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Rav Shlomo Katz journeys through the halachot of Shabbat using the sefer Peninei Halakha by Rav Eliezer Melamed, weaving together clarity in psak with the depth of Chassidus and the soul of niggun. From candle lighting to last-minute preparations, from the halachic to the emotional—each episode is a doorway into a more alive, more rooted Shabbos. Whether you’re just beginning or relearning it all again, come enter the holiness of Shabbos from the inside out.
Okay, בוקר טוב. Let's start learning. We have only a few minutes because I have to get the room and share. We're continuing in הלכה on הלכות שבת.
The last thing we did, if I remember correctly, was basically Friday. נכון? How we act on Fridays. The next piece over here, we're just going to skim through, we're not going to really learn it inside, is how you buy food and for לכבוד שבת. We spoke a little bit about wine last week, a little bit about about meat.
But he quotes over here something very interesting. If you look in the beginning on page 31 and אות ג', מצווה לענג את השבת במאכלים ותבשילים משובחים ובמשקאות מבושמים. הכל לפי ממונו של האדם. It's a מצווה to דווקא to bring more עונג to the שבת with delights, drinks, foods.
And he says over here, everything in accordance to man's ממון. But then he brings then he brings a statement from the רמב"ם that can be very confusing. וכל המרבה בהוצאות שבת, that means, literally, געלט. The more money you spend לכבוד שבת, ובתיקון מאכלים רבים וטובים, הרי זה משובח.
The more the merrier. When it comes to געלט, you're saying ממש money over here. שנאמר, זהו שנאמר, וקראת לשבת עונג. So, what so what is how is a person supposed to relate to that on a תכלית level, if he's very much into שבת but on a למעשה level, money-wise, money is not really happening for him.
So, if you look later, if you look at turn the page to page 33 on top, מי שאין לו כסף מזומן לקניית מאכלי שבת, ילווה כסף כדי לענג את השבת. So he's saying over here it's like usually he's very much not like this, here he's really going out and he's saying, you don't have you don't have the געלט? Borrow it. ואל ידאג שמא תארע תקלה ולא יוכל להחזיר את הלוואה. And don't worry about, God forbid, if you're not able to get the money back and pay back the debt.
שאמר הקדוש ברוך הוא לישראל בני, בני לוו עלי וקדשו קדושת היום והאמינו בי ואני פורע. The גמרא in ביצה. Trust me. You'll get it back.
It's like ממש like a הבטחה from השם, you're going to get the money back. Now, but this is this is what's important here. וזאת בתנאי שאינו סומך על הנס. Okay.
So what so what is what is it all about here? He's saying, this is all בתנאי, you don't rely on miracles to pay back your debts that you that you borrowed money לכבוד שבת. So you don't pay you don't you don't rely on miracles. So what what does he saying over here? If I have an ענין of עונג שבת, according to the רמב"ם, is דווקא going with more expenses and saying, דווקא take and even take a loan, he's saying over here, but on the same account, don't rely on miracles. So what is he saying over here? How am I supposed to approach this? You keep working at it.
You got to work to try to pay the debt back, but you you still got to take it in the first place. But many people would say it'll take a miracle for me to pay back my loan, right? If I don't have money לכתחילה to pay for this, I'm going to go out now and I'm going to borrow money that I don't even have money, then I don't even I'm סומך, it seems like this, this way is like you're סומך על הנס מלכתחילה. נכון? Let's see how he says over here. Okay.
וזאת בתנאי שאין סומך על הנס, אלא יש לו עסק מסודר או משכורת קבועה או חיסכון שעליו הוא יכול להישען. So he's saying something very, it's a very important over here. When we're saying that a person should go all out on שבת, that's when, פחות או יותר, he's capable of going all out on שבת. It's not we're not talking about a person that has nothing.
There are responsible ways to borrow money, in other words. Okay. That's that's that's much more accurate. Meaning on a responsible person that that can have, you know, ערבות for himself, he is the person that can borrow money in a responsible way לכבוד שבת.
אין סומכין על הנס means that I don't have a responsible way to borrow money to in order to be מענג a שבת. How's that? מסודר? I wonder what I would ask בעלי מכולת here what it's you know how they view this over here with with Fridays. You know. In America, did you guys go to markets that you could like have like a...
A running tab? No, right? You know, K-Mart didn't give you guys a... CVS did, you know. Right. No.
By the way, maybe you can negotiate prices every week. How about in England some of the Jewish ones have tabs. The Jewish ones, interesting. The Jewish ones had, and there were a few families that couldn't afford it, the market would say put it on the tab.
I imagine there were a few, yeah, in the community that were... In Israel. Monty, that's how you guys probably work all the time, no? Okay. שעליו אמרו חכמים שלא ידאג שמא לא יצליח להחזיר את חובו, כי מנהג כראוי, like you're saying, יעבוד בחריצות ולא יבזבז את כספו, השם יסייע בידו שיוכל לשלם את חובו.
Meaning, if the framework of your life is one that basically you'll probably be able to pay back a loan because you've done it in the past and your framework kind of like is healthy, normal, then when it comes to שבת, you know, when it comes to other things, you're definitely going to go and try to... The loan is on a one time event. To take out a loan for every single week... No, he's said, right.
So he's not saying every, meaning if you're in a situation that every week you're borrowing, you probably shouldn't be borrowing. I think. Because that that that takes him out of this the framework of... Unless you're paying it back over the course of the week.
Every week? Meaning if every single week your framework is, I borrow Friday, then the whole week I'm paying back Friday in order to borrow again this Friday... I don't know. My employees in America lived week to week. If there was delay in getting them their their paycheck to them, they had no way of feeding them the next week.
There's an ענין. They borrowed for לכבוד שבת? No, I know, I know. Although I did teach some of them the idea of שבת, but for them it was Sunday. אבל מי, for you too it was Sunday.
אבל מי שאינו יודע כיצד יחזיר את חובו, but if someone doesn't know how they're going to right, לא יקח הלוואה כדי לענג את השבת. Okay. So לכתחילה if I do not know, if I don't have any plan how I'm going to pay this back, שבת, שבת, שבת, you're not borrowing money לכבוד שבת. שלא יהיה חס ושלום רשע שאינו משלם את חובותיו, and I do it על חשבון שבת.
Because it's literally considering גזל ושרץ בידו. That's what it is. וגם לא יפשוט ידו לקבל צדקה, אלא יאכל בשבת מאכלים פשוטים. כפי שאמר רבי עקיבא, עשה שבתך חול ואל תצטרך לבריות.
Very famous statement from רבי עקיבא. ובזכות שלא יזדקק לבריות, יתעשר. And in the merit that you're not needy from צורכי ציבור and you refrain from being needy from the כלל, בעזרת השם at the end of the day you'll actually become rich. אבל עני שכבר נאלץ לפשוט ידו לקבל צדקה, but someone that has already reached the state of poverty and he must put out his hand for צדקה for different needs, יטול צדקה כדי לענג את השבת ומשנה ברורה says.
Then he, yes, he shall take צדקה. that's not a הלוואה, that's צדקה, that's something else. That's that's בסדר. We're talking about someone that's more of a הלוואה.
Okay. Now, go to page and then the next page. This is where this is where I I like this, this is like very interesting stuff over here. If you look at ד' and ה', כבוד השבת בבגדים, כבוד השבת בהכנת הגוף והבית.
How do we relate to the concept of כבוד שבת? Is it about me or is it about שבת? It's very different. If it's about me, then my standards are always relative. If it's about שבת, nothing, it's קביע וקיימא, it doesn't change. I have to I look at it differently.
כבוד שבת comes from the place of שמור from זכור. You've been following online. Very good. Okay.
Let's go. Let's go inside. מצווה לכבד את השבת שנאמר וקראת לשבת עונג ולקדוש השם מכובד. So we know about this ענין about כיבוד שבת, that it's a מצווה.
What part of the מצווה? Very good. זכור and שמור. וקראת לשבת עונג ולקדוש השם מכובד. Let me ask you a question.
That פסוק, is זכור or שמור? זכור? זכור? Let's I'm not asking again until we finish this piece. מכבודה של השבת שלא יהיה מלבושו בשבת כמלבושו בחול. Famous, that's the גמרא says, the way you dress on שבת should not be the way that you dress during the week. אלא בגדי השבת יהיו נאים יותר ונקיים.
Should be nicer, cleaner. כתבו הפוסקים בשם האריז"ל שטוב שלא ללבש בשבת דבר ממה שלבש בחול. Now back then, that was a big ענין, to not have to not wear anything that you wore during the week was like only people of, you know, people that were basically, you know, on a much higher social status were able to afford such an ענין. היינו שבגדים העליונים יהיו מיוחדים לשבת וחגים, ואת הלבנים יחליף לקראת השבת בלבנים נקיים ומכובסים.
לבנים means underwear. It's interesting, the proper way of saying underwear in Hebrew is לבנים, you know that? It's not תחתונים, it's לבנים. ויש מחמירים לקנות אפילו נעליים מיוחדות לשבת. It's interesting.
I mean, I grew up, you guys grew up with שבת shoes? Of course, שבת shoes. But that's like, that was a luxury. And there's even those. For us, it's like, what do you mean, there's people that don't? I remember one time I went to go spend שבת by the ביאלע רב.
And um, I I I think I missed my my last ride, I had to walk a long time right before שבת to get there to him. And I had these new shoes, but these new שבת shoes, but um, you know, I thought like, wow, I'm like walking, sweating, it's ערב שבת, I'm going to get to him. And I thought it'd be like a חסידישע טייל and I'm going to get there and it's going to be all עונג and everything. And I get I walk into the בית מדרש and he looks at me and he says, 'שלמה'לע, נישט געצחצח'ט די נעלים לכבוד שבת קודש?' You didn't you didn't polish your shoes לכבוד שבת? And it was such a dagger in my heart, it was such, I couldn't believe it, like that's what he said to me.
And I never went, no, no. I've been... I kept on going, but but but it's like by the the Rebbe's the Rebbes notice, like, you know, they notice every פרט, every detail of like לכבוד שבת קודש. You could have the Rebbes, their biggest עניים in the world, שבת he's a בן מלך.
Like you you really go into this other, this other place. גם מי שנמצא לבדו בשבת, you're alone on שבת, מצווה שיכבד את השבת בבגדים נאים. My friend David Sachs has a very famous talk about the one of the first times he had a revelation of the existence of God. What does that have to do with this? He was alone in his parents' kitchen, and he burped, and he said, 'Excuse me'.
That was the moment. Yes. He was alone in his parents' kitchen, he burped, and he felt the need to say, 'Excuse me'. So what is he saying over here? גם מי שנמצא לבדו בשבת, you're alone on שבת, you could say, listen, I'm alone, so it's just how I feel inside about שבת is enough for how my כבוד שבת.
No. Meaning like, I have to present myself in the eyes of the ציבור differently on שבת, therefore I have to dress differently. Saying over here, even when you're alone, you have to dress לכבוד שבת. משום שאין הבגדים לכבוד הרואים, כי אם לכבוד השבת.
Because that's what I asked in the beginning. This is according to the משנה ברורה over here. What you wear is not in honor, is not to it's not to make sure it's a so it's like a it's a statement, a public statement. It's שבת.
And שבת is just as much existing and visiting you when you're in שול and when you're in in your house. It's the same ענין. אדם שנמצא במקום שאין לו בגדי שבת. But I don't have, okay, I don't have שבת clothes.
או עני שיש לו בגד אחד, ישתדל ליפות את בגדו עד כמה שאפשר לקראת שבת. Or a poor person that only has one בגד, try as much as he can to make that one cloth, מיפה, that means to beautify, on whatever level that they can. וכן מסופר בתלמוד ירושלמי, a story from the ירושלמי in פאה, שדרש רבי שמלאי בציבור שצריך שיהיו לכל אדם שני מלבושים, אחד לחול ואחד לשבת. רבי שמלאי said that each person has to have two cloths, one for חול, one for שבת.
בכו תלמידיו כנגדו ואמרו, עניים אנחנו ואין לנו אלא מלבוש אחד. We're poor, the students said, we only have one cloth. אמר להם, אף על פי כן, צריכים אתם ליפות אותו לקראת שבת. וכן חיילים צריכים ללבוש בשבת מדי א'.
וכשאין להם אפשרות, יסדרו וינקו את בגדיהם כפי יכולתם. Yeah. He's like, I love this ספר. It's so, it's just, it's here, it's here.
Now a very interesting תקנה of עזרא הסופר shows how much, ממש, עזרא, I don't know why we we when we look at מסורה, for some reason, I don't know why it's like this, maybe it's just in my, in my, maybe I'll just talk about myself. I I feel like עזרא הסופר doesn't get the כבוד that he really that he deserves. Because when we think about the מסורה, so I'll go to like, you know, we'll talk about אברהם יצחק יעקב משה אהרן דוד, the שבעה אושפיזין. We'll jump to like, we'll say words like אנשי כנסת הגדולה and stuff like that, but עזרא's personality and the תקנות of עזרא play such a role throughout all of the הלכה and throughout all our מנהגים, it's amazing.
אחד מעשר התקנות שתיקן עזרא הסופר היא, שיכבסו את הבגדים ביום חמישי. Thursday laundry. עזרא הסופר. Laundry on Thursday.
שתי משמעויות לתקנה. Two reasons for this תקנה. א', שאין ללבוש בשבת בגדים שאין להם נקיים. ולכן תיקן לכבסם לכבוד שבת.
One reason is you're not supposed to wear clothes that aren't clean, and therefore he was מתקן that you should wash it לכבוד שבת. ב', והואיל ומלאכת הכביסה הייתה קשה, תיקן שיכבסו ביום חמישי, כדי שיום שישי ישאר פנוי להכנת תבשילים והבית לשבת. Apparently back then laundry was much more difficult than cooking. And he didn't want you to leave that which is much more difficult for Friday.
Get it done on Thursday, so the easier stuff to make a Friday as least traumatic as possible, leave that stuff. Today, it's interesting, what would you say about that today? The other way around. It's probably most probably the other way around. It's true.
Well now we have washers and dryers, you know. בכלל, yeah. No, but I'm saying like think about it like I mean for our wives or... not always, 'cause you you you're a big cooker, but like what would what would be considered a more chill Friday if I had to do laundry or if I had to cook? I guess everybody's relative.
It's not yeah. It's not it's not something. I think most people would say if you didn't have to fold the laundry, the laundry... Right.
Yeah, of course. Also the waiting time. But according to our wives, doing laundry is not I mean, the washing and drying is, it's the folding that's the thing with laundry, נכון? נכון. It doesn't say because the cooking's easier.
He says you just get it done because you have to cook Friday. That's what he says. Cooking is more therapeutic. Wait, what did you what did you just say right now, David? He didn't say that cooking's easier.
It's that what I thought was easier. It's meaning get that work out of the way because you have to cook Friday. No, but but he's kind of saying it though, he's saying, והואיל ומלאכת הכביסה הייתה קשה. Since, since that's much harder...
He's not talking about how hard cooking is. Get the hard work done 'cause you got to cook Friday. 'Cause it's also hard. Is that what you're saying? You can do two things at one time.
You got to cook... We learned we learned, no, no, but listen, last week we learned that you דווקא should cook on, if you can, on Friday. Thursday. Remember last week? Some of it done.
Get some of it done on Thursday. To keep Friday actually more mellow. So a bit more that if you can't get it done early on Friday, then you should cook Thursday, but I think לכתחילה you should be doing it on if I remember correctly... Earlier Friday.
That's what I thought. Earlier Friday לכתחילה, but if you can't, Thursday. Or start some Thursday and finish. But certainly don't leave laundry in the middle there but...
Well he he addresses this. אומנם כיום שמלאכת הכיבוס נעשה במכונה, no one's going down to the river unless you're in Uman and it's like a Friday, right? We have מכונות, we have machines, מותר לכבס בגדים ביום שישי. שאין בזה תורח והפרעה להכנות לשבת. 'Cause it's not, you don't say, oh, this is interfering with my הכנות לשבת.
אך את בגדי השבת טוב להקדים לכבס ביום חמישי כתקנת עזרא. Ah, but it's interesting, but that that might be true about all other laundry, but the stuff you're going to wear for שבת, he's still saying go go go go go earlier. Thursday. ככלל ניתן ללמוד מתקנות עזרא.
So he's very interesting. This is this is like he's saying, now let's look at תקנת עזרא and what does he really saying to us? Because even though it might not be the same things on a detail level like it was back then, there's the logic, the depth, the point is still very much שייך. ככלל ניתן ללמוד מתקנות עזרא שיש להיזהר, one must be very careful, שלא להפוך את יום שישי ליום עמוס בעבודות קשות וטרדות. On whatever level you can, try to make Friday as least hectic as possible.
אלא להשאיר אותו פנוי יחסית, כדי שנוכל להתכונן בו לשבת בנחת ורוגע, like we learned before, that one can prepare chill and peacefully לכבוד שבת. I know wishful thinking, it's all like, you know, it's beautiful, but there's something to it when you really your שבת is different. It's a different שבת. It's a different שבת when there's some level of of calm before the storm.
And the storm of of of קדושה. Okay, we'll continue Tuesday בעזרת השם. שקויעך.