Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
What type of rest do we yearn for on Shabbat? How do we frame our mindset during the week to prepare for Shabbat and how can we transform our Shabbat experience? Using the teachings of Rabbi Yaakov Meir Shechter, a leading Breslov Rabbi, in his sefer Yom Machmadim, we build tools towards enhancing our ability to connect to the day of rest.
חברה, גמר חתימה טובה to everyone, a good קוויטל, a good everything. everything. Today is the יארצייט of ר' אשר, as Dan pointed out to us yesterday. So his נשמה should have an עלייה and he should be a מליץ יושר on all of us that are drinking from his fountain, learning his תורה and hopefully asking the questions that he that he's pulling out for us to ask, like we've been saying.
And we should have a lot of הצלחה and continuing to learn in his תורות for many, many more years to come, בעזרת השם. This שיעור today is dedicated לעילוי נשמתו, but today, since it's a very, very, very special morning, you all know that this morning, this morning after יום כיפור, this is a very, very delicate day. And it's so beautiful and heartwarming to see all the חברה coming and דאווענען and learning and in all the good זאכן, but I wanted to learn just for a few minutes something very, very special that will help us take advantage of these moments that we have right now because חבל לפספס, לפספס, to miss out on these days. Like this is really, you thought that ראש השנה, עשרת ימי תשובה, יום כיפור was high.
These days over here right now, they're they're not in comparison, חס ושלום, can't compare them to anything, but they're really, they're really something out of this world. And we have, there's a lot of different תורות we've learned over the years. So a little bit of stuff that we've seen in previously. I have pages for you.
It's not in the ספר that you have over here, but a very short piece from the סלונים רב and a very short and very intense piece from הרב קוק, these צדיקים to escort us in to bridge the place between the between יום כיפור and סוכות is very, very, very special.And I also just want to say one more thing. I want to say, I don't know if they still, people still say big ups, but I'm going very retro these days in a lot of different ways. Like last night, I had a bunch of, a bunch of... a bunch of...
I got a bunch of חברה. A bunch of חברה... I had a bunch of, a bunch of חברה like texted me right. They sent me a link right after יום טוב with the link to pump up the jam.
I haven't thought about that, I heard that song in in ages. But whatever it is. But חברה, you you, everyone here pumped up the jam.
מה אני אעשה, מה אני יכול לומר, what could I say? Everyone, hopefully נפתלי בן אסתר פייגא, they were pumping up the jam.
Pumping up the Marcus. But I want to say thank you to everybody. It's a, it's a glorified period in life and it's a glorified experience to מקבל פני המלך on ראש השנה the way we did and to then go ווייטער with יום כיפור. I just feel like we're the luckiest person in the world.
So let's continue this, take all the אור from everyone and go ווייטער. So the days between יום כיפור and סוכות are very, very special but the שבת, and we don't have it every year. Sometimes there is no שבת between יום כיפור and סוכות.
יום כיפור falls out on שבת, then סוכות comes out in the middle of the week or other other other combinations.
But here there's a very, very special thing over here when the שבת that's between יום כיפור and סוכות is something very, very, very potent, very, very powerful. So look what the the סלונים רב says.
שבת זו, שבת קודש זו שבין יום הכיפורים לחג הסוכות, קדושתו גבוהה מאוד. This is a very exalted holiness, this שבת.
Now why?
בשבת קודש יש שתי בחינות.
שבת is made of two different things. You have בחינת יום השביעי and you have בחינת שבת. So you have the seventh day and then you have שבת.
What's the difference between the two?
בחינת יום השביעי מתייחס ונבנה מששת הימים של השבוע שעבר. When שבת is referred to as יום השביעי, that's corresponding to what was built from the six days prior to it. Meaning whatever happened before that שבת builds it up and brings it into that שבת that's in front of you. But then we have something else.
Now he continues.
אם בשבוע שעבר היה בו חג, so for instance, if there was a יום טוב in the week before the שבת that you have and coming up, אז נמשכת קדושתו גם ביום השביעי. The קדושה of the, of the, of whatever יום טוב was during the week is נמשך also into the seventh day, into שבת, because it's corresponding backwards, right?
והרי שבת שאחר יום הכיפורים היא עוד בחינת יום כיפור. Don't worry, won't be as long in שול, but you know what I mean that deep down inside, what יום כיפור brought.
into the world, the light of love, the light of everlasting love, the light of how beautiful we are, the light of the beauty, is נמשך into this, into this שבת as well. I saw a ווארט. I learned this תורה last week that the greatest מוסר you can give is a פסוק that says, מוסר בני אל תמאס. So in I think it's in סלונים they say, מוסר בני אל תמאס.
What's the greatest מוסר we could give ourselves? The next מוסר, what's מוסר? The second word, בני.
בני. You're my son.
אל תמאס.
There's nothing ugly about you.
מאוס, ugly, right?
מוסר בני, אל תמאס. Don't, don't see any, there's nothing disgusting about you. This is the light, this is the cleanli, the cleansing of יום כיפור.
You come out of יום כיפור is a מוסר. What's the greatest מוסר I need to take with me?
בני אל תמאס. This, the הייליגע נתיבות שלום says, is drives, drives in, goes into this, into the שבת אחר יום כיפור, following יום כיפור. So that's in the air.
ועוד, second paragraph.
יש בחינת שבת ששייכת לשבוע הבא המתחדש ובא, like we always say, תחילה למקראי קודש.
שבת is תחילה למקרא קודש. Any holiness which will be during the week is called out on the שבת beforehand.
So what does it mean, what do we have this week?
דעוד יש בחינת שבת ששייכת לשבוע המתחדש ובא.
בכל שבת קודש מתחדש הבריאה לששת ימים הבאים. Every single שבת, the creation itself is renewed for the next six days coming up.
לפי זה, according to this, שבת זו שיש בה גם האורות יום כיפור וגם האורות חג הסוכות, זמן שמחתנו, הרי ש, this is the words of the סלוניםער, הרי שהיא השבת הקדושה ביותר בשנה.
It's the holiest שבת of the year, the סלוניםער רבי says, because within it is contained the love from יום כיפור and the שמחה of סוכות that's coming up.
שנכללין בה שתי הקדושות הגבוהות מאד. These two ימים טובים, these two lights, these two paradigms are, are meeting us this שבת קודש. And it's this very, it's a very interesting energy that we that we feel.
Now what is the, just בקיצור, what's the danger with such a thing? Internal pressure, oh, I gotta make it the best שבת ever.
יכול להיות גם זה, נכון? What else is it? What else is the danger? You learn a תורה like this. What else is the, what what what could come down be like? You're going to go to שבת from and now suddenly you start to go back to what I really am and like, I can't do that. I'm not there.
Right. And then I'm thinking, well, if it really, if I really was connected, I'd feel what he's saying over here, right? It's very חזק. It's a very, there are very חזק things. Because I'll tell you the truth, as high as a תורה like this is, this is one of the שבתים that it's almost easiest to fall.
What? Yeah. It's a trap game. sports. Alright, you're talking about in sports when you like have a great team coming up and then you're have, you're playing this bad team.
Like, whatever, it's going to be easy. It's going to obviously going to be something I can experience and a good thing, then. Yeah? Yes. S.I., S.I.'s guide.
Our latest רש"י's in the house. As we read in September, it's a trap שבת. And we have a hard time coming down. We have a, we have an easy time getting high, and then we have these moments of coming down, it's very hard.
So like even after יום כיפור, after we go into סוכות, like, we don't have a שבת in between. It's a transition. It's a very powerful to stay within the So what אריה is saying is preparing us to hear the words of the כהן. This is exactly what the כהן גדול.
We've learned this next piece at least two or three times over the last ten, whatever many years we've been learning together. This is exactly the נקודה. Now you could learn, God, it's so exalted, it's amazing. Guess what, guess what like will still be this שבת? The same נודניק that drives you crazy.
It's not, I mean hopefully he won't, but he's there in שול, he's right there. The, the diaper needs to be changed, right? The, you fill in the blank, right? You could know these things on a very exalted level, and they're אמת לאמיתו. They're אמת לאמיתו. So I already want to tell you basically the end.
I'm going to tell you the end and we're going to see it inside. This שבת is the שבת of patience. This שבת, the depth and beauty of it is that if you דאווען strong enough, and you go into it with the same מהלך we began ראש השנה. Remember what we said ראש השנה night? What's the greatest סימן from all the סימנים? Anyone remember? Staying calm.
Staying calm. Like that that's the whole זאך over here. That hasn't left us. And it's דוקא this שבת that links to be implemented.
That if you're if you see things that are like, this doesn't add up to what this just, this סלאנימער רבי just told me, this is בכלל not my. Wait a second. I went into תשפ״ב with a סימן. What was my סימן? That I'm that's the greatest סימן is I'm staying calm.
זה לא משנה מה קורה. Things can be true in עולמות עליונים. The way that I bring it down is through calmness, through יישוב הדעת. Yes, sure.
I think just on a practical level for me, when you talk about calmness is like it's דוקא like there's so much to do. Like I have לולבים and build a סוכה and oh God, I have to make another שבת and five loads of laundry, like all these things are building up and then there's like שבת because you can't do anything. And then it's like, okay, you just got to. Yeah.
Yeah and which normally you don't have. You already have four days to, you know, to like do all this stuff you need to. Right.
נכון.
And you have to go into שבת feeling like you already did all the preparations for when it needs to come also. You can't, you know, you can't even think about מוצאי שבת. You can't even think about Sunday or when's יום טוב, Monday night, right? I mean if I actually think right now about anything else other than this שיעור, I will, I will, yeah, like I'm gonna I'm going to lose it, you know what I mean? Like, I'm gonna, like I'm naming a baby at 10, and then there's a band rehearsal at one, then I have to buy, I have to figure out how to get סכך. Then there's a whatever, there's, there's, stop thinking about it.
Right. But שבת comes and says, hey, whether you that's exactly what you, whether you like it or not, Bam. Yeah. That's why the ענין of כל מלאכתך עשויה, this שבת is probably most שייך than probably, maybe that's what he means over there by like, that this שבת is the holiest of the year because it's כאילו נכפה עליכה.
It's saying, hey, יום כיפור, סוכות, זה קידוש, זהו. Ellie, you want to say something? It's just like by צדיקים you always hear like this is the הייליגע זמן. One of the things as חסידים or people who are listening, as even, makes fun a little bit of it, חס ושלום, but the נקודה of the הייליגע זמן, like for us like פשוטע people like we we're not always so fired up for each זמן, each יום טוב. So what's the real way for us to yeah, get excited on these ימים טובים? Right.
Well that's why I said, I mean, that's exactly why I was מדגיש, that it has to be the שבת of patience. Like that נקודה because you're right. Sometimes I have the worst experience after learning these ספרים about this זמן. The worst.
It's like the the last thing that the צדיק is trying to give over is happening in me. And at and then and then in my שבת table, and my יום טוב table. The last thing sometimes because of our, בסדר. It's not, it's not an ענין of saying how small we are.
It's just the מציאות of the world that we're in. So even though this תורה from the סלאנימער is אמת לאמיתה, the only access I have to it is by letting go of any expectation that this is actually how I'm going to possibly feel going into this שבת. But the כהן, the light of all lights, רב קוק, זכר צדיק וקדוש לברכה לחיי עולם הבא, he helps us out with this. Now there are two pieces in the אורות that רב קוק says.
I actually want to start for a second, you see the second to bottom paragraph? Second to bottom paragraph.
על ידי, because this is it's a, it's a separate piece. I put them together but it's really a separate piece. Look at the sec, look at the second to bottom paragraph.
על ידי העליה של יום הכיפורים, נסלחקים הרבה מעולם הזה. You know, what we tasted and what hopefully all אידן tasted, now you're you're not here. Like we know we were not here yesterday. We're not in what what what we refer to as עולם הזה, right?
על ידי העליה של יום הכיפורים, מסרחקים הרבה מעולם הזה.
And רב קוק's aware of that and he doesn't have any expectation of us saying, oh, you flew so high, now you stay there. No, that's not, that's not how it goes. Although the פיאסצנא רבי does say, it's very, like I have two שאלות I would like to ask the פיאסצנא רבי. This is just one of them.
One of one is something else, but saying what did you mean when you said that he doesn't understand how come שלש סעודות every week people don't don't treat it like it's כל נדרי. He expands on it a little bit over there but בדרך כלל, like רב קוק is saying, על ידי העליה של יום הכיפורים, מסרחקים הרבה מעולם הזה. You're very distanced from this world. Look what he says, such such like caring words.
וצריכים שמירה מכל מכשול כשפוגשים בענייני העולם הזה. Then you come back down into this world, and then there's this world things to deal with. You need a big שמירה from these things.
והימים שבין יום הכיפורים לסוכות ניתנו לחינוך של חזרה לענייני העולם הזה בתיאור הגון בקדושה.
Rav Kook says these days that are between יום כיפור and סוכות were given to us to re-educate us as to how to come back and deal with the world, but this time from a vision of קדושה. It doesn't mean over here like you were standing in ה' אלוקינו. That's not what it means. Cook's not saying, okay, now so figure out now how you come back into the world while you're ממש screaming, שמע ישראל, ברוך שם, and ה' הוא האלוקים.
תיאור הגון של קדושה, that's the לשון, תיאור הגון בקדושה, is like, is like this delicate, patient aura of קדושה that now you come back and deal with things in the world. To me, the greatest מידה in the world that describes how to come back and deal with עולם הזה things is the מידה of סבלנות, is the מידה of patience. That is the great, to me that's the greatest, most important and most effective way of looking, looking now into things again in this world, not freaking out like you're saying, looking at שבת, it's the same שבת, it's the same שבת table, same זאך, these kids are here, I'm here, sleeping here, whatever it is. But now, I I have יום כיפור eyes.
It doesn't mean that the moments are now like קדושה like יום כיפור. But these days, Rav Kook's saying, were given to us als חינוך, to re-educate ourselves. And some will also say is like זאת חנוכת, some say חינוך. That means like the, the dedication, the inauguration.
Like, okay, I'm coming back to this world. And I have to do things, I still have to come back and be busy with things. Anyone that's busy with a bill that he has to deal with today, you would, you would think this is like the worst thing in the world, like ה' hates me. It's like, no.
No, this is you're you're in עולם הזה. But you take with you the love that you had inside over יום כיפור and say, I'll get through this one as well. How?
לאט לאט, with patience.
חייבים את זה.
חייבים. Now, there's two words, we always say this. There's two words that are sort of describing the same thing, but they're two different worlds completely. One is סבלנות.
That's basically like this, when someone does this to you. It's a horrible, horrible hand movement. It's horrible. The worst is when someone does together with that.
זה אכ. That's, that's תשעה באב right there. Then you have המתנה.
המתן.
The כהן גדול, Rav Yosef, gave this whole beautiful שיעור last week about היה ממתין, right? You remember the story of the כהן גדול would go in based on the רב. He brought over the, the רב's, he's דורש the ר"ן. It's an amazing thing. The כהן גדול would go into the קודש קדשים, היה ממתין עד שתתמלא כולו עשן.
He would wait there. There was a המתנה. And that that room, that room, the waiting room, חדר המתנה, there there there is a מתנה.
סבלנות is סבל.
It's it's it's torture, right? But המתנה is a different thing. There's this world of המתן that we're in right now because we're gonna go into the סוכה soon and then it's going to be again ענני הכבוד, the same עננים that were מקיף, you know, the אידן in the desert, and also the לשון of the טורים that was inside the קודש קדשים. We're in this world of המתן right now. And when you go into it like that, you have a, that's a שמירה that Rav Kook speaks about.
That's a שמירה to re-meet myself, my body, after experiencing an out-of-body experience. And it's very, very important, as you see on the bottom over here, על כן באים ימים של שמחת קודש, days of great holiness are coming.
של חדוות הנפש, of rejoicing of the soul.
לכונן את הרצון הטוב והעז ועוז החיים הטהור.
To reestablish, to re-erect the good will and the passion to have a to have a pure life. And then אז תהיה התשובה שלמה. So Rav Kook's like saying, you guys thought you were out of it, right? It was done.
תשובה גמרנו.
He says actually, no. The תשובה שלמה, maybe we can דורש this to the שבת שובה דרשה, the תשובה שלמה is. actually how I how I walk into the סוכה after these days that are between יום כיפור and סוכות. Because what happens to us is that sometimes when we work so hard on spiritually speaking we work so hard on ourselves and we have to go to a certain place, something gets neglected, which we'll see in a second.
כן. No, in the word המתנה, you have the word מתנה. Right, right. Present.
There's a present waiting for you if you know how to wait. If you know how to wait. Now, look at the top now. We'll just do this.
לפעמים על ידי שמתאמצים להיות מודבק ברוחניות עליונה. You see the beginning of רב קוק. Sometimes what happens to us when you work so hard to be clinging to supernal spirituality, מתרוממים עם כל כוחות החיים הרוחניים למעלה בעולם המחשבה העליונה. You know what you took with you? You took with you everything.
If יום כיפור was יום כיפור, what did you שלעפּ with, שלעפּ, what did you carry and elevate with you, up with you, while you were ascending? Your whole כח המחשבה. Your whole world of thought also went up with you. But what ends up happening? You're not dead, you're still alive. If you're still physically alive, what's still alive there?
הגוף.
והגוף נעזב מן הנשמה. So the body, so to speak, רב קוק says, becomes soulless.
הגוף נעזב מן הנשמה. Your body is soulless.
ועל ידי זה, המידות הרעות שולטות בו. So what happens when there's no שמירה on your body because it's all נשמה. The body on its own, it can watch itself?
מה פתאום. So when it goes into autopilot, then what has אחיזה? What has a grasp on כביכול the body?
מידות רעות.
It's not like you did something wrong. It's just the nature of, yeah, it's just it is what it is. It's just it is what it is.
המידות הרעות שולטות בו.
ואחר כך, and then when he says what happens? Third line, כשההסתכלות הרוחנית העליונה נגמרת. Then this way of perception and vision and looking at who you are and what the world is, and what the relationship with the אייבישטער is, right? When this is over, because ה' הוא האלקים, תקיעה, לשנה הבאה והוא רחום, go home, כח החיים חוזר לרגילות שלו. And then the way you normally operate goes back. What does the נשמה find when it comes back to meet the body?
מוצאת הנשמה את הגוף שבור בקלקולי תכונותיו.
It finds a body that's like basically saying to the נשמה, I'm really happy you had a good time. Really happy for you. Good for you. Good for you, right? We, we're all, on behalf of all גופים, we're very happy that you have been flying, flying, flying.
Must be nice, huh? Must be nice. Must be really nice, yeah. You know like when you come back from a vacation and like a person's was so חלשן to to be there and oh, all they really want to say is like, I'm so happy for you. Your שמחה is my שמחה.
But you see in their eyes, they're like, wow. It must feel really good to have that time, that that time together, right? So the body is looking at the נשמה saying, wow, it must have felt really exalted, huh? Must have been really good. And then רב קוק says, מתחילה מלחמה פנימית גדולה ומסוכנת מאד. Then an inner war, a dangerous war begins inside.רב קוק is basically saying this, don't חבר'ה, don't freak out.
This makes sense. It makes sense to not be able to figure out how to, how to, how the everything just שטעם now, like we just, oh, just flows back inside into the world. No, the body was alone, and it was supposed to be alone. That's how the רבונו של עולם designed it.
Remember the וורט in סלונים, they say in the פסוק says ועניתם את נפשותיכם. So you torture, you have to go through afflictions of your soul, but that's a weird thing because נפש, what, what torture does the soul have when it's experiencing 24 hours that's completely, completely, completely dedicated to them? So the סלונים has a וורט somewhere, אל תקרי ועניתם אלא ועניתם. Like, you know, you're giving an answer to all the questions of your soul when you're fully acknowledging it and and and taking care of it, right? But who doesn't have an answer? The גוף doesn't have an answer, right? And it's good, you could say, oh, I feel cleansed. No, it's not like a juice cleanse.
That's not what the body feels after יום כיפור. Nobody really feels clean physically. What's that? You feel the opposite of clean physically after יום כיפור. You realize you haven't showered yet.
Right.
ובשביל כך, and for this, Rav Kook says why, why are we still like finishing the תשובה שלמה?
בשביל כך צריכה התשובה עם חפץ זיכוך המידות, with a desire to refine מידות להיות קודמת לעלייה והסתכלויות. Rav Kook says, I'm going to give you an עצה for next year. He says what should be a כוונה when you're about to say okay, עלה להר, ראש חודש אלול? And Rav Kook speaks about this in אורות התשובה, obviously about תשובה גופנית.
So the עניין here is that Rav Kook is saying before you head up to the mountain, and you know you're going to fly, what רצון should you have with you? The מהתחלה. Not once I come down from the mountain, like מוצאי יום כיפור and I have new לוחות now. But what should be the thing before I even go up? There should be a desire over here that, like he says, חפץ זיכוך המידות.
השם, I don't want to go up here just so that I could experience bliss up here.
My כוונה is to come back down with כוחות מחודשים, with renewed כוחות that will meet me back where I'm at, where I left off. But now with a different way of looking at what I have to do in this world and how I have to approach things. And that's why the מידה of סבלנות is a מידה that everyone בשווה needs. You know, רבי נחמן says that רבי נחמן, זכותו יגן עלינו, says that משיח is going to come and teach us one מידה when he comes: the מידה of סבלנות.
It's it's going to be his תורה that he's actually going to teach us. And it's going to tick us off because we'll be like, are you kidding me? We've been waiting for you for, you're going to teach me מידה of סבלנות, right? Are you serious, right? Right.
רבי נחמן's saying it's not this מידה of סבלנות, it's the other one, right? Rav Kook says you have to start already before you ascend with that קו. And then he says, ואז מכשירים איזה מגע, איזה מגע בין הגוף אל הנשמה, גם בהסתלקות העליונה.
And then there's a הכשר. There's a, there's a, there's a place where where the body and soul can meet while they're ascending up where the body doesn't feel totally neglected. It's almost like, ah, right, you're going up because you actually really care about me. You're not just neglecting me.
You're going up, you're blissing out, you're דאווענען, you're flying, but really it's because you care about us together, the חיבור to be together, yeah. The נשמה and the גוף are like a parent-child. And if a parent goes to a parenting course to be a better parent, you're, you're, you're leaving for maybe a few days of retreat, but you're coming back with something tangible to to bring. So the נשמה has to come back and not say to the גוף, you're doing everything all wrong.
This is, you know, you're, you're, you're steeped in, you know, all this stuff. You're coming back and saying, this is how we work together, like a parent-child. This is how we work together. By the way, that should be the כוונה before before going to the parenting course.
Yeah. There's a חז"ל that says that the way השם judges us is like the, the orchard of the king with the blind and the, and the lame, and they put them on each other's shoulder and, yes, yes, yes, yes. That's right. They're not separate.
They're not separate. They're not really separated, yeah. At the end of יום הדין. I mean, the body feels that because because we relate to it on a physical level, like when it's being neglected, so it feels like we're separated.
Right? It feels like we're separated. But everyone reaches a certain place during יום כיפור where you really have forgotten about your body. At a certain point, every person has that moment where you actually really have forgotten. And Rav Kook says, ah, so right there, חברה, that's the place where there needs when you come back deep, deep, deep שמירה and next time around, and the תשובה will be שלמה, the תשובה will be שלמה when I wrap myself in these four days of patience, especially this שבת of patience, and I give space for the needs of the physicality.
I give space for the needs of עולם הזה.
חז"ל obviously in their infinite wisdom, you know, there's no reason why סוכות is now, right? There's no reason why סוכות comes out on the calendar now. It could have been any, any time of the year. It would have made much more sense in ניסן or around there, אייר, but not not here, right? But that's obviously because we need to still stay busy with something.
So yeah, we're busy with מצוות וכולי. But there's also a few minutes in between the building a סוכה and buying ד' מינים that we're actually, right, חברה? There there are a few minutes in between the מצוות that we're busy doing in these few days, right? There's relationships. There's relationships. So I want to give us a strong ברכה that with this in mind we go into the greatest שבת of the year, according to the סלאנימער רב.
We go back to what we said. It's not that it's, it's not that stories like these are not good, ולהיפך. It's stories like this in the, in a healthy context can really build us and take יום כיפור with us into the סוכה, into the rest of the year, like we want to so badly and re, like renew our understanding of what it means to be in a relationship with מלך מלכי המלכים, with each other, with our spouses, with our children. And hopefully like that all the קדושה that came from יום כיפור and that's coming from סוכות will find its way in its very special way this שבת, for everyone a little bit different, but it just means we have to be together even stronger this שבת.
And הלוואי, הלוואי, הלוואי, our bodies will be proud of us for what we went out to do, and not, not להיפך, בעזרת השם.