Community Magazine February 2019

had just touched the tip of the iceberg. Review enables a person to understand the halachah better, and he then realizes that there are so many new things that he didn’t know. This is the ultimate enhancement to the observance of Shabbat.” Rabbi Mordechai Ben Sadon, one of Hacham Shalom’s students who has been delivering a daily shiur in Mishnah Berurah for years, was given the honor of making the actual siyum , completing the final passage of the volume. Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Cohen, shlit”a , Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva Ma’or Haim and a Daf HaYomi B’Halacha maggid shiur , was then given the honor of beginning the fourth volume of Mishnah Berurah , which deals with the complex halachot of eruvin . Rabbi Cohen noted that his students learn the Dirshu program each day in the yeshiva, and they even have classes on Friday and Shabbat, so that not a single day is missed. The boys in the yeshiva take the tests, and they find that the accountability has brought their knowledge and desire to study to a new level. By providing opportunities and a framework for acquiring halachic knowledge, in the form of a daily schedule of learning and review followed by monthly tests, Dirshu has truly changed lives and created a new kind of Jew, a Jew who lives his entire life with a constant, keen awareness of halachah . “Longing” for Shabbat The event reached its dramatic climax when Hacham Shalom Cohen himself spoke. The elderly Rosh Yeshiva seemed to get younger as he started speaking, opening with an in-depth discourse on the foundational role of Shabbat in Jewish life. Citing the Ramban, Hacham Shalom explained that Sefer Bereishit , the first book of the Torah, is called Sefer Yetzirah – the Book of Creation, telling us about the world’s creation and about the lives of our patriarchs and their children. However, the Ramban teaches that all this serves merely as an introduction to Sefer Shemot , in which the Jewish People become a nation and are commanded to build a Mishkan (Sanctuary) where Gd’s presence would rest among them. Only once we had the Mishkan in which we would serve Gd could we truly be considered a nation of Gd’s faithful servants. “If there is no Mishkan ,” Hacham Shalom said, “then we are not considered redeemed. Only when Hashem has His presence rest among us through the Mishkan are we considered to be redeemed. Otherwise, we are still slaves to Egypt! “That being said, despite the colossal importance of the Mishkan , there is something that the Torah tells us is even more important than the Mishkan , and that is…Shabbat!” The rabbi explained: “In Parashat Vayakhel, when the Torah tells us about the actual construction of the Mishkan , the first thing that the Torah says even before the construction of the Mishkan is that one must observe the Shabbat. The Shabbat comes first! “Everyone here has stressed the importance of proper observance of Shabbat, and I don’t want to repeat what they said. Let me just mention that whenwe say a person is a ‘ shomer Shabbat ,’ the word ‘ shomer ’ means ‘watcher’ or observer of Shabbat. In other words, he keeps Shabbat and observes the myriad halachot associated with Shabbat. But the word ‘ shomer ’ has a different translation, as well. ‘ Shomer ’ can mean ‘waiting for,’ ‘anticipating,’ or ‘longing for’. Thus, ‘ shomer Shabbat ’ can also mean ‘one who waits for the Shabbat,’ who longs for the Shabbat. Every day throughout the week, we should be longing for the Shabbat, we should say to ourselves, ‘When is Shabbat coming already?’ The way to develop a longing for Shabbat and a deep desire for Shabbat to come already and bask in its warmth is by studying the laws of Shabbat. The more one learns about what is permitted and what is prohibited on Shabbat, the deeper his relationship with Shabbat will be.” “Fix Friday and Shabbat!” Hacham Shalom then proceeded to speak about his own Shabbat experiences with his family. “I always tell my students that although we Sepharadim do not rule like the Mishnah Berurah , they should first learn the Mishnah Berurah and then learn the final conclusion of the Sephardic poskim .” 40 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE