SHABBOS - THE TWO LEVELS OF SHABBOS

Every Shabbos, observant Jews throughout the world retire from their hectic daily lifestyles and refrain from creative activity. However, it is very important to develop an accurate understanding of the true meaning of 'Shabbos rest'; what does it mean to properly 'observe' Shabbos in all aspects?

The commentaries note that proper observance of Shabbos involves far more than merely relaxing after a hard week. The earliest source of this idea is the Torah itself: "The Children of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to make the Sabbath an eternal covenant for their generations." Some commentaries explain that the instruction to 'make' the Shabbos means that a person needs to make an active effort in order to properly fulfill Shabbos . In this vein, they write that there are two aspects to observing Shabbos - one is refraining from forbidden melacha (creative activity),and the other is making Shabbos a positive spiritual experience.

The Ksav Sofer zt"l uses this approach to explain an enigmatic Medrash; the Medrash says; "When did Yisroel observe the Sabbath in a fitting manner? In the desert..." The Ksav Sofer asks what the Medrash means by the phrase, 'in a fitting manner. He explains, "it seems to me that the Mitzvo of Shabbos is to observe it for the sake of Hashem, because Hashem blessed the seventh day and made it Holy. And one should not keep the Shabbos and refrain from activity in order to rest from his work; one who rests from his work because he worked hard does not keep Shabbos in a fitting manner.." He continues that when the Jewish people were in the desert they effectively refrained from melacha the whole week because they did not need to work to support themselves. Therefore, their observance of Shabbos must have involved far more than merely refraining form melacha because that would not express any uniqueness about Shabbos itself. What did they do on Shabbos? He explains that that their shemiras Shabbos (Shabbos observance) represented an acknowledgement that Hashem created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. Accordingly, they focused on strengthening their emuna and relationship with Hashem.

In a similar vein, the Chofetz Chaim zt"l explains that their are two levels of shemiras Shabbos. We begin one of the famous Shabbos zemiros (songs), 'Kol Mekadesh Shevii', praising those who keep Shabbos, "All who sanctify the seventh day in a fitting manner; All who properly guard Shabbos from desecrating it." The Chofetz Chaim asks that this verse seems to repeat itself with its two descriptions of Shabbos observers. He answers that it is describing two levels of people with regard to their observing of Shabbos. The second part of the verse refers to people who are careful not to desecrate Shabbos by doing forbidden melacha, however they do not make it more Holy through their thought, speech and actions. The first part refers to those who do elevate the Shabbos in such a way, therefore they are described as those who sanctify Shabbos. The zemer continues, telling us that these people will receive great reward according to their actions. The Chofetz Chaim explains that both levels of people will receive great reward for keeping Shabbos, however the degree of reward varies according to the positive actions exerted to make it a Holy day.

The Radak explains further what it means to make Shabbos a more positive holy experience. He writes that there is a Mitzvo to eat good food on Shabbos in order to distinguish it from other days. He continues that "this will help him remember the Creation and that Hashem began the world from nothing and that He rested on the seventh day. From this [awareness] he will praise G-d and glorify Him in his mouth and heart, and his soul will feel pleasure on it (Shabbos)." The Radak tells us that the purpose of Shabbos is to remind us of Creation and thereby arouse ourselves to praise Hashem.

In this vein, my Rebbe, Rav Yitzchak Berkovits Shlita recommends devoting some time on Shabbos to contemplating the wonders of Creation and developing ones sense of Emuna and wonderment at the miracle of Creation. Without an active effort at such contemplation there is a significant risk that Shabbos will remain merely as a day to rest and recuperate when it is meant to fulfill so much more.

In a more general sense, it is very important to involve oneself in spiritual pursuits on Shabbos. Merely sleeping away the Shabbos is not a true fulfillment of this Holy day. Moreover, throughout the week, a person may excuse himself to some degree from learning Torah because he is busy supporting his family. However, on Shabbos there is no such excuse and it is essential to devote as much time as possible to learning on Shabbos. The Ben Ish Chai writes that every word of Torah learnt on Shabbos is rewarded one thousand times more than Torah learnt in the other days of the week!

Shabbos is many Jew's favorite day of the week - this should not simply be because one has more time to rest on Shabbos. Rather Shabbos gives us that unique opportunity to develop our relationship with Hashem. May we all merit to keep Shabbos in the most fitting manner.
　
　

PRAYING AGAINST THE YETSER HARA - SHELACH

The incident of the spies is one of the most well-known stories in the Torah and there is much discussion as to how such great men could commit such a terrible sin. Another very important aspect of this maaseh is the actions of the righteous men in their attempts to withstand joining in the sin. The Torah tells us that after sending the spies to Eretz Yisroel, Moshe renamed his closest student. Up till this point he was known as ‘Hoshea‘, but now Moshe added a ’yud’ to make the name ‘Yehoshua’. Rashi explains that Moshe davenned that Yehoshua would be saved from the nisayon posed by being with the meraglim - this tefilla manifested itself in adding a yud to his name. A few passukim later the Torah alludes to the fact that whilst in Eretz Yisroel, another of the spies, Kalev, separated from the group and went to Chevron to daven to be protected from the plan of the meraglim.
The Ben Ish Chai and Maskil leDavid both ask that these tefillas seem to contradict a well-known axiom, that ‘everything is in the hands of heaven except for fear of heaven.’ This means that the one thing that is completely in the control of man is the ability to choose between right and wrong. Davenning for things beyond our control, such as health and parnasa, can be highly beneficial because those things are totally dependent on Divine Providence. However, davenning to not sin would seem to have no benefit because Hashem does not determine whether we sin - that is completely in our hands. Consequently, it is very hard to understand why Moshe davenned for Yehoshua and why Kalev davenned for himself.to avoid sinning - whether they would sin or not was not dependent on Hashem, it was dependent on their own free will!
The Ben Ish Chai explains that there are two different ways by which a person can come to commit a sin. One is where he has total clarity that a certain act is forbidden but he nonetheless decides to do it with a clear recognition that he is sinning. The second is where his yetser hara clouds his judgment and persuades him that this act is permissible, enabling him to rationalize that he is not sinning at all. The principle that fear of heaven is completely in our own hands only applies to the first form of sinning, where a person is absolutely clear that acting in such a way constitutes a sin. In this area there is no benefit for a person to pray for Hashem to stop him committing this sin, it is purely in his own hands and Hashem cannot, so-to-speak, change his free will decision. However, this is not the case with regard to the second form of nisayon where a person may genuinely believe that he is not sinning. The main factor that causes him to sin in such a case is lack of clarity as to the correct course of action. This it not completely within one‘s free will. When a person wants to do the right thing but is at risk of being seduced by his yetser hara he can turn to Hashem to help him not be clouded by its rationalizations. Therefore, in this situation it is beneficial to pray to Hashem.
The Ben Ish Chai continues by explaining that Yehoshua and Kalev faced the second form of nisayon where tefilla can help. The meraglim were great people and did not deliberately speak badly about the land without justifying their behavior. The Ben Ish Chai offers a novel explanation of their motivations; they felt that if they would tell the Jewish people about the great prosperity of Eretz Yisroel then they would enter with impure motives of physical gain rather than purely as a result of following Hashem’s command. Consequently, they decided to speak badly about the land with the hope that the Jewish people would nevertheless want to enter the land, leshem shamayim and would thus gain far greater reward. However, in truth, this reasoning was really the work of the yetser hara’s attempts to prevent the people from entering the land at all, as indeed occurred. Moshe davenned for Yehoshua that he would be protected from such rationalizations that would make him believe that it was a mitzva to speak badly about the land! Similarly, Kalev prayed that he should maintain the clarity that would prevent him from falling into the clutches of the yetser hara.
We have seen that there are two ways in which a person can come to sin; either by knowingly sinning or by being duped by the yetser hara that he is not sinning at all. It seems that by far the more prevalent challenge is posed by the threat of being tricked into thinking that one is not sinning at all. The Nefesh HaChaim writes that a lack of clarity as to whether we are doing a mitzva or aveiro originates with the chet of Adam Harishon. Before the sin, Adam had total clarity as to what was good and evil, in his eyes, committing an aveira was as clearly damaging as putting one’s hand in fire. When he ate from the tree of knowledge of tov ve’ra he brought into himself a mix of good and evil. The consequence of this was that he lost that great clarity about the nature of evil, to the point that now, his yetser hara could now confuse him as to what is right and wrong. This is also the meaning behind that Gemara that states that when a person commits the same sin twice it becomes permissible in his eyes. Rav Yisroel Salanter was said to have commented that when he commits the sin a third time it becomes a mitzva in his eyes!
We have noted in the past the observation of the Baal HaTania that pertains to this point. He writes that if one were to offer a Torah observant Jew money to blatantly commit a sin, he will not do so because he intellectually understands that the spiritual damage done by the sin will outweigh any material gain. And yet a person sins without any monetary gain because he convinces himself that he is not actually sinning.
We learn from the explanation of the Ben Ish Chai that, with regard to the challenge of being tricked by the yetser hara, tefilla is a highly beneficial and necessary weapon. The yetser hara is constantly striving to deceive us into sinning and we must maintain a constant vigilance of being caught in the trap of rationalizations. As well as a consistent method of cheshbon hanefesh, the key tool to gaining clarity is to daven that Hashem help us open our eyes and enable us to follow the true path of Avodas Hashem.