To attain the spiritual advantages of Shabbos, to realize and
feel its sublime qualities, one must prepare in advance. It
is impossible to jump right into Shabbos and hope to benefit
from it fully without groundwork.
Actually, before a person gains any additional level in his
avodas Hashem he must exert himself beforehand. The
Shulchan Oruch writes that when a person is engaged in
tefillah, his madreigah should be near ruach
hakodesh. Doubtless, to reach such a sublime level a
person must prepare himself. The mishnah in
Brochos writes that once chassidim prepared
themselves for a whole hour before the tefillah in an
effort to humble themselves before Hashem. [Parenthetically,
if during the tefillah it is necessary to be near the
madreigah of ruach hakodesh, we understand how
far we are from real tefillah.]
The same is true of Shabbos. To attain the segulos of
Shabbos one must lay its foundations on erev Shabbos.
To feel the neshomoh yeseiroh and the additional
kedushah of Shabbos we must act as we do before Yom
Kippur. Everyone feels the kedushah of Yom Kippur
strongly because before this sacred day we prepare well. Just
as there cannot be a Yom Kippur without an Aseres Yemei
Teshuvoh and erev Yom Kippur, so we cannot have a
Shabbos without an erev Shabbos. The level of Shabbos
is so lofty that Chazal decreed that is has a special erev
Shabbos, just as there is an erev Yom Kippur.
The Ramban (in his commentary on the Torah), when he
discusses the Aseres Hadibros, writes that the mitzvah
of, "You shall remember the day of Shabbos to sanctify it"
has two parts: one is a mitzvah to remember Shabbos and the
second is to sanctify it. The mitzvah of remembering Shabbos
is fulfilled the whole week long, during which time we must
remember that we are headed towards Shabbos (e.g., we say in
our tefillos: "Today is the first day of Shabbos, the
second day, etc.") A person must have in mind that Shabbos
will come soon.
Shabbos should be given preparation similar to Yom Kippur.
Everyone readies himself for Yom Kippur, either through
tefillah or studying Torah, each person according to
the preparations he deems necessary. He studies the
vidui and thinks of how to fulfill the other mitzvos
of the day so he can later do proper teshuvoh on Yom
Kippur.
Likewise, each day a person must remember Shabbos, to study
the halochos of Shabbos, to prepare for oneg
Shabbos and the menuchah of Shabbos.
The second mitzvah, to sanctify Shabbos, is that a person
should be aware that Shabbos is kodosh. We must
tangibly feel the arrival of Shabbos. With such a laudable
erev Shabbos surely one will enter Shabbos and feel
the neshomoh yeseiroh (as the Chayei Odom writes in
Hilchos Shabbos, that from the moment he
toveiled in the mikveh on erev Shabbos
he would sense the neshomoh yeseiroh) and the fear of
Hashem that one receives through Shabbos.
Studying Torah on Erev Shabbos
Let us examine the value of studying Torah on erev
Shabbos. "I was glad when they said to me, Let us go into
the house of Hashem" (Tehillim 122:1).
Chazal write that people would pass the window of Dovid
Hamelech and ask: "When will this old man die, so Shlomoh can
build the Beis Hamikdosh and we can make aliyah
leregel?" (Dovid Hamelech was not zocheh to build
the Beis Hamikdosh because the Beis Hamikdosh
is called menuchah, as the Targum Yonoson
writes on the posuk "He saw that rest was good"
(Bereishis 49:15). Since Dovid Hamelech waged many
battles, he was not a person of menuchah. His son
Shlomoh, however, was a person of menuchah and [they
knew that he] could build the Beis Hamikdosh.)
Am Yisroel longs for the realization of the Divine
promise of, "Let them make Me a Mikdash that I may
dwell among them" (Shemos 25:8), which means that the
Shechinoh will dwell among us and that we will make
the aliya leregel to draw ruach hakodesh from
the Beis Hamikdosh.
Chazal (Midrash Rabbah Eichah 5:21) write: "`The
offering of Yehudah and Yerushalayim will then be pleasant to
Hashem, as in the days of old and in former years'
(Malachi 3:4). `And in former years' are the years of
Shlomoh." The entire Jewish Nation aspires to worship Hashem
as in the time of Shlomoh, for the Beis Hamikdosh to
be rebuilt and the Shechinoh to descend from
Shomayim. This is the cherished aim of Am
Yisroel. This is why people asked when Dovid Hamelech
would die so that Shlomoh could build the Beis
Hamikdosh.
When Dovid heard people talking like this, the Midrash
(Tehillim 122) writes, he remarked: "I was glad when they
said to me, Let us go into the house of Hashem, when our feet
stood within your gates, Yerushalayim" (Tehillim
122:1). They are right, he said, in claiming that I am the
cause of the Beis Hamikdosh's not being built. Shlomoh
Hamelech cannot reign as long as Dovid lives, since as long
as Dovid lives the time for Shlomoh to be king has not yet
arrived and he is forced to wait. HaKodosh Boruch Hu
said to [Dovid]: ". . . `Better for Me one day in your courts
than a thousand [elsewhere]' (Tehillim 84:11). Your
being engaged in Torah is preferable to the thousand
olos your son Shlomoh will sacrifice before Me on the
mizbeiach." Torah is more important even than the
resting of the Shechinoh on Yisroel.
What particular day is being referred to in "better for Me
one day"? Certainly this implies a certain day. The Maharsha
explains that this day is erev Shabbos, since
HaKodosh Boruch Hu told Dovid that he would die on
Shabbos. After he heard that he will not live until Sunday,
since the time of Shlomoh to be king had arrived, Dovid
requested his petiroh to be earlier and be on erev
Shabbos. But then, if Dovid were to die on erev
Shabbos there would be bitul Torah on that day,
and about the Torah study of that erev Shabbos Hashem
told him, "Better for Me one day in your courts than a
thousand."
All of am Yisroel was waiting for the dwelling of the
Shechinoh in the Beis Hamikdosh, which was
dependent upon the petiroh of Dovid Hamelech. If Dovid
were to die one day earlier, immediately on that day am
Yisroel would be able to start building the Beis
Hamikdosh. All of the Jewish Nation was waiting for the
dwelling of the Shechinoh upon them. It was, however,
impossible for Dovid to die one day earlier, because his
studying Torah for one day was more important to HaKodosh
Boruch Hu than the dwelling of the Shechinoh on
am Yisroel, than a thousand olos and ruach
hakodesh.
This is the importance of the erev Shabbos Torah study
of Dovid Hamelech. HaKodosh Boruch Hu did not want to
forfeit the Torah study of even one erev Shabbos to
build the Beis Hamikdosh!
The Value of an Individual's Torah Study
Another point that should be emphasized is that when
HaKodosh Boruch Hu said to Dovid that He preferred his
Torah study to the korbonos, we are not referring to
the Torah study of a yeshiva with hundreds of
talmidim, such as the yeshiva of Rav Huna. We are
talking about the Torah study of one person. Even this study
is more worthy to HaKodosh Boruch Hu than thousands of
sacrifices.
Many people hold the incorrect idea that if someone has
decided to devote himself to Torah study he should, at least,
be involved in teaching Torah to the masses, being a
marbitz Torah. He should become a famed rosh yeshiva
or an eminent poseik. What is the worth of sitting in
a kollel a whole life long and living off the public
purse, they think? Many people have this posul
outlook.
This hashkofoh is not far from apikorsus and
kefirah. For HaKodosh Boruch Hu it is "better
for Me one day in your courts than a thousand [days
elsewhere]." Hashem wants the Torah of a person who is
engaged in it even if he is not an important marbitz
Torah. Surely the Torah study of an individual cannot be
compared to one who teaches others, but it is still
preferable to Hashem than thousands of korbonos. If a
person lives in some remote corner of the world in abject
poverty and studies Torah, that Torah is more precious to
Hashem than the dwelling of the Shechinoh upon am
Yisroel. It is impossible to evaluate the worth of
kollel students who study Torah without holding any
positions or public appointments.
This is how the mitzvah of Shabbos looks as it is given in
our Torah. It is a Shabbos with all its segulos, Torah
study with menuchah of the nefesh, and studying
Torah on erev Shabbos.
Now let us take a look how Shabbos is actually observed by
us. Do we have something at all like what we described above?
It seems we have, choliloh, turned Shabbos into the
opposite of what it should be. We have no day that is more of
a leisure day than the Shabbos: a day of eating and drinking,
a day of taking walks, a day of sleeping, and for many a day
of eating candy, cake, and reading newspapers and
magazines.
What has happened is terrible! Not only Shabbos itself has
become a day of leisure, erev Shabbos too has become a
day of leisure. We have "fulfilled" the Shabbos so well, in
the sense of its being a day of free time, that this has
transformed even erev Shabbos into a day of
"erev" leisure. We prepare beforehand all the
different ways of entertaining ourselves. The
"mehadrin" do not only buy a regular newspaper; they
buy all the different sorts of newspapers available so they
can read them all on Shabbos.
These two holy days become just the opposite of what they are
intended to be. A third of a person's life is wasted. From a
day of tremendous kedushah, on which even one profane
word should not be spoken, and on which Chazal permitted
greeting someone with sholom only with difficulty, has
come a day of entertainment. We cannot find any other time to
take walks and visit relatives and friends except on the holy
day of Shabbos!
We must strengthen ourselves and make Shabbos again look as
it should--"To welcome Shabbos, come let us go, since it is
the source of blessing." We must concentrate on studying the
Oral Torah on erev Shabbos and on Shabbos itself. Of
course, we must review the Torah portion of the week
shnayim mikro ve'echod Targum on Shabbos, but we can
find enough time to do this on erev Shabbos in the
afternoon if we utilize our time well. We should surely not
devote the whole of Shabbos to this.
Shabbos should be the most intense day of Torah study that
can be. Naturally there is a mitzvah of honoring Shabbos,
oneg Shabbos, and also sleeping a little, but
nonetheless, Shabbos is a segulah for Torah study. The
Zohar writes that HaKodosh Boruch Hu especially asks
the neshomoh yeseiroh on motzei Shabbos what
chidush it made on Shabbos. Men darf mechadesh zein
chidushei Torah! (We must innovate chidushei Torah
on Shabbos.) We must study Torah be'iyun on
Shabbos.
We do not need to devote much time on erev Shabbos to
preparing for Shabbos. It is enough to rest a little to
gather enough strength for Shabbos. We must remember not to
attend to our affairs on erev Shabbos. It is well-
known that Maran the Alter of Kelm zt'l used to say
that if a person has something to take care of, he should do
it on any other day in the week -- but not on erev
Shabbos, which is a day of preparation for Shabbos.
Idle Talk
It is impossible not to discuss the grave sin of talking idle
talk on Shabbos. Unfortunately this has become a part of our
Shabbos. The Vilna Gaon, in his famous letter to his family,
writes that for speaking properly and refraining from idle
talk one can receive the greatest reward, and for speaking
improperly and speaking idle talk one is severely punished.
"The moshlim (they who speak in similes--according to
the pshat) say, `Come to Cheshbon, let the ir
(city) of Sichon be built and established.' For there is a
fire gone out of Cheshbon, a flame from the kiryah of
Sichon" (Bamidbar 21:27-28).
The gemora (Bovo Basra 78b) writes that
moshlim means those who control their yetzer.
"Come to Cheshbon" means to make a cheshbon, a
reckoning, of our life. Only when a person makes a reckoning
of his life and sees how profitable it is to do mitzvos and
how damaging it is to commit aveiros can he build his
life properly in Olam Hazeh. "Ir Sichon--if a
person forces himself to be like an ayir (a wild
donkey) that follows an attractive she-ass, the result will
be that a flame will consume him." To lead an older donkey
you need to hit it with a whip or a stick, but to lead a
young one it is enough if it hears some sort of noise or
laughter and it will start walking.
The same happens with people. Some people are attracted by
every conversation, and they are punished by a fire going out
of Cheshbon.
"A flame from the kiryah of Sichon"--from the
talmidei chachomim who are always speaking in
divrei Torah. Their fire and flame consumes this
ayir who follows pretty talk.
The way to avoid engaging in idle talk is to speak only in
Torah. The Targum Yonoson writes that against the
ir Sichon that talks idly is the kiryah of
Sichon where people always speak divrei Torah.
"How long, you pesi (fool), will you love being
simple? and how long, leitzim (scoffers), will you
delight in scoffing, and fools hate knowledge?"
(Mishlei 1:22). The Vilna Gaon explains that someone
who is attracted to the desires of Olam Hazeh is
called a pesi since after all desires are a reality,
although not a true reality, only an imaginary reality. He is
a pesi who is mispateh, lured, to follow an
imaginary reality.
The leitzim delight in scoffing, although this has no
reality at all. A person does not benefit from it and the
leitzim engage in it because they delight in doing so,
they have a ta'avoh to do it. The Gaon explains that
for this sin of leitzonus the posuk (v.23)
tells us the remedy: "I will pour out My spirit to you, I
will make known to you My words."
The entire desire to speak devorim beteilim stems from
a spirit of tumah left from a previous time when he
spoke idle talk. "One aveiroh drags another"
(Ovos 4:2). With all aveiros the spirit of
tumah of the aveiroh pushes a person to commit
another. Later the spirit, which is the feeling of desire for
the sin, becomes stronger. Concerning devorim beteilim
the spirit of tumah is even stronger. Just as studying
Torah is the greatest mitzvah, so is speaking devorim
beteilim the greatest sin, and therefore the spirit of
tumah enwrapping that person is stronger.
This is an explanation of why there is such a desire to speak
leitzonus. The remedy is, as we have indicated, "I
will pour out My spirit to you, I will make known to you My
words." We must engage in divrei Torah and then the
spirit of that great mitzvah, which is a true pleasure and
not an imaginary one, will weaken the spirit of idle talk.
Talking devorim beteilim on Shabbos and erev
Shabbos is causing a churban in the yeshivos.
Yeshiva students have devorim beteilim in their head,
and they discuss the news and other needless topics at
length. Some boys even hear the radio. If one had any sense
he would never turn on the radio even when he feels that
hearing the news is of the utmost urgency. The truth is that
the news is only nonsense. What does it matter to a yeshiva
student who will win the elections, who will gain more votes
than the other? Neither of them will bring the
yeshu'oh to Am Yisroel, and both are estranged
from the way of the Torah. This is altogether irrelevant to
us.
We should not get excited about what these reshoim do.
HaRav Michel Feinstein once told me that when he traveled
with Maran the Brisker Rov zt'l from Vilna to Eretz
Yisroel through Russia they happened to be in Moscow on May
1, the holiday of the Russians. The government showed off its
weapons and armor in the Red Square. HaRav Feinstein later
told the Brisker Rav what he had seen there. The Rov sighed:
"Dovid Hamelech writes about these reshoim, `Do I not
hate, Hashem, those who hate You? and do I not strive with
those who rise up against you? I hate them with the utmost
hatred' (Tehillim 139:21). They are our enemies! All
of our natural capacity for hatred should be used to hate
those who hate Hashem. A person must tangibly feel that they
are his enemies, that they are his personal enemies, and he
must truly hate them. Someone who feels they are his enemies
will not be excited by what they do and will not enjoy what
they do."
How can a yeshiva student turn on a radio in which people are
speaking kefirah and obscenity and whatnot? This
poison must be diluted with some news too, but there is an
abundance of to'eivah. How can a person have such a
tomei gadget in his home?
This is all a result of the "aveiroh that drags
another aveiroh in its wake." The strong ruach
of tumah created by devorim beteilim on erev
Shabbos and Shabbos pulls so strongly that instead of
kedushah a deluge of tumah comes. Bnei
Torah lose their refined feeling that they must distance
themselves from this tomei instrument.
This is our avodoh: to renew the way Shabbos should be
observed, that it should have its proper kedushah,
tohoroh, and Torah study. "To welcome Shabbos, come let
us go, since it is the source of blessing."
HaRav Moshe Shmuel Shapira is the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas
Beer Yaakov and a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of
Degel HaTorah in Eretz Yisroel. Readers are asked to
daven for R' Moshe Shmuel ben Mina Golda.
