Turn Friday into Erev Shabbos #225 - Kill the Ego

Oh, now I am sh. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Welcome back to turn Friday into Era of Shabas. Today is not Friday, but it is erabas. I'm sorry that we didn't meet the last couple of weeks, unable to for different reasons, but we're back today. We'll be off again for two weeks and then back on. We'll post the complete schedule in our WhatsApp group. We want to thank our generous sponsors in memory of Rab Jonathan. Thank you for sponsoring the turn Friday into Arab Shabas. I want to share with you a thought an idea how we can turn our Friday into Arab of Shabas based on a beautiful teaching of the Bashamto of the H of Gash. It's an avod. There's work there's effort we have to do. If you don't get ready, if you don't prepare before Shabas, you can't eat on Shabas. If you don't do the work before Shabas, you can't tap into and have the most magnificent Shabas. So the Basham taught the following. The kazal teach us that of shabas. If a person expires, if a person passes away and leaves this world on an air of shabas, it's a positive omen. It's a good sign. And the bash and others ask, can you plan when you leave this world? Do you get to schedule it and plot it and put it on your calendar? What kind of advice is this shabas? If a person dies on shabas, it's a sim. It's a good sign. It's never a good sign to die and you can't choose when you die. So what is going on over here said the following. He said a Jew stands on the cusp at the entrance in the gate of Shabas and he says in what merit? Shabas is kaduca. Shabas is a sanctuary in time. Shabas is immersing ourselves in holiness and in sanctity. But do you know what I did all week? Do you know what I looked at? Do you know what I said? Do you know where I went? Do you know what I did? Do you know how few minmen I made or how much I talked during davining? Do you know how many fights I had in my home? Do you know how many mistakes, the many things I watched that I regret, that I'm ashamed of? So, how am I going to enter Shabas? How can I walk into Shabas? How can I immerse myself in the kaduca and the sanctity and the holiness? How can I pretend to want to draw close and connect to Hashem? I feel unworthy. I feel inconsequential. I feel I don't matter. After all, Shabas is all about clinging to Hashem. Shabas is disconnecting from this world to connect to our source, to him. It's shutting off the technology, the to-do list, the tasks, the distractions in order to be able to hear the message of Hashem. So, in what merit, how am I worthy? How will I connect? We stand at the cusp at that entrance at the gate. I might as well be late from Shabas. I might as well tune out during Shabas. I might as well read some para sheets or distract myself from the Torah reading. How do I connect to Shabas? And this Jew says, "You know what? I'm ash. I'm a someone. I'm a something." He sees himself and he says, "Here's where I went wrong or here's where I went right. Maybe that Jew swells with pride and with arrogance before Shabas and says, "I killed it this week. You know how much money I made? You know how many followers I gained? You know what difference I made in the world? Do you know who I am and what I'm about? I killed it." And maybe that juice swells with pride and with arrogance and feels they're a yesesh. I'm a someone. I'm a something. I don't need anyone or anything. I'm on my own independent and proud which is the opposite of what one needs to cling and connect to Hashem. You have to surrender and submit. Sometimes people come into the end of the week. They say surrender submit. You know that kind of week I had you know how great I am. I don't need to surrender to anyone else. So how does such a Jew enter Shabas? either extreme because they think I'm a no one or they think I'm such a someone and the answer is says the bashmto means to kill and destroy and nullify that sense of self get rid of the ego of the ego so much either the voice of our pride or the voice of the opposite of our insecurity and low self-esteem it comes from too much focus on the self on the ego ego stands stands for edging God out. Ego is the enemy. Ego absolutely destroys relationships with people around us and with Hashem. So how does one enter Shabas Shabas? Get rid of the ego on Arab Shabas. This is your homework today. Today's not Friday. We turn our Friday into Arab Shabas by working on BL. Get rid of the ego. You made a great cook. Be proud. You prepared a beautiful duva. Great. Get ready. But going into Shabas, it's not about you. us. It's not about our ego. Don't lose your cool. Don't get angry if other people don't get ready on the same timetable as you. If the Shabas meal doesn't go the way you wanted it to, if you didn't get the nap that you planned for, it's not about our ego. The way to lean into Shabas, the way to get the most out of Shabas, the way to experience our best Shabas is to be of Shabas is to get rid of that ego. This is all brought down by thermome. So that's what Shabas is all about. Shabas is get ready, get best positioned for Shabas. If Shabas is a platform for a great relationship with Hashem, with others and with ourselves, then it means getting rid of the ego. The ego is the obstacle. The ego is the enemy. The ego is the kryptonite. The ego destroys so much that we work so hard for. And Shabas is the tas of myas. Shabas is the payday. Shabas is the payoff of all that work. Don't ruin it. Don't destroy it. Don't compromise it by having a too much of an ego going into it. So that's our that's your work. It's a long Friday and there's still time left. Practice bal. How can we get rid of the ego? How can we surrender to Hashem? How can we not edge God out? How can we edge him in? How can we make room for others? How can we be patient and kind and loving? Not need to micromanage or overpower or be in control. not make the conversation at the table or our seat in shul or whether we get a kib how can we make it not about us we turn our Friday into shabas by being m of shabas that's the greatest that we could have the greatest most positive sign that we can have is getting rid of that ego we should be to be shabas not to leave this world but to leave the world of the ego and to be able to take pride be proud of the good things that you've done this week be proud Be proud and grow tall with the learning, the daing, what you've accomplished in business and life. Be proud of the preparation for Shabas. But understand it's not about us. It's about him. It's about the people around us. Get rid of that ego and we'll make room and space for others. It'll be a simil. You'll have the most beautiful Shabas ever. We hear beshu should be a shabas of gula. [Music] It's all I [Music]