Raza deShabbos: Uniting Body and Soul in a Private Bond with Hashem

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. This week's parsha, Parshas Ki Sisa, is a parsha of Shabbos. The Rabbeinu Shleilam is mitzaveh Klal Yisrael, hitnam Shabbos, to keep and watch the halachos of Shabbos. Vayomer Hashem el Moshe leimor, v'atah daber el Bnei Yisrael leimor, ach es Shabsosai tishmoru, ki os hi beini uveinichem l'doroseichem, ladaas ki Ani Hashem mekadishchem. So Shabbos is ladaas, to know, as the Eibishter is mekadesh Klal Yisrael, ki Ani Hashem mekadishchem. It's interesting, as the emes, we find other ta'amim in the pesukim for Shabbos. Here it says, ki Ani Hashem mekadishchem, ladaas, that this is what Shabbos stands for. You look at the first dibros, the Luchos Rishonos, there it gives a whole different reason: Ki sheshes yamim asah Hashem es hashamayim v'es haaretz, brias haolam. And then we find a third reason in the Dibros Acharonos, V'zacharta ki eved hayisa b'Mitzrayim. So which one is it, rabosai? Is it the dibros Rishonos, ki sheshes yamim asah Hashem? Is it like the dibur hachronis vezocharta ki eved hayisa? All the mefarshim speak about it. I saw in the sefer Zera Shimshon. It's a very chashuve sefer. For the Fridiker Chidda talks about the Zera Shimshon. Ah, hamekubal Eloki. And he has a arichus to explain why in the dibros rishaines, it talks about sheishes yamim asah Hashem, and in the dibros ha'achronis it speaks about v'zacharta ki eved hayisa. But he doesn't ask why here it says ladaas ki Ani Hashem mekadishchem. It doesn't touch on that shaila. It's not the shaila. Is it aleph, sheishes yamim? Is it ki Ani, ladaas ki Ani Hashem mekadishchem? Or is Shabbos, v'zacharta ki eved hayisa? Habeisai, I would like to give a mahalach, share with you something, a gedank that I thought, and it's a yesod of understanding Shabbos. So today we'll talk, vasi Shabbos, habeisai. So I know not everybody, especially this bais medrash is Ashkenaz, so you might not even know these words, so I'll acquaint you with them. It's a Zohar that Nusach Sefard says. Nusach Sefard Friday night uses an interesting Zohar before Ma'ariv. It's called kegavna. I imagine everybody more or less knows what I'm talking about. What is the nusach of kegavna? The inun misyachdin l'eila b'echad. And it talks about raza d'Shabbos, the secret of Shabbos. Kegav, raza d'Shabbos, a Zohar, the secret of Shabbos. Echad and echad and echad and echad. Chassan. What is the big secret of Shabbos? And what does it have to do with echad? Now, of course, anybody who ever delved into this Zohar, it's great inyanim there. We're simple people, at least I am. On a pashut pshat, simple, how are we to understand—and when we, chas v'shalom, and I don't mean that in a facetious way, we end up in a later minyan, okay, it can happen, okay. So you say, kegavna. What is kegavna? What does it mean? What is the significance? Rabosai, let me tell you over two pilei ploim dike Rabbeinu Bechaye. Pilei ploim, mamash pele. Rabbeinu Bechaye, in this week's parsha, talks about Shabbos, Vayechulu Shabbos. Zogt Rabbeinu Bechaye, sof dvarav, at the end of his shmues, Ki sheishes yamim asah Hashem es hashamayim v'es haaretz, and this is os hi beini uvein Bnei Yisrael. What does it mean, beini uvein Bnei Yisrael?

What is an eis? What does it mean? It's a parsha, it's a bris, it's a treaty. Zogt Rabbeinu Bechaye, it means something a little bit different. He says it means that it's a nistar b'tzinah. It's something private. The word ois hi does not mean a bris, but fakert. Ois means a secret, a private secret, something, a hushed secret between me and Klal Yisrael. Ki hamelech shehu metzaveh el b'no el avdo. When a melech speaks to his son, he's not going to talk things that anybody else knows, but he'll be meramez him, and the son already knows, Oh, oh, you mean that, right? La'avdei anemah, tizkor hadvarim asher beini uveinecha, hinei heim nistarim. Ein ne'emarim ela mipeh al peh, v'lo nitnu li'kasev. We're not even going to write it, you hear? It's just, gedankten, chayimel. Oh, yeah, yeah, tatech, I know what you're talking about, you hear? Oisi. U'mizeh darshu Chazal b'Maseches Beitzah tezayin amud beis: Shimon ben Yochai, kol mitzvah shenasan HaKadosh Baruch Hu l'Yisrael, nosan lahem b'faresya, chutz min haShabbos. It's a mefurash Gemara. The Ribbono Shel Olam gave us Shabbos b'tzinah. Fregt der kasha: What? V'eich nitmitzvas Shabbos... What do you mean? Look at the Aseres HaDibros. If you look at the Aseres HaDibros, you'll notice zachor Yom HaShabbos l'kadsho. What? What's the Gemara? ... So what's the pshat? אבל כיוונו חכמים על ענין הנסתר שבמצוות השבת. There's two parts to Shabbos, you see. There's the nigleh part of Shabbos, and then there's the secrets of Shabbos, the private part of Shabbos. כי הוא הניתן בצינעא, ולכך הזכיר לשון ביני וביניכם. So it's only for the elite, only for the certain VIP, only given mention, ... No? Let me tell you over another Rabbeinu Bechaye in Parshas Vayakhel. Zogt Rabbeinu Bechaye, again we have Vayakhel Moshe, ... and he tells them, Keep Shabbos. Fregt der Rabbeinu Bechaye, it's interesting, there he just says, Keep the Shabbos. It's very bland, the tzivui: Keep Shabbos. ... A taam for Shabbos. Why? So the answer is Vayakhel. Vayakhel Moshe, he gathered everyone together. ... to come and tell children, women, right? ... Al כן נראה לי שנרמז לנו בכאן שאין לגלות עניינים נסתרים בהמון. From here, he says, we learn out. That you can't give big inyonim b'rabim, b'hamon. You can't do that. ולקך הזכיל למעלה חשבסוי תשמרו, שהם רמז לזכור ושמור, ואמרו שמרתם את השבת ולא אמר יום השבת. Notice, it doesn't say, זכור ושמרתם את השבת, right? Does it say, שמרתם את יום השבת? No. ושמרתם את השבת. That's a code word, says Rabbeinu Bechaye. Because it's not about the yom of the Shabbos; it's about the... Rabbeinu Bechaye. ולא אמר... gedenk, gedenk this yom, לפי שהוא בשבתו עליונה. We're talking about a whole different Shabbos. It's a ganz andere Shabbos we're talking about. וכן, ושמרו בני ישראל — does it say, ושמרו בני ישראל את יום השבת? את השבת. כמו שאמרתי שם, that there's geder in inyonim in Shabbos. So they kept not just the day of Shabbos, but they kept the Shabbos. Inyonim...

...נכללים במצוות שבת, נצטווה משה מפי הקדוש ברוך הוא לגלותם ליחידי ישראל. Only certain people were allowed into the havanah of what Shabbos is all about. ולקח חיזק שם דאבל בני ישראל, שידיעו בנגלה ובנסתר, אבל כאן משה דיבר בממון. Here he speaks to the amon. Therefore it's only b'remez, b'derech ketzarah: keep the Shabbos. Yeah, a ta'maiseh. There's a secret to Shabbos, and that's what the Zohar means: רזא דשבת. Shabbos is a secret thing. רזא דשבת. I beg your pardon, what is רזא דשבת? I'll tell you the pshat, what I think, for us pshutei am. You see, Rabbeinu Bechaye tells us that it's not for everyone, so for me for sure not. I don't think I'm fit to go into the secrets, the yesodos of Shabbos. אבל למעשה, what does it mean, רזא דשבת? It's רזא דאחד. Pshat. I'll tell you like this, rabosai. B'emes, a person is made out of basar v'dam, gashmi, tachanat adam, tachan mensch. How is it possible for a person to be mischaber himself with such kedushah which has kedushas haShabbos? How does such a thing happen? The chapela. Chapela thing. A mensch, a ben adam, you hear, when they talk about the goyim... The tzurah that he looked on Shabbos, epes k'malach elokim. Sefarim always talk about dereisah tzaddikim. They almost didn't look human on Shabbos. Went into another world. What's the pshat? I'll explain to you like this. Ki ois hi beini uveineichem. It's a special os between Klal Yisrael and the Ribono Shel Olam that they could become echad, where the guf, the person, the regular person, mitamal kum Shabbos v'hoyta anander briyah. He becomes a completely different metzius. He's mischaber himself with the Ribono Shel Olam. This is ois hi beini uveineichem, is exactly the raza d'echad, the secret of one, which we'll soon explain a little bit better. And mimeila, u'fi zeh understand something very interesting. The Torah tells us what is Shabbos: Ki sheishes yamim asah Hashem es hashamayim v'es haaretz. There's a world out there. And then in the Dibros Acharonis it says, Vezacharta ki eved hayisa. Remember what happened in Mitzrayim. Tell me, rabosai, in Mitzrayim, did they hear and see an olam hateva? Or that they saw that that Olam HaTeva could turn into a world where you see Klal b'emunah, Zeh Keili v'anveihu. I thought about it for a long time after they said. Sheishes yamim asah Hashem es hashamayim v'es haaretz, you walk out. But then all of a sudden, Mitzrayim taught us something very interesting, and that is: remember what happened in Mitzrayim. Remember what happened in Mitzrayim at the Ribono Shel Olam. Turn that sheishes yamim asah Hashem es hashamayim v'es haaretz, and He turned it into a world where every teva you saw, Zeh Keili v'anveihu, the Ribono Shel Olam. And the chibur was unbelievable. Raah shifchah al hayam, mah shelo raah Yechezkel ben Buzi. You know what that means? That a shifchah was able to see clearly that this is the Ribono Shel Olam. This was Kriyas Yam Suf. This was Yetzias Mitzrayim. So the pasuk is telling us Shabbos is the commemoration of both.

And if you look at the Rishonim, rabosai, the Rishonim speak that what is the chiluk between zachor and shamor? Why do we have zachor v'shamor, and it's b'dibur echad, nemru? The Rashbam speaks, and many others, everybody knows the famous—what is zachor v'shamor? But I found an interesting Abarbanel. The Abarbanel explains that there's two parts to Shabbos, and I'll explain to you that it's actually meduyak in the pasuk: Ach es Shabsosai tishmoru. The double lashon, and all the mefarshim talk about it. It should say, Ach es haShabbos tishmor. What's Shabsosai? There are two avenues to Shabbos, says the Abarbanel. There's two parts to the Shabbos. There's the zachor part, and there's the shamor part. And each one has its own point, its own lesson, its own avodah. Shamor is not to do melachah. We know that. Zachor is to remember. Says Abarbanel, zachor, what should I remember? I have to remember that Hashem created the world. That's zachor. What's shamor? Now listen to the gevaldige Abarbanel. Shamor means don't do any melachah. And why shouldn't I do any melachah? Because like this I could sit in the beis medrash all day and be mischaben myself to the Ribono Shel Olam, to be mischaben myself to the Ribono Shel Olam. To prepare myself, take in the Shabbos, you hear? So there's a zecher, there's a chelek of zecher. It's in this week's parsha, the Abarbanel, to remember, avad maaseh Bereishis, the Rabbeinu Shleim created the world. But then there's a shomer mimelacha, k'dei that the Yid should be able to connect with the Rabbeinu Shleim through Torah and avodah. And he says, and that is the neshama yeseira that we talk about. Chazal talk about a neshama yeseira, vayavd hanefesh. I've told you many times, it's interesting, the neshama yeseira is learned from a pasuk, vayavd hanefesh, when it leaves. Choiref, if you want to talk about the neshama yeseira, teach me when it comes. What's vayavd hanefesh? I'm atzei Shabbos. Va'yi nafash. It's a Gemara in Beitzah. Va'yi nafash means, vai, woe of the nefesh, that the nefesh left me. So why don't we have it as a limud in the beginning? Why do I have to learn it, vayavd hanefesh, when it leaves, when the Rabbeinu Shleim takes it back? That's a very big lesson in ruchniyus, rabosai. You know, we start to notice, unfortunately, we start to notice when we don't have it. Vayavd hanefesh. Instead of remembering and realizing it when it comes, it takes the departure of it, the loss of it, and then we realize that we have it. Vayavd hanefesh. But Rashi has an interesting chiddush. He says, what is the neshama, you say? The lechol, the lishtois. An artery could drink and he could eat as much as he wants, and he won't get kutz. He won't get too much. There's never too much. There's always room, as my kids always say. There's always room on Shabbos. My kids told me this klal. You know, you're laughing. My great uncle, Reb Zalman Sorotzkin, the Chassidic Kodesh Livracha, writes that there's no such a thing as gaining weight on Shabbos. There's Chazal, vayovd hanefesh, and everybody's laughing because for some reason the scale seems to say otherwise after Shabbos. And the teretz is maybe you have to eat it for the right reasons, you know. Eat, taka, as they say, to be me'aden the Shabbos, then I could hear that it doesn't have a physical effect on you. But if you're doing it l'sa'din atzmecha, maybe. But then again, I don't want to get involved. Weight Watchers, the wives are going to be upset at me. What are you coming, giving my husbands a free pass to eat whatever they want on Shabbos? But it's Reb Zalman in the sefer. It's a famous shtikel Torah from Reb Zalman. Okay. Either way, Rashi seems to learn has something to do with eating. Isn't it interesting?

Interesting that a nefesh and a neshama yeseira is connected to extra eating. That's a little bit interesting. Chasad demaiseh, neh? The nefesh, the neshama yeseira, it's about eating, more eating. So this HaBarbenel seems to say that the nefesh means that the nefesh of a Yid becomes satisfied on Shabbos because he's learning and he's davening. And I believe what he means to say is that it's connecting to the Ribono Shel Olam. That is what the Yiddishe nefesh is searching for. And so, the nefesh becomes yeseira, becomes stronger and healthier and bigger than the neshama. Now I start to put all the pieces together. Remember I asked you in the beginning, on one place we learn the pasuk tells us it has to do with sheishes yamim taaseh melachtecha, sheishes yamim asah Hashem es hashamayim v'es haaretz. On the other hand it says, Vezacharta ki eved hayisa b'eretz Mitzrayim. Tell me, what did we live on in Eretz Mitzrayim? Does anybody know what kept us alive in Eretz Mitzrayim? It was definitely not a good salary with a good supper, that's for sure not. You know, I once spoke to Reb Shmuel Birnbaum, zecher tzaddik livracha. She was the Mir, zecher tzaddik livracha, kulei Torah. So we were discussing Shanchai. Shanchai, my zeide was a, you know, one of the big rabbanim in Shanghai, and he did a hatzalah. So Reb Shmuel, every time he meets me, always we would... Talk about Shanchai, if I was there. I wasn't there, but I heard about it all day and all night in my house. So he says, mention, meinen, that Shanchai was a resort. Shanchai was a summer camp. Shanchai, ... terrible. It was a ghetto. Horrible life in Shanchai. He looks at me and he says, Ich hob gehat chaveirim vos zenen nisht shtarbn fun hunger. Tell me that clearly. I tell him, Rosh Yeshiva, ... vos hot men gegesen? Tell me what. I wanted to know, how did they have food? So Shmuel always used to give you like a little pat, you know. ... of teivah, ... of teivah. ... Ki eved haYisrael b'eretz Mitzrayim. The sheshes yamim that you try to get more money and try to ... and then food. That's sheshes yamim. Then there's another part of Shabbos, which is, ... Ki eved haYisrael b'eretz Mitzrayim, the Yid lives strictly on ruchniyus. And that is his sustenance. And that is his sheshes yamim taaseh, that's called ... This is ... beinu uveineichem, lodaas ki Ani Hashem mekadishchem. In order, Yid, it's the roza deShabbos that the Yid, what satisfies him, what gives him sustenance. What gives him the ability to live and to function? It's not the sheishes yamim ta'aseh melachtecha. It's the Vayom ha'shvii Shabbos laShem Elokecha. That's what does it. And v'zacharta ki eved hayisa b'eretz Mitzrayim. Remember. You know what's interesting? I always thought to myself that when they were in the midbar, they complained, Zacharnu es hadagah asher achalnu b'Mitzrayim, bechinam. What? Did I miss something in the history of Mitzrayim? I don't know, something ploppedished. Imagine a person says, Gedenkt di gute alte teg fun... and I don't want to say from which terrible periods of history of Klal Yisrael, no? Anomalous mention azoi redn. And the Torah says, In Mitzrayim hot men gelebt. Such a ruchniyusdike his'alus, that the pshutei am, instead of realizing, Ki lo al halechem levado yichyeh adam, ki al kol motza פי Hashem, they looked at it, Zacharnu es hadagah, mitgelebt in Mitzrayim. They saw nisim and niflaos. Psychologically, they walked away thinking Mitzrayim was a meiridige zach, and the Torah keeps on telling us, Mitzrayim, remember Mitzrayim, remember Mitzrayim. Why bring up terrible things?

I have so many ma'asim that are going through my head now that I want to tell you, and I'm looking at the clock, but if you forgive me, one maaseh just popped into my head. Reb Elimelech Sorotzkin is one of the roshei yeshivas today, so he came to my shul and he told me a beautiful story. He said that Reb Chaim Stein, he was best friends with someone, Reb Mordechai Zuckerman. Reb Mordechai Zuckerman was in Eretz Yisrael, Reb Chaim Stein was in the Telz. So he said that he asked Reb Zuckerman, How did you get to Reb Chaim Stein? So he said, We were friends, the two of us, forever. Why? When we were in Sibir, everybody looked at Sibir one way, and only me and him had a whole different outlook to Sibir. The rest of the oilam looked at Sibir as a terrible, tragic, and that eventually, when the time comes, they'll just erase it from memory once they get through it, while him, Reb Zuckerman said, and Reb Chaim, were the only two bachurim that looked at it, No, it's a time where the Eibishter is giving us a avodah. It's something that the Ribono Shel Olam wants us to work through. It's a zman of nisayonos. It's a zman where we could both grow in avodas Hashem. So we looked at Sibir as an entirely different Sibir than everyone else, and therefore we remained friends together. Ladaas ki ani Hashem mekadishchem. Shabbos teaches that a Yid is on a completely different plateau than the rest of the world, and this is oysi beini uveineichem, that nobody even understands the Shabbos. And I will tell you another story, if you don't mind. There's a letter that my Alter Zeide wrote to my grandfather during the war, and this was the last letter that he ever received. It's printed in the hakdamah to the sefer Beis Aharon. In it, and again, b'kitzur, I'm not going to go through the whole letter, being constraints of time, but he writes there that yes, there is no food and there is no life, and I feel bad, not for myself, he writes. I actually feel bad that the Ribbono Shel Olam is losing out, because since there's no food and there's no—so we can't daven and learn and do what the Eibishter needs to. He called it mazon ha'av, what the father needs to be sustained from the tefillos and Torah of Klal Yisroel. That bothers me more. And as far as me, don't feel bad, my child, because I have not missed one hanhagah, one seder, one any din that I ever kept till this situation in the ghettos and the Holocaust. I have not stopped, and, b'sari echseh, from my flesh I could learn, ki b'shaah shehagashmiyus misametes, miskaberes haruchniyus, v'ha'adam yachol lachyos al ruchniyus levad. A person can live on ruchniyus alone. It's an open letter anyone wants, they can go look it up. The Yid learns that it's all about the tat, and the meileh, the gashmiyusdike financial issues and whatever's around, that doesn't affect him, because a person could live with the Rabbeinu Shleim. Rasha, gashmiyus misametes, miskaberes haruchniyus. You know, in the davening—in, sorry, in the zmiros—for those that are Chassidish, and even today the yeshiva olam began to sing this. Stoliner Rebbe made up a beautiful—the Fridiker Stoliner Rebbes, they made up a beautiful ko echsayf, words that are so poetic and everybody uses today. Hashabbos is noam haneshamos v'oneg haruchos, and most of the theme of the zmiros is about the neshama being mesaden, the neshama, the nefesh, the pleasures that the nefesh gets through Shabbos. There's a shiur, there's one of the zmiros that the Chasam Sofer used to sing. It's brought down in Chut HaMeshulash. It's actually—it was authored by the Even Ezra. It was authored by the Even Ezra, and the Chasam Sofer wrote—this is in Chut HaMeshulash—it's...

Written clearly that the Chasam Sofer said that he believes, possibly, that the Even Ezra wrote the Zohar HaKadosh. This is in the Chut HaMeshulash, and they say that, as a matter of fact, the Chasam Sofer didn't see much zmiros, but this one he sang. Wrote down over there that this was the Friday night zmiros of the Chasam Sofer, and that is, Tzama lecha nafshi, kamah lecha b'sari. I'm sorry, Tzama lecha nafshi, libi libi uvsari, yeranenu el Kel chai. Famous. You look in the zmiros, you'll find it. What does it mean, libi uvsari, yeranenu el Kel chai? So actually it's based on a pasuk in Tehillim. The pasuk in Tehillim says, it's perek pei-daled, pasuk gimmel, Nichsefa v'gam kalah nafshi l'chatzros Hashem, libi uvsari, yeranenu el Kel chai. It's a pasuk. The Even Ezra is mazbir this pasuk, that it's not only libi that praises Hashem, that I reach a situation where uvsari, my physical, and libi together with my spiritual, yeranenu el Kel chai. That is Shabbos. Shabbos is where the physical—yes, we eat on Shabbos, and we make the guf mis'aden. Rashi is saying, meyredik, the neshama yeseira brings out a chelek hagashmi. Yes, there is, Ki sheishes yamim asah Hashem es hashamayim v'es haaretz. But it also elevates the gashmi together with the ruchni. Libi uvsari. He unites. The goy can't unite the libi uvsari. They can't do it. When they're fanumim with libi, they talk about spiritual things. Then the min of sari gets in the way. It becomes a problem. The ois hi beini uveineichem, that the libi uvsari come together, vihyu liranenu talchai, and that is, rabosai, what? Ladaas ki ani Hashem mekadishchem. And now you've earned your story. I'm sure anyone who knows the history of the blue zone laws—the blue zone laws, you remember the history? Goes back a long time ago. Okay, so let me educate the younger generation. Unfortunately, there was a time and a place where a Yidn, whenever they went Shabbos and they didn't come to work, they would lose their job, and the government was behind the firing because you didn't show up. This was a tremendous nisayon for keeping of Shabbos. In '60, I think it was '61 maybe, there was a movement to try to discuss that just like Sunday is off for the goyim, Shabbos should be off for the Jews, which we have today. You can't fire somebody for not working on Shabbos. It's illegal. Okay. This was what faced the Rabbanim when they came from Europe. R' Zeide being the vice president of Agudas Harabbanim was very busy with this issue. Many rabbanim held that he should just drop it, leave it alone, and my zeide marched ahead, Rabbi Moshe and other gedolim, that we had to go do something about it. And the idea was to go to Washington, and then to go to Albany, and to speak to the governor at the time, to change the rule, the laws, to try to get the blue laws off. Now, I heard this maaseh growing up, but the details of it I heard from someone, Rabbi Schoenfeld is a rav, he's a rabbi in Kew Garden Hills, Rabbi Schoenfeld. And he told me that he was one of the rabbanim who was involved with this, and it was actually two groups. There was a group of rabbanim and a group of lawyers, and they worked on it for over a year. And they finally got the appointment by the governor to go to Albany. Rabbi Schoenfeld tells me that the day before the traveling to Albany, my zeide calls him up and asks him, Schoenfeld, who then named me, who's taking me? So Rabbi Schoenfeld said, I started telling your zeide, Rabaukin, ir redt doch b'chalalish, can English. You don't even speak English. What would be the point of your going? We got ourselves rabbis and lawyers and—

Tchmain baby. Ich hob dos doch fun the start. I was the one who was behind it. I put together the whole group. There, now, I want an oath-taking. So Rav Sholomful said, I tried again to explain to him, it's a long trip to Albany, and what will be the point? They'll see an Alter Rebbe, they'll think that we're still living in the Toisen Yahr Tzerik, and he had this long white beard, you know. I say the hardly spoken a word of English, maybe on purpose, I don't even know what the reason is. Baal Koponim, he couldn't even say the name of the place he lived. He used to live in Kew Gardens. He used to call it Koo Gardens, Koo Gardens. And he would say, A ku is eich? A ku is a beheima. You know, he used to—to him it was all real old school. Okay, kitzur, he goes. Rav Sholomful told me that there was five minutes before they were led in to have this meeting, an audience with the governor, and all the executives. There was like a big government meeting. The zeide turns around to Rav Sholomful and says, Ver geit reden ersht? Who's going to be the first speaker? So Rav Sholomful said, We made up I would start as the rabbi, and I'll have this lawyer and this... So my zeide says, Un ven gei ich reden? When am I going to speak? So he says, Ha, valt du redst doch nisht kein English. He don't speak English. I, what are you—? My zayde says, ‘You can English?’ If they readly tells him. Un zen, az mir vet mefashteyn beser fun ale. That's it. Rabbi Shonfeld told me, I'll never forget the words, I'll never forget where he told it to me even. He says, ‘My feet went limp.’ I said, ‘Oh no.’ I said, ‘A year? And how long do you have an audience? It could be over in three minutes, the whole thing.’ So I started saying, ‘Rabbi, we can't let you.’ He says, ‘Can'ts mir shlozen? Okay, we'll see.’ The minute he walked in, my zayde got up to speak. Didn't say one word of English. He began to cry. Now, if anybody would like to have the history of it, I have the original from the newspaper that translated the speech that my zayde gave from Albany. I have that newspaper. Anybody would like to see it, it's a piece of history, I'll give it to you, okay? He started to cry. The governor never saw such a white old Yid, just crying like a baby, looking at him. He says, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi, they'll take it. We'll see what we can do. Tell me.’ I don't know the whole speech. I never heard it from my zayde, but I know the cutout, what it says, the translation. And he said the following. He said, ‘America is a democracy. America is about human rights, and to the point that they don't only respect the body—’ But they respect the person, right? There's a lot of respect, human rights. Tell me something. Which part of the person should you respect more? The soul, right? The pnim. And America goes out of its way to respect the body to the point that if a soldier falls in war, America and Israel, the only two countries, they're in tzava, they're commanded to go back to retrieve the body even if it means sakanas nefashos. In Israel, it's a policy, rabosai. It takes only a Yid to follow through on a thing like this, to give up his, put himself in sakana. I'm not going to get into the halacha of it, but that happens to be the rule in Israel, that you go back and you put yourself in danger to retrieve the body of your fellow soldier. When a soldier falls, he comes to the America with a casket with a flag on top, with honors. What are we honoring? The body. So how much more with America, who believes human rights, the soul. Shabbos is the soul of Klal Yisrael.

I ask you to please respect our human rights as people. This is our soul. History speaks for itself. Today, you do not get fired for not coming to work on Shabbos. It's understanding Shabbos is the neshama of the Yid. And why is it the neshama of the Yid? Because the neshama of the Yid needs raza d'echad, Ribbono Shel Olam. It connects. Shabbos is the time where the sheshes yamim connects with the v'zacharta ki eved hayisa. It connects with the fact that the Ribbono Shel Olam is vayom ha'shvii shavas. And that's lodaas ki ani Hashem mekadishchem. Klal Yisrael, you're different. It's a whole different mahus. This is raza d'Shabbos. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.