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In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen returns to one of his central themes: Shabbat as the tachlis, the living purpose of all creation. Drawing on Zohar, the Arizal, and the Noam Elimelech, he traces three
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So we put it on hold for a couple of months because we were learning other things, Purim and Pesach and Sefirat HaOmer, and we're going back to our previous topic which is the single most important subject in Judaism, Torah and therefore your life, and that is Shabbat. שבת תכלית מעשה שמים וארץ is hold the purpose of creation is for Shabbat. And the sages teach it's not a day off. It's not the weekend! Yeah! So I'm struggling in my job and now weekend, let's go crazy. Although, someone who understands what Shabbat is looks forward to it as much as that. Now I used to... I grew up in a very traditional Reform Jewish home. Parents South African. So we had Friday night dinner every Friday night. Lit candles, Hamotzi, Kiddush, candles, Kiddush, Hamotzi, we had that nice little thing and then I went clubbing. Turnmills at the Gallery, big club night in London, near Kings Cross station. There's a big club night all night basically 11:30 till 8 in the morning clubbing. Then we'd have breakfast, breakfast, and then there was a club called Sunnyside Up which started at about 11 in the morning till 5 in the afternoon. This just carried on. Those were the good... that's what Shabbat used to be for me and they were good. Those were good Shabboses. That's for sure. And that's why I had to make Kiddush to get ready for the Gallery. So those were good days, good Shabboses. Now before that when I was a bit younger Saturday was all about football and rugby. Football, rugby, we had school school matches as in the school rugby team, school football team. Saturday was you get either had a home match or you get in a school bus and go and play other schools. We were very, very good my school, Baruch Hashem. Football, I played against Frank Lampard twice. Anyone who doesn't know, Frank Lampard was the England captain, turned into the England football captain. Played against him twice when we were 16 years old. Lost the first game, won the second game 2-1, I scored both goals against Frank Lampard and that's what really motivated him to become one of the greatest footballers ever England could be... yeah, he's got a picture of me next to his bed like this Jewish boy, he like... that gave him his motivation, the terrible defeat he suffered at Brentwood, suffered at the hands of UCS. So that was a Shabbat for me. And we said that the key is to understand what it is. What does it mean it's the whole purpose of life? And to understand the depth of Shabbat and the depth of Jewish practice in general. What is your attitude to law, rules? What's your attitude to rules? If your attitude to rules is you don't give me no rules tell me what to do, your rules, I don't need no rules, then you're not going to like Shabbat or Judaism or life really. Because rules are what create mastery or mastery. It's the rules, it's the laws in any area of life by the way. Sport, if you don't know the rules and you don't know the tactics and the strategies and what to do, you cannot be a good sports person. Also the game doesn't make sense. If there're no rules, the game doesn't make sense. And small rules. In basketball there's something called traveling. So if your foot moves like how far does it have to be to be called traveling? Two steps, three steps. Oh that's quite a big thing. I thought it was just any little tick. It's one step without bouncing the ball. One step without bouncing. How far is one step? Dalet Amot? So we gotta... anyway, how about in American football, man? We just call it football Rabbi. In American football if someone runs and he catches it and his foot is like one centimeter outside, no points. And in fact you stop the whole game. Stop! And you look at the video replay from eight times different angles and it's like one millimeter out! No, no game. So not only are rules important, details are important when it comes to sport. How about medicine? That's pretty important. Brain surgery, details rules pretty important when it comes to brain surgery. How about art? Rules important in art? In general yes, shading, tone, perspective, color, thing. Now then you have modern art, you have modern art where you can do whatever you like. I find that a bit strange but whatever. But in... In general, if you want to be a very, very good artist, the rules and the details they count very, very much. Relationships. How about relationships? Relationships need rules? Absolutely. This is what you can do, this is what you can't do, this is what I like, this is how I like my tea, this is I don't like my tea. There's no area in life where rules aren't important and don't create greatness and mastery and connection and relationship. So we need to understand that Judaism is all about relationship. Judaism is about relationship. How to have healthy, vibrant, meaningful, deep, powerful relationships. Shalom Aleichem. Aleichem Shalom. And relationships have rules. So if you look at Judaism the wrong way around and you say Judaism's about rules, you've messed up. If you say Judaism's about relationships and relationships have rules, that makes sense. Now, now I'm happy to invest in the rules because I want the relationship. As soon as I want the goal, then I embrace the rules. As soon as I want to be a good artist, tennis player, doctor, husband, I want that. Then, of course, I like the... well, tell me the rules. What do I need to do in order to get there? So as soon as I want to be the most spiritually conscious human being I can be, I want to know the rules. I want to know that it's not spiritually healthy for me to turn lights on on Saturday and tear toilet paper, all these things. Now, if you don't have the relationship, then it's like, does God really care if I tear toilet paper, really? Does he actually care? And the truth is, I'll tell you a secret: He doesn't. He really doesn't. It's like, dude, you're just missing out. Someone said to me, you know what, does God get angry... does God... does God get upset with me if I don't do what he says? And I say, I don't know if he gets upset with you, but he gets upset for you. It's like a dad: I'm telling you what's good for you, you're not doing it. I'm upset for you. You're not being the person you can possibly be. I want you to do the right thing. So if we understand that Judaism is all about relationships between you and yourself, you and others and you and Hashem, and when I say you and yourself, that means your soul, identifying as a neshama, as your pure essence full of love and joy and connection. And with other people, which is also their soul. We've been speaking a lot over Sefirat HaOmer about ve'ahavta lere'acha kamocha. You have to love every Jew unconditionally, and you can only love every Jew unconditionally, because once conditions come in, it's hard to love people. But that means my soul loves your soul. Even the most evil, horrible Jew out there, your soul loves their soul. So we want to do that. And then through your neshama, you connect to Hashem, which is infinite love and joy. It's actually very important to have the right definition of God. If your definition of God is infinite love and joy, who created you in order to have a relationship with you, then that's quite cool. I'm quite into that. A deep, loving, personal, parent-child relationship. I was just in London for Shabbat. Got there on Friday morning, left Sunday morning, and I was working... I was speaking. My son said to me the other day, you don't work, Aba, you speak. I was like, yes, that's work. Anyway, so in Shabbat, I had a five-hour break. They were having the Shabbat rest because Shabbat is quite long in England. And it was about a forty-minute walk to my mom from where I was. So I said, right, I'm going to power-walk and go and spend a couple hours with my mom. My mom... and we had arranged... my mom was at her best friend's house sitting in the garden, and her best friend's son is my best friend, whatever. So we got to the garden, and my mom was sitting on the bench in the garden, and I obviously went and sat next to my mom and hugged my mom, and then I basically shuffled up and I lay down on the bench with my feet over, with my head on my mom's lap and fell asleep on my mom's lap. It was the best thing I've ever done. Imagine, you're a forty-eight-year-old rabbi, husband, father, pay the bills, you're doing stuff, and then you just go and fall asleep on your mom's lap, stroke her beard... oh, it was so nice. That's how... that's how you should relate to Hashem. Just go at Hashem, I'm just going to come and fall asleep on your lap and I'm going to stroke your beard. That's why you're meant to have a beard as a Jew, so Hashem can stroke it. Go and see your mommy. I usually trim my beard for my mom, it's part of my Kibbud Av v'Em. She doesn't like it. But we're in the Sefira at the moment, so I didn't. Fine. Anyway. So once you're yearning for a relationship with your soul and Hashem, then you're yearning for mitzvahs and Halacha. I want those things. Tell me. Once I'm yearning for a relationship with my wife, I want to know what invests in the relationship. It's not like, oh God, I have to do this stupid stuff here. My wife is still currently on a three-day En Gedi women's retreat, and she's not teaching this time, she's just receiving. And they had a sound bath and one... and I upgraded her room without telling her and left a note on the things. Best room in the place for best woman in the world. It's great. She's gonna come home nurtured and amazing, like, why not? So this is what Yiddishkeit is. Yiddishkeit is sending your wife on a three-day women's healing retreat and falling asleep on your mother's lap. Awesome. So I want that. I want that. Rules, I loved I loved rules. I'm very into rules because I want to have a great relationship. So we said Shabbat is the ultimate expression of the relationship. Shabbat is the wedding day, it's the yichud room, it's like when you go into your yichud room you're going to get married one day and you're going to be alone for the first time. You don't want your phone there. Like, hold on, could you just stop? I've got to check the sports results or the newspaper. I don't need anything coming in the way of my relationship. I don't want any distraction. I don't want notifications. I don't want money to be getting in the way. I don't want work to be getting in the way. I just want to be completely present. So we said there's this idea called kedusha. Kedusha translated as holiness but it really means presence. I'm so deeply intimately present at the moment. That's what it means. Not pulled down, not defined, not controlled by the present moment, I'm just so in the moment. I'm just so with you. And that is the purpose of life is really another term for it is da'as, da'at. Being completely aware and present. And Shabbat gives us the perfect opportunity to do that because there's no notifications and money and things and you can't think about your business and there's nothing you can do. You're just in this, it's a completely different spiritual reality, literally a different spiritual reality. We just read about Shmita last week. Shmita is the seventh year, obviously the Shabbat of the land. It's a completely different reality. The whole seventh year is a different reality. In fact, we say that there are six thousand years of existence and then the seven thousandth year is a completely different reality. And what are we? 5786? So we've got 214 years left of this reality, which means we're really in Erev Shabbat now. It's time to go to the mikvah, it's time to get ready, this is it. So then we said therefore a Jew's life is centered around Shabbat. Now we have to also work for six days, very very important. In fact, the word Shabbat is never mentioned in the Torah without first saying for six days you should work. So we're not saying Shabbat is the tachlis, Shabbat is the purpose and the six days are just, we've got to get them out the way to get to, we don't say that at all. We say the six days are also very important. We have to uplift this world, change this world, manipulate this world, create this world, create new things. But one day we say, \"Whoa whoa, stop creating.\" And this is what God did. God created for six days and then He stepped back and says, \"I'm just going to enjoy what I created. Be present with what I created.\" Which means if you didn't create during the six days, Shabbat isn't as good. It's just not as good. To the extent that you work during the six days, and work means personal growth, there should not be that much personal growth happening on Shabbat. It's not the time, it's the time to appreciate how far you've come. The personal growth of appreciating how much you've grown. We say we do teshuva before Shabbat, not so much on Shabbat. Shabbat we're just being. It's a time to be. So the more you work during the week, the more you put in, the more effort, the more you can tap into this powerful energy of sitting on the mountain, sitting now at the top of the mountain, there's nowhere to go anymore. So we said we have these three, I'm just going to read it inside. שלושה אופנים יש איך להסתכל על היחס של שבת עם ששת ימי המעשה. There are three ways that we can look at the relationship between the weekdays and Shabbat. Three ways. Ofen echad, the first way. שבת היא הראשונה לכל ששת ימים שלאחריה. Shabbat is the beginning of the six days that are coming. Shabbat is called mekor habracha, it's called the source of the blessing. So with the power of Shabbat that we just had, we're bringing that into the week and we said lots of times that Havdalah and Melaveh Malka, all the avodah we're doing on Motzei Shabbat is not to separate between Shabbat, it's not, we're not leaving Shabbat behind, we're taking Shabbat with us. I was actually just in London now and Baltimore about two weeks ago and they said, \"Can you lead do like a musical Havdalah to, you know, we're leaving Shabbat behind.\" And I said, \"Absolutely not.\" Like, what? I said, \"I'm not doing that.\" And they said, \"Well, why?\" I said, \"Because I'm not leaving Shabbat behind. I'm bringing Shabbat with me. The whole point of...\" The avodah on Motzei Shabbat is not to leave Shabbat behind. We're saying goodbye to the Shabbat? No we're not, we're doing the opposite, we're bringing Shabbat into the six days and all the blessing of the six days comes from Shabbat. Shabbat is, the six days of the week are now higher because of Shabbat. And that's why we say every mitzvah we do, every bracha we do, is Shabbat during the week, because it's making you present. When I'm aware of the mezuzah, I'm having a moment of Shabbat, of resting, of becoming present. When I make a bracha, I'm having a moment of Shabbat. When I davven, Shabbat. All the time, every time I think about Hashem, Shabbat. In fact, we said there's a mitzvah to remember Shabbat all week, a mitzvah d'oraisa. A mitzvah from the Torah, זכור את יום השבת לקדשו. There's a mitzvah to remember Shabbat, so every time during the week you say to yourself, Shabbat, I can't wait for Shabbat, I love Shabbat, you're doing a mitzvah from the Torah, which means your neshama is pulling down immense divine light. Shabbat, Shabbat. You should be singing Shabbat songs all throughout the week. Shabbat. Not just where am I going for Shabbat? That's also important, but just remember Shabbat, I love Shabbat. Shabbat, Shabbat, Shabbat, Shabbat, Shabbat, Shabbat, Shabbat, Shabbat, Shabbat. Lefi and in fact the Noam Elimelech says the weekdays are called Shabbat as well because in the Torah it often says Et Shabbatotai tishmoru, you should keep my Shabbatotai, Shabbatin rabbim, it should be Shabbatotai, my Shabboses, but it says Shabbatotototai, totai, totai, totai. So the Noam Elimelech says because weekdays also called Shabbat, it's just a different type of Shabbat, it's the chol Shabbat. Shabbat, Shabbat, Shabbat. And you know what? Some people they say gut Shabbat to people all throughout the week, some crazy people, and people think they're crazy but I'm not, because the Noam Elimelech says it is Shabbat. But then people say, but doesn't that ruin Shabbat? If you say gut Shabbat all week, then saying gut Shabbat on Shabbat is not special and I said, of course it's special because on Shabbat it really is Shabbat. So when you're saying Shabbat during the week, you're remembering Shabbat. When you're saying during Shabbat, it's Shabbat. Gut Shabbat. Gut Shabbat. Gut Shabbat. Gut Shabbat. I got to the point by the way, if you just want to make me feel spiritually warm and high, just come up to me anytime you see me, just see me and say gut Shabbat and I'm just like, ah, gut Shabbat. So I'm microdosing Shabbat all week just by saying gut Shabbat. לפי שמשבת קודש מתברכין כל ששת ימי המעשה because from Shabbat the whole week is blessed. What does the word baruch mean? Blessed. Nah, what does it mean? Beis reish chaf. Bless? No. Like soft? You mean rach? I like that, I like that a lot, but we got the beis, you can't miss out the beis. But I like it. I'm going to use that, I'm going to use a berach. It has to be with sweetness, it has to be with gentleness. I like that, I'm going to use that. It's a nice chasidic vort. And with a chasidic vort, it doesn't actually have to be true, but you're not allowed to ask a kasha on it. You're not allowed, it's just depth and sweetness in it. Berach. Bracha means berach. You should do things with gentleness. I like that very much, wow. Beautiful. Baruch we said it a few times, the main meaning I like is to, to bring down and to increase. The word for knee in Hebrew, berech. So to be able to make the camels kneel down, Eliezer made the camels kneel down, uses that shoresh. So many people think that Hashem is far away, somewhere up there. People say, oh what Hashem? And they point up. It's like no, Hashem is right in front of your face right now, but we don't feel it. So when we say the word baruch, we're kind of bringing down God consciousness into our manifested reality, tangibly experienced reality. It also means to increase, so increasing God consciousness in the world. It also means source. You are the source of everything, everything comes from Hashem like a breicha. Modern Hebrew, a breicha is a wellspring, a pool. So so that's what baruch means. So Shabbat is giving God consciousness to the whole rest of the week all the time, it's pumping, it's the heartbeat of the week, it's giving the bracha. As it says in the Zohar Hakadosh, כל השפעה רוחני וגשמי של שבוע הבא תלוי בשבת שלפניו. All of the spiritual and physical hashpa'ah influence in that week depends on how geshmak your Shabbat was. If you truly tap into Shabbat, you're now bringing Shabbat into the week. So that's the first way to see it. Os beis. The second way to see Shabbat. in contrast to the weekdays, שבת היא תכלית ששת ימי בראשית. Shabbat is the result, the purpose of the six days that came before it. So really there are six days and the six days are building up, building up, building up, building up, and then we have Shabbat is the pinnacle. I've now reached the top. So six days I'm walking up the mountain and Shabbat is that seventh day. So the first way to look at Shabbat is that it's the first day, giving blessing to the next six days. The second way of looking at Shabbat is it's the last day, which is built on the six days as I said before, the more geshmak your six days are and the more you're looking forward to Shabbat, the more you get out of Shabbat. And the more you invest in Shabbat, Friday as we started to learn about erev Shabbat, Friday's a very very important day. You're preparing for the big day. When we used to have a football match, we used to prepare, you get ready and we're training and we're stretching and we're doing and we're getting mentally prepared for the football match or if you're going to Yishai Ribo concert tonight, anyone going to Yishai Ribo concert? Anyway, so people are getting excited, listening to his music, what am I going to wear, going to the concert, how am I going to get there, you go. So anything that you're looking forward to, you prepare for. So the whole week is preparing for Shabbat, Friday is like the really Friday is meant to be just preparing for Shabbat. You're not meant to do anything on Friday apart from prepare for Shabbat. היום יום שישי היום יום שישי מחר שבת מחר שבת. Even that song is saying Hayom Shishi, what's special about it, that tomorrow's Shabbat. That's what gives yom shishi its geshmak because tomorrow is Shabbat. Veheim mechinim lah and they prepare it. ולכן היא נקראת שביעית. So it's called the seventh day. Shabbat is called the seventh day. Ofen gimmel, the second, the third way you can see Shabbat, Shabbat hamalka. Shabbat is the divine glory, the king. מוקפת בימי החול משני צדיה. Shabbat is surrounded by the weekdays, three days before, then you have Shabbat in the middle, three days after. Three days before, Shabbat is the middle, three days after. מימין ומשמאל לפניה יש את ימי רביעי חמישי ושישי. Before Shabbat we have these three days, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, but really we should call them revii, chamishi, and veshishi because that means you're thinking about Shabbat. The whole days of the week in Hebrew are just counting to Shabbat, they don't have a name. How do you count the days in any language? We say Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we give them names. Jeudi, vendredi, I used to speak French. What other country, language on the face of the world doesn't have a name for a day? It just has a number counting towards Shabbat? Mamash geshmak. So never call it Wednesday again, it's yom revii, it's the fourth day of getting ready for Shabbat. Today is yom shlishi, the third day of getting ready for Shabbat. ולאחריה יש את ימי ראשון שני ושלישי. Afterwards we've got Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. וכמו שייסד האר\"י ז\"ל as it says in the, the Arizal only wrote three things. Did you know that? The Arizal himself only wrote three things, a song for Shabbat night, a song for Shabbat day and a song for third meal. Shabbat night meal, Shabbat day meal, that's all he wrote. All of the kisvei Arizal, all of the immense huge volumes of Lurianic Kabbalah that came from the Arizal were written by Rav Chaim Vital, his student. He didn't write that down. Rav Chaim Vital wrote down what he wrote. He just wrote, so in one of the piyutim, one of his songs it says ימינא ושמאלא ובינייהו כלה. From the right and from the left and in between them is the challah, is the bride, is everything. Kol Hashem, a kallah bride is Kol Hashem, it's all Hashem. ולפי מה שנתבאר כל הבחינות נכונות גם יחד. So which one is the true way to look at Shabbat? That Shabbat is the first day and gives bracha to the whole week, Shabbat is the last day and builds itself from the six days before, or Shabbat in the middle? Which one's the right way? Obviously all of them. Shabbat is everything. They're all right, they all have a different aspect of the truth. We put them all together we can get the whole picture. So this is how we said it just in terms of our avodah. There are two main things that we want to be having in mind during the week and the Sefirat HaOmer is is a very good time to be thinking about this because we're most aware of this, is the Sefiros. There are seven days of the week and we're very obsessed with seven. We said before we played the holy seven game, seven seven days of Pesach, seven days of Succos, seven times you wrap your tefillin, seven times the bride walks around the groom, seven years before shmita, seven weeks of counting the omer, seven holy fruits of the land of Israel, seven days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, seven... we got lots of seven. It's the typological, typological, I don't know how you say it in English, mispar tipologi. We have some of them in... we have others as well... eighty-three... we got big ones, we got five, ten, we got big ones. But it's because we have these the seven midos that we're really focusing on at the moment, חסד גבורה תפארת נצח הוד יסוד מלכות. Seven midos, seven energies and traits with which Hashem created the world and everything in it. So what do we want to try and do? We want to be conscious human beings. That's what we're really aiming for, God conscious human beings. We want to have that. So the most simple way to think of it is Sunday is chesed. So on Sunday when Sunday comes along, Yom Rishon comes along, you just start thinking a little bit about chesed, which is ahava. Loving Hashem, loving yourself, loving other people. And it makes sense because the start of everything, the start of the week has to be chesed. Your whole attitude to life has to be from a place of chesed, being kind to yourself in your relationships, kind to yourself, kind to other people, kind to Hashem, be a kind person. It's the most fundamental basic trait. When any of my students ask what the most important trait when they're dating, I say chesed. Are they kind, do they want to give to you, do they want to invest in you? And do you want to invest in them? That's Yom Rishon. Yom Sheni, gevurah, restraint, yirah, holding back. Yom Shlishi, shlishi is today, so it's the day of tiferet which is deveikus. So now we said that everyone has to do their avodah in a way that isn't תפסת מרובה לא תפסת. What does that mean? That I'm trying too hard and too much and I'm just not getting anything. So for example, we've been really learning during Sefirat HaOmer that you should know what day of the omer it is. By the way, what day of the omer is it? It's the 40th day of the omer. It's a big, big, very big day of the omer. So it's day 40 of the omer. So you should just be aware of that. The more you know about the number 40, the more meaningful it will become. But just knowing that it's the 40th day, that in itself is good. Knowing what the energy of the day is, hod shebe'yesod. Today is hod shebe'yesod. Does anyone here know what hod shebe'yesod means? I don't know that much. But the Rav Morgenstern knows a lot more than me. Some people know less than me. So you've just got to do your avodah on your own level. So when it comes to Tuesday, you wake up in the morning and you say today is tiferet. That's enough. That's just recognizing today's tiferet, but then the more you learn about tiferet, the more you'll get out of tiferet, the more you'll understand. But don't, don't... Pardon? Tuesday is shlishi? Shlishi. Today is shlishi. Thank you, you're right, I shouldn't have said Tuesday. I'm having a hard time with the names in English. You should don't... don't even learn them. Refuse to learn them. Say I will not learn the days in English. I'll learn anything else in English to communicate, but days... don't even say that word. Good. Also your Hebrew name, very important. I just had a group here and I asked them, one guy was called John Henry. And I said to him, do you have a Hebrew name? And he said, yes, Eliezer Amitai. Eliezer Amitai. I was like, what's John Henry? What are you, the King of England? What's going on here? The most Christian name I ever heard, man. Your name is Eliezer and he said I like that name. And I said every time someone calls you by your Hebrew name, it's pumping up your soul. Eliezer Amitai, Eliezer Amitai, Eliezer Amitai. What a good name. John Henry. Had a student called Trevor. I said what does Trevor mean? He said I don't know. And I said do you have a Hebrew name? Yes, Shalom Chaim. I said do you know what Shalom Chaim means? Complete life, chaim shalem, or a peaceful life. And what's Trevor mean? So yes, I agree. It's not Tuesday. And definitely it's not Saturday. That's one thing. You do not call that day Saturday. Chas... God forbid. And I actually I'm a bit extreme, but if people say Saturday I'm like what? I don't know what you mean. Have you ever heard of Saturday? Shabbat. Shabbat. So fine, so then we said revi'i is netzach, chamishi hod, shishi yesod. Yesod is really connecting. By the way, this is the week of yesod in the Sefirat HaOmer, and yesod is all about connecting, channeling, managing, bringing things down. Very big week. But then we said there's a different way to look at the days of the week apart from Chesed, Gevurah, tiferet. And we said it like this—we're just recapping, we've done this before—that the first three days of the week are integrating Shabbat from before. This is how we're going to put everything we've learned together. First three days of the week integrating the Shabbat from before, bringing the light of Shabbat into the new week. And the second three days are preparing for the Shabbat to come on a spiritual level. And we said that there are three main aspects of your soul, and those are called Nefesh, Ruach, and neshama. Nefesh, Ruach, neshama. There are two higher aspects called Chaya and Yechida, but for the individual, you have your three main aspects of your soul. The Nefesh is the enlivening force, sometimes called the animal soul, just keeping you alive. The Ruach—now we're going more less physical, more into the emotional world—your emotions, your personality, your traits. neshama is more the intellectual world of higher thoughts, higher chochmah, keser chochmah binah, whatever, it's the higher worlds. So what we do is on the three days leading up to Shabbat, we're going to go on Wednesday, which is tomorrow, and we said on Wednesday the song of the day begins with Lechu Neranana, which is Kabbalas Shabbat. So we're already starting to sing Kabbalas Shabbat on Wednesday morning. The kavana, the intention is to receive the extra Nefesh level of your soul. Wednesday, and we do it when we say the song of the day. It's very, very important in all of your mindfulness work to attach your mindfulness to something you do anyway. I'm running a mindfulness course at the moment online and we're working on gratitude. So you've got to make a moment in the day where you one minute of conscious gratitude. And I said to them, put it onto something that you already do, like brushing your teeth. So when you're brushing your teeth, that's something you do anyway, stick your gratitude onto that. Or just before Mincha, stick your gratitude onto that. So when you're saying the song of the day, you're going to stick onto that: I am intending now to receive a higher level of my Nefesh of this lower part of myself. Thursday morning, you're going to intend to receive your Ruach, a higher level of your Ruach. Friday morning, you're going to receive a higher level of your neshama. So by the time you get into Shabbat, you've now built up your inner spiritual world. On Shabbat, I gave lots of classes about what the neshama Yeseira is, but maybe you're receiving Chaya and Yechida, these very high levels on Shabbat as well. But that means on Sunday, what are we doing on Sunday? On Sunday, you're integrating your neshama from the week before, from Shabbat before. Monday, you're integrating your Ruach from the week before. Tuesday, your Nefesh. So it goes Nefesh, Ruach, neshama, Shabbat, neshama, Ruach, Nefesh. Nefesh, Ruach, neshama, so that's how the week goes. So that's your flow of spiritual consciousness during the week. Once again תפסת מרובה לא תפסת. Don't get too overwhelmed by all of this. There's a chart, you know what, I'm going to print it, I'll give it out next time. We got a chart here. You put it on your fridge, come down in the morning before breakfast, say today's the day of integrating my soul, my neshama. Today's the day of integrating my Ruach. Today's that. Just that one moment of mindfulness is amazing. And the more you can tap into that during the day. Today is neshama integration day. So Tuesday—we're on Tuesday now—Tuesday is Nefesh integration day. Nefesh of Shabbat before integration day. And I'm just aware of that. In fact, we should greet each other like that: Happy Nefesh of Shabbat before integration day. Tuesday's also tiferet as well. Yes, Tuesday is a special day. The Torah says it was good, it was very good. Tuesday is a very good day. Fine. So that's another thing we're going to be working on during the week. Then, we were going to finish with this. There's the avodah. Remember we said that really the neshama is connected to more lofty thoughts, the Ruach is connected to feelings, emotions, and the Nefesh is more connected to actions. So on Yom Rishon, we're going to be trying to think holier thoughts. Start the week by thinking a little bit holier thoughts. Most people unfortunately Sunday, well, it's different in Israel because we actually start our week on Sunday. But let's say Monday in Chutz La'aretz, the thoughts on Monday morning are not so lofty. Like oh god, back to this kind of... We say the opposite. You have to start strong. Let's start with holy thoughts. I.e. okay I've got to go back to this job or this thing but how am I going to bring Shabbat into that relationship? How am I going to you're going to walk into the office and say Gut Shabbat. That's how you're going to do it. You're going to get fired but it's worth getting fired for that. So can you just stop say Gut Shabbat. So then on Tuesday we're going to start thinking about feelings and really Torah learning. Learning Torah because there's dibbur, there's dibbur as well which is connected to this level. So we want to start having these higher feelings and on Tuesday ma'asim. More conscious of my actions. How are my actions bringing God consciousness into the world? Wednesday is also nefesh so that's going to be action. Thursday feelings, Friday thoughts. Thought feeling action, action feeling thought. So once you get into this mindset, just once again not too much don't get overwhelmed, you start living Shabbat. That's it, you start the whole everything's living Shabbat. God bless you. You're living Shabbat during the week and then when Shabbat comes along then what is Shabbat when it comes when you're living Shabbat all through the week? When Shabbat actually comes and then you have Kabbalat Shabbat, you can really receive Shabbat. And you're like just so there so good. Something you've been working towards your whole week and then it comes and you can feel it palpably especially in Yerushalayim, in Tzfat, in these holy places you can just tangibly feel Shabbat. There's a famous Gemara that says if you don't know what day of the week it is you get lost in the desert and you don't know what day of the week it is when do you keep Shabbat? So there are two opinions. One person says that the next day you keep it as Shabbat and then you count six days. The other opinion is you count six days and then Shabbat. And there's deep Kabbalistic reasons for both of them. But one of the Maggid of Mezeritch's students, they were learning that Gemara and he said he said to the Rebbe, hold on a second, how can you not know when Shabbat is? Just wait until you feel that it's Shabbat and keep Shabbat then. The Maggid said to him not everyone's on that level. The Gemara's for people who are not quite on that level. But in Yerushalayim you can feel it. It's coming in. Okay, B'ezrat Hashem so we're going to carry on next time. We started going through erev Shabbat, did we do we did candle lighting I think? I don't know I'll check back. But now we're going to start moving, kiddush. What are we meant to be thinking whilst we're doing kiddush? What are we meant to be thinking whilst we're having our meal? What are we meant to be thinking thinking? Consciousness. The whole of Judaism is consciousness. Higher consciousness in order for relationship with God and soul and others. Get be super conscious in order to live conscious relationship and Shabbat is the pinnacle, that's when we're fully living it with no distractions. B'ezrat Hashem.