Shallooommmm sweetest friends!!!!
A huuuuuge mazel toooov to my most beloved friends R' Yoni and Leiba Pollack on the birth of Baila Esther!! May she give her special parents limitless nachas for many years to come!!!
A special mazel tov to the proud grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins on both sides. Such special families deserve nachas!!
This dvar Torah is dedicated to the extended Pollack and Rauch families to whom I feel so close for so long.
R' Yoni and I learn Sfas Emes every Erev Shabbos so in his honor we will learn a shtickel Sfas Emes on this weeks parsha on the pasuk אות היא ביני ובין בני ישראל.
The gemara says [Beitzah 16a]: Every commandment which the Holy One, blessed be He, gave unto Israel, He gave to them publicly, except the Shabbos which He bestowed upon them in secret, for it is said: ‘It is a sign between Me and the children, of Israel forever’ אות היא ביני ובין בני ישראל [Shmos 31/17].
Asks the gemara: If so, idolators should not be punished on its account!
The gemara answers: The Shabbos He indeed made known to them [the idolators] but its reward He did not make known to them. Or you can say [another answer]: Its reward too He made known to them [but] the enlarged soul [neshama yeseira] He did not make known to them; for R. Shimon b. Lakish said: On Erev Shabbos the Holy One, blessed be He, gives to man a neshama yeseira and at the close of Shabbos He withdraws it from him, for it says: He ceased from work and rested וינפש once it [the Sabbath] has ceased woe that the [additional] soul is lost ווי אבדה נפש.
There are at least two difficuties with this gemara:
1] The gemara asks why the idolators are punished for not accepting Shabbos if they didn't know about it and answers that they knew about Shabbos but didn't know its reward or about the neshama yeseira. If this is the case then the question is reinstated - the idolators still don't know about Shabbos in all of its glory so why are they guilty?
2] If the word וינפש means ווי אבדה נפש - woe unto my lost soul, then why does וינפש refer to Friday night and the rest of Shabbos and not to the time when Shabbos ends??
To answer these questions we first have to understand what the neshama yeseira is all about [on a simple level].
What is the neshama yeseira? Every human being is involved in a constant battle of good vs. evil. We are composed of both a holy side and an animalistic side. On Shabbos which is called by the Zohar יומא דנשמתין we have extra powers to be victorious in this battle because our spiritual side is dominant.
Now we understand: The idolators could not have been informed of the neshama yeseira before they accepted Shabbos because to understand what it means one first has to accept and experience Shabbos. By refusing to accept Shabbos they precluded themselves from having any connection to Shabbos and its attendent neshama yeseira.
We can also understand why we say ווי אבדה נפש about the onset of Shabbos. When Shabbos enters and we feel the powerful pull of our spiritual side, we then feel what we were missing all week long.
Since we know how much spirituality we will miss during the week - we will feel compelled to do teshuva for our deficiencies. In this way Shabbos shines its light upon the rest of the week. So it makes sense that about the time when Shabbos leaves, we say ווי אבדה נפש. It is an expression of regret that will catapult us to increased spirituality during the week as well. So the וינפש - ווי אבדה נפש applies both at the onset of Shabbos [when we say it] to show that we now realize what we were missing, and to the end of Shabbos [to which the word וינפש refers] so that we spend the week doing teshuva.
The Holy Baal Shem Tov explained that we say ווי אבדה נפש at the onset of Shabbos in order to ensure that we will take full advantage of the opportunities offered by Shabbos.
[ע"פ השפת אמת תרל"א ד"ה וכתבו]
BELOVED FRIENDSSSSS!!! Shabbos is sooooo hollly and yet so many squander these 25 hours of bliss on nonsense, excessive sleep, idle talk etc. etc. when it could be used to climb the heights of holiness on the road to bliss.
Let us make this Shabbos [and all of those that follow] count!
Bi-ahava rabba,
Me
BELOVED FRIENDSSSSS!!! Shabbos is sooooo hollly and yet so many squander these 25 hours of bliss on nonsense, excessive sleep, idle talk etc. etc. when it could be used to climb the heights of holiness on the road to bliss.
Let us make this Shabbos [and all of those that follow] count!
Bi-ahava rabba,
Me
