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Book Excerpt from Shabbos in My Soul

Shabbos in My Soul: 70 Powerful Lessons to Illuminate the Shabbos Experience By Boruch Leff lluminate your Shabbos experience & appreciate its centrality to Judaism with powerful Shabbos stories, insights & inspirations to elevate your Shabbos and make it meaningful. Buy Shabbos in My Soul at a special online price at www.targum.com

BECOMING AN EREV-SHABBOS JEW

It was Friday. I called a friend of mine to say hello and wish him a good Shabbos. He picked up the receiver with a greeting I had never heard before: “Good erev Shabbos!”

Thinking that he must have said, “Good Shabbos,” I jokingly said to him, “You’re getting rid of me so soon? Shouldn’t you wish me ‘Good Shabbos’ at the end of our conversation - not at the beginning?”

“You didn’t hear me well,” came the reply. “I said, ‘Good erev Shabbos.’

Let me explain. I just heard a speech from my rabbi about how important it is to look forward to Shabbos. He said that today, thank G-d, we have many Sabbath-observant Jews...but how many erev-Shabbos Jews are there? Jews who passionately yearn for Shabbos throughout the week are hard to find. Yes, many observe the halachos of Shabbos with much devotion, but few strive to inject avodah shebaleiv, true service of the heart, into their shemiras Shabbos. This can only come from feeling great anticipation for Shabbos. At the very least, on erev Shabbos, we should be yearning for Shabbos.

My friend continued, “I decided that from now on I will refer to Friday as ‘erev Shabbos’ as often as I can. Perhaps then I will succeed in giving erev Shabbos the respect it deserves. And, by improving my appreciation for erev Shabbos, the excitement and passion for Shabbos itself will be attained much more easily.”

An erev-Shabbos Jew is what the Ohr HaChaim envisions in his explanation of “v’shomru bnei Yisrael es haShabbos - the Children of Israel should guard (shomru) the Shabbos.” The word shomer, says the Ohr HaChaim, does not only mean “guard,” but at times it means “anticipate greatly,” as in the verse “v’aviv shamar es hadavar,” Yaakov yearned for Yosef’s dreams to come true.

Bnei Yisrael must anticipate and yearn for Shabbos: v’shomru bnei Yisrael es haShabbos.

An ‘erev-Shabbos Jew’ is what the Ba’al HaTurim had in mind in a letter to his children:

All agricultural work, the plowing and planting is done in order to bring forth fruit. Similarly, all that a person does to take care of his body is done in order to sustain the soul’s existence in this world. The daily fruit of the soul are the times of prayer, and the weekly fruit of the soul is Shabbos.

The Ba’al HaTurim is describing the experience of Shabbos as the ultimate goal for all activities of the week. The erev-Shabbos Jew knows and lives this ideal.

An erev-Shabbos Jew, a Jew who fervently yearns for Shabbos.

How can one reach such a level?

Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky, zt”l, was known to relate this thought.

Reminders of Shabbos

One method to attain this spiritual level is to remind oneself of Shabbos as much as possible. The Chafetz Chaim writes that even when one refers to an event that took place in the previous week he should say, “Before Shabbos, on Thursday...” instead of just saying, “last Thursday,” in order to mention Shabbos. He also writes that there was a certain Torah giant who would somehow manage to relate the topic of Shabbos to his regular Gemara shiur, so that he would fulfill the mitzvah to remember Shabbos every day.

Of course, in order to become erev-Shabbos Jews we need to understand the value and significance of erev Shabbos in its own right. Minhag Yisrael Torah cites Mishmeres Shalom who says that it is proper to eat a little meat on erev Shabbos, because the sanctity of Shabbos is me’urav, combined with, and spills into erev Shabbos. Hence, the name erev, meaning “mixed.”

In addition, erev Shabbos is similar to erev Yom Kippur, because the Gemara states, “Whoever observes Shabbos properly is forgiven for his sins, even if his sins include idol worship.” Just like there is a mitzvah to eat on erev Yom Kippur, erev Shabbos has a similar feature. Now, it is certainly not a halachic obligation to eat meat or even more than our usual fill on erev Shabbos. In fact, one must be careful not to overeat in order to have an appetite for the se’udah on Friday night, but the sources cited do give us a perspective on the prominence that erev Shabbos should be accorded.

Learning from Our Sages

Perhaps the most important area to concentrate on when try ing to become an erev-Shabbos Jew is how to use our time and set our schedules on erev Shabbos itself. Let us take a peek at how some of our Torah giants arranged their erev Shabbos:

• Rav Yechezkel Abramsky would make sure to have his table set for Shabbos already on Friday morning.

• Rav Mordechai Sharabi would sit down to learn the weekly parashah right after davening on Friday morning. He would then go to buy fresh challos, and then immerse in the mikveh. He would also avoid speaking about mundane matters throughout erev Shabbos.

• The Netziv, the Chafetz Chaim, Rav Elya Lopian, and the Steipler Gaon, among others, were all known to immerse themselves in a mikveh on erev Shabbos.

• The Maggid of Kelm, Rav Moshe Yitzchak HaDarshan, and the Brisker Rav, Rav Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchek, would both treat chatzos (halachic midday) as if it were the time at which Shabbos began. From then on, they would not contemplate worldly matters, and the spirit of Shabbos permeated their homes.

• Rav Chaim Ozer would never sit and judge cases on Friday afternoon. The Steipler Gaon would not write on Friday afternoon.

• Rav Aryeh Levin would not open letters that he received on Friday afternoon, lest there be some information in the letters that might worry him over Shabbos.

It is true that we can’t fully emulate these Torah leaders.We have jobs and responsibilities on erev Shabbos that preclude us from having the freedom to spend all day involved in spirituality. But perhaps we can muster the strength to accept Shabbos a half hour earlier than regular candle lighting time or, at the very least, ten minutes earlier.

Rav Yaakov Weinberg, zt”l, rosh yeshivah of Ner Yisrael, Baltimore, would often advise people to accept Shabbos upon themselves ten minutes before candle lighting time. In this way, when Shabbos comes in we are in a calm state of mind, rather than in a frenzy.

Perhaps we can start taking care of all Shabbos preparations as soon as possible, rather than waiting until the Friday afternoon rush. Maybe we can eliminate our procrastination, at least when it comes to erev Shabbos. Then, we would have time to sit and learn a little before Shabbos or read stories to our kids. People who have begun arranging their erev Shabbos schedules in this fashion have testified to the sanctity they feel when Shabbos comes in.

By taking steps toward a meaningful erev Shabbos, by becoming erev-Shabbos Jews, we set the stage for a powerful and meaningful Shabbos.

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