#232: Machshavah
R. Gamliel Rabinowitz, a great contemporary tzaddik in Yerushalayim, writes in the Sefer “Tiv Hashabbat” that a parent should try to show their children how great and exciting it is to live a life of Torah and mitzvot, and how lucky they are to have been born a Jew. Shabbat is a great time to instill this passion and love in one’s children. If one can make Shabbat a lively and exciting highlight of the week, especially the meals, one will be well on the way to achieving this goal.
One must be careful when striving to achieve this goal to remember that Shabbat is not only about the “don’t” – what we are not allowed to do. Rather, all of the halachot we are learning about the prohibitions of Shabbat are designed to enable us to focus on the “do” – the holiness and uniqueness of what we can gain from Shabbat, and we must remember to convey this to our children as well.
There is a well-known story of two individuals in the United States about 100 years ago who approached one of the great rabbinic leaders of the generation and asking him the following: Why, if both of them kept Shabbat, one’s children remained religious and the others’ did not. After being questioned about how they kept Shabbat, one said he often complained about how hard it is to be a Jew and make a living while keeping Shabbat, while the other said keeping Shabbat is a great merit and he sang zemirot on Shabbat with great fervor. That, the Rav responded, is the difference between the two – the attitude to Shabbat. One who observes Shabbat with the proper attitude and excitement will hopefully transmit that to one’s children, while one who compains about the difficulties involved will find it more difficult to convey the importance of keeping mitzvot to one’s children. May we all merit to not just observe Shabbat, but to do so with the proper attitude and make our Shabbat the highlight of the week.
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Dedicated by Fran Broder as a zechus for the hostages to be released safely to their families and may everlasting peace come to Eretz Yisrael in the merit of learning Hilchos Shabbos.
