2 comments
- N
N SMay 16, 2025
So, I think one of the lessons is that that the more good work one does during the week, the more one will appreciate the resting of Shabbos. Also, Shabbos can be a special time to look back and realize what one has done. But this is not just seeing the actual work – i.e. moving items from point A to point B, but like Rabbi Scheller said, it is deeper, that you realize what you accomplished; it was a creation of sorts. Look deeper and see how all the effort you put in during the week will benefit many people and make them happy. If you built a house, it is not just the beams and the paycheck that you receive – which is of course nice, and it is mitzvah to earn a parnassa (livelihood), but think about the people who will live there, and how much they will benefit from it. Even though you are getting paid, it is still mitzvah. Rav Pam would thank the musicians after a simcha and tell them what great mitzvah they are doing of making the baalei simcha happy. Once, a musician asked ‘rebbi, it is my parnassa?!’ Rav Pam answered that even so, you get the mitzvah. You need to be paid to earn a living, but the mitzvah you still have. In other words, one is not selling the mitzvah away by getting paid. This thought process can also be used for Ahavas Yisroel – love of fellow Jews, and respect for all people. We can look at another person as a random Joe, or see deeper and see how much good he is doing and what he means to others. It makes a major difference! This is something we hear much about now during sefira. (The point about seeing deeper meaning in one’s actions and creations is discussed in the seforim. Chazal says that if Adam Harishon had not eaten from the Eitz Hadaas before Shabbos, it would have been a mitzvah for him to press the grapes and make kiddush on them that Friday Night. (According to this explanation, the Eitz Hadaas was a grapevine.) There is much discussion about how we see from this that the entire sin was eating from it during the week. One explanation can be that on Shabbos, when we stop and rest from work, we can allow ourselves to have a deeper understanding of our actions, and that one will have much satisfaction and happiness from that. And indeed, one requires that; if one just works and works without any deeper understanding, he will get depressed and burnt out. Shabbos is not just a day of rest per se’ – which is something that even the Gentiles understand is important to do, but it is to have a deeper understanding of the world and life, and indeed, of what one is accomplishing in Hashem’s world; how he is part of the big picture, and has accomplished much, and will continue to do so. This is so important, to the degree that we can say that if one does not take the time to have these thoughts on Shabbos, he may actually be violating Shabbos! The Chofetz Chayim says that one who just doesn’t do work on Shabbos but does not make it into a special day, has missed the main point of Shabbos and is essentially violating it! Shabbos was meant to be made holy and special, and in all the spiritual, emotional and physical ways we do – which brings these all together!)
- t
thechill68@gmail.comMay 16, 2025
The video was filmed during the weekday. :) Hope you enjoy!
