yom Tov, six Yom Kippur, seven Shabbos reflect the the respective level of of kedusha that the day has. The day with the highest kedusha is is Shabbos, it's not it's not Yom Kippur. The uniqueness and singularity of Yom Kippur obviously notwithstanding and not not understating it, ki zeh, the day which is most most kodesh is is Shabbos. But because it comes every week, it doesn't What that results in is that best case scenario we don't appreciate it to take advantage of it to make the most of it, and worst case scenario, Rachmana Litzlan, is the cavalier attitude that we have to taking chances with Shabbos. I mentioned before the example of someone going away for Shabbos, or maybe not even going away for Shabbos, maybe someone's just in the office and they have to get home. So how much time is a person supposed to allow to what possible complication does a person have to protect himself against? משל למה הדבר דומה. Let's say someone, someone just got their license. They're first beginning to drive. They've come for an eitzah. They want to know how far from the side of the road should they stay. Is it okay? Can you sort of be a daredevil and actually go on the very side of the road? Is it enough to stay three inches away? Maybe you should stay a foot away? Maybe you should stay a few feet away? They want to know what's the... It's been a long time since I took my test for my permit, I don't know what it says in the Shulchan Aruch about this, so I'm sorry, I can't quote the... I'm sorry, I can't quote the Baraisa. But what's the answer to that question? The answer to that question is well what are the consequences if you go off the side of the road? Is it just that you go over a yellow line? Is it that there's a two-inch drop? Is it that there's a two-foot drop which may mess up your car and make it difficult and you're going to have to get a tow truck to come pull you out? Or is it one of those winding mountain highways up in the country where, Rachmana Litzlan, if a person goes off the side of the road it's sakonas nefashos? So if it's just a question of going over the yellow line, okay, you're not supposed to do it. Stay a little bit away. Stay a reasonable distance away. If it's going to mess up your car, you should take extra precaution. And if, Rachmana Litzlan, it's going to kill the driver if he goes off the side of the road, so then you have to add an even greater harchakah, you have to add an even greater distance. Eighty percent odds of getting there before Shabbos are not good enough. Ninety percent odds of getting there before Shabbos are not good enough. Ninety-nine percent odds of getting there before Shabbos are not good enough. A person can never, never, never guarantee anything in life. So it's not that, it's not that the standard has to be that it's absolutely guaranteed, a person can't guarantee anything in life. So that's not the standard. But it can't be... A physician told me several years ago, I don't know what the statistic is, maybe it's changed, maybe the percentage has gone down since then, but the percentages of when we hear someone's having open heart surgery, Rachmana Litzlan, we say Tehillim. We're very nervous until the person comes through the surgery and there's a successful outcome. The mortality rate of open heart surgery is around 1 percent. One to 2 percent. What's the... Okay, 1 to 2 percent that I'll lose a twenty-dollar bet is okay, it's not so pathetic. But 1 to 2 percent that the person is going to die, so that sends a shiver up our spine. And it should. And that's not, we're not overreacting, we're not being, you know, hysterical, it's the prudent reaction. A 1 percent or 2 percent chance of mortality. Ninety-eight percent that I'll get there before Shabbos, that there won't be too much traffic on the Van Wyck, that there won't be too much traffic on the Cross Bronx, and even if there is I can make my kuntzen with the breakdown lane and weaving in and out, 98 percent isn't good enough. Shabbos has to be. עד כמה שידינו מגעת, so a person can't, can't take any chances in terms of, in terms of, of what, what Shabbos is. And one of the, we all have stories that are especially meaningful to us, and the same was true of our parents, our parents had stories that were especially meaningful to them, so we all grow up hearing certain stories. So one of the stories that I grew up on, I always used to hear from my father zichrono livracha, he used to tell it about his father, occasionally once or twice a year to this suburb of Boston called Chelsea. And by car maybe it's 40 minutes away, 40 minutes away, and traffic, for those who have been zocha to taste life outside New York, traffic outside New York Baruch Hashem is not like traffic in New York, which is more the ratio of cars to space available for cars on the road is a much healthier one than it is in, than it is in the five boroughs. So he had a, he had a yeihareg ve'al ya'avor, yeihareg ve'al ya'avor, he wouldn't leave after 12:00 on Friday. For a 45-minute drive, for a 45-minute drive. Once, the person who was supposed to drive him, the ba'al agala, came at 12:01. No go. We're not going. I had, I had planned this. And it all depends upon what our perception is as to what the stakes are. If, if the car goes off the side of the road, what, what are the stakes? And as with, with everything in life, you know, it, it works in both directions. It's bilateral. On the one hand, such a hanhaga stems from, reflects an appreciation for Shabbos, for kedushas Shabbos. Me'idach gisa, it also helps instill and, and reinforce that, that appreciation. Even beyond that, even beyond Rachmana litzlan, risky erev Shabbos behavior, even sometimes, and again, lav davka, the, there are nisyonos, there are challenges in life. I don't know, some, it's very scary, sometimes you see people coming into shul not that long before shkia and they're looking for a place to put their car keys. Okay, so usually, usually they did make it in the nick of time and what would be if there was no parking space when they came to shul and took an extra minute to park, or what would it be if, if they didn't make one light and they had one extra, one extra red light? Even upon what's local, even such a thing as a short drive to, to shul. You know, the hanhaga to be mekabel Shabbos either 20 or 30 minutes before Shabbos is certainly not obligatory, certainly not obligatory. The Mishnah Berurah, I think, encourages 20 minutes. He says that way chapper arein even the Yereim's bein hashmashos. And in the different shittos of the Rishonim about bein hashmashos, so the Yereim has a very novel opinion that he thinks that bein hashmashos begins when the chama is still berashei ha'ilanos. So even when the, the sun is still above the horizon, so that's when the Yereim's bein hashmashos begins. So we don't pasken like the Yereim ikar hadin, no one says that we pasken like the Yereim ikar hadin. The Mishnah Berurah says if you're mekabel Shabbos 20 minutes before Shabbos, he says, so you know what, you'll also, you'll also chapper arein the, the, the Yereim's Shabbos. Others have a hanhaga of 30 minutes, but whatever one's for shittas a certain shittas as the halachic tosefes Shabbos should be, but whatever the hanhaga is going to be, besides the mitzvah of tosefes Shabbos, by having a significant amount of tosefes Shabbos, poshut a person protects himself, Rachmana litzlan, against, against these kinds of very harrowing situations of, of driving to shul and getting there five, four minutes before shkia. I don't know, you have to ask the yodeia davar the precise details, but they say that the shkia, let's say when we talk about New York, and we talk about the... is that that really is just an estimate because it depends upon atmospheric conditions which obviously can't be known when whenever it is whoever it is who's doing us the service of providing the luach is calculating his zmanim that there is a certain margin of error which depends upon what the atmospheric conditions are that I think in normal circumstances please double check please don't rely on what I'm telling you the margin of error can be two minutes in either direction and maybe under extreme conditions it can even be a little bit more but certainly up to two minutes the fact that the shkia is listed as 5:30 it means that 5:30 is an estimate as to what time shkia is going to be because really when they're printing the luach they can't tell you what time shkia's going to be today because it's going to depend upon whether we see the sun whether or not the rays of light can penetrate that we can see the sun are going to depend upon atmospheric conditions so the zmanim in the luach are an estimate so it's also another reason you can't say well shkia's 5:30 now it's 5:23 it's a four-minute drive to shul so I'm giving myself three minutes to spare three minutes to spare isn't enough and it's not clear that one really has three minutes to spare in that scenario either.