The following is a brief summary of part of Rabbi Frand's Teshuva Drasha which was broadcast this week. I have attempted to reproduce these thoughts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand. [Ed Note - Blogger's spell check was not working, so please excuse typos which I missed].
Rabbi Frand began by talking about recidivism -- that people may do teshuva and then slip back later. Later, when we start the teshuva process anew, we will get a little voice saying why bother starting teshuva if by sukkos we will already be backsliding.
Rabbi Frand then gave a suggestion as to how to be able to keep our teshuva - start keeping shabbos. But wait, aren't we shomrei shabbos and how will this help since it has not stopped us from backsliding. Also - what is the connection between shabbos and teshuva?
Rabbi Frand then told a story about a friend who was involved in five car accidents over a period of time. The insurance company wanted to drop them from the policy. The insurance agent then said to the company - four of the five were not their fault don't drop them. The insurance company said that they had "bad karma."
The people then went to Rabbi Weinberg and asked about the accidents. He decided that the accidents must be a form of skeela - a punishment. Rabbi Weinberg asked about the goings on in the house. He was told that erev shabbos they were running around until the last minute. Rabbi Weinberg said it must be for chillul shabbos. Not that they were violating shabbos, but the running around and accepting shabbos at the last moment was problematic. Rabbi Weinberg told them to accept shabbos 1/2 hour early and to sit and learn during the time. The accidents stopped. The insurance agent asked to have them reinstated as the problem had been "a religious issue." The company agreed.
Rabbi Frand then mentioned a Gemara in Shabbos where R' Yochanan says that if the Jews keep two shabbosim k'hilchasan the moshiach will come. However, the Talmud Yerushalmi on Taanis contains a statement from R' Levi - if the Jews keep one shabbos k'tikna the moshiach would come.
How can we reconcile the two statements? The Gemara in Shabbos says keep the shabbos according to the halachos of what can or cannot be done for two weeks and the moshiach will come. But if (like the Yerushalmi) we keep a perfect shabbos - it will only take one shabbos.
In sefer Beraishis the chumash tells the story of Kayin's punishment for killing hevel. Hashem tells him na v'nad you will be banished but with a sign, and then Kayin leaves Hashem. The Medrash says that on the way out, Kayin bumps into Adam. Adam asks where are you coming from? Kayin answers that he had just spoken with Hashem and had done teshuva and I made a deal with Hashem. Adam hits his forehead and says I did not know that teshuva had this power. Adam then went and wrote the perek of Tehilim - Mizmor Shir L'Yom HaShabbas.
Rabbi Frand then asked three questions about this medrash: (1) did Adam not know about teshuva? (2) How does one make a deal with Hashem and (3) What is the connection with shabbos?
The Nesivos Shalom (Slonover Rav) explains that Kayin was afraid for his soul - that Hashem was banishing him into the physical world - what will happen to my neshoma? When Kayin asks - everyone who finds me will kill me - he means that his soul will be vulnerable from all the physical temptations of this world. Hashem answers - I will give you a lifeline - and He gives Kayin an Os (sign).
The Medrash Tanchuma notes that something else is an Os - Shabbos is an Os for the Jews showing their bond with Hashem. The shabbos Os will be what can save your soul from the world, Kayin is told. Adam knew about teshuva, but he did not realize that it had the strength to fix the soul. This was the deal cut between Kayin and Hashem -- that he had to survive the week and its temptations and then shabbos would come and fix his soul.
Rabbi Frand mentioned that we all have a neshoma which came from the kisei HaKavod. Now, our souls are in this world - the land of the physical. But we have the shabbos which can fix the damage caused by this world.
Rabbi Frand then said that perhaps this is what the gemara meant by saying that shabbos was equal to all the mitzvos. Indeed a different gemara states that Hashem said to Moshe I have a present in My treasure house and shabbos is its name. Go and tell the Jews the power of shabbos.
Rabbi Frand then told a story about a woman in Irvine, California. She attended the small shul where a colleague of Rabbi Frand's was the Rabbi. This woman was a true giyores who had even studied in Israel. She would come every shabbos afternoon to the shalosh seudos in the shul and when they got to the line in the yedid nefesh song - "my soul is sick for your love" the woman would cry. Why? Because her soul knew that in a matter of half an hour it would be forced to reenter the physical world. Thus she wanted the soul to be healed by shabbos, as the next line in the song is kel na refa na lah - she wanted her soul to be healed as well.
Rabbi Frand then told a story from R' Soloveichik's prior teshuva derasha. The Rav said that in his town in Europe there was Mojitz shteeble where they would sing songs for long periods of time at shalosh seudos. The Rav recalls that someone used to sing long and loud and fervently. The man then approached the Rav and asked him do you recognize me? The man said to the Rav - I am Yankel the Trugger (Porter). The Rav explained that he did not recognize him as all week long he was Yankel the Porter, but now he looked like Yankel the Prince. The Rav asked once, at a time well after shabbos was over - when will we daven maariv? Yankel responded - do you really want the week that badly?
Rabbi Frand then made reference to the old movie theatres where they would start the movie with a newsreel. In 1933 they showed a news reel which included the wedding of the daughter of the Munkatcher Rav. The footage showed the pagentry and elegance and included a message from the Rebbi, given to the Jews of America. He told them keep the shabbos - and not just to go regularly to shul and then out to work. This will keep you safe.
Rabbi Frand then said that although he is a misnaged and has been in a litvish yeshiva for 45 years and puts on tefillin with a bracha on chol hamoed and eats gebruchtz, he is jealous of the way chasidim keep shabbos. He made specific references to those in New Square in NY or Belz in Israel. And while we don't need to be like them in order to keep shabbos properly, all that we can do we should do, so that our souls will be in better shape before next Yom Kippur.
How do we improve our shabbos - its knowing that shabbos is more than just sleeping, eating and praying. They have a program for ba'alei teshuva - "turn Friday Night into Shabbos." We need a program "turn Shabbos into Shabbos." The problem is that shabbos comes every week so we take it for granted.
Rabbi Frand then told a story from a Rabbi Bender. (Rabbi Frand stated parenthetically that he was jealous of Rabbi Bender and Rabbi Wein who always meet people while travelling and hear interesting stories. Rabbi Frand said he has been travelling a lot recently, but no stories other than someone telling him he was wearing a "heck of a big hat"). Rabbi Bender was travelling on a plane and was learning. A Roman Catholic from Topeka, Kansas came over to talk to him and asked - Do you have shabbos? Where the wife dresses in her finest clothes and and the best dishes are served and singing abounds? Why did he ask? Because this man had seen a shabbos by a neighbor and wanted to know if others had one like that as well.
So how does one fix their shabbos? If you want to do a better mitzva you need to learn about it and prepare for it. This can include coming to shul a little early, not talking about week day type things on shabbos, not reading chol publications, not saying "if it weren't shabbos..." and not davening at the first minyan which rushes to end shabbos the earliest.
I will b'n attempt to summarize more of the derasha in another post over the next few days.
If you have seen this post being carried on another site such as JBlog, please feel free to click here to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!
No comments:
Post a Comment