SPONSORED BY STUART & STEPHANIE RONSON TO PERPETUATE THE MEMORY OF BETTY & MAURICE BIRNBAUM & ESTA & JACK RONSON

The Ultimate Treasure

SabbathInstructor’s Guidefor Torah Live’s

Version 1.2Part 1

“It is rare to see talent of this order used to so high and holy a cause. Rabbi Roth’s inspirational videos are outstanding. Will unlock the doors of learning to many.”

— Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

SABBATH: The Ultimate Treasure

Sponsored by

Stuart & Stephanie Ronson

To Perpetuate the Memory ofBetty & Maurice Birnbaum

and Esta & Jack Ronson

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Instructors’ Guide for Torah Lives

Sabbath: The Ultimate Treasure

Part 1

Version 1.2

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Thank you ......................................................................................................................4

Instructions.....................................................................................................................5

Latest Version ............................................................................................................5

Screen Resolution ......................................................................................................5

Pointer ........................................................................................................................5

Lesson Plan ................................................................................................................6

Navigation..................................................................................................................6

Settings Page..............................................................................................................7

System Requirements.................................................................................................7

Contact Us..................................................................................................................7

Speaking Notes ..............................................................................................................8

Introduction................................................................................................................8

Reasons ....................................................................................................................27

Source of Blessing ...................................................................................................31

Work ........................................................................................................................36

Beis HaMikdash.......................................................................................................53

Abstaining from Work .............................................................................................65

Peace of Mind ..........................................................................................................81

Conclusion ...............................................................................................................88

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Thank you Stuart and Stephanie Ronson — the visionaries behind this project. Your help and generosity made this dream a reality.

Rabbi Yitzchak Berkovits and Rabbi Reuven Leuchter for clarifying many of the ideas

Rabbi Eliyahu Falk for the use of his notes

Rabbi Shaul Goldman for researching various parts of the presentation

Rabbi Leiby Burnham and Rabbi Dovid Tugendhaft for reviewing parts of the manuscript at various stages and offering their input

Rabbi Reuven Poupko and Rabbi Dovid Solomon for help with translating

Rabbi Zave Rudman for providing inspiration and content for the section on zemiros

Rabbi Moshe Slonim, mashgiach of Angel’s bakery help in the behind-the-scenes “Challah” clip

Rabbi Benzion Klatzko, founder of Shabbat.com, for permission to use the “Sabbath demonstration” clip

Ayala, Jonny, and Elchanan Finn for acting in the Sabbath meal videos

Shimon and Zahavit Lazar for hosting the Sabbath meal clips in their house, and their children Aliza, Noa, Tzvi, and Ayelet Hashachar for starring in them

Yael and Bennett Kaplan for hosting some of the Sabbath preparation clips in their home

Meir Roth, Tehilla Roth, and Avigail Kaplan for starring in the Sabbath preparation clip

Charlie Harary and Elisheva Perlman (Ohr Naava) for permission to include the “Disconnect” movie

Students of Machon Yaakov for being the first sounding board for the first draft of the presentation

To my wife Becky for her ongoing support and dedication

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Instructions

Latest Version Torah Live will be updating these speaker notes with corrections and new suggestions. To make sure you have the most recent version, visit our website, www.torahlive.com and click on the treasure chest tab, where you will find a section called Presentation Materials. The version you have at the moment is 1.2.

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We recommend the HiRO H50064 3-In-1 2.4GHz WiFi Presenter with Laser Pointer and Wireless Mouse available from Amazon here. (No, we don’t get a commission!)

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Lesson Plan

• This material was not organized into a PowerPoint presentation, where you must begin with the first slide and follow a linear path until you reach the end. It is, rather, presented as a flexible program, allowing you to pick and choose sections to teach, depending on the time available and your audience.

Navigation • You can navigate around the various parts of the presentation by clicking on the menu headings on the main menu screen, which will open up sub-menus. If you want to return at any point to the previous menu or main menu, use the “bread crumbs” on the top left of the screen (circled in red below.)

• To move back and forth within each section, hover the cursor around the right-hand part of the screen (cursor should change from arrow to hand) and click. To move back a frame, hover around the left side of the screen and click. You can also use the pointer to do this by going into the settings page and using the Define Pointer buttons. Remember to choose Save.

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• Another way to move back and forth between frames is with the Left and Right arrow keys: Right arrow = next frame; Left arrow = previous frame.

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System Requirements • The presentation is designed to run on either a PC or Mac (OS 10.4.x or greater).

Contact Us Need technical support? Visit our FAQ page on www.torahlive.com or write to support@torahlive.com.

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Speaking Notes

Introduction

FIRST SHOW ABOVE CLIP, THEN SAY:

Welcome to Torah Live’s presentation, Sabbath: The Ultimate Treasure.

Over the coming hour, we are going to be learning exactly why these people and many more like them feel so strongly about the Sabbath, otherwise known as Shabbos.

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We are going to take a journey into the reasons behind this holiest of days.

We are going to attempt to understand the deep secrets and mysteries of this incredible day, so that you will experience Sabbath like you never have before.

First, does anyone know the source for Sabbath being called a treasure?

Who first said it?

OPEN UP TO AUDIENCE

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The Sages tell us,

ואני מבקש ליתנה לישראל , זי ושבת שמהמתנה טובה יש לי בבית גנ: אמר לו הקדוש ברוך הוא למשה לך והודיעם—

:ימסכת שבת דף

God told Moses, “I have a wonderful gift — a treasure — in my store house that I would like to give to the Jews. Go and tell them.”

Sabbath 10b

The gift of Sabbath.

Today, my friends, more than ever we need this gift.

In fact, we need it desperately….

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Today people are busier than ever before.

Rushing…

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Texting…

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Organizing… Overloading our schedules…

Being too busy is a persistent and pestering problem, reaching dizzying speeds, and actually damaging us…

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People find it hard to turn off.

And this is having all sorts of damaging effects on us.

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First it makes it harder to interact and have genuine relationships with people…

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It also destroys us physically…

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Leads to accidents…

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We are overstretched and overbooked and it’s just getting worse! And so, today — more than ever before — we need the Sabbath. We need it more than ever before. It is such an ancient idea, and yet it is hard to imagine a time when it was more relevant than today.

Run ragged...

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All Jews — both religious and not religious — all of us need strengthening in regards to the Sabbath. Because even those of us who have been observant our whole lives still don’t really understand what Sabbath is.

“What? Don’t know what Sabbath is?”

“Yes.”

“But it’s the fourth of the Ten Commandments!”

“I know.”

“Probably the best known mitzvah in the world. How can you say “don’t know what Sabbath is?”

You are right, but in comparison to the Sabbath’s lofty value, we don’t have a clue about what it is. We may know about the Sabbath and claim to observe it, but as befitting its true place, it’s as abandoned and lonely as...

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…a corpse that no one has a clue about.

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ABOVE SLIDE NEEDS FIXING

The Sages tell us,

-ואני מבקש ליתנה לישראל , מתנה טובה יש לי בבית גנזי ושבת שמה: אמר לו הקדוש ברוך הוא למשה לך והודיעם

. הנותן פת לתינוק צריך להודיע לאמו: מכאן אמר רבן שמעון בן גמליאל

תלמוד בבלי מסכת שבת דף י עמוד ב

But, the Gemara asks, we have a rule that you don’t have to tell someone about a gift they are about to receive. [This is learned from the end of the same parsha — כי תשא — where we read that God did not tell Moshe that his face was shining.]

הא שבת דעבידא ו—. במילתא דלא עבידא לאגלויי- הא , במילתא דעבידא לאגלויי—הא , לא קשיא מתן שכרה לא עביד לגלויי —! לגלויי

תלמוד בבלי מסכת שבת דף י עמוד ב

The Gemara explains that it depends if the gift is one that the receiver will eventually find out about, and Sabbath is something the Jews would not know about.

Not know about?! How can that be? Sabbath was told openly to them.

Yes, they will know about Sabbath, but not about its reward.

We see that even though Sabbath itself is something revealed and well known, awareness of its exaltedness and holiness is a matter that is not really understood.

We may have heard about the concept of Sabbath, we may know about the technicalities of Sabbath, but when you contemplate the overflowing feelings of

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pleasure and the high levels of closeness to God a person can reach, when you realize the unmatched levels of wisdom a person can attain and the total rejuvenation a person can experience, you realize that as much as most of us think we “know” about Sabbath, we really don’t know much at all.

Consider the following…

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The Sages tell us…

ה שעה אחת של קורת רוח בעולם הבא מכל חיי העולם הזהיפ

'משנה כב' פרקי אבות פרק ד

One hour of spiritual bliss in the World to Come is greater than all of This World.

Ethics of the Fathers 4:22

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Imagine you have a scale. On one side, you place one hour of the World to Come.

On the other side you place every pleasure you ever experienced in this world: every chocolate, every mouthwatering dish, every holiday, every delight, every fancy car, every gorgeous house, every bit of fun, every good laugh, every exciting trip you ever enjoyed — from the day you were born until the present day.

Add to that every pleasure you will enjoy for the rest of your life.

Add to that the combined pleasure of all the people alive in the world today.

Add to that all the physical pleasures throughout the history of this world: every pleasure that every person has and will ever have.

And yet that enormous pleasure does not reach the bliss of one hour in the next world.

(Source: Sabba of Kelm)

Hard to imagine, right?

And yet, when God gave the Torah to the Jewish nation, the Jews asked for some taste of the Next World in this world.

They wanted to feel — at least to some degree — a taste of the Next World in This World!

And the Midrash reports that God — in response to this request — gave us Sabbath.

. ה ואומר להם זה העולם הבא"משיב הקב? ע איזהו מקח טוב שאתה נותן לנו אם נשמור את תורתך"רבש ה ואומר להם זה שבת "משיב הקב. ב"ע הראנו דוגמא של עוה"משיבים ישראל ואומרים רבש

(Oysiyos DeRabbi Akiva, os alef)

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We see that Sabbath is not from This World. If a person taps in correctly to this day, he can experience a taste of what it is like to be in Gan Eden!

He can experience a sample of that infinite reward.

We see the incredible power and holiness of Sabbath.

As we say in the zemiros of Sabbath: ם הבאמעין עול , a taste of the World to Come.

And so, as much as know about Sabbath, we really don’t appreciate what an incredible gift it is.

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But to merit the splendor of the Sabbath, a person has to prepare himself — both physically, and equally important, mentally — by learning what the Sabbath is about and accepting Sabbath in the appropriate way.

Unless a person exerts himself in this regard — even if he will be Sabbath observant his whole life — he will not experience its glory. He will never perceive the wonderful taste of our holy Sabbath.

He will be like a poor person who lived his whole life in suffering and poverty, and on his dying day discovers a huge box filled with diamonds and millions of dollars.

Imagine the agony and torment such a person feels, realizing that he suffered needlessly his whole life when he could have lived in luxury.

Yet every Erev Sabbath, God places at our doorstep the most exquisite and beautiful treasure — hewn from the Heavenly — and he doesn’t even bother to open the package.

What do we need to do, therefore, to merit this wonderful gift?

The first thing is to realize the value of the gift. A person who doesn’t appreciate the rare gift of Sabbath, obviously won’t merit experiencing it.

In the coming series, we will look at the reasons for Sabbath, the serenity a person should strive to achieve, how a person should prepare for Sabbath, how his Erev Sabbath should look, and then we will look at the practicalities of observing Sabbath — lighting Sabbath candles, making Kiddush, conducting the Sabbath meal and plenty more.

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Reasons

Let me share with you an idea put forward by Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch

SPEND A MOMENT GIVING BRIEF BIOGRAPHY AND INTRODUCING HOREB BOOK

Man is the crown of creation.

He is different from the animal kingdom.

Animals use the world as it is. They can’t manipulate items to create new objects.

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But man is master over the world, able to melt down and reshape materials, form magnificent structures, build skyscrapers; he is able to invent phenomenal creations that will take him out into space and to design systems of communication that will bring mankind together.

This can easily lead man to feel that he alone is master of the world. Man’s great powers over nature, that enable him to control it, harness its energies, and mold it to his will — these very powers make it easy for him to think of himself as the Creator, answerable to no one higher than himself (The Sabbath by Dayan Grunfeld, p. 17).

So God built into the system a method that will always ensure that man will not lose sight of his role in all this, an automated safety valve to remind him who is really in charge of the world.

“We are stopped on this one day from exercising our characteristic human powers of producing and creating in the material world. By this very inactivity we lay these powers in homage at the feet of God Who gave them.” (The Sabbath by Dayan Grunfeld, p. 18)

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“It is as if the boss closes the plant on Sabbath and declares the machinery, tools, and activities of creativity off bounds to the workers. By refraining from the prohibited creative activities on Sabbath, we testify that God is the Master of the world Who created and designed it, and that we are His humble servants.” (Festivals of Life by Rabbi Zev Leff, p 26)

If I’m in charge, then what is going on that I have to stop what I’m doing and close up shop? I’m in charge!

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[QUOTE OF THIS IDEA FROM HOREB:

What was there to safeguard the world against man? What safeguard [was there] that man in his position of honor would not forget God; that he would not look upon the world, which had been entrusted to him to govern according to God's will as his own property; that in his controlling power over the things around him he would not regard himself as master; and that he would not live in God's world solely according to his human will? …What means was there of continually reminding him of his duty to be God's servant; of sanctifying him for this task and continually providing mind and heart with renewed strength for it? In a word, what means was there for the ever-renewed education of man for his task?

Behold! God crowned his work with the seventh day of creation, the first of human activity, and bestowed on it a constantly recurring sanctity and a blessing. A sanctity, that through it man should be continually reminded of his appointment by God in God's world to be God's servant and that he should devote himself to that capacity.

…How can the Sabbath become such a symbol…? …In that …. on the seventh day … he is forbidden by Divine behest to fashion anything for his own purpose. In this way he acknowledges that he has no rights of ownership or authority over the world. Nothing may be dealt with as man pleases, for everything belongs to God, the Creator, Who has set man into the world to rule it according to His word. On each Sabbath day, the world, so to speak, is restored to God, and thus man proclaims, both to himself and to his surroundings, that he enjoys only a borrowed authority.]

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Source of Blessing

The Torah says,

אלוקים את יום השביעי ויקדש אותוויברך

'פסוק ג' בראשית פרק ב

God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.

Bereishis 2:3

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Not only is the Sabbath day blessed, but it is also the mekor ha-bracha — the source of all blessing for the rest of the week. [ADD SUNDAY TO THE PICTURE]

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That is why the commandment to observe Sabbath is found in seven portions of the Torah:

Beshalach, Yisro, Mishpatim, Ki Sisa, Vayakhel, Emor, and Va’eschanan

To allude to the fact that all seven days are dependant upon and receive their goodness from the Sabbath.

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HAVE YITZ RUSSEK TAKE PICTURES OF YOSEF AND HIS DAUGHTER AND HIS WIFE AND HEAD IN HANDS AND PHONE AND RABBI LYNN TALKING ON PHONE AND HAPPY ENDING!

The idea of Sabbath being the mekor ha-bracha can be accepted as a deep Kabalistic idea, an esoteric concept that we cannot understand.

But bearing in mind Rav Hirsch’s reasoning behind Sabbath — that it is a time to reflect on how we are subservient to God — the theme of mekor ha-bracha takes on added beauty.

Let me explain with a story that happened to a good friend of mine, Rabbi Yosef Lynn.

Rabbi Lynn and his wife were trying to get their daughter into a certain school in Jerusalem. They tried speaking to this teacher and that teacher; they tried every form of protectzia they could muster, but all to no avail. After weeks of banging their heads against the proverbial wall, they just didn’t know what else to do.

One evening, Rabbi Lynn and his wife realized that there was nothing more they could do, and that only God is in charge. At that exact moment, the phone rang. It was the principal of the Beis Yaakov school in Ezras Torah calling to tell them that their daughter had just been accepted!

As soon as a person relinquishes his power, God helps him. When a person realizes that God is the only source of salvation, at that moment God steps in.

It’s this same idea that explains why Sabbath is the source of blessing for the entire week.

Sabbath — according to Rav Hirsch — is about realizing that we are not in control of this world. God is. Once a person feels that, God in turn blesses him. After a person has spent 25 hours internalizing that God is the source of all power in this world, when he spends the day like Rav Hirsch describes the day is meant to be spent, realizing that God alone is in charge and that man is totally powerless, then obviously that brings blessing to His week.

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Work

This theme of Rav Hirsch also answers several basic questions about the work we are forbidden to do on Sabbath, namely:

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Why are seemingly small acts — like turning on a light — forbidden, while big acts like carrying heavy furniture allowed?

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And what do we mean by a “day of rest”? What happens if I’m not tired? Do I then not need to keep Sabbath?

And what does it mean that God rested from work?

He doesn’t get tired. Creating an entire universe takes Him the same effort as creating a drop of sand.

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And why are acts that help me rest — like driving to shul instead of walking — forbidden, while acts that require a lot of exertion — like walking miles to shul — allowed?

[Joe Lieberman, a United States Senator from Connecticut, begins his book, The Day of Rest, with the story of how one Friday night he was walking back from the White House with his ADD STORY]

END UP REPEATING QUESTION….

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And probably the hardest question of them all is: how can we understand the stringency of the Sabbath?

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You take a little fly out of your milk, and – in ancient times when the Sanhedrin had authority - you could be liable to the death penalty!

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Why is the punishment for breaking the Sabbath more severe than other seemingly worse transgressions. You eat pig. No death penalty.

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You burn a Sefer Torah, God forbid, no death penalty.

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You steal. No death penalty.

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You burn a shul down. No death penalty.

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But you carry a handkerchief outside of your house on the Sabbath and in the times of the Sanhedrin, you could be put to death!

The tiniest wrong move warrants the death penalty.

Does that make any sense?

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Rabbi Shimshon Pincus relates how he was once talking to a wealthy fellow in Manhattan, a non-religious Jew, and after their discussion, the man turned to him — and Rav Pincus could just feel the attack coming — and said, “I want to ask you something.”

And Rabbi Pincus was thinking, Now he’s going to flatten me.

The fellow continued, “Is it true that it says in the Torah that there was a fellow who gathered some sticks on the Sabbath and they took him out and stoned him?” [SAY SLOWLY AND MAKE IT SOUND ABSURD]

Rabbi Pincus answered yes.

“Why?” the man asked. “Did he kill anybody?”

It’s a good question! What do we answer? The severity of the Sabbath!

But with the above explanation from Rav Hirsch this fits like a glove.

As Dayan Grunfeld writes: Any act, however small, which demonstrates man’s mastery of nature in this way is a melacha, be it striking a light or washing clothes, tying a knot or building a house. With this we can easily see how senseless is the often-repeated argument that it is no exertion to switch on an electric light. As if the use of electricity were any less a conquest of nature because it happens to be effortless!

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Performing even a single melacha on Sabbath thereby [SAY WITH STRONG AND DETERMINED VOICE] denies God as the Creator and Master of the world. That is why desecrating the Sabbath is equivalent to idol worship.

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Idol worship?! [SAY WITH TONE OF ABSURDITY, SCRUNCHING FACE.] Why is cooking a tasty meal on Sabbath like idol worship? Isn’t that a bit extreme? I mean, come on!

Yes, because you have denied God’s absolute sovereignty over the world, and that, my friends, is equivalent to idol worship.

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On the other hand, when a young Jewish boy or girl refrains from plucking a single flower on Sabbath, it is a greater tribute to God than all the lofty-sounding words of poets and philosophers.

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[QUOTE FROM HOREB: … even the smallest 'Work’ done on the Sabbath is a denial of the fact that God is the Creator and Master of the world. It is an arrogant setting-up of man as his own master. It is a denial of the whole task of the Jew as man and as Israelite, which is nothing but the management of the earth according to the will of God. It therefore incurs death and excision from the congregation of Israel. On the other hand, every refraining from work on the Sabbath is in itself a positive expression of the fact that God is the Creator and Master of the world; that it is He Who has set man in his place; that He is the Lawgiver of his life; it is a proclamation and acknowledgment of our task as men and Israelites.

….

Even if you tired yourself out the whole day, as long as you have produced nothing within the meaning of the term melachah; as long as your activity has not been a constructive exercise of your intelligence, you have performed no melachah. On the other hand, if you have engendered, without the slightest exertion, even the smallest change in an object for human purposes, then you have profaned the Sabbath, flouted God, and undermined your calling as a Jew. Your physical power belongs to your animal nature; it is with your technical skill which serves your spirit that you master the world—and it is with this that, as a human being, you should subject yourself to God on Sabbath.]

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So we understand the reason for the Sabbath, the reason why it is a source of blessing to the whole week, as well as what the definition of work is. Let us now look more closely at the source where we derive the melachos from…

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Beis HaMikdash Where do we learn what is defined as a melacha — “work”? Yes it is “creative work,” but how are we going to decide the exact parameters of this?

So we read in the Torah (Shemos 35:1):

לעשות אותם ששת ימים ' ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל ויאמר אליהם אלה הדברים אשר צוה ה כל העושה בו מלאכה יומת' תעשה מלאכה וביום השביעי יהיה לכם קדש שבת שבתון לה

[TRANSLATE THE HEBREW?

And then, right after this, Moshe goes on to instruct us about the building of the sanctuary.

The proximity of these two subjects in the Torah teaches us that the very work that was needed to build the Tabernacle was the work that was forbidden on Sabbath.

We know that there were thirty-nine categories of work needed for the Sanctuary. For example, it required all sorts of woodwork and metal work. Every category of textile making was required for its hangings. Leather was used for its roof, and this needed all the leather-making operations. Many plant products were used for such things as dyes, and these required all sorts of agricultural and cooking activities. Material had to be brought from the outside camp, and written records had to be kept. Thus, there are the thirty-nine forms of forbidden labor on Sabbath.

The building of the Tabernacle paralleled the creation of the world:

אהבתי מעון ביתך ומקום משכן כבודך בשביל ששקול כנגד בריאת ' אסי למה הוא אומר ה' ר יעקב בר"אנוטה שמים ) תהלים קד(וכתיב , כיצד בראשון כתיב בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ, עולם

שנאמר ויהי בשני יהי רקיע ואומר בהן הבדלה, )שמות כו(ובמשכן מה כתיב ועשית יריעות עזים , כיריעהבשלישי כתיב מים שנאמר יקוו המים ובמשכן , מבדיל בין מים למים ובמשכן כתיב והבדילה הפרוכת לכם

ברביעי ברא מאורות דכתיב יהי מאורות ברקיע , ונתת שמה מים' כתיב ועשית כיור נחשת וכנו נחשת וגוהמים שרץ נפש חיה ועוף ישרצו ' בחמישי ברא עופות שנא, השמים ובמשכן כתיב ועשית מנורת זהב

בששי נברא אדם שנאמר ויברא אלהים את האדם , יעופף ובמשכן כנגדן לעשות קרבנות כבשים ועופותבשביעי ויכולו ', ובמשכן כתיב אדם שהוא כהן גדול שנמשח לעבוד ולשמש לפני ה, בצלמו בכבוד יוצרו

יברך אלהים ובמשכן כתיב ויברך בבריאת העולם כתיב ו, השמים והארץ ובמשכן כתיב ותכל כל עבודתבבריאת העולם כתיב , בבריאת העולם כתיב ויכל אלהים ובמשכן כתיב ויהי ביום כלות, אותם משה

…ויקדש אותו ובמשכן כתיב וימשח אותו ויקדש אותו

פרשת פקודי סימן ב ) ורשא(מדרש תנחומא

When God initially created the world, He intended for His Presence to rest on the whole of creation. However, as people and the generations sinned — Adam, Kayin, Sodom etc. — the shechina departed little by little. This was offset by the righteous people of each generation who managed to return the shechina to this world little by little until matan Torah, when it returned again to rest on the whole of creation. By the sin of the Golden Calf, however, the shechina departed once again, and immediately following, we were commanded to build the Sanctuary so that God’s presence would rest there.

לא כמו שהיה הענין קודם , לדבר עמך ולקבל תפלת ועבודת ישראל, אתם כדי שאשכון בתוככם. כן תעשו אבא אליך ' העגל כאמרו בכל המקום כו

ספורנו שמות פרק כה פסוק ט

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So in a sense the Tabernacle is a miniature world, enabling God’s presence to rest as it was intended to by the creation of the world. The work that we refrain from on Sabbath, therefore, is the very same work that God performed in creating the world.

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There are other connections between Sabbath and the Sanctuary as well:

1. Sabbath table — Shulchan [EXPLAIN SHULCHAN]

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2. Sabbath candles — Menorah

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3. Challos — Lechem HaPanim [CHANGE HaPanim IN THE PICTURE]

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4. Forgive sins — Korbanos [CHANGE Karbonos IN THE PICTURE]

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5. Sabbath songs — Shira of the Levi’im

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6. Beautiful Sabbath clothes — special clothes of the Kohen

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[PICTURE MAKES IT LOOK LIKE YOU HAVE TO DO NETILLAS YADAIM BEFORE SABBATH.]

7. Washing before Sabbath — Washing hands and feet in Sanctuary

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8. Eating from “Hashem’s table” — Eating Kodshim

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9. Fear — Moreh Mikdash [NEED CAPITAL “M” IN PICTURE.]

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10. Severe punishment for slightest infraction

What’s going on?

The Beis HaMikdash was the source of all good in the world. Shlomo HaMelech could grow plants in Israel that usually only flower outside Israel. Why? Because Israel is the conduit through which all goodness comes down to this world. The surge of blessing starts off at the Beis HaMikdash and then spreads throughout Jerusalem, the rest of Israel, and then beyond.

Sabbath is also the source of all good.

Rabbi Leff points out that the Sabbath prior to an event or to a Yom Tov is significant. The Sabbath before Pesach is called Shabbos HaGadol, the Sabbath before Yom Kippur is called Shabbos Shuvah, an aufruf is the Sabbath before a wedding, and a shalom zachor is the Sabbath before a bris. [One can add that the Sabbath before Rosh Chodesh is Shabbos Mevorchim and the Sabbath before a yahrtzeit, a man gets an aliya to the Torah.] Since the energy for the week emanates from the Sabbath preceding that week, the potential of the event derives from the previous Sabbath.

So we have a clear parallel: Sabbath is to time what the Beis HaMikdash is to space. Both are sources of connection between the spiritual and the physical. [THIS IS A COMPLICATED CONCEPT AND NEEDS TO BE DEVELOPED CLEARLY AND CAREFULLY.]

It is interesting to note that Lecha Dodi, the song we sing to welcome the Sabbath, is full of references to the Sanctuary. Consider, for example, the words mikdash melech ir melucha – O Sanctuary of the King, royal City. Again, this shows the connection between the two.

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Abstaining from Work

We mentioned before that the Sabbath day is blessed.

ויברך אלקים את יום השביעי ויקדש אותו

ג:בראשית ב

The Torah mentions two things that God did to the Sabbath: ויברך אלוקים — He blessed it, and ויקדש — He sanctified it.

What are these two aspects?

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Says Rashi:

וקדשו במן , ד להם עומר לגלגלת ובששי לחם משנה ברכו במן שכל ימות השבת היה יור-ויברך ויקדש שלא ירד בו מן כלל והמקרא כתוב על שם העתיד

ADD ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF RASHI

This seems hard to understand: The manna falling was for a short period in history — 40 years out of 1000s of years. Are you going to tell me that the verses describing the creation of the world were only about a minute part of history?

[NEEDS TO BE FINISHED: We mentioned that one of the ideas behind Sabbath is to internalize that the world can run without us. God has everything planned out. There is a master plan, a bigger picture. Our running around during the week isn’t what brings the blessing, it’s not what causes the results. God can manage just fine without us. Where did we see this blatantly in history? In the 40 years in the wilderness. Here you had…]

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The lesson for us today is that a person should realize that he will never lose out financially by not working on Sabbath…

Dayan Grunfeld writes:

Sabbath is the great measuring rod of bitachon, the touchstone of our belief that a higher force rules and guides our lives. He who knows that his livelihood depends not on men, nor on "nature," nor on "economic forces," but on God Himself, knows also that no real gain can come from work done in defiance of God on the Sabbath. How often can one see the imagined gains from such soul-destroying work cancelled by unexpected losses in other fields! And on the other hand, the person who stands firm and refuses to betray the Sabbath for the prospects of apparent monetary gain will often find that the loss was after all only illusory.

I’d like to share with you some stories where we see this clearly...

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Jakob de Vries was a gem merchant in eighteenth century Amsterdam. He had good relations with all his customers and particularly with his main customer, the local duke.

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Jakob was a Torah-observant Jew and it was well known that he could never be induced to do business, or even to talk about business, on the Sabbath.

One Sabbath morning Jakob was sitting with his family over Kiddush when a ducal herald, accompanied by two army sergeants, appeared at the door.

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“A message from His Grace, the duke, for Mijnheer Jakob de Vries.”

Jakob read the message and his face grew pale.

It requested him politely, but firmly, to appear before the duke within an hour and to bring a selection of his choicest gems, since the duke had urgent business to transact. A very large profit for the merchant would be forthcoming.

"My humblest respects to the duke,” said Jakob to the herald. "Tell him that there is nothing I would like more than to oblige him, but he knows that I never do business on the Jewish Sabbath. As soon as Sabbath is out, I shall be glad to do his bidding.”

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Jakob returned to his meal, but the duke would not take no for an answer. Within the hour another delegation arrived, more numerous than the first. "The duke's business brooks no delay," they said.

Jakob again politely refused.

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Throughout the day more and more messages came from the ducal palace, more and more threatening in tone. "Jakob de Vries should know that if he disobeys this command, the duke will break off all business relations with him and revoke his license to sell jewels in the whole province.”

Beads of perspiration stood out on his forehead but Jakob de Vries stood firm. “Tell the Duke,” he said, “that I am loyal to him, but I owe a higher loyalty to my God.”

After the termination of the Sabbath — and Jakob curtailed none of the ceremonies and songs with which observant Jews say farewell to the holy Sabbath — he hastened to the palace, not knowing what to expect there. To his amazement, as soon as he entered the great hall, the duke rose from his throne and clasped him in a warm embrace.

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“Thank you, my friend,” said the duke. "You were great! And what's more, you have added 10,000 guilders to my coffers. You see, I had a guest here today, the Duke of Brabant, and I told him about your loyalty to your Jewish Jaws. He laughed and said that no Jew could resist making a large profit, and he bet me 10,000 guilders that a combination of monetary incentives and threats would surely break your resolve. I had faith in you and bet 10,000 guilders that you would stand firm. Thank you for living up to my expectations!”

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GRAPHIC: USE PICTURES OF HARRY FROM THE CHARITY PRESENTATION AND VIDEO FOOTAGE OF OLD BOAT DOCKING IN NY FROM ELI

Then there’s the story of Harry Fischel:

Harry Fischel was born in 1865 in Meretz, a small town somewhere deep in Russia. When Harry was 20 years old, he travelled by boat to America. When he left Russia, his parents’ last words to him were: “Don’t exchange your religion for gold.”

Harry sailed to America, and just to give you an idea of how poor he was, when he got off the boat, he had nothing to his name other than 60 cents and the shirt on his back. In fact, just to save up the fare needed for the boat trip from Russia to the US, he had to work for 2 years!!

Harry began searching for a job, but the only work that was available at that time entailed working on Sabbath, and since Harry was determined to honor his parents’ last words of not working on Sabbath, Harry went from one job interview to another, being turned down time and again.

Eventually, Harry’s self-sacrifice paid off and he managed to open his own building company. He would buy irregularly shaped plots of land for very cheap — as no other builders knew how to utilize the odd shape — and managed to build some 15 apartment buildings in just 3 years.

His buildings had better air and sanitary conditions than anything that was available at the time, and 13 years later he was a multimillionaire — at a time when being even a millionaire was nowhere near as common as it is today.

He became a philanthropist, founding Yeshiva University and Machon Harry Fischel, which is an institute here in Jerusalem devoted to training young men to become dayanim. This is besides the hospitals, Talmud Torahs, homes for immigrants, schools, and shuls that he not only contributed to, but actively ran.

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[Article in The Jewish Press by Dr. Yitzchok Levine:

Early Struggles

Harry Fischel arrived in the United States on a bitter cold day in December of 1885 with only sixty cents in his pocket and the clothes on his back. He first tried to secure a job in an architectural firm, but soon saw that this was hopeless. He therefore became a carpenter's assistant, earning three dollars a week. Harry did not forget his parents after his arrival in the goldene medina. His commitment to the mitzvah of kibud av v'aim led him to send his entire first week's wages to his parents. He asked the family he lived with to extend him credit for his room and board.

"From this time on, the young man never failed to send his mother and father a monthly remittance of at least ten roubles, or about five dollars in American money, budgeting his expenses and living on such fare as to make this possible, no matter how small his earnings were." (B page 15.)

Finally he was hired by a firm of architects — but during the interview, he had chosen not to tell them he was a Sabbath observer. He hoped the firm would let him have Sabbath off based on the quality of his work and his willingness to work for five days at considerably lower wages than he'd been offered for six.

The job turned out to be all that Harry had hoped for and more. The week flew by as he applied himself in his new position. The working conditions were excellent, and he found the work interesting and stimulating. But when he approached his employer on Friday afternoon and asked if he could have Saturday off, he was told, "If you don't come tomorrow, you need not come on Monday."

He was now faced with a most difficult test of his religious principles. This job was precisely what he had been looking for, and it held the potential for the realization of his dream to become an architect. It appeared to be the road that would lead him from poverty to financial success.

Harry spent a sleepless night agonizing over what to do. He finally decided that he would get up early Sabbath morning, daven, and then go to work. After davening he headed home to change from his Sabbath suit to weekday clothes and go to work.

Arriving at the corner of Hester and Essex Streets on the Lower East Side, he saw that not a single store was open. The streets were filled with people dressed in their Sabbath finery. The atmosphere of Sabbath was everywhere. Harry was truly torn by his predicament. He thought of how shocked and disappointed his parents would be if they knew what he was thinking of doing. Finally, with great difficulty, he made his decision.

"He knew that neither then nor later would it ever be possible for him to desecrate the Sabbath."(B page 19.)

On Monday he returned to his place of employment. He pleaded with his employers to let him work a five-day week, saying he would accept half of the salary that had been agreed upon when he was hired. Not only was his plea rejected, he was not even paid for the week that he had worked.

Such were the tests observant Jews faced in America at the end of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century.

Marriage, More Job Related Problems – and Success

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Harry finally found a suitable job in October 1886, as a foreman for a builder. The hours were long, but at least Sabbath was not a problem. On November 26, 1887, he married Jane Brass. She had immigrated to America in 1883. She came from a fine religious home. Indeed, her father, brother and grandfather were all talmidei chachomim.

"Thus, the young woman possessed in both her antecedents and upbringing all those qualities most likely to appeal to the young man and to strengthen and encourage all that was best in his own character." (B page 24.)

Harry's employer gave him two weeks' vacation as a wedding present. When he returned, however, he was told there was no work and he should look for another job. The newlyweds now faced a most difficult time. Harry spent months looking for a job, without success. Things were so bad that the couple was forced to pawn every item of value just to get through the terrible winter of 1887-88.

The tide turned in July of 1888. Harry was asked by Mr. Newman Cowan, a customer of his former employer, to estimate the cost of raising the roof of the building that Cowan’s business occupied. The job was so large and complex that many contractors refused to even bid on it. Further, Harry had no capital with which to undertake such a job. He told this to Cowen, who replied that if the price were right he would arrange credit for him.

The work took five months to complete. Harry's cost estimates were so precise that not only did he make a good living on this job, he was also able to save $250, a substantial sum in those days. The most beneficial outcome was that he became well known as a successful contractor, one very much in demand.

In the year following the completion of this job, Harry had so much work that he built up his savings to some $2,500. For the reader to fully appreciate what that amount of money represented, consider that $2,500 in the year 1889, according to the consumer price index, had the same purchase power as $50,883.78 in the year 2004. Or, looking at it from the perspective of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita, an index of the economy’s average output per person that is closely correlated with the average income, $2,500 in the year 1889 was equivalent to $12,335.26 in 2004. (See http://eh.net/hmit/compare/ for details.) Mr. Fischel was now on his way to affluence.

“The story of the next few years [of his life] reads like a fairy tale.” (B page 31.)

His abilities as a businessman and his expertise in construction and architecture led him to financial success after financial success. By 1900 he was the owner of a number of tenements and, eventually, entire buildings on Park Avenue in the most affluent neighborhood in New York City. He now had a large annual income.

In short, in little more than thirteen years Harry Fischel had gone from a condition of dire poverty to one of affluence, becoming a multimillionaire at a time when even being a millionaire was nowhere near as common as it is today.

Through all his success he remained true to Orthodox Judaism.

"Mr. Fischel's principles as to Sabbath observance went far deeper than merely refusing to work himself on that day; his religious code held it equally wicked to cause others to work and he at once met the problem, not only by closing down operations of his own buildings, but by setting an example for others by paying hundreds of men the wage they would have obtained by working the half-day

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Saturday, in order that they might resist the temptation to desecrate the day. Not only then, but in later years, when he came to build on a very extensive scale, it is Mr. Fischel's pride that not a single Jew has ever worked on the Sabbath on any operation on which he has been engaged or in which he has been interested." (B pages 32-33.)

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The last story on this theme that I would like to share with you is about Baron Rothschild:

Baron Anshel Rothschild, although the leading European banker, was a proud Jew and his emuna was legendary. Despite all his multitude of business dealings, on Sabbath everything came to a grinding halt, as if nothing else existed, and he was simple Jew attached to his Sabbath.

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One time a large financial institution in England was on the verge of collapse. It needed to be rescued by a person or group with great means. The directors decided that Baron Rothschild would be a perfect candidate. They drafted a proposal offering him the company for 2.5 million pounds sterling. This price was considerably lower than the true value of the company, but still not a steal.

[first picture is paused in a joggy frame]

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The telegram was sent Friday night and Baron Rothschild completely ignored it. Anxiously awaiting his reply, when no reply was forthcoming the directors interpreted that as a lack of interest and the next morning sent a new proposal for 2.2 million. Of course Reb Anshel did not pay attention to this telegram either, and later in the day, out of desperation, the directors sent a proposal of 1.7 million. This one arrived on Motza'ei Shabbos and Reb Anshel opened it together with the other two, and sent back a positive response to the third offer.

As soon as he sent off his reply, he gathered his people together to update them on the transaction, and more importantly to teach them a lesson on the koach of Sabbath. Sabbath is not only profitable in the next world, but in this one as well, for those who watch over it.

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Peace of Mind

This is one level of not doing melacha. But the Torah expects more from us…

The verse states:

ששת ימים תעבוד ועשית כל מלאכתך

— Six days you shall work and do all your work.

Shemos 20:9

What does that mean, to do “all your work”? It’s not possible to do all your work in six days. There is always more. So what is the Torah saying?

Says Rashi:

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ADD THAT QUOTE IS FROM RASHI

כשתבא שבת יהא בעיניך כאילו כל מלאכתך עשויה שלא תהרהר אחר מלאכה

Listen carefully to the words of Rashi. They are golden.

“When Sabbath comes, it should be in your eyes as if all your work is done.”

In other words, the Torah doesn’t just want us to physically stop working. It wants us to mentally switch off thinking about work and dissociate from the hustle and bustle of our weekly activities.

A person who abstains from work but is thinking about it all day, going over all the things that need to be taken care of after Sabbath, has not truly observed the Sabbath. He may appear to go through the motions, but in reality, he is far away from genuinely experiencing what Sabbath is all about.

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How is it possible to reach such a lofty state? Imagine you are a lawyer working on a big case for a wealthy client. For weeks you have been going back and forth trying to iron out the details of an important contract. You finally reach a crucial stage in the negotiations — one hour before Sabbath! This is what the whole team has been working for; everyone is counting on you; the stakes are huge. Millions of dollars on the line! This could mean the next big step in your career. And then…Sabbath!

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Do you mean to tell me that the Torah expects me not to so much as think about the deal? Get real. What does it mean to feel כאילו כל מלאכתיך עשויה - as if all your work is done? Does the Torah want us to play games with our thinking? To pretend I finished when I know I really haven’t? I’m in the middle of the deal. Come Monday, I am going to continue right where I left off. So what’s the Torah want from me? To fake it? To make believe?

Listen carefully, my friends. What I am about to tell you is one of the most radical perspective changers you will ever hear….

The whole world only continues to exist because God is willing it to every single moment and every fraction of every moment.

So what’s mans role in this?

In truth, he isn’t contributing much. He is simply fulfilling his obligation to go through the motions.

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To quote Mesillat Yesharim:

היתה ) גזירת קיצבת מזונות שקצבו לו בראש השנה(וכבר היה אדם יכול להיות יושב ובטל והגזירה אשר על כן חייב אדם , בזעת אפך תאכל לחם): בראשית ג(, אם לא שקדם הקנס לכל בני אדם, מתקיימת

והרי זה כמס שפורע כל המין האנושי , המלך העליוןשכן גזר , להשתדל איזה השתדלות לצורך פרנסתו . אשר אין להמלט ממנו

ספר מסילת ישרים פרק כא

REPLACE TEXT ON SCREEN WITH: Man’s test is to see through the hidden ways in which God runs the world and to recognize the truth that God alone rules, has always ruled, and will always rule every facet of creation. To come to a realization that all the hishtadlut man does is just that: hishtadlut. It’s an exercise of going through the motions to fulfill the Divine decree. But that’s all it is: going through the motions so that, eventually, when God’s blessing arrives, it will appear to all like it came via natural means.

Now that we have arrived at this new perspective of how to view our whole week, we can understand how the Torah expects us to feel like all our work is done. You know how it is possible? Because the truth is, all our work is done!

What’s my job assignment during the week? To make hishtadlut. No more. My work is to try my best and that’s it. My work is not result-oriented — to actually achieve. That’s in God’s domain. I have no control over that. My job is action-oriented. To make it appear like, for all intents and purposes, that I am accomplishing something. But the truth is I am not! God determines what will be. I go through the motions during the week because God wants me to go through those motions. But the same God who wants me to play the game during the week now tells me that there is no need to do so. So what point is there to even try and think about it? It’s not going to achieve anything.

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The question of how I can genuinely feel like all my work is done when I know I have so much still left to do is based on the erroneous feeling that I’m in charge, that it’s the work that is achieving something, that it’s the work that is the cause of my success, that it’s the source of my livelihood and without it nothing will happen.

But once I recognize that God is in charge of every aspect of creation, and that He alone determines the results, and that all that is incumbent for me to do is to cover up His open Hand, I can understand how it is possible to reach a state of pure tranquility and peace, where I will feel that there is nothing to fret about. After all, if the same Being who tells me to go through some motions now tells me to stop, what is the problem?

Why am I going through those motions during the week? Because that is what God wants me to do. Lovely. So now He wants me to stop.

So attaining the feeling of all our work is done isn’t a farce. It’s not merely a mental trick God wants us to play on ourselves — covering up our concern that we still have things that need doing by pretending to ourselves that we don’t. No! For this 25-hour period our work really is done!

Our original dilemma gets flipped on its head now and we come full circle. The question is no longer: how can I be expected not to think about work on Sabbath.

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On the contrary, the question is: why, if God is all-powerful and runs the whole universe, do I need to do anything at all during the week? To which we have an answer, namely, because there is an obligation to go through the motions. But during a time that this obligation isn’t put on me, why in the world would I worry that something needs doing?

When a person merits reaching this state of mind, he experiences Sabbath on an entirely different level. He becomes a calmer, more peaceful person, and not just on Sabbath, but during the whole week.

Throughout the week, he realizes: I don’t have to grab every opportunity. I am only expected to make what is considered normal hishtadlut. This way of thinking captures a person’s life back.

By accepting that we do not have total control, by accepting that God is in charge and our function is to make hishtadlus, he frees himself of the overwhelming busyness that plagues the world. He doesn’t have to respond to everyone and everything right away.

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Conclusion Being continually busy appears to be the norm for living in today’s world. But if we’re not careful, we’ll get so busy that we’ll miss taking the time to think and feel — and worst of all, to be in touch with ourselves.

Jumping up from the table, talking on the cell phone non-stop, checking messages every hour, if not more, rushing off to the next vital appointment…isn’t this what busy people do?

Sabbath is a time of menuchas ha-nefesh, which literally means “the rest of the soul.” Menuchas ha-nefesh means that our minds are totally focused on the present, on whatever or wherever we are at that moment. It’s the feeling of belonging, of being exactly where we want to be.

Imagine yourself sitting with a cold drink on a beautiful beach. You do not dream of being somewhere else. Your whole focus is turned inwards, reveling in the moment. You are right there, fully engaged. That is what menuchas ha-nefesh is, and that is what a person can experience every Sabbath in the comfort of his own home. Menuchas ha-nefesh is not laziness, but a wonderful state of mind. A deep and fulfilling feeling that you have reached the place you want to be and are not looking to go elsewhere.

Experiencing this feeling is a taste of Gan Eden, a taste of the pleasures of the Next World, and is the ultimate treasure.