Tuesday, January 13, 2015

A Shovevim Thought - Shabbos And Shmiras Habris

We know that שובבי"ם - the parshiyos of שמות וארא etc. until Mishpatim are a time for tshuva on the sin of pgam ha-bris. שובו בנים שובבים - Return my wayward sons.  We live in a generation where the proliferation of inappropriate pictures, movies, internet, advertising etc. etc. etc. is ubiquitously pervasive. The only people who are saved from the horrible fate of exposure to the spiritual cancers and pollutions that abound are fetus' in-utero and a few Jews in Kiryas Yoel, Kiryas Tusch and New Square who sit day and night in the Beis Medrash and are completely insulated from this world. The rest of us, without even realizing it, are suffering from serious internal soul pollution.

There is a way to clean it up though!!:-) Torah and teshuva. Teshuva you have to do yourself but the Torah I will try to share both on audio and written shiurim. [I thank my beloved friend Rebbi Ephraim Abba for his encouragement. If I don't think that people read, listen and absorb the messages, then I pursue my own private study of Talmud and the codes. I don't get paid enough for this blog and for posting shiurim to justify spending time on it, but if I know that people are trying to grow I join them....]

A kortza ge-dank - [Short thought]

Hashem saved the whole world through Noach as the pasuk relates כי אותך ראיתי צדיק לפני בדור הזה - I saw you as a tzadik before me in this generation. This implies that he was saved because of his middah of "Tzaddik". The acquisition of the title "Tzadik" requires one to be careful in sexual matters known in Kabbala as "yesod" - foundation, for it is the foundation of the world. Indeed, Dovid Hamelech taught, צדיק יסוד עולם, a tzadik is the foundation of the world.

Noach means "rest". This teaches us that Noach represented the day of rest, known to Jews worldwide as "Shabbos". The only way to attain the true Shabbos experience of bliss and piece of mind is through being שומר ברית - guarding one's special covenant with Hashem. That is is the meaning of the pasuk, אלה תולדות נח נח איש צדיק - These are the derivatives of Noach, meaning Shabbos, but this menucha can only be accomplished if נח איש צדיק - if Shabbos is coupled with Shmiras Habris, the midda of "tzadik".

In fact the Zohar Hakadosh lumps together the kedusha of Noach, Shabbos and bris. The pasuk in Mishlei [9, 22] says טוב איש - Good is the man. The Zohar explains that this "Good man" is "Tzadik" [i.e. shomer bris] "Noach" and "Shabbos" all at the same time.

If you want to get the most of your Shabbos and if you want to have menuchas hanefesh during the week [which is drawn from Shabbos], then it is imperative that you be a shomer bris. In fact, contemporary studies indicate clearly a lack of emotional calm and increased anger and violence among those who are not shomer bris.      

May we find emotional calm in our lives and a perputual Shabbos-dike existence as expressed by our daily proclamation היום יום .. בשבת.

[Based on the Toras Emes of Rebbe Leibel'e Eiger Parshas Noach]