The Transformative Power of Shabbos (Parsha In-Focus: Vayakheil) 5784

Thank you, Rabbi. I understand there's a fundraiser going on. Why would listeners want to

donate to torch versus other organizations? So very, very good question, very valid question.

I want to tell you something like this, okay? Torch is here for one reason. Torches here to share

the word of Torah with the world. Any one of you listeners out there listening on a podcast,

listening in a video, last year alone, our videos grew, our video exposure grew 295%.

If I told you that there was an investment in the stock market that is going to grow 295%,

everyone would invest. I am telling you, my dear listeners, that last year, our YouTube videos

alone grew 295% by our viewership. Our podcast, there are many podcasts that grew

by well over 200% as well. This is a great investment. I really believe so. I really feel this

in my bones. I know myself that I keep a very meticulous log of all of our videos. Last year in

2025, we published 1,092 videos. I don't know about you, but I think that's a lot of videos.

To me, it's an exceptional privilege to be able to teach and learn Torah together with so

many amazing people, not only you here in the room and those of you on Zoom every day, but also

those listening on the podcasts and those of you watching live online or later online, a video on

demand and we're on all these different platforms. It's all because we have a foundation here in

Houston, Texas, where we learn, teach from our torch center and share that Torah with the world.

That's just one component. We have the torch center. We have our torch media. We also have

torch wood, which is a torch community with now 15 families, robust programming for the men,

for the women, for the children, every Shabbos. There's over 100 people there for kiddish and for

dovening. It's unbelievable. We'll go on over there and then we have our newest young professional

division, our unify. It's just unbelievable the things that are going on and what we're trying to do

is really open up for people one time a year where we ask everyone to invest in torch. This is

a time getting on the ground floor because the midst of us that we're trying to do, we cannot do

without the support of the community. That's the honest truth. I don't say it as a cliche,

oh, we're partners. I really, we cannot do it. We can keep these lights on. We can't record. We

can't have these cameras. We can't do the broadcasting. We can't do any of this without the support

of our partners. And therefore, this one week that you have, you can go to givetorch.net,

givetorch.net and contribute every dollar that you contribute is matched by donors.

The entire week, the campaign will be up until we reach our goal because this is our budget for

the year. We do everything we can to not stop even a single program to raise money. We continue. All

of our classes will be on our Monday lunch and learn will be on our Monday night, Mr. Mondays will

be on our Tuesday morning classes will be on Tuesday night classes. Wednesday and everything is on

because that's why we're here. We're here not to raise money. We're here to teach Dora.

So if y'all would be so kind and generous and support us, we'll be able to end this campaign

just like they did for the temple, right? What happened to the temple? They said enough,

enough donations. I'm ready to do the same. Please help us, my dear friends, givetorch.net,

givetorch.net. Thank you, Mark. I appreciate your question. Now, I want to talk about giving

to torch. Okay. We are so blessed that God has given us, and it's not just for us, it's for the

whole world. As a matter of fact, our choice being chosen is to be a light to the nations to bring

Torah to everyone. Okay. They don't have to all do the commandments, but this is, as you have often

said, the owner's manual for living and for those of us who grew up at a time where a good Jewish

education was not available to us. Now, there was a little bit here, a little bit there. I am

so grateful that I get to come here four times a week. But more importantly, as a good friend of mine

once said, if you could learn everything from a video or a book, there would be no universities.

And here at torch, not only can you come and participate, but even if you can't come,

we take people on Zoom who ask questions. And I don't know any other organization where you can't,

you can actually participate in a long distance with a rabbi. So studying torch is like

trying to eat an elephant. You do it one bite at a time. How do you learn Torah? One bite at a

time. And that's what you give to us. And for all of you out there, not only is this invaluable,

you couldn't put a dollar value on it. But in addition to that, it's always free. And the only way

it is always free is if you help provide the funds that we need with the only ask once.

You go to some places every single week. They pass the pot and try to get money out of you.

But here they wait once a year. They don't bother you. They don't send out a give me give me give me

once a year. That's all we ask give torch dot net. All my friends are my friends from class

and my rabbis. They're my friends. That is my solicitation from y'all to please contribute

give torch dot net. Thank you for letting me speak. Supporting torch is one of the best things you

could possibly do. It will change your life. Jewish, not Jewish. Being part of torch will inspire you,

will teach you life lessons and will give you all the tools you need to be successful in life,

marriage, family and all areas of your life. Support torch if you can. We thank you very much.

I know with confidence that the Almighty will succeed our way and we will raise all the money we

need to continue to operate. But I want you to be part of it. And if you can please,

whatever donation amount, the smallest, the largest, it doesn't make a difference. I want you as

a partner. If you can please go to give torch dot net and donate so that you can be a partner

in what we're doing. I'd greatly appreciate it and I hope you enjoy this episode.

You are listening to Rabbi Arya will be of torch in Houston, Texas.

This is the Parshah Review Podcast. All right, welcome back everybody. It is so wonderful to see

everyone. It really is special. This week's Parshah is Parshah's Vajakil. Vajakil

refers to the assembling of the Jewish people, bringing them together. And as we mentioned,

the first two portions after Mishbatim were to Ruma Titsava. That was talking about the design

of the Tabernacle and all of its parts, the design of the garments of the Cohen,

then we had the sin of the golden calf last week. And now the next two portions

is going to be the actual construction of the Tabernacle and the construction and assembly of the

garments of the priest, of the high priest and the regular priests. So we know the Torah

doesn't just randomly say things and the Torah doesn't randomly repeat things and the

Torah doesn't randomly place things exactly where they are. Hashem in this divine document,

every single thing that is written in the Torah is placed exactly where God wanted it to be.

So now we're going to, we just finished talking about Moshe, came back and the Jewish people

received forgiveness. This is Yom Kippur, that's the day of which was designated from that point

on because it became a day of forgiveness from Hashem, that forever this is a day of atonement

and the Jewish people now have their day where all of their sins, if they ask for forgiveness,

they will receive it. That's Yom Kippur. The day after Yom Kippur, what happens is the day that we're

talking about in this week's parasha where Moshe says, okay, we talked about giving gifts now

is the time to actually do it. So God is commanding every person to give the gifts towards what is

going to be a two-day fundraiser that Moshe has to say, stop, stop, stop, no more donations.

You'll all have an opportunity next week. We have our annual torch fundraiser and I look forward

to making the sending out that email, please stop. We have too much donations. We have too much

donations. I look forward to an organization. Hopefully torch will be the first. We'll say,

the fundraiser is closed. Please don't send any more money because we have enough for the next year.

That would be special, right? I think people would say, people would say, you know what? I'm

going to give more money now because of, because you did that, right? But maybe it's a good tactic.

But either way, so we begin this parasha with chapter 35 in the book of Exodus and it says,

as follows, by Yachel Moshe's call out the Aspenese role and Moshe assembled the entire assembly

of the children of Israel by Yom Aralem and Moshe says to them, Eilah Hadevore Mashahti Vah Hashem

These are the things that Hashem commanded to do them. Now, what are we going to be talking about?

What did we say about the actual construction of the Tabernacle? Wrong.

Sheshes Yomim Tasekomalach for six days. Do all of your work.

Yom Hashvi Yelachem on the seventh day shall be for you, Kodash, should be holy, Shabas, Shabason,

Lah Hashem, a complete rest to Hashem, Kala Osabomalach humas, and anyone who does any work, any creative

labor on that day shall be put to death. Lose of our age, you shall not kindle a fire,

Bechol Moshe Hasekom in any of your dwellings, be Yom Hashabas on the day of Shabas.

Now, Moshe says, oh, by the way, about the gifts and about putting together all of the

necessary work that was required for the assembly and construction of the Tabernacle,

and that's the rest of the parasha talks about that. So Hashem, in his infinite wisdom,

decides that right before we're going to actually be talking about the Tabernacle,

let's just slip in a little line over there about Shabas, about the importance of the observance of

Shabas. I want to just share with you, there's a magnificent book I want to introduce everyone to.

Here, this is an amazing book, it looks like a children's book, but it's not a children's book.

This is a book that talks about Shabas, and it's the most magnificent book because it really gives

the full background, the full story of Shabas. So let me just show you here.

The 39 Avut Malachot of Shabas is the 39, let's call the parent principles of Shabas.

It means you have the children and you have the parent. The parent is the main structures,

the main systems, and then you have the things that are derived from it.

So, six days of creation, we have light in the dark, the splitting of the waters, the heaven and the

earth, right? You have the land, masses, and the vegetation. You have the constellations.

Therefore, day five is all the birds, all of the sea creatures, and then you have the

six day, which is the creation of Adam and Eve, and all of the animals, and then you have Shabas.

Shabas is the day of rest, that's the six day. So what is Shabas? What are the principles of Shabas?

So here you have the tabernacle. This is what the tabernacle looked like.

And you have each one of these is telling us all the different labors that were necessary

for the construction and deconstruction of the tabernacle. Every time they traveled,

it needed to be deconstructed. Every time they read, they camped, they reconstructed it.

There was a system that was down, they knew exactly what needed to be done.

Everyone had a task, everyone had a job, total organization. So let me give you an example.

Okay, so we know that they had these beautiful drapes. What were these drapes made out of?

Leather. Leather drapes. How do you make leather?

Leather. Leather comes from hide. So in the process of catching that animal,

slaughtering that animal, taking off its its hide is trapping, slaughtering,

skinning, tanning, smoothing, marking, cutting, all of those are forbidden on Shabas.

Because that was a task that was necessary for the tabernacle. Give me another example.

Building and demolishing was necessary for the construction of the tabernacle.

To build and take apart the mishkan, the tabernacle, when they were traveling,

building and and demolishing prohibited on Shabas. To rebuild the mishkan properly,

letters were written on the pillars to identify their position because every pillar was in the

exact spot every single time. You couldn't have, oh, this is right six. I'm going to put on left six.

Right six was on right six. How did they do it? They wrote two letters.

They wrote aliph and aliph so you know that these two were together. Then they had on the next

side of it, they had bet and bet and those two were next to each other. Gimmel, Gimmel. So they

knew the aliph and aliph were always together, the bet bet and that's the way it was constructed.

So letters were often erased and rewritten. They erased it once it was put together,

they'd make it all nice and then when they take it apart, before they took it apart, they would

write the letters again. So writing and erasing are both prohibited on Shabas, writing and or

erasing. I'll give you one more example. Now another thing is to grow and process plants were needed

to make dyes to color the wool and skins and to prepare the loaves of bread for the show bread.

So therefore plowing and planting and harvesting, gathering, threshing, winnowing, selecting, grinding,

sifting, needing baking, all prohibited on Shabas. To prepare the wools and weave it into curtains,

there were some curtains that were leather, some that were wool. It required shearing and bleaching

and combing and dyeing and spinning, threading loom, threading harness, weaving, separating thread,

tying, untying, sewing and tearing, all of that prohibited on Shabas. So you're going to be asking

yourself, I don't do that really ever. Let me share with you just a quick example. Anybody ever

take out the garbage? Take out the garbage, right? What do you do with the garbage bag? You tie it,

make a knot, prohibited on Shabas, you can't make a knot. You can make a bow because a bow with one

pole, it unties. That you can do. So on Shabas, and I practice doing it during the week as well,

because I one time realized on Shabas, it was just like autopilot, I take out the garbage and I made

a knot. I'm like, steak. So I started practicing even during the week to make a bow. So that way,

on Shabas, I shouldn't make that mistake and make a knot. Again, that is a biblical prohibition.

Someone does it by mistake or out of ignorance, they don't know. It's not going to be as punishable

as if someone does it intentionally. The goal, obviously, is for each and every one of us to learn

and to grow in our Judaism every day and take something, add something to our Shabas and we'll see

in a minute why. And that's the topic of today's partial review in focus. But before we go ahead,

I want to just share with you in this book that it has every one of the 39 laws and it goes for

example, Horace, which is plowing. And it says exactly what it was preparing the earth for planting.

And it gives all of the examples of what would and would not qualify as a subsidiary of that law.

It actually means not to take a shovel and dig up earth. That's what's prohibited. But there

are many derivatives of that. And that's what we learned. This book goes through all of those things.

It is amazing. If you have children, if you have grandchildren, so I highly recommend that everyone

get a copy of this book. I have multiple copies of this in my house. Not only for my kids, for myself,

I learn a tremendous amount from this book. And I urge you all, go out there, make it the most

popular book on Amazon. It's by rabbi, baruch, chate, and illustrated beautifully by Yoni

Gerstein. And it is, it's magnificent, really, really, really tremendous. So now let's go back to our

question. Why does God slip in when we're about to talk about the tabernacle? He says, Oh, by the way,

keep my shovis, protect my shovis. So my dear friends, we need to know something fundamental.

And that is, our sages teach us that the source of all blessing is shovis.

The source for all blessing is shovis. You want to know the blessing that's going to be required

in your own lives, in your own lives, every single aspect of your life is blessed through shovis.

You know the blessing for your children, and you know the blessing for your livelihood,

and you know the blessing for you and your family, it's shovis. That's why it's a prerequisite.

You want to start building the tabernacle? There's one prerequisite and that's shovis.

Because shovis is the blessing that everything, everything derives from the blessing of shovis.

This is why it's the tonight. It's the condition with which you want to go forward

in building the tabernacle. You're going to need to have shovis.

Shovis is the basic condition. According to our sages, the reason why shovis is the last day of

creation is the day of rest. God could have just created the world in six days and leave it six days.

No, no, no. There's a very strong emphasis on the seventh day. What's the seventh day?

No creation. For what? Because that's the battery. It's like before you put together the entire

car. It's a beautiful car. Everything is ready to go, but now you've got to put in gas.

It's the gasoline. Without gasoline, you can have the most beautiful car in the world. It's not

going to go anywhere. Even if you have a Tesla, if you don't charge that battery, it's not going

to work. That is shovis. Shovis is the charger. Shovis is the gasoline. Shovis is what gets everything

going. So the vessel could be there. That's the six days of creation. But if you want to give it

the spiritual life, you want to give it the energy that it can shoot up to the heavens.

That's shovis. And we see that all of the blessing of the weak is dependent on shovis.

According to some of our sages, shovis is really not the last day of the week, but rather the first

day of the week. It's the first day of the week where our sages tell us the blessing that comes

the following week is based on the previous shovis. So shovis, according to our sages, it's an

interesting thing. We've done this many, many times. We have Tuesday night classes. And what I always

tried to say after every one of our Tuesday night classes is, wish you a good shovis. One second,

it's Tuesday night. What's going on? Because our sages tell us that the first three days of the

week still have strong influence of the previous shovis. So that Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Tuesday night

is already Wednesday in the Jewish calendar, right? The night, the night is the beginning of the day.

So therefore Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, it has already the blessing of the coming shovis.

So you can already, the Halaqah says, you can already greet someone with a good shovis

from Tuesday night. Because already the influence, the blessing is already coming in to our lives

already from Tuesday night. But we see, and that's according to a different opinion, that

shovis is the middle of the week, that the week really begins Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,

shovis being in the middle and then Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. So shovis has the influence on both

sides. And this is why it's a precondition to the building of the temple. You build the temple,

you want blessing in that, because that's going to be the residence, so to speak, of God. You want

God in your midst, you want God to be there with you. Do you know how you bring God into your midst

every single day of your life, even when there's no tabernacle? Shabbos.

Because although we don't have a tabernacle today here in 2024, March 5th, we don't have a tabernacle

right now. But you know what the Torah says, you should create for me a tabernacle,

and I will reside within them. That doesn't make much sense. You should build a tabernacle,

and I should reside within it. So why within them? I say just tell us, because every person needs

to make themselves into a tabernacle. We need to make ourselves a vessel that is capable

of having godliness within our lives. And that is Shabbos. Shabbos makes us into a worthy,

beneficiary of godliness in our lives every single day. Because by the way, we say, you know what?

I'm letting go. I'm letting go of my feel, my need, my feeling of, I need to control everything.

I'm going to get rid of that feeling. Shabbos is a day where I'm not doing any of those works.

I'm not going to pick up my cleaners. I'm not going to run those errands. I'm not going to do

this no appointments, nothing. Why am I going to get everything done? Shabbos is the source for all

blessing. And that's the amazing part of the entire week that we have. On during those weeks,

during those days of the week, dual of your work, tasek hal malacha, all of your work. It says

in this week's partions, six days to work. Vyomashvi, but on the seventh day, that's a day of

letting all of that hard work shine. At the day of letting go, say, I'm not running anywhere,

I'm not doing anything. I'm just going to bask in my connection with Hashem's glory.

I'm going to allow myself to now take it in. It's like the insanity of people who work and work

and work and work and work and work and work and work and say, when are you going to take a break?

When are you going to enjoy life? Oh, when I retire. Really? When you retire?

That's not a good strategy. We have this opportunity every seven days to be on our

cruise where everything is set. The moment you light those Shabbos candles, ah,

the bliss, the joy, the serenity, the enlightenment, everything shines forth. That's what Shabbos is.

Shabbos gives us an opportunity to just love life, to love our family, to love our spouse,

to love our children, our community. As Echad Haam said, more than the Jews watched over Shabbos,

Shabbos watched over the Jews. We think, oh, we're observing the Shabbos. No, the Shabbos

that we observe is going to protect us and preserve us as a people.

To me, it's the most shocking thing that we don't have community anymore.

There used to be a concept of a Jewish community. The Jewish community lived here and then

they lived here and then they lived here. You know, they moved around even in Houston. In our

not very long history of Jewish people in Houston, they used to be communities where the Jewish

community lived, not no more. Because many have decided that it's okay if people move out to the

rural areas and people move out to the woodlands and to Conroe and to King Wood and Umbal and

Clear Lake and you name the play Pier Land and it's okay as long as they can get to synagogue.

It's a terrible mistake, terrible mistake. Not only there's a prohibition of driving on Shabbos,

there's a different issue is that we lost the fabric of community. And what we used to have

is that people would only move to a place where there was an aerof. An aerof means a boundary

around the community so that you can carry on Shabbos. That means that I need to be close

enough to my neighbors. I need to be close enough to my friends. I need to be within walking

distance to a synagogue. The synagogue is the central place of a community.

And that fabric has been broken and someone's going to have to pay the price for that

because it's devastating what that has done to the Jewish community. The only communities today

that have that still are the Shabbos communities, those that observe Shabbos. And thank God

that community is exploding. Not only in Houston but around the world where you have

there are also the ones having children. So there is a big big challenge that we're facing.

And Shabbos is the solution. Shabbos is not the problem. Shabbos is the solution to all of our

problems. When we realize the observance of Shabbos being the light, the beacon of light that

shines to our entire life and we make it the central part and the focus of our entire week

where we prepared. The Gomorrah says that one of the great Tanex ages would go to the marketplace

every Sunday and it's find a beautiful cut of meat. He's like, oh, this meat for Shabbos.

And then he'd go back to the marketplace on Monday and he'd see a better cut of meat. He's like,

this one for Shabbos. And then Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday,

the same thing happened. Each one superseding the previous one. Then he says, the Gomorrah says,

the Tana would say the entire week became Shabbos because his whole focus was Shabbos.

We can do that. Let's do something special for Shabbos. It's the source for all our blessing.

The source for all our blessing. Everything that we want to accomplish we can

when Shabbos is at the center of everything. Hashem should bless us all that we should maximize

this special gift by the way in the Midrish in this week's parasha. God says to Mosher, by the way,

go tell the Jewish people that I have a very, very, very special gift in my treasure house.

It's the most special thing I have. You know the name of that special gift? Shabbos,

Lake Vahodiyam, let them know. Let them know how special it is. What does that mean? It's a very

odd. Just give it to them. What do you mean? Let you say, take it, take the Shabbos and give it to

them. No, no, no, no. Lake Vahodiyam go and form them because they may not realize

how much of a blessing it is until they start observing it and they see that it becomes the light

that everything shines from. Hashem should bless us all that we shouldn't only merit a Shabbos,

we should merit that our entire week should be infused with the blessing of Shabbos. We should

feel that closeness to Hashem that we're able to attain on Shabbos, not only on Shabbos but throughout

the entire week because this is the source of all blessing. My dear friends, it's not yet

Tuesday night but have a great Shabbos. You've been listening to Rabbi Arya will be on a podcast

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