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Shiur · Rav Mordechai Burg

Parshas Vayakhel - The Crown and Creativity of Inaction

Feb 27, 201935 minTranscript
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In this shiur Rav Burg teaches us how through the Cheit Haeigel we lost the crown of naaseh that we had received at Har Sinai and how through keeping Shabbos and building the Mishkan we restore the true essence of doing in our lives. It turns out that sometimes inaction is the holiest form of activity.

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Automatic transcript; may contain mistakes, especially in Hebrew.

Parsha begins. VaYakel Moshe, as kol adas benei Yisrael, Moshe Rabbeinu gathered together the entire congregation of Klal Yisrael. By Yomar Aleim, and he said unto them, "Eile haDvarim asher tzeva Hashem laAsos Osum." These are the things that God commands you to do. And then he begins to give the laws of Shabbos, Sheshes Yomim Teaser Melachta. Six days a week you'll work over Yom Hashvi. Yel Achem Kodesh Shabbos Olam Hashem. The seventh day will be holy. It will be a Shabbos for God. Kol Aosah Bo Malacha. You must. Anyone who does malacha will die. So the very first thing is Moshe Rabbeinu gathers everyone together and gives them the tzivoy for Shabbos. The obvious implication is that what comes first The Mishkan or Shabbos? Shabbos comes before the building of the Mishkan. You're not allowed to build the Mishkan on Shabbos. There's an obvious question on this puzzle. Why does Moshe Rabenu need to gather everyone together? Says Vayakel Moshe Rabenu gathers everyone together. Why does Moshe Rabenu need to gather them together for the Tzivui of Shabbos more than any other mitzvah? That's question number one.

Question number two. We see a reference in this pasuk to the thirty-nine malachim. If you look carefully, it says 'Ela hadvarim.' 'Ela' is begematria thirty-six. Ela is begematria thirty-six. Dvarim it means two things. Hadvarim it means a third thing. So Ela hadvarim. Is a remez to the thirty nine malachos of Shabbos. Where do we get the thirty nine malachos of Shabbos from? We get the thirty nine malachos of Shabbos from the Mishkan, because there's a hekish between. There's a hekish between the Mishkan and Shabbos, because Shabbos is given before malachos on Mishkan. And this implies that the things that we're not allowed to do on Shabbos are exactly the things that were done in the Mishkan. Again, Eila is Begematria thirty-six. Dvarim means two; it's plural. Had Dvarim means the third. So altogether, you have thirty-nine. But again, we have a second question here. It's a fundamental question. If you look carefully at the pasuk, it says Eila had Dvarim. These thirty-nine things that God will command you, La asos osam to do them.

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What's the problem? These are things you can't do. These are the things you're not allowed to do. So what type of asiyah is this? As if the pasuk is telling us these are the things that God is commanding you to do, and it's a reference to the thirty-nine malachos. It should be exactly the opposite. These are the thirty-nine things that God is commanding you not to do. That's question number two. Question number three. Gemara in Sanhedrin, Daf Chafah Medbeis tells us that there is an order. To what we are supposed to do upon entering Eretz Yisrael, the first thing we're supposed to do is appoint a king. The second thing we're supposed to do is destroy a malik. The last thing we're supposed to do is build the base of Mikdash. However, if we look in the Midbar, it seems to be exactly the opposite. If we look in the Midbar, we never appoint Moshe Rabbeinu as a king. Never happened. We did not destroy a malik. And what do we have? We have the building of the Mishkan.

So why in Eretz Yisrael do we have the building of the Beis Hamikdash coming last, whereas in the Midbar we have the Binyan Hamishkan coming first? Those are the three questions for tonight. Girls, I know we have a squished classroom situation over here. We have a lot of people going back and forth. Just tonight, I know. Usually, in the base message, we can do it. Please be chavot. It's okay. But tonight, we're going to have to be more sensitive not to do this than on other nights. I know. Sometimes it works this way. In order to understand everything in this week's parsha, we need to start off by going back to last week's parsha. The Egal Azov undid everything that was done by Matan Torah. By matan torah, it says, "Va'yichan shom yisrael neged hahar." We had gathered together. Va'yichan, not va'yachanu, but va'yichan. What does va'yichan mean? We camped together as one. Va'yichan shom yisrael neged hahar. Klal yisrael was an incredible state of oneness. Cheta Egel undid the oneness that we had. Let me explain. Before we, before the Cheta Egel

We said Nasev Nishma. What does Nasev Nishma mean? We'll do, and then we will listen. The Gemara says that we were zochah to two crowns, Snake saram. We were zochah to two crowns, one for Nase and one for Nishma. What did it mean that we were zocher to two crowns? What does it mean that Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us two crowns? We had done something at that point that was greater than any human being had ever done. It was even greater than any malach had ever done. What we did is we elevated the notion of doing. What does it mean to elevate the notion of doing? In a normal human interaction, we do things because we understand why we're doing them. In a normal human interaction, I'm doing something because it makes sense. We don't do things that don't make sense. But even the things that we do that don't make sense, there's a reason behind them. What is the entire field of psychology? The entire field of psychology is to try and make sense of the things that we're doing, in order perhaps to think about them differently, which will allow us to do things differently.

So the notion of doing follows naturally. The thoughts that we have, but what if I told you that there is a type of doing that is higher, that is more unified with who you truly are, and it has nothing to do with the thoughts that you have. That would obviously be a tremendous thing, and that is the level that Klal Yisrael reached when they said Nasev Nishma. Our doing comes from before understanding. Everyone in the world is doing things that make sense. Klal Yisrael says we're gonna do things that cannot be bound by reason. When we do things that are not bound by reason, those are the things that are most powerful in our lives. For example A child is born. You're holding your child in your hands for the first time. What does logic dictate? What should you do with that child? What does logic dictate? The answer is absolutely nothing.

Absolutely nothing. There is no relationship here. That I should have any responsibility towards this child whatsoever. Why? Because let's say I'm in business and I have a boss. The boss tells me I need you to wake up at three o'clock in the morning to go catch a flight, which is the five o'clock flight, so that you could be in Texas by nine o'clock in the morning for a ten o'clock meeting. Why are you waking up at three o'clock in the morning? Because your boss says I pay you to do the things I ask you to do. So there is a logic to why you get up at three o'clock in the morning. But if your child wakes up at three o'clock in the morning, which your newborn child will surely do, what is the logic with regards to that child? Nothing. That's not logical. Good. So good. Let's take that. Let's unpack that for a second. So you're telling me you don't mean this. I know you don't mean this, but I just want to show you what you just said. The reason I'm waking up at three o'clock in the morning with my child is because I'm afraid that a different child of mine will call social services and I'll get arrested.

You don't really mean that, right? Because no mother that I've known wakes up with that in mind. I have yet to meet the person. If you were trying to find logic. But the point is, nobody's acting from that place of logic. We don't wake up and swaddle our child gently and hold them, caress them, feed them, change them at three o'clock in the morning because of anything logic dictates. No mother is sitting there going, made it through another night of no social services. And as for your sociological reason That's equally foolish. Because no mother ever held her child in her arms lovingly and looked at the child and said, All of the nurture that's gone into my life has led to this moment where I can now hold my child lovingly. We don't get down on one knee and say, "You bring out the best serotonin in my brain." Nobody makes me secrete oxytocin like you.

Good. I want you to remember what you just said. I want you to write it down. I want you to take it with you. When Be'ezar Hashem your husband proposes to you, it's going to be romantic. It's going to be on the beach with the moon shining. All of your loved ones will be there. He'll have carved it out in the sand in the place where he first saw you. He gets down on one knee. He opens up that box that has that beautiful ten thousand dollar diamond ring. Because, of course, you've struck gold, right? I want you to look at him when he gets down on one knee and says, "Will you spend the rest of your life with me?" I want you to look up and go, "Yeah." But it's only because the chemicals in your brain make you do that, right? This like a child.

I know I'm allowed to do it in yeshiva. I forget sometimes I'm not allowed to do that in seminary. We're the ones. Jewish support for girls getting roasted by rabbis. Welcome to the party. Jewish support for rabbis. When a child has to ask a parent, "Prove to me that you love me" Or when a child says, "I know my parents love me because of what they do for me." That's terrible. You know your parents love you, and it has nothing to do with what they do for you. The doing is only a symptom. But it can't be measured in words. It's not something that's logical, and that doesn't make it irrational. It makes it irrational. There are things that cannot be contained by the human mind, and those are the most powerful things. And here's how it goes. You ready? Anything that I do from a place of logic is always going to be limited to the logic that made me do it. Anything that I do that comes from a place of logic is always going to be limited to the logic that caused me to do it to begin with.

So will I be dedicated to my job only as much as it makes sense? If I'm being paid $200,000 to do one job and somebody comes along and says I'll pay you $350,000 to do another job, my loyalty to that company is $150,000. If you can come up with $150,000, maybe I'll stay. Anything that's coming from a place of logic is always going to be limited to the logic. If I'm only serving my boss because my boss is paying me two hundred thousand dollars, it's logical I'll serve you for two hundred thousand dollars. Now somebody comes along and says, 'I'll pay you to serve me for three hundred fifty thousand dollars.' What do we say to our boss? It was nice knowing you. One hundred fifty thousand dollars can buy a lot of stuff. But if somebody comes along and they say to a child, 'Leave your mother, come to me. I'll give you better vacations.'

In a healthy relationship, what's the child gonna say? I'd much rather be with my mother going to the Poconos than to be with you going to the Bahamas. Everybody agrees the Bahamas are better than the Poconos. What's the pshat? The pshat is there is a type of doing that emanates not from a place of logic. But it emanates from a place. And here's the key word for tonight: it emanates from a place of intimacy. Intimacy is the creation of oneness. So when we were by Har Sinai and we said Vayi, And we were Vayichan Hashem Yisrael Neged Ahar, We were in a state of intimacy with Hashem. We were in a state of oneness. We had spent 49 days getting to a place. That's what Sfiras Haomer is: it's dating. We had spent 49 days getting to a place where we were one with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu came to us and gave us His Torah, what was our response? Nasev Nishma. Of course. Nasev Nishma was the natural reaction to the intimacy with which we were married.

If someone you love comes to you and gets down on one knee and is holding a box in his hand, and your immediate response is to think maybe there's a mini bomb inside of that box. Maybe there's anthrax inside of that box. Something is off in the relationship. If you see a small black box on a beach with a full moon, think diamond. Don't think anthrax. The difference between Klal Yisrael and the rest of the nations of the world is when God came and He said "I have a Torah." What was their first reaction? What's in it? Maybe it's anthrax. When God came to us and He said, "I have a Torah," what was our response? Our response was yes. It was a symptom of the intimacy with which we had worked for the last 49 days. So when God gave us quote-unquote two crowns, it was a reflection of the intimacy we had. Who's Kesser? We had His Kesser. We had the Kesser of Nasa and the Kesser of Nishma.

Because that's what it means to be in a marriage. To be in a relationship means I do. And I try to understand. So far, so good. The egelon did all of that because the egel was exactly the opposite of oneness. The Gemara in Yerushalmi says, "I didn't bring the pasuk here, but the Gemara in Yerushalmi says from Rosh Hashanah Baruch Hai, how many different egels?" Did Klal Yisrael make? Most of us think Klal Yisrael made one eagle, right? In fact, Klal Yisrael made different girsaus. But either twelve or thirteen different eagles. The Eiruv Rav fashioned each one according to their shavut. So even according to the girsa that said it was thirteen, Ephraim and Menashe couldn't agree. So we went from being vayichan Sham Yisrael negedahar, totally intimate, totally one, and all of a sudden we couldn't agree on anything. Why? Because by the Chet Ha'egel, what does the pasuk say? Listen carefully now.

Vayar Ha'Am, Ki bo'sheish Moshe laredes menahar. They saw that Moshe Rabbeinu was delayed coming down from the mountain. Keyword here, Vayikahel Aham el aal Aharon. The Am vayikahel. What does that mean? Vayikahel. They gathered together. Keep that in mind, because obviously that's going to connect back. Vayomru elav, And they said to him, 'Kum, Get up. Aselanu elokim' Make for us a god. So now, the kesser, the crown of Nasa, that they got, the crown of intimacy of the doing, is not from a place of logic, but from a place of real essence. All of a sudden, they lost that crown. They lost that crown. So beforehand, Naaseh the Asiya the doing was elevated. They got the crown of Asiya. Now they've lost it. That kehilah, that getting together, wasn't a Vayichan Shom Yisrael Neged Ahar of true intimacy. It was the appearance of a congregation coming together. But how many different eagles did they make? Either twelve or thirteen. They destroyed the notion of asiyah.

So according to the sheita that says there were thirteen, it includes even Shavat Levi. How could you say Shavat Levi didn't participate? Of course. Pashut pshat means that the erev rav were the ones that fashioned it for each shavat, so they fashioned one even for Shavat Levi. That's how we get out of that. But it's a good question. It was a false kehilah. It wasn't the kehilah that we're going to see is rectified in our parsha. But it was a false kehilah. How do you know when something is a false kehilah? Kehilah means a gathering. See, today we have kehilas, but every kehilah is doing their own thing. There's no sense of leadership. I'll tell you, even though we don't have so much time tonight, I want to tell you something amazing. I had a group of three guys in yeshiva that were in a shir of mine.

We were in a shir together. Say it like that. And three boys davened in Labavitcher shtibels growing up. They didn't daven in your local young Israel's. They davened in shtibels. One day, the topic of how shuls work came up. And the boys mentioned that their parents pay membership dues to shul. So these three kids weren't labavitch, but they had grown up in labavitcher shuls. They were like, 'Whoa, wait a second. You have to pay money to participate in your shul.' So everyone in the whole shir was like, 'Yeah,' but the guys who grew up in these labavitcher shetibles were like, 'Why would you have to pay money to go to shul?' And then the conversation continued. And they're like, 'Well, in my shul they just fired the rabbi.' And this kid perked up, and he goes, 'How could you fire a rabbi?' You're like, 'What do you mean? How could you fire a rabbi? Like, when his contract comes up, you decide not to renew his contract because you don't like the job he's doing.' And these three guys were like, 'What does that mean? You fire the rabbi?' You love the rabbi. You don't fire the rabbi. The rabbi is the one who's doing everything for you. He's amazing. We don't think of it as membership. It's like a privilege for us to support the shul. Do you grow up?

Has your rabbi yet been fired? No. It wouldn't even occur to you, right? It's crazy. But for most of us growing up, the kahilah was a place of tremendous fighting because the rabbi was on a four-year contract. So every four years, you'd have a whole bunch of members in the shul say Baruch Hashem. Then you are the exception to the rule. Me too. That's again. High five. Girls, if you don't know the politics of a shul, it means you haven't really participated in one. What the? A kahila today is not a place of actus. It's not a place of unity. For unfortunately, for too many. But that's what a kibbutz was supposed to be. We lost the crown of Nasa because Nasa was no longer the intimate. Of course, I'll do for you because you're mine. But it was let's make it because of what it does for us. The difference between avodah zara is important. The difference between avodah zara and Judaism is in Judaism we serve God, and in avodah zara the avodah zara serves us. I worship. This avodah zara only so what it will do for me. You understand?

In Judaism, we worship God, meaning it's all for Him. In avodah zara, I'll worship the God because of what the God will do for me. There are a lot of people today in Judaism that are somewhat idolatrous. For example, the people that say, "But isn't davening all about getting what we need?" No, it's not. Not at all. What we do is we take one part of Shemona Esrei, which is Bakasha, and we expand it to the entire rest of davening, Brachos, karbanos, Psukhe de zimra, Kriya shma, and its brachos. All the parts after Shemona Esrei. The beginning of Shemona Esrei, the end of Shemona Esrei, none of it has to do with Bakasha. But what do most people say? Isn't davening about getting what I want? Davening is about connecting with Him. You understand? So you get in the long run, but it's. It happens to be that I get, but if I get or I don't get, it's not the issue. That's why in the Torah we don't speak about scar. We're not really interested in scar. In a marriage, you're not sitting there thinking about well, what do I get from this? Imagine somebody who's asked their husband, would you mind just taking the garbage on your way out? And the husband goes, what are you going to give me?

What do you mean? What am I going to give you? Since we were coming from the Chet Ha'Igel and we had lost the crown of Nase, and we had lost that notion of kahilah, the order in the desert had to be different than in the order of Eretz Yisrael. Because in Eretz Yisrael we could start off by appointing a king, and then destroying a malik, and then building a mikdash. But if what we just lost was the notion of intimacy, was the notion of oneness, then the thing we need most right now is a mishkan. So appointing Moshe Rabbeinu as a king, which we never did, wasn't important. Fighting a malik, it's not the time. Hakadosh Baruch Hu knew the exact antidote that we needed, which was to get together to build a mishkan. The antidote to avodah zarah is togetherness. When we lost that crown of Nasa, we've answered one question so far.

We need now to bring it back. But in order to bring it back, we need to know where it went. Why did Klal Yisrael sin with the Chet Egel? It's the same exact reason that Adam Harishon sinned. Let me explain. When Adam Harishon sinned, the world was in a perfect state of balance. And when we received the Torah at Har Sinai, the world was in a perfect state of balance. That's what Chazal mean when they say that the luchos were engraved al tekri cheros, engraved ela cheros. We were free, cheros mi malacham aves, cheros mi yitzharah. We had freed ourselves from the malacham aves. We had freed ourselves from the Yitzhar. What does it mean, girls, to be free from the Malacham Avos? When did the Malacham Avos start? After the sin of Adam Harishon. Does that make sense? There was no concept of death before Adam Harishon's sin. When Klal Yisrael received the Torah at Har Sinai, we had rectified the sin of Adam Harishon to the point where there was no Malacham Avos anymore. And then we did exactly what Adam Harishon did. Just like Adam Harishon ate from the Eitz Hadas, we had the Chet HaEga. Why? Because what was asked of us? What was asked of Adam Harishon?

Don't do anything. The gift that God wanted was not what you can do for me. The greatest gift that we can give to God is our feeling of independence. You see, when we do things for people, we feel great about ourselves. When we don't do things, it's much harder. Let's go back to the marshal of a relationship. Let's say you have a relationship where the wife asks the husband, 'Please don't do it,' and the husband says to himself, 'I'm gonna make it awesome for her.' Who's he serving? Himself. He's serving himself because what she asked you to do was nothing. Now the husband, in his mind, is thinking because this is a very male thing to think. There's no way she wants me to do nothing. I'm gonna make these extraordinary gestures. But the truth of the matter is that the greatest gift that sometimes we can give is not the extraordinary gesture. The greatest we can gift we can give is ourself. And it takes massive amounts of humility to do nothing. So when Other Marishon is told, "Just don't eat from that tree," God really meant it. Just don't eat from that tree. It's the only thing I'm asking. What does Other Marishon say? But I want to get involved. I want to build the world together. I want to be partners in creation. What did God tell you to do? Nothing. Why? Because by withholding this instinct that you have to do

That's the greatest form of doing for me. Sometimes there's a doing that's not a doing at all, because what you're doing, quote unquote, is you're giving me you. By doing nothing can sometimes be the greatest form of doing. And so too, when it came to the Chet Ha'egel, it was modeled after exactly the same thing. What did Moshe Rabbeinu say? I'll be back soon. What was their response? Okay. And now soon has arrived, right? And Moshe Rabbeinu is late. I got to do something. I got to do something, right? It's that same exact avera as other Marishim. So where did their crown of Nase go? Every one of them, all of the hundreds of thousands of Jews that were there, they all had that crown of Nase. The Chiddush Harim says they all went to Moshe Rabbeinu. All the crowns. And the most amazing thing happened. You all know this. Moshe Rabbeinu was suffused with the light of all of those crowns. Something changed.

When Moshe Rabbeinu showed us his face, we couldn't bear to look at it because it was shining. Where did that illumination come from? The illumination came from the hundreds of thousands of crowns of nasa that were given to Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu, we speak about this every single week on Shabbos. Shmona esrei Shabbos. What do we say? Yismach Moshe b'matnas chelko. Moshe Rabbeinu is happy with his gift. With the gift of his portion. Moshe Rabbeinu. Now he comes down. He's got this massive light coming off of him. It's the hundreds of thousands of crowns of nasa that he has. What does Moshe Rabbeinu want to do more than anything in the world? What does he want to do? He wants to gift those crowns back to the Klal Yisrael. Yismach Moshe, But mat naskalko. Moshe Rabbeinu was happy when every single Shabbos, Moshe Rabbeinu was happy to give back his portion as a gift to us. Where do we get the crown of nasa?

Once a week, every one of us gets it. It's called a neshama yisera. What does the neshama yisera mean? It means all the not doing that we do on Shabbos becomes the neshama yisera that every single Jew has. This is the gift that Moshe Rabbeinu has given to us. So now we go back. VaYakel Moshe Eskoladas Bnei Yisrael. Moshe Rabbeinu literally means he gathered together. All of Klal Yisrael, but what does it mean now? Now that we understand it, let's go back again. Let's read the pasuk again. Va'yakel Moshe. Which kahila is this, guys, girls? It's the kahila that's going to undo the fake kahila of the Cheta Egel. By the Cheta Egel, there was a kahila, but it wasn't really a kahila. Why? Because we were all separate. It wasn't the nasa of intimacy. It was the nasa of doing. We lost those kesser.

We lost those crowns. Es kol adas, Girls. What does adas mean? Literally means a congregation. What is a Hebrew word for adas? It's a crown. Adi is a crown. So listen to it again. VaYakiel Moshe, Moshe Rabbeinu gathers them all together. Es kol adas to gather together all of the crowns of Bnei Yisrael. VaYomer Aleim, And he says to them, Eile Hadvarim. These thirty-nine Malachos. Asher Tziva Hashem, not worshiping you. But worshiping God, Siva Hashem, God commanded you to do this. La asos osam, this will give you back the crown of Nasa. It's the doing that's not a doing at all. And with this in mind, we can now explain a Meimor Chazal that many of us have heard, but very few of us understand. If all of Klal Yisrael would keep two Shabbatot in a row, what would happen? Why?

If all of Klal Yisrael will get together and it will be a real kahilah. Shabbos is the intimacy of coming together, everybody together as one nation, and we're all giving up individually all of the desires that we have. They're all God's. We are exceptionally creative. Human beings are exceptionally creative. The Mishkan is the place where all of our creativity comes out. We're gonna build a world together with our Kadosh Baruch Hu. But if you want to know if those nases are real, the question is, can you withhold? If you want to know if your husband is really doing it for you or he's doing it for himself. The litmus test will be when you tell him, 'Please don't do anything.' And if you really mean do something for me, that's not his fault. That's because women are crazy. But if you really mean don't do it, and he's sensitive and he gets that. But he goes ahead and he does it anyway, and he has to make that grand gesture. Then it's a siman that every time he did it, it was for him. It wasn't the asiya of intimacy; it was the asiya of gaiva, of ego, of narcissism.

But if all of Klal Yisrael will get together, every single Jew, and will be part of one kehilah on two Shabbatot, not one, on two. What does that mean? Week to week, one full cycle. We'll take the nasse, bring it into the week, and then finish with one last Shabbos and show that all of our asiyas are really for Him. That's how we bring Mashiach. Moshe Rabbeinu desires to give this gift back to us. Unfortunately, we live in a generation where when we speak to people about Shabbos, this is what it sounds like. Honestly, Rabbi, I'm on my phone on Shabbos because I'm bored. So I'm on my phone on Shabbos because I'm bored. Honestly, Rabbi, I'm on my phone on Shabbos. What is Shabbos already? You sit down, you have some meals, you have some family time. I don't see why that means that I can't be on my phone. I'll still have family time. And you know what? They're right. Because if it's all about boredom and it's all about family time, then it's not about Shabbos.

I hate to break this news to you, Girls, but Gentiles also know how to have family time. And if a Gentile family decided we're going to have a twenty-five hour period with no phones, and we're going to have three family meals and take a nap, it still wouldn't be Shabbos. Because Shabbos was a gift. Shabbos was a gift from Hakadosh Baruch Hu to us. It was the tikkun of the Chaytaegel, the tikkun of the Chayt of Adam Harishon, and a guy is not allowed to keep Shabbos. What's the halach of a guy keep Shabbos? S'chayv Misa. Why? Because you're not invited to participate in Shabbos. Shabbos is the bris that exists between us and Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It's the time where we say, 'It's for you. It's not for us.' When kids today are talking about their boredom on Shabbos, that's exactly the narcissism that leads to all these averes to begin with. Who are we worshiping? Are we worshiping Hakadosh Baruch Hu? Are we willing to give Him the gift of ourselves to do in an elevated sense when He asks us, and not at all when He says, 'Please don't do anything.'

There is a time when I just want to sit with you. I don't want to go on a date. I don't want to go bowling. I don't want to go to mini golf. I just want to sit with you together. Can you give up your creativity for me, the thing that makes you most human? Can you give that up for me? That's Shabbos. But if you're going to make Shabbos all about showing me how awesome you are, how creative you are, that's not very much of a relationship at all. Then you're not worshiping God. You're worshiping yourself. It makes sense to me that we're living in a generation where so many people are struggling with Shabbos. Because they're not struggling with Shabbos at all; they're struggling with their own ego. And as one of my close mentors once said to me, "Ego is Rashi Tevahs for edging God out." Once you have ego, you're pushing Hakadosh Baruch Hu out of the picture.

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