Ten Minutes of Meaning (Part 94): Shabbos is a Character Trait, Not Calendar Day - Mesillas Yesharim

good morning boker tov and welcome back to our 10 minutes of meaning with great gratitude to our sponsors of the series for the year our dear friends kanye lenny grinstein and memorial county's father mr aaron tambour our own ben yitzhak our learning should be eloy nishma so we are on the 11th chapter of messieurs has been describing to us the formula for how to live our best lives how to live our best selves that's what music is all about rapunzel said here is a 12-step program master it go step by step continue to improve and be committed to each of these qualities and character traits and you will live your best self you will make your greatest contribution to this world you will find the greatest meaning in this world beginning with zahir is mindfulness caution being present in every thought speech and action zurich's alacrity zeal enthusiasm high energy apply yourself set goals and make resolutions how to achieve them and then this third attribute the third quality which is nikhias can't possibly go through every single area of life but he does identify what he says are central and core areas that if we can purge the temptation from ourselves if we can master and discipline and regulate our lives we can be our best selves and he's gone through several examples in the area of eating in the area of honesty in the area of truthfulness in the area of promiscuity in the area of competitiveness in the area he's gone through one by one all of these different areas to tell us that if we observe the torah's prescription for how to live our lives we can live our best selves which brings us up to shabbos vinegar now i wouldn't think that shabbos would be equality or character trait till now he's been talking about not to be vulgar promiscuous not to tell a lie to always tell the truth he's been talking about giving out good advice eating habits to maintain a healthy and good healthy living shabbos and yantif is a law isn't it aren't they days on the calendar do they really belong within this list of qualities of trying to perfect ourselves and the answer is yes chavez and yantv are so much more than days on the calendar and there's so much more than a system of rigid laws that tell us how to live on those uh during those time periods shabbos and yotif are a philosophy we're entering a space what the sanctuary was in space the shabbos is in time chavez is a sanctuary in time and we have to truly enter it immerse ourselves in it marinate there absolutely we say it friday night which means the halachus of shabbas there are many the mishna brewer in his introduction to the third volume of mission bureau which is shabbos says you cannot possibly keep shabb's live shabbos if you don't know the laws of shabbos the laws of shabbos are intricate and detailed they're complex and they are difficult and unless you immerse yourself in their study you can't possibly know how do you separate the jelly beans how do you eat the food how do you make a tea how do you do all the things in the different areas and components of jewish life an shabbos bafila devre hashbust even rabbinic lawful medivh the rabbinic laws of shabbos are important because the boundaries that were placed there and the rabbinic laws for example saying kiddush on a cup of wine is a rabbinical kirish bitswaram you could say kiddish with words in order to recite kirishmita araisa but kereshana kappa is a dirabana and so many other durabanans even though they are they are essential they're core they're critically important don't dismiss and don't minimize rabbinic laws rabbinic laws also form the foundation the backbone of the jewish life and living that we've come to know beulah says that's not my point there are many many laws or again lived in the 1700s lived a long time ago long before the time and already in his time there were compendiums there were encyclopedias that clearly organized and clearly communicated the intricate detailed laws of shabbos you want to know the laws go learn the law book but that's not what he's talking about it's not why he's including shabbos and yantif in a list of character traits towards living our best selves towards living our most perfect selves the reason he includes shabbos and yantev is they allow us to disconnect to rediscover who we are to re-center and recalibrate our lives they allow us to have a taste of the world to come a place of serenity tranquility and peace these are all critical to our mental spiritual emotional well-being and health this is not just the list of actions or behaviors these are not just days on the calendar but they're part of our very personality to become a shabbos jew we mentioned last night in the last installment of our series on living your best selves that the zohar the urushami described that the righteous the entire week long you are able to achieve an attitude of philosophy a personality of shabbos the whole week just like on shabbos from sundown on friday until night fall on moteshabas i disconnect from the noise and the chaos and the to-do lists and the obligation and the ruthless tasks of this world i'm not focused on the data and the pandemic and the election i've disconnected i'm tasting a world to come i'm tasting a world of of manuhish of peace of peace of mind of rest of rest for my soul and rest for my body and rest in every which way i'm learning and singing and playing and laughing so there are people that are holy jews who are able to achieve an attitude of philosophy a personality of shabbos not only on the weekends but the whole week long and i said then i'll say again now if you've met greatness if you meet sadiq righteous men and women then you know that even though they have the world on their shoulders they have an enormous amount to do they're calm and they're peaceful they're serene they're focused on whatever's in front of them they're able to live shabbos not only on shabbos but they're able to live what is the goal of shabbos the entire league wong o mashiko allah it's very hard for many for the masses says that is to conform to the prohibition that you're not out of work that you can't talk business some people confuse work confuse what they do for a living with living and if you're confused between what you do for a living and living then it's really hard to turn it off on shabbos because what you do for a living defines you it's who you are it's your very identity so how do you disconnect how do you unplug how do you turn that off on shabbos you're still wheeling and dealing you're still negotiating you're still networking and making connection you're always in sales mode abc always be closing so your whole life you're closing you're selling of your entire life you're networking if your entire life you're trying to advance your business goals and identity and agenda then how do you turn that off for shambhas already says the passage from your affairs by refraining from your wants don't pursue your you want a bigger inch screen you want a nicer tesla you want a bigger house you are more in your bank account you want to invest in more things shabba is not the time and vida berdoth whatever you can't do on chabas you shouldn't talk about on shabbos you can't invest you can't win a deal you can't make a business you can't transact you can't buy so if you can't do it on shabbos don't talk about it on shabbos why would you want to carry that into shabbos on the one hand some are invigorated they love what they do they love the work they love the negotiation it's amazing and that's a beautiful life to live but on the other hand it comes with great responsibility and great anxiety and great worry why would you want to bring that into the holy shabbos you are forbidden from looking into your uh portfolio from checking your your books on shabbos it's not for shabbos shabbos you transcend you rise above shabbos you disconnect it'll all be there waiting after abdullah it'll all be there after the fact 25 hours you get reprieve who wouldn't want it who wouldn't want it you're not allowed to even be planning for after shabbos you can't say i'm going to do this tomorrow it's a big sale i'm going to buy this tomorrow i'm going to invest in this tomorrow i'm going to sell that tomorrow i'm going to move that tomorrow that totally diminishes and demeans it compromises and corrupts your sense of shabbos shabbos is the greatest gift he didn't give it to the rest of the world hashem only gave it to us shabbos is the spice that makes everything taste better shabbos is what rejuvenates our soul it recalibrates our moral compass it gives us back our set of priorities but in order to achieve it it's not just observing the laws you could abstain from all 39 categories of creative labor and still yet not have that kept the shabbos with shamrobine israel you have to be a shomer shabbis means don't do beaure and lush and bishop to be a shomer shabbos means don't violate the laws some but if you want ladora some if you want the future generations to embrace shabbos the way you do then shabbos it's not enough to observe the detailed laws of shabbos la sauce you have to make shabbos make shabbos kashmak make shabbas we're not talking about finals or tests or reopening of school we're not talking about data and pandemic we're not talking about elections in stock market we're not talking about business we're not talking about the things that introduce stress anxiety worry debate contentiousness we're talking about shabbos so let's make shabbos fun let's sing let's share inspiration and motivation let's tell stories let's play games let's hop a schluff let's read let's do the shabbos that let's do on shabbos what gives us back our soul if we want ledot osama if we want the future generations to embrace and observe a rich shabbos then it's not just vishamru you can't just observe and keep shabbos but we have to craft and mold and create the sense of shabbos he says i specifically chose the things that people struggle the most to observe what we look at how we speak telling the truth shabbos avoiding these topics um from here we can extrapolate and apply to all the other areas of jewish life because everything that hashem told us has many corollaries and there are many subcategories some are very strict and stringent and some are some are less um but if you want to achieve this quality the third quality in our formula for perfection then you have to learn to be a knucky learn to not be struggling not be tempted but rather learn to purge it create a shabbos where that becomes your standard and default sense of shabbos create a way of speaking that you don't exaggerate or lie create a way of living that you don't look at and you're not tempted by it's actually a naked mikulam the tahurami our goal is to be clean and pure from all of them we've achieved this if you think it's impossible and how can we do it i'll tell you some of us have achieved it in certain areas of our life i have never barak hashem lee ayan hara i've never in my life been tempted by non-kosher by a cheeseburger by a piece of pork by novella bacon looks pretty good i'll be honest but i've never reached for it i've never thought of having any of it why it's the way i was raised i never tasted it in my life i'm not tempted by it i don't struggle it i'm able to walk right by it it's not something there's a sense of the kiss from it i'm lucky from the vela it's just not in my it it's not baba so what we've achieved in certain areas of our life we are able to achieve in others if we work on it and we're mindful of it and with the reasons we pursue it we create goals and resolutions to achieve it then we can identify other areas of our life that it's not that i do the right thing in the end but it took a struggle to get there where we could overcome and eliminate even the struggle nikias a sense of purity a sense of innocence and we'll continue to please god with this next week we continue at 8 45 with living with the moon and 9 o'clock tonight we're going again we're going back behind the bema this week's special guest of judah michelle very inspiring my dear friend of judah nine o'clock tonight if you're on youtube please like uh subscribe our channel see everybody back in about 15 minutes thank you again to the grimsteins stay happy stay healthy and stay home