Brochos before Shma

Birchos kriyas shema – Shiur 4

Until now, we have spoken about kabbolas Shabbos, where we enter into Shabbos. Now we are going to speak about maariv, where we are actually existing in Shabbos.

Before we go through birchos kriyas shema (from the perspective of being in Shabbos), we will clarify two points. This will help us to understand what we are going to be discussing.

Shabbos reveals the evil

The first point to understand is that everything, even the evil that exists in the world, has a purpose. In the higher-level world of penimius, the purpose is revealed.

We see an illustration of this from the mon that fell from Shomayim. On Erev Shabbos, a double portion fell—one for Erev Shabbos and one for Shabbos. The Torah tells us that despite leaving one portion overnight until Shabbos day, it did not become infested with worms.

TheTorah tells us that there were no worms as if it were a novelty. But why would we have thought that there would have been worms? This holy mon, which was heavenly food, was not suitable to become infested with worms!?

Doson and Aviram did a very grave aveirah when, during the week, they gathered more mon than they were entitled to. Because of this aveirah (which the possuk describes as evil in the eyes of Moshe), the possibility of worm infestation in the mon was introduced. This is why the Torah needs to tell us that even though on Erev Shabbos Klal Yisroel collected more than their daily portion, nevertheless, it did not become infested, unlike what had happened to the Mon of Doson and Aviram during the week.

This means that the revelation of the holiness of Shabbos (the absence of the infestation) was only made possible through the aveirah of Doson and Aviram. 

This aveirah was absolutely evil. Nevertheless, even this evil had a purpose. This purpose was revealed on Shabbos. This means that the world of penimius of Shabbos revealed the purpose of what was totally evil in the world of chitzoniyus. In a more general way, we can say that Shabbos reveals the purpose of the whole world.

This is like what we said in the last shiur: The enemies have a dual reality. On the one hand, they exist as enemies of Hashem. On the other hand, they will be destroyed, and Shabbos reveals to us that the purpose of their existence is just to show that the only real existence is to be together with Hashem (and not to be His enemy).

Entering into Hashem’s realm

The second point to clarify is how we can relate to Hashem in His own world. We all know the Chazal that we need to resemble Hashem– just as He relates to us with rachmonus, we also need to act this way. It is understandable how we can attain this behavior of Hashem since, after all, Hashem is relating to us in our world in this way.

However, we are commanded to rest on Shabbos just like Hashem rested on Shabbos. Hashem’s resting is a topic between Hashem and Himself in His own world. Hashem’s resting does not describe how He relates to us. If so, Hashem‘s resting only occurs in His realm, which is beyond us. So, how can it be that we are supposed to resemble His resting? The concept of His resting should not be attainable by us.

The answer is that the Torah made a chiddush by giving us the gift of Shabbos. This gift from the Torah allows us to enter into Hashem‘s realm. Therefore, we are able to relate to and attain the concept of Hashem‘s resting.

This idea explains why a goy who keeps Shabbos is chayav misah. A goy is not welcome in Hashem‘s realm. He has not been given the gift of Shabbos to enter Hashem‘s realm. If he enters His world, this is a great chutzpah, and he must die.

Birchos Kriyas Shema

We will look at the first two brochos of Kriyas Shema. The text is the same as during the week. However, since on Shabbos, we live in a different world (the world of Hashem—penimius world) than the rest of the week, the words are said with a distinct flavor on Shabbos.

(Just like with all the shiurim on tefillah where I say how to understand the topics or the words, I am not saying how the meforshim explain it. Tefillah is not about davening what the meforshim tell you how to think when davening. Tefillah is not limud Torah. Instead, in tefillah, Hashem wants us to daven with our hearts and to daven how we personally react to the tefillah. He wants us to daven based on how the tefillah talks to us. Therefore, I am saying my reaction to tefillah. Obviously, the reaction must be sensible and based on proper Torah understanding.)

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְ-יָ אֱלֹקינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר בִּדְבָרוֹ מַעֲרִיב עֲרָבִים, בְּחָכְמָה פּוֹתֵחַ שְׁעָרִים, וּבִתְבוּנָה מְשַׁנֶּה עִתִּים וּמַחֲלִיף אֶת הַזְּמַנִּים, וּמְסַדֵּר אֶת הַכּוֹכָבִים בְּמִשְׁמְרוֹתֵיהֶם בָּרָקִיעַ כִּרְצוֹנוֹ. בּוֹרֵא יוֹם וָלָיְלָה, גּוֹלֵל אוֹר מִפְּנֵי חֹשֶׁךְ וְחֹשֶׁךְ מִפְּנֵי אוֹר. וּמַעֲבִיר יוֹם וּמֵבִיא לָיְלָה, וּמַבְדִּיל בֵּין יוֹם וּבֵין לָיְלָה, יְ-יָ צְבָקוֹת שְׁמוֹ. אֵ-ל חַי וְקַיָּם תָּמִיד יִמְלֹךְ עָלֵינוּ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְ-יָ הַמַּעֲרִיב עֲרָבִים

Blessed are you Hashem, our G-d, King of the world that through His word He makes evenings, through His wisdom He opens gates, through His understanding He changes times and substitutes times and He arranges the stars in their posts, in the sky, according to His will. He creates day, and He creates night. He rolls the light from before the dark and the dark from before the light. He removes the day and brings night and He separates between day and night, Hashem of Hosts. The living G-d and He remains, He will rule constantly over us forever. Blessed are You Hashem who makes evenings.

During the week we cannot understand what is going on in the world, it is like the darkness of the evening. However, we say that Hashem has a plan. His plan is according to His chochmah, His tevunah and His ratzon. We have faith that whatever happens is all according to His plan.

There is an opinion that says that the night of Shabbos is like day and therefore we should say sim shalom (instead of sholom rov) at maariv, like we say during the day. In other words, the lack of clarity that usually exists in the darkness of night is not the case on Shabbos. During the rest of the week, we live in the confusion of darkness, but we believe that, nevertheless, the world has a plan. On Shabbos, we live in the penimius world where the purpose of everything (even the greatest evils) is clearly revealed (just like the purpose of even the absolute evil of Doson and Aviram was revealed on Shabbos).

אֵ-ל חַי וְקַיָּם תָּמִיד יִמְלֹךְ עָלֵינוּ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד

The living G-d Who remains forever. He will rule over us forever.

Hashem is chai, which refers to the fact that Hashem gives life to us and everything else in the world. Hashem is kayam, which refers to the fact that Hashem keeps things alive. Even things that don’t deserve to stay alive, He keeps them alive because He has a bigger purpose for them. For example, the Rambam says that a magnificent palace is kept in existence only because of its ultimate purpose, for a tzaddik in the future to benefit from its shade.

During the week, we believe Hashem gives things kiyum for their ultimate purpose. On Shabbos, we say these words with a different flavor. On Shabbos, we live in the world of penimius, where the purpose and reason for kiyum of everything is revealed.

 אַהֲבַת עוֹלָם בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל עַמְּךָ אָהָבְתָּ, תּוֹרָה וּמִצְוֹת חֻקִּים וּמִשְׁפָּטִים אוֹתָנוּ לִמַּדְתָּ. עַל כֵּן יְ-יָ אֱלֹקֵינוּ בְּשָׁכְבֵנוּ וּבְקוּמֵנוּ  נָשִׂיחַ בְּחֻקֶּיךָ, וְנִשְׂמַח בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָתֶךָ וּבְמִצְוֹתֶיךָ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד. כִּי הֵם חַיֵּינוּ וְאֹרֶךְ יָמֵינוּ, וּבָהֶם נֶהְגֶּה יוֹמָם וָלָיְלָה. וְאַהֲבָתְךָ אַל תָּסִיר מִמֶּנּוּ לְעוֹלָמִים. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְ-יָ אוֹהֵב עַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל

An eternal love for the House of Israel Your people, that You love. Torah, mitzvos, chukim and mishpotim You have taught us. Therefore, Hashem, our G-d, when we lie down and we get up we will speak about Your chukim and we will rejoice in the words of Your Torah and in Your mitzvos forever because they are our life and the length of our days and in them we will toil day and night. May You not remove Your love from us forever. Blessed are You Hashem Who loves His people Israel.

תּוֹרָה וּמִצְוֹת חֻקִּים וּמִשְׁפָּטִים אוֹתָנוּ לִמַּדְתָּ. עַל כֵּן יְ-יָ אֱלֹקֵינוּ בְּשָׁכְבֵנוּ וּ**בְקוּמֵנוּ

נָשִׂיחַ בְּחֻקֶּיךָ, וְנִשְׂמַח בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָתֶךָ וּבְמִצְוֹתֶיךָ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד. כִּי הֵם חַיֵּינוּ וְאֹרֶךְ יָמֵינוּ

Torah, mitzvos, chukim and mishpotim, You have taught us. Therefore, Hashem, when we lie down and get up we will speak about Your chukim and we will rejoice in Your divrei torah and in Your mitzvos forever. Because they are our life and the length of our days.

We start by mentioning Torah, mitzvos, chukim and mishpotim. We then continue to speak about all of them besides mishpotim. Why do we omit mishpotim?

First, let’s understand what chukim and mishpotim are. Mishpotim are commandments from Hashem that fit with our nature. The issur to murder is a mishpot. It fits naturally with every Jew to not murder. Chukim, on the other hand, do not fit with us naturally. The Rambam says that a Jew should say I want to eat chazir, but I cannot because it is an aveirah. This means that even though that biologically chazir fits with us to eat it -it has good proteins and tastes nice, nevertheless we must not because it is a chok. For a chok, we must do what the Torah says despite it not fitting with us naturally.

We do not mention the word mishpotim in the continuation of the brocha because they are specifically referred to by the phrase ‘ki hem chayenu’-they are our life. Mishpotim are our life because they naturally fit with our lives, whereas the other three do not.

 On Shabbos, we say ki hem chayenu with a different flavor. On Shabbos, chukim (and Torah and eidus) also fit with our ‘natural life of Shabbos’ (as we said in a previous shiur that on Shabbos, we get a different life and existence).

 Similarly, baalei teshuvah often find Shabbos very hard. They feel that Shabbos restricts their lives. The truth, though, is that in the new life of penimius that we get on Shabbos, all the restrictions of Shabbos fit with our ‘Shabbos life.’

 שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל, יְ-יָ אֱלֹקינוּ יְ-יָ אֶחָד

Hear O Israel, Hashem is our G-d,,Hashem is One

 On Shabbos we say shema in the kedushah for the mussaf shemoneh esrei. We tend to daven Mussaf after the first three hours of the day. But this should be problematic since shema is not suitable to be said after these hours.

 The answer is that Shabbos is different. During the rest of the week, when we say Shema, we subjugate ourselves to accept the yoke of heaven. We nullify ourselves to the fact that everything is just the realm of Hashem, albeit that this is not so natural since, during the week, we exist outside of His realm. However, as we said, on Shabbos, we exist in the realm of Hashem; therefore, it is natural and easy for us to accept the yoke of heaven. The kriyas shema of Shabbos has a different flavor.

 

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written by Rabbi Rapport