 It has been said that more than the Jewish people have kept the Shabbos, the Shabbos has kept the Jewish people. A nice, pithy statement. What does it really mean? Is it even true? I don't know who said it, but it has been said. And it seems to be somebody important may have said it. What does that get doesn't mean that Shabbat has kept the Jewish people more than the Jewish people have kept the Shabbos? Many people see Shabbos. I like to use the Ashkenazi pronunciation. I'm used to growing up. It's all the same. You could say Shabbat. You could say Shabbos. Whatever you like, but I'm just going to go with Shabbos. It makes it easier for me. Some people see Shabbos as a day of rest, which it certainly can be. Although I wonder the people who say that may not have kids because I can't get any rest at all with my kids on Shabbos somehow. I have this tradition in my family after the Shabbat meal in the afternoon. I tell my family, I'm sorry, but I just have to go upstairs. I have a meeting with the pillow for Rebbe. And sometimes a blanket of Rebbe comes as well. But day of rest, whoever heard of rest on Shabbos when you have a bunch of kids, but it certainly can be that for some people, a day of rest. However, and don't get me wrong, we certainly need rest, but that's not what Shabbat is, and we're going to prove that. One reason why I think we do need rest is a brilliant line or paragraph that's written, some say by George Carlin. The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less. We buy more, but enjoy it less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees, but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, but more problems, more medicine, but less wellness. We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too seldom, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, we have reduced our values. We talk too much, I know I do. We love to sell them and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life, not life to years. That last line, we've added years to our lives. We're living longer than these two, but somehow we haven't added life to those years. So there's no question we certainly need a day of rest, more than once a week. I'll take it once every three days. But that cannot be all about what Shabbat is. Shabbat is so much more than that. I never can prove it to you. We know that Shabbat is central to Judaism. It is the only ritual that is mentioned in the Ten Commandments, in the Saratah of the Broth. It could have been Yom Kippur, could have been in there, which is pretty big. Yom Kippur is not in there. Kosher, not in there. Passover, not in there. Of the Ten Commandments, the only one, the only ritual that's in there is keeping Shabbat. That's pretty big. More than that, in the midst of Shabbat, the Commandment of Shabbat is mentioned more times in the Torah than any other mitzvah. Must be very central. In fact, more than just being essential to Judaism, it actually defines a Jew. For many, many, many thousands of years, and for centuries and millennia, Jews were never classified by various labels we have today. We're orthodox, conservative, reformer, constructionist. No such thing. We never had labels like that. Our label was, you are the Shomer Shabbat. You reserve the Sabbath. You try it, at least, as much as you could. Well, you didn't observe the Shabbas. The Shabbas was considered the hallmark, the benchmark that defined the Jewish people. It's critical. It's central to Judaism. If it's just a day of rest, that can't be all there is. But if you're not tired, there goes the whole Shabbat. Obviously, it's much more than that. And tonight, we're going to discuss and try to explore what is it then if it's more than just a day of rest. But there's another reason why it can't be just a day of rest. We know there are a lot of rules about Shabbat, and that's what a lot of people have a problem with, that there are many, many different rules, more so for Shabbat than any other Mitzvah in the Torah. There are more complex rules about what you can and can do on Shabbat than any other commandment in the Bible. In fact, we know there are 39 creative activities which are forbidden biblically on Shabbat, among them, for example, cooking and planting and carrying in certain places on Shabbat, without an arrow, without certain leniencies, and so on and so forth. 39 creative activities are forbidden, and the rabbis said, you know what? That's not enough. Let's add another 3,000 or 4,000. I'm joking. But there are a lot of different complex laws, a lot of different rules about Shabbat, and one of the rules, for example, and people think about these rules, oh, well, Shabbat is about a day of rest, so any hard work would be forbidden, and probably these 39 activities are all difficult to do, but it's not true. A person is not supposed to cook on Shabbat, and what if you love cooking? What if it comes easy to you? You're a brilliant chef, you're a gourmet cook, and you can just turn on a fire and put some eggs in there and make a beautiful omelet? That's considered to be a violation of one of the rules of Shabbat, of cooking on Shabbat. And yet, at the same time, it doesn't seem to involve any major hard work, so why is that a problem if it's just a day of rest? My day of rest includes doing things which make me restful, like cooking. What if I like to go out into the backyard and just leisurely hold that little hose and you cover it to make the water come out in a spout? Watering a plant, you love it. It's so restful for me. Yet again, that's one of the activities, which is forbidden on Shabbat. So clearly, if it's just a day of rest, then the rules don't add up either. We have to understand what are these rules all about which seem to defy our understanding of what Shabbat should be. For the day of rest, well, I enjoy, frankly, driving to the mall and looking at all the different things, schmoozing up the Israelis at the kiosks. That's what I enjoy, so that's my rest. But clearly, Shabbat is much more than just a day of rest. What exactly is Shabbat? Then why is it so central to Judaism? Why is it the only ritual in the Tenkeman? And why is it the most commonly mentioned Mitzvah Torah? And most importantly, how has it kept the Jewish people if it's just a day of rest that wouldn't answer that question too well? Let me share with you something that Rabbi Aria Kaplan writes in a wonderful book called Shabbat Day of Eternity. What exactly Shabbat is? To answer these questions, we have to go back to the fundamental beliefs of Judaism. Shabbat is much more than just a day of rest. It talks to the very essence of Judaism to our belief system in an amazing way. We Jews define God as the Creator of all things and the one who brought all things into existence as it says in the very first verse in the Torah, in the Bible, in the beginning God created heaven and earth. Some people think, some call them the creationists, they think God created the world for sure because after all, how did we just randomly show up out of nowhere, must have been a Creator. It created us but then God took off and there's no longer involved in the world. Some people believe that God created the world and forgot about it. They may claim to believe in God and even admit that there is some abstract Creator out there maybe golfing up in heaven somewhere. But they insist at the same time that his existence has no bearing on their lives because God is not intimately involved in our lives. Maybe he doesn't care about our lives. He's not interested, whatever. But God started everything off, created the world and took off. That's what some people believe. We know when God introduced himself to the Jewish people in Mount Sinai, he says, God could have really impressed us more if he wanted to. God could have said, I am the Lord your God who created you and could kill you if you don't follow me. Right? That's Bill Cosby used to say. He tells his kids, I don't know if it will cause me anymore, but it used to be. B.C. Bill Cosby used to tell his kids, he said, if you don't behave, I'll take you out of the world and make another one look just like you. So God could have said the same to us as well. He could have said to us, I am the Lord your God who created everything in this whole world including you. And if you don't listen to me and don't do these 10 commandments or 613 commandments, whatever the case may be, I'll take you out and make another one just like you. But God doesn't do that. God introduced himself and says, I'm the Lord your God who took you out of Egypt. Which means I didn't just create the world billions of years ago or 6,000, whatever it is, years ago and take off. I'm intimately involved in the affairs of you and the rest of the world. I actually came down from heavenly abode and shook up Egypt with 10 massive plagues. I took you out of Egypt. Somebody did this with major plagues, but you yourself witnessed. So clearly, we believe that God not only created the world but also God is actively involved in this world. That is a basic belief of Judaism. These two beliefs that one, God is a creator of all things and that he created man with purpose of the very foundation of our faith. Our ultimate role and mission as Jews is to be a light unto the nations, to proclaim these beliefs to the world that the world has meaning because a purposeful creator created us and therefore did it for a purpose. God didn't do it by mistake because God is God. He created us for a purpose and he's actually involved and interested in our lives. That's what we proclaim to the world. That's our way of bringing a light to the nations. But unfortunately, that doesn't always work because the person may have a lot of faith, intellectual faith. That might be what's what we call emunah. Emunah means faith, but it's all intellectual and it may stay up here. But that doesn't translate well. First of all, it doesn't transfer to the next generation. You might feel very strongly about the state of Israel, for example, but your kids might not feel that way about Israel. But a person who crafts their emuna, their faith, into something tangible that's a whole different story. Rabbi Kaplan points out that the word from Hebrew for faith is emunah. The same word for a craftsman, uman. And uman is a craftsman. It's not enough just to have faith up here, but to make it something tangible. It's to actually make a ritual in which I live and act out what I believe. And therefore, that's what the idea of Shabbat is because faith requires more than lip service. It must involve action in the form of our steadfast adherence to God's will. And the one ritual that we do that demonstrates not just in our intellectual believing it, but actually living it and acting it out once every seven days. The one ritual that demonstrates our belief in God as a purposeful creator and therefore that the world has purpose is the observance of Shabbat. Shabbat is so central to the Jewish people because it's a statement of faith that Jewish people always make to say, why are we here? What's our purpose? Our purpose is to proclaim to the world that the world has meaning and has purpose. And it's very important because it can change our lives drastically to the extent that we believe that we have meaning and purpose in our lives. For the Jew, belief in God is more than a mere creed. It's the basis of all meaning in life. For if the world does not have a creator, then what possible meaning can there be in existence? If there's no purpose, then we're purposeless, meaningless. Man becomes nothing more than a complex physical chemical process. No more important than an ant or a grain of sand. Morality becomes a matter of convention. It's made up. Might makes right. It's the belief in God that gives life purpose and meaning. It's also what gives us a standard of right and wrong. If we know God created the world and did so for a purpose, then we also know that everything that runs counter to that purpose is morally reprehensible and wrong. And everything which runs furthers the purpose is good. That's why Sabbath is so central to our faith because it touches on the cornerstone of what we are and what our purpose is as a nation. To believe in and to shout out to the world the idea that we were created for a purpose by a purposeful creator who has a purpose for our existence and a meaning to our lives. That's such a powerful idea the difference between having a meaningless life where everything is just random and ultimately who really cares about me if I die in a minute from now it makes no difference to anybody really or believe that I have ultimate meaning and purpose in my life. The Jew believes this in Emuna and has that faith intellectually and also translates into a ritual because it's not enough just to have that in here but also to craft your faith into something tangible which has much more power certainly has staying power for the next generation because they see you doing it instead of just thinking, hey, I think my dad likes Israel or believes in God I might just pick that up one day. Not good enough. To live it out and to work it through every single day every single Shabbat every single week to live out that ritual that is very very powerful and it translates very well to the next generation. So Shabbat is much more than the day of rest as we see. Shabbat is a day of proclaiming our faith both intellectually in our Emuna and also in our action how we believe in this most central idea of Judaism the most powerful idea of Judaism which is that we believe that we have a purpose to our existence and that's why Jews we'll save it till afterwards. That's why Jews are called Shomer Shabbat because the Shomer Shabbat means that a person believes in this one central idea everything else follows from there if you don't have that idea if we're missing that idea then we're falling short and everything else we do because there's no context the Shabbat is what gives context to everything that we do. There's a beautiful idea beautiful idea which I once read in the name of the Khabitz Chaim Khabitz Chaim asked the following question he says you know the Torah refers to the Torah refers to Shabbat as an oath as a sign what does it mean that Shabbat is a sign? Certainly it's a sign if you keep Shabbat it's a sign that you're Jewish but so if you keep closures it's also a sign that you're Jewish why is Shabbat specifically referred to as a sign? So the Khabitz Chaim says a fascinating thing he says for example what about a person you have a friend who has a shoe store downtown for example Joe's shoes okay so you're strolling downtown one day and you see Joe's shoes there's a big sign up there so you know oh it's Joe's shoes he must be in business but you look through the window and you see there's barely no shoes on the display racks there's nothing there his stock is depleted so you say to yourself one second Joe doesn't look like he has any stock but his sign is still up that means he's still in business you come back two weeks later and you see that Joe's sign is down he's no longer in business because the sign is down he says the Khabitz Chaim and it's very powerful what he says he says Shabbat is that oat that sign that sign between us and God that we believe in the purpose for our existence that we have purpose for our existence life isn't meaningless as long as the Jew has that sign up and keeps to that in their emuna and their intellectual faith as well as in their crafting that faith into a ritual every seven days as long as we have that that sign up that means we're in business we're doing what we're meant to do as Jews that's our business as Jews is to proclaim this to ourselves and to the world and we're in business we may not do that much else Jewishly possibly we might have our stock depleted we don't have that much stock on the shelves that could be but at the same time we're still in business because as long as the Jew believes in this fundamental idea of Judaism this major cornerstone of our faith that we have a purpose for our existence because we're created by a purposeful creator then we're in business but if a person no longer believes that their sign is down then their God forbid out of business that's how powerful Shabbat is among all the other commandments it's what defines us what defines the Jew throughout the centuries it's the most central idea in Judaism and we live it every single week for once every seven days this translates hopefully to our children as well when they see the ritual that we live but there's more but wait, there's more we want to understand the rules of Shabbat we mentioned already that Shabbat is more than just a day of rest that's clear but what are all these rules and how do they fit into this idea of Shabbat being essentially a day when you're not supposed to do that much not to work too much and yet the rules seem to run counter to that idea we mentioned one of the rules for example there's a person not supposed to water their plants in Shabbat biblically forbidden to water your plants in Shabbat some people find it the most beautiful leisurely thing in the world they go out in the backyard on Saturday or Sunday or whatever and water their plants doesn't cause them any effort they don't sweat at all and yet somehow this is defying the nature of Shabbat another example we mentioned before cooking take an egg crack it open but take some salt little oil add some cheese make a nice little cheese omelette there you have made you've created something you've cooked something besides the fire that you turned on which is another one of the forbidden activities but you've cooked something it was leisurely it was something that didn't take me any it was no effort whatsoever I loved it it gives me such great joy to cook omelettes I love it and yet again we can't do that we have to come to a working definition of what Shabbat is there's the paper here you're allowed to 100% but there are some exceptions depends when but let's not go to is there an extra hand down? so you look at number five we're going to discuss now what rest really is what Shabbat rest really is all about but before we get to that to that answer we have to understand that what rest is because it'll give us a better framework for appreciating what Shabbat is all about because for many people don't appreciate this idea which we're about to share and Shabbat becomes one big fat no you can't do it especially children they hear all the hearers no no no you can't do this you can't do that and turns them off but the more that we appreciate and integrate into our own lives our understanding of what Shabbat is and that it's not something negative and that we can appreciate why the rules are the way they are and how they fit into the broader scheme of what Shabbat is that will help us hopefully integrate into our own lives and we ourselves will look at Shabbat in a much more positive way and then it'll translate of course to our children our friends our families so we have to really appreciate very important to appreciate and understand well what the rules are and why the rules are the way they are again I go back to what Rabbi Kaplan says in the wonderful book Shabbat Day of Eternity what does it total mean when it says like God rested because we know that we're resting because God rested on Shabbat he said we worked for six days and he rested on the seventh day it sounds like God had a hard time he was sweating he really you know it was tough work he was first six days and he said I got to take a break and I got to get into the links and the golf course now that just is too hard for me but that's ridiculous that's like a grade two understanding which we used to have we always used to have this where we thought God was up there and where was God up there he's not up there God's everywhere right but that's what we used to think about so we also think about God God rested as if God somehow had this hard time he had oh my hernia you know got to stop work creating now he's got to go to sleep for the next 24 hours obviously it's not what it means so what does it mean was he tired did he work too hard was creation an exhausting task is a Torah so naive that it looks at God in such a way in human terms God rested in another sense what does it mean he rested he rested when he stopped creating when he no longer interfered with his world listen carefully to Rabbi Kaplan's beautiful definition which I think it's something you can really live with and make him reconcile our Shabbat experience and enhance it very much God rested in a different sense wasn't that he was very very tired God forbid God doesn't get tired he rested when he stopped creating when he no longer interfered with his world this gives us an insight into Torah's definition of Sabbath rest what it means is when you rest in Shabbat doesn't mean you're literally rest it means you stop interfering with the world we live in harmony with the world just like God stopped creating and tampering with and interfering and changing moving things around and well Niagara Falls has to go down let the Canadians have most of it you know all that after we stop every seventh day we stop interfering with the world we live with harmony within the world instead of trying to change it and that's a good definition work in a Shabbat sense is an act that shows our mastery over the world by means of our intelligence and skill changing and manipulating using our mastery and intelligence try to change the world around us that's what work is that's the kind of work we're defining as work and as we say in number six and number five and the rest on the other hand in a Shabbat sense is not interfering with nature nor exhibiting mastery over it it is the state of peace between man and nature we now can understand a little bit better with this definition of what rest is in Shabbat the Shabbat's ritual we must never leave nature we must leave nature untouched we must not demonstrate our mastery over nature nor change it in any way heavy work and physical labor such as plowing and building are still work in this sense but it also includes other things which require no effort at all for example frying an egg lighting a match these may not require much effort but they are symbols of man's dominance over nature changing something creating a new item creating an omelet at raw materials is exhibiting mastery over things interfering, tampering, changing things not living in harmony with the world the Sabbath is much more than a mere day of rest is a symbol of our belief in God's creation that's a very powerful idea think about Shabbat I always tell my family I say it's not like before Shabbat I open up this big list I say okay here guys here are the 4000 things you're forbidden to do for the next 25 hours come on guys let's have Shabbat yay obviously the kids will be running out of the house as fast as possible but if you think about it in this way it's so much more beautiful when I drive down the street and I walk down the street in Shabbat and there are cars driving next to me an omelet because once I learned this idea it sort of irked me because there are people trying to just tamper with nature and try to move things around and pollute and on Shabbat I want to live in harmony with the world because I have a lot more things to do which we'll get to in a minute I want to live in harmony so what happens is we set for ourselves this beautiful framework of things that we don't do so we know we're not going to cook on Shabbat so we cook everything before Shabbat everything is ready pre-cooked and ready set up on your crock pot it's all done beforehand so we don't have to tamper with anything and once Shabbat starts and then once Shabbat starts we're living within the framework of all these things you can't do we don't think about them because we've already planned it's not like you're sitting there in the shop this morning man, I wish I could have cooked that chicken you don't say that because you cooked the chicken the day before you're all ready for it you're living in a framework where it's all done it's all prepared of course there are times when things don't work out exactly as planned and when you do feel the big fat no for example what happens if a person to give you an extreme example but it certainly can happen a person is driving somewhere before Shabbat and it gets closer and closer and closer to Shabbat and they can't make it they seem they won't be able to make it to stop driving it to get to their house before Shabbat starts so obviously if it's a case of danger you're allowed to drive to save your life and I'm obligated to get killed for this of course you drive away from the dangerous neighborhood I grew up in New York City it wouldn't stop it wouldn't stop in most neighborhoods but I mean to say when a person has the ability for example to stay at a mall or some other safe place or a hotel lobby for you know for the next 25 hours let's say they have food with themselves it's extreme it doesn't normally happen somebody will say well come on what kind of a Shabbat rest is that that's very obvious that a person's so to speak suffering because but the answer to that is as my late uncle Rabbi Oziel Malewski once explained the Torah talks to generalities the Torah gives us laws for the general normal situations and the brilliance of it is that we keep it to it at all costs because once we start saying well in that case it's different in that case it's different at the beginning of the end of the unraveling of the law so we keep the law because most of the time the spirit of the law and the letter of the law coincide they call us with each other and most of the time a person's not stuck on the highway somewhere and therefore they don't have a problem with food because the food's already cooked before Shabbat they never have a problem with the lights because lights are set on and off with timers all around the house with kosher lamp whatever it is paid for by kosher lamp right so everything is set up there's no problem for them they're not living with this framework of no that's what we have to appreciate Shabbat is a time a person can live in harmony with nature I've set everything up I have time now set aside 25 hours to spend with my family to spend time spiritually still growing and someone as we get through in a minute what are the positive sides of Shabbat but the negatives are not felt if it's done right because the person just sets himself up for 25 hours where everything is already done there's no need to focus on the things you can't do except for rare occasions or exceptions and therefore a person can just live in harmony with creation that's the idea of emulating God's rest in Shabbat just like Shabbat God rested and did not interfere and no longer interfered with his creation and said that's it I'm gonna live in harmony with my creation I'm not tampered with it so too we rest in Shabbat by not exhibiting our mastery over anything that we have we leave things as they are for the next 25 hours and that's a beautiful harmony of what Shabbat is this takes me to this idea about the exhibiting of peace of mastery over nature and not to interfere with Shabbat and living in harmony this takes us to number six we know Shabbat is called Shabbat Shalom and a lot of people say which is Shabbat Shalom some say good Shabbat it's all good some say Shabbat Satova if you want to be fancy you can say it in Aramaic I think like Mel Gibson does right what does Shabbat Shalom mean? it's a Shabbat of peace in what sense do you mean that the Shabbat is the Shabbat of peace? so Rabbi Becher says something very nice it's a wonderful book Gateway to Judaism he says there are three areas which potentially can cause conflict in people's lives during the work week there is a tension between man and nature especially when nature is disastrous and the weather is horrible or pollution or whatever else it might be a lot of tension between man and nature I would say cell phones for example is a great area of conflict between man and nature a person would want to have a nice time an enjoyable time enjoying a beautiful world that God gave us but the technology out there which is good technology is still at the same time it can certainly cause a conflict where a person doesn't have the ability to enjoy nature and it creates a wedge between me and the beautiful world around me because I don't see it but that's one area of conflict between man and nature and the second area of conflict is between man and man our fellow man our competitors especially right that's the area of tension the shoe store of course is straight they're making more money than man they're more customers so it's the area of tension and finally a third area of tension is between man and self between my bodily needs and my soul needs so part of me is pushing me to eat that chocolate cake and to do all types of things that I shouldn't do and there's a soul element to me that the guilty conscience the good part of me that's saying I shouldn't do it these are three areas which can cause a lack of peace a great lack of peace throughout the week but of course Shabbat comes along Shabbat Shalom it's a Shabbat of peace and it's a beautiful cure it's a beautiful antidote to these three areas of tension number one in terms of the ability to enjoy nature not to have that conflict between man and nature we shut off our cell phones it's the greatest thing that I think the greatest byproduct of Shabbat is the idea that person can actually have the power to shut off all technology and just like the phone can ring all day long I don't even hear it I don't have my television on I don't have my cell phone nothing I'm just free to enjoy the world around me and to live in harmony with nature and not to have that interference at all which is a beautiful thing and that's what Shabbat creates it also creates a tremendous peace between man and man because you know you're not working anymore a person can sit back once every seven days and say you know what God I won't work today I'm not going to have that competition with that new my neighbor I'm just going to chill out enjoy Shabbat for what it is and finally in between man and himself where a person bodily needs and soul needs to take both taking care of a Shabbat both of them and that brings me to number six number seven actually there's actually a rabbinical commandment to make sure that their conflict doesn't exist between body and soul and that's a rabbinical commandment called Onig Shabbat Onig means enjoyment pleasure Onig Shabbat is a commandment the rabbis said we should have ourselves Onig on Shabbat which means number one we should eat good food food that gives us pleasure I always say a vegetarian if they don't get pleasure for meat so they shouldn't eat meat but somebody who gets pleasure from eating meat should eat meat it's sort of subjective but either way anything that gives you pleasure and Onig you should eat of course drinking as well a good bottle of Scotch a single malt or can of coke whatever it is you might like it also gives Onig he goes so far as to say that even the rabbis said if one can one should have married relations on Friday night with one spouse that also gives a person on certain Onig it's all part of this idea of having Onig of having pleasure in Shabbat but it's interesting for some people they don't see that they don't see the Onig part of it they see it as something which is oh no not another Shabbat of restrictions there's two ways to look at Shabbat there's two ways to look at everything in the world but certainly Shabbat you can see it as Onig it's a pleasure or you can see it as a nega which is the same word as an anagram the word nega is the Hebrew word for it's a plague I can see this as a plague something which is really a hindrance I can't stand this this restrictive Shabbat thing or you can see it as the biggest pleasure in the world because it releases all these tensions and areas of conflict another difference between Onig pleasure and the Hebrew word for nega plague depends where you place the ayin in that word right if you look at the word Onig in number seven Onig is spelled ayin nungim I don't have it in Hebrew here ayin is first in the word Onig if you place the word ayin the letter ayin in the end of it becomes nega ayin also means ay the person depends where you place your ayin how you view it you can see the next 25 hours of Shabbat as the greatest Onig the greatest pleasure possible but you want to see it that way you can see it that way also if you place your ayin in a different place you put your ayin in a different part of the word you can see it as one big long fact string of no you can't do this no you can't do that restriction, restriction, restriction plague and so on and so forth but the idea of Shabbat is supposed to bring us the rabbis want to ensure that it happens bring us this beautiful harmony between body and soul and therefore they said they didn't trust us to do it ourselves they said make sure you enjoy yourself in Shabbat so that not just your soul should be conned by Shabbat and enjoying Shabbat but your body should also be fed well and also drinking properly, enjoying himself it's very important sorry? too much is no good too much of anything is no good, right? the interesting idea that Baal Shemta once explained he said what's the idea of of Onig Shabbat? because it seems to be it's a little bit counter to the holiness of Shabbat Shabbat's a holy time yet there's this big I don't know in your family but in my family there's a big focus on food and I think all Jewish families and Italian families too but there's a big focus on food and maybe a little too much certainly in my family and I always wonder is this exactly the most spiritual thing in the world? there's a lot of where does it come from this whole idea of eating I know it's rabbinical command but how does it work? so I once heard a beautiful idea in the name of the Baal Shemta he said like this he said once upon a time there was a fellow who was thrown into jail wrongfully thrown into jail and he missed his wife and children terribly but he had no way to get to speak to them but his wife used to send him every single week she used to send them on Friday a letter and he wanted to sit down and read that letter because he missed his wife terribly problem is every time he sat down in the corner to open up the letter he would get roughed up by some of those tough guys in jail that try to beat him up like it typically happens in jail if he couldn't do anything so he had this brilliant idea he said I'm going to write a letter to my wife and have her bake a cake for me inside the cake I wanted to buy them and put in the best single mold scotch or vodka you could find hide it inside this pudding or pudding cake whatever cake it is and bring it to me so she does that she brings him the cake he takes it into his cell feels you know in the middle of it pulls out the vodka or scotch whatever it is he says okay guess what everyone hears here's some scotch and they go and they start drinking until they're all flat on their backs you know and they're snoring and you know content and old drunk now when they're all drunk and everything's quiet he can take out all those love letters and reconnect with the love of his life that he's been missing for so many years says the Holy Baal Shem Tov that's exactly what we're all about every Shabbat you want to reconnect take out that love letter which is the Torah the Bible that God gave us the ultimate love letter when God says I love you and I want you to have a maximum meaning in your life and here's this love letter and we want to enjoy it but that stomach of ours that Ruffian says give me food give me food give me drink give me this give me coke give me so we say okay we give them cake we give them food we give the stomach whatever it needs until the stomach is happy it has all the own egg and pleasure that I can want and then they go ah now I could sit back I could sing some of these beautiful songs and reconnect with God reconnect with my family and so on that's the onig of Shabbat that's what it's all about and that's why we have Shabbat Shalom it's the time of Shalom why is Shalom? because it brings peace peace between man and his environment peace between man and his competitors and other people and peace between man and himself and his bodily needs it's a tremendous peace that Shabbat provides as well so again just to sum up now we have so far we've said Shabbat of course is more than a day of rest not that we don't need rest we have a hard time in our days creating rest but we certainly it's much more than that it's a cornerstone of our faith it's living this idea in practice and ritual crafting our faith into a practical ritual which has staying power through the generations living this idea that by the way it needs to be emulate God by resting on the seventh day this idea the powerful idea of Judaism that God created us purpose or created for a purpose that we have meaning to our lives and the rules of Shabbat also again fit in very well because the rules are about not tampering with the world God rested on the seventh day he didn't interfere with creation we live in harmony of creation every seven days but there's another element to Shabbat and it's with everything in Judaism as well as we'll see in the next couple of classes there's so many different layers upon layers there's never one just okay here's the idea of Shabbat in 20 minutes and here it's no such thing there's layers upon layers here's another layer of Shabbat Shabbat is a time to return to return to ourselves to return to Judaism to return to ourselves look at the root of the word Shabbat the root of the word Shabbat is Shin Bet which means Shav to return the Ma'aral approach is a fascinating thing he says he'll look at a person's life as if his life is represented by a the alif bet starting from alif the beginning of a person's life till tough the end of a person's life the alif represents the beginning of one's life because alif for many reasons number one alif well it's the first letter obviously alif is an aloof aloof is a general as a guide it represents on a Shammur our soul our spiritual soul which is our inner guide our Sechhaler intellect alif is also a silent letter just like a very very spirituality is very intangible and silent many people don't even know if they even have a soul or a spiritual side it's very silent the alif is always almost always a silent letter for example you're sitting right now on a in Hebrew a Ki Kisei that's what it's called the chair is called a Kisei if you took the last letter the alif away from that word you wouldn't fall off the chair it would still be Kisei without the alif alif is a silent letter so too are in a Shammur our spiritual side is also silent so everyone starts up in this world with an alif the beautiful Shammur which their soul which is granted silent and somewhat hiding but there for sure to guide us in life if we can tap into it to guide us what happens in life we start moving we go to the next letter bet base whatever we pronounce it and bet represents the idea making it by it we're bonnet building we build our lives we start from our core and hopefully we build our lives with the decisions that we make the free will decisions and so on until we get to the last letter which is tough which represents death first of all it's the last letter that's why it's death that's at the end plus also I like to say when you die it's tough right anyway but once you're ready at the tough it's too late if you're still at the shin means you haven't yet reached the end yet you still have time you're still alive then you can go from shin and be shoved return shin all the way back to bet shin bet all the way as long as your alif your core is still intact as long as your alif you haven't corrupted your some people are so wicked they corrupt their alif there's nothing left to go back to they've corrupted the core but for all of us it's not like that we just may have made some mistakes some layers but the inner layer is pure as long as the inner layer is pure the alif you can go back so you can be shoved that's why the word shoved is the root for the word return because it's shin the letter shin before you're dead and then you have to it's too late shin all the way back to bet to return Shabbat is a time to return to who we are a very powerful idea I once heard as she said this in Shabbat at the village shul my late uncle in the museum in Lesky that's how he shared a beautiful idea about Havdala what Havdala is all about we know that after Shabbat we have a beautiful ritual and part of the ritual involves looking at our fingernails everyone knows about this we look at our fingernails the question is why are we looking at our fingernails in Shabbat most of Shabbat after it's over we're making Havdala and one of the main halachic reasons is because you're not supposed to make a blessing on something unless you actually partake of it either eat it or enjoy it in some way otherwise you're disconnected from it so if you have a fire that's you know in Japan and you're not going to be enjoying it so you can't make a bracha a blessing on it you have to be close enough proximity to the fire to be able to benefits in some way from its light so therefore we hold our hands up like this to see if we can differentiate by the light of the candle if we're close enough to differentiate between the nail and the skin because they're not the same if you're close enough that you can see the difference between the nail and the skin then you've benefited you're enough close to benefit from the candle and your blessing is okay that's the technical halachic ritualistic reason one of them at least why we do this but right by Mulevsky she had a beautiful idea about that the concept of Shabbat being a time to get clarity Abel Mulevsky said as follows we have a beautiful tradition that Adam and Eve before they sinned in the Garden of Eden and partook of this forbidden fruit and caused all this distortion in the world that they were entirely covered their entire bodies were covered they didn't have clothing on but they're entirely covered with a nail-like substance after they partook for the forbidden fruit then the nail-like substance receded from the bodies and was only left on their fingernails and toenails and that's the official reason I drew a traditional reason why we have nails and I'll evolutionist to say something else I'm sure this is the official reason why I told the Judaism beliefs why we have the nail left over here because God said you took it all away from you but I'm leaving it over here what does this mean? says Rabbi Mulevsky what does nail represent? you go to a nail salon you sit there and someone's cutting your nails and you're not screaming they're cutting you why aren't you jumping up and down in pain and agony but the answer of course is that they're cutting something which is on you but it's not you you have this clarity about the nail oh it's just on top of me but it's not really me try cutting my finger off and I'll sue I'm American let me sue for everything right? so obviously then you feel it but if it's a nail nail represents something which is on me yet it's not me Adam and Eve before they took this before they created this distortion by partaking of the forbidden fruit they had such clarity who they were they knew they weren't just the physical body they were the soul they had clarity about who they were to the point that the whole body was covered by nail meaning either metaphorically or real whatever we're not clear but that means that they had a clarity about their skin that it was like nail meaning that it covered them and yet it wasn't them their bodies just covered who they really were they had that nail like clarity they got but of course once they took for the forbidden fruit they lost that clarity and God did us a favor and allowed for them to have a little reminder of that clarity by leaving a little bit of a remnant of that on the ends of our fingers and toenails when do we when do we have a chance to regain a little bit of that clarity about what's important when we have a chance to return to ourselves when we push away everything else and we have no more conflicts and we have peace and harmony with creation with no pressure from the cell phone or from trying to tamper with when do we have that time to get some clarity as to what's important in life what a priority should be who and Shabbat that's when we have that time that's what Shabbat's all about it's the time to get that clarity to be shoved to return to ourselves to realize what's important in the world instead of its work work work work stop for a second think about what's important in life and the problem is though we're going back again it only lasts 24 hours unfortunately sadly we start losing the clarity as we're going back into the work week especially in Israel where they work all six days a week well that's true that's exactly what you do you look at your fingernails and you set yourself this clarity that I once had over the last 25 hours I'm going to bring this back with me into the week that's what you look at your nails I take one last look at your nails and say one second the nail that's what my whole body used to be like because this is not just me and I'm going to go to the gym and work my work out tomorrow night Sunday night maybe I'm also going to go to a Torah class and work out my spiritual soul too you get that clarity in Shabbat that's another aspect another layer of Shabbat as well it's a time to return to ourselves and a time to get the clarity about who we truly are I want to share with you I want to stop the questions after we finish I want to share with you before we get our book recommendations another beautiful idea which again talks to the idea of what Shabbat's all about another layer there was a story about a great rabbi by Yosef Chaim Zannenfeld who was the chief rabbi of Israel in the 20s and 30s in the early years of what's called the old Yishuv the old population of Jews living in Jerusalem very very very precious Jew just one of the stories to tell about him which is interesting for today that he was going to meet with the head of the British High Command I forget his name and the apartment that Rabbi Zannenfeld lived in in the old city of Jerusalem I think in Rakhob Batimachsa which is still there was a hole in the wall literally a hole in the wall it was a cave of some sort and he was the chief rabbi remember this is how he lived and he had to also bend down a lot because a lot of it was very low he kept on hitting his head and he was now going to entertain the chief high lore high commissioner Herbert, I forget his name exactly whoever it was entertain him in this hovel and all the rabbi's students said please rabbi you can't do this you can't bring him in here it's embarrassing for the entire city of Jerusalem for the Jewish people he said I'm sorry but I have to and the commissioner comes in with them and starts asking him rabbi they don't give you a decent salary here like you know you're living in this dump but he says to the commissioner come with me he shows them there's one of the windows that looks out onto onto the Harabayat at Temple Mount and you see you said you see over there God's house used to be there it was a beautiful house and then it was destroyed I can't build I can't burn myself to build myself it's beautiful mansion when God's house is still in shambles that was a sensitivity that this great rabbi had but as a story is told about one night one Friday night when his wife was sick and he he asked the next door neighbor who was a non-observant non-toe observant Jew if he would be able to come was a doctor he'd come to bring come over with the lantern and to help him to help him heal his wife and he came over of course and we know the Allah the Jewish law says that whenever it's a case of engagement of life then of course all the laws of Shabbat fall by the wayside so of course you do whatever you have to do sorry bequach nefesh exactly bequach nefesh is the Hebrew word for it thank you bequach nefesh when it's a case of danger so here is the case of danger and he called the doctor and he lit a lantern fine as they're walking back to the doctor's house and he thanks the doctor profusely he thought it would be a good time to impress upon him one of the ideas one of the layers and themes of what Shabbat observance is all about he said the following he said imagine if you're to create a picture of a human being an artistic rendering of human being and yet to do it proportionally to size what do you think would be the ratio in height not in weight not in volume but in height of the average person's head to the rest of the body in other words not like a baby baby's like it's all head and a little bit of body right but most people normal people they have a certain ratio there's an average I looked it up later on to see if it's actually true there's a standard ratio one to it's actually Greek I saw Greek drawings online Google must be right if it's Google it said one and one to seven in other words seven of these would make up a person one plus six more be the average person okay what's the point of all this where we're going with all this the rub is under felt set to the doctor he said well once upon a time all the limbs and and the limbs of the body and organs ganged up on the head and they said hey head this isn't fair this is really it's just unfair because we get to we have to do all the schlepping all the schlepping around and carrying heavy things you get to do all the good stuff you get to have all the good food and the drink and the schmooze all the great schmoozing it's just not fair so that's that says to the rest of the body of course that's fair of course I deserve more than you who do you think plans out your actions that makes them meaningful if it weren't for me planning it out and prioritizing giving meaning and choice and thinking in advance and what you're doing and there would be no point to what you're doing just be running around like it literally like a chicken without a head so the doctor is a very smart man the doctor says oh I get it am I Shabbat is also that one seventh of the week it's the head of the week it's that one day of the week when a person stops from what they're doing and gives meaning and prioritize their life in such a way that they don't just go on because sometimes a person goes on you know the same idea you find by the way for Rosh Hashanah as well Rosh Hashanah is called the head of the year right Rosh Hashanah that's a very strange way to refer to the New Year we should call it Shana Chadasha Happy New Year you don't do that we say happy head of the year Rosh Hashanah why is it the head of the year why is it the if anything it should be the beginning of the year of course the head represents the idea that person doesn't just go through year after year after year but they stop and they plan with that head of theirs what I'm going to do next year what I should do different from last year what I should continue Shabbat is the same thing as well Shabbat is that one seventh it's the head of the week that time of the year of the week I should say when we plan out and make all our choices meaningful I have a friend Rabbi Mordechai Ryan who wrote a wonderful book which I'm not sure if it's available anymore but you can check it out online in addition to the two recommendations here number 10 it's called the magic of Shabbat and in there he has a beautiful story which I'll finish with which we'll tie it all together story is told about this fellow he's working in the he's a salesman working in the deep south somewhere in Texas it's Friday afternoon now he always carries with him it's always a good idea if you have to travel right before Shabbat although it's not a good idea to travel before Shabbat it's one of the halachot the Jewish laws it would not to do that but a person has to travel for whatever reason should always bring a little Shabbat kit so he had a little Shabbat kit the kit had in it candles to light and which is not just for women it's for men as well again I don't have a chance to discuss the myriad laws of Shabbat tonight in the limited time that we have but Shabbat candles are primarily done by the woman of the house but if the man's alone he lights candles himself so this fellow the salesman in deep south he carried with him a Shabbat kit it had two candles it had the the kiddish cup and the little Ketem grape juice bottle he had himself two holly rolls of course and then he had the even had the gefilte fish with the horseradish and a little you know closed cup and the carrot on top you have to have I took my kid's ones to PJ's pesto which I think is no longer there and we looked at a fish wanted to buy it and it was a fish it was a white looking fish which had right over here on top had an orange thing the kid said gefilte we bought it right away it was fantastic so he had this whole kit fine and he's looking for a place to stop and he's no he's nowhere anything he's nowhere any place to stop no house no hotel nothing it's coming close and close to the Shabbas finally it's getting really dark it's almost ski it's almost sunset he says the next place next house next structure I see I'm pulling in I'm staying there no matter what turns out the place he stops at is a county jail okay get that of his car with his kit rushes into the county jail he says listen I'm in a Shabbas observant Jew and I can't drive anymore is it okay if I leave my car here in the parking lot I'll stay in the lobby I'll pay you just let me stay in your lobby for the next 25 hours so the warden says you don't have to pay me or anything for you you can leave your car wherever you want but you just can't stay in the lobby you got to keep the lobby clean you if you want you can stay in one of the cells having no choice he gets into one of the cells there are other people they're hardened criminals he gets into a corner hides himself into a corner and he and he pulls him to sit down and he pulls out the two candles six puts him on the floor makes a blessing and then he pulls out his grape juice and then the inevitable happens he gets a tap on his shoulder hey you so he looks back and it's one of these hardened criminals and the guy says to him what are you in for I think that's how they say it in Texas by the way I lived in Atlanta Georgia for years I'm pretty close what are you in for so he says Shabbos what's the strange thing to say and then the guy says Shabbos and what do you get for it and he says life Shabbos is truly a way to get a life for Jewish people it is what kept the Jewish people for so long why did it keep us so just a title together why does Shabbos keep the Jewish people more than Jewish people kept Shabbat because if you have something to live for if you believe that your life has ultimate meaning and purpose because you believe in a purposeful Creator who created you with intention to keep to be involved in the affairs of your life and to care about you if you believe in that and not just believe in it but act it out and live it in craft your emuna your actual live it up with making it into a ritual which has staying power then no matter how difficult things can get for the Jewish people and God forbid nothing should ever happen but also the centuries and millennia persecution Jewish people always have that Shabbos we're always never more than seven or six days away from another Shabbos which reminds us that everything has ultimate meaning and purpose and nothing is random nothing is coincidental everything has ultimate meaning to it and that gave us the power and the ability to go on and to keep the Jewish people so my blessing to all of us is we should get a life that we should be able to always enjoy and have an enhanced experience of our Shabbat and again the more we learn about it that I recommend these two books here especially Shabbat Day of Eternity and the Gateway to Judaism these are excellent books which give us more understanding especially covering all the laws of Shabbat that we didn't discuss this evening