Now is the Time to Bring the Bracha and Shemirah
of Hilchos Shabbos into Your Home!
If you want to engage in hatzalas nefashos, saving lives, not just the lives of others but your own spiritual life, you should be at the Prudential Arena this Sunday, 3 Sivan/June 9, for Dirshu’s Kinnus Olam HaTorah. It is there that Klal Yisrael will collectively be mekabel Shabbos by undertaking to start learning hilchos Shabbos in Dirshu’s daily Daf HaYomi B’Halacha program.
The greatest zechus that a person can have to bring with him to the upcoming Yom Tov of Kabbolas HaTorah when we are all seeking ways to strengthen our bond with Torah and with Hashem, is Kabbolas Shabbos!
The Sephardic Torah giant, HaGaon HaRav Shalom Cohen, zt”l, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Porat Yosef said, “Shabbos is more important than anything else! If one doesn’t learn hilchos Shabbos, he can transgress d’Oraisahs - Torah mandated prohibitions. Learning hilchos Shabbos is literally hatzalas nefashos.”
The spectacular Kinnus Olam HaTorah promises to be a maamad, a tremendous maamad of chizuk, kabbolas ol malchus shomayim and kabbolas ol haTorah. Leading Gedolei Yisrael from both Eretz Yisrael and America will address the event live and via video, giving over the daas Torah and guidance as to how we should conduct ourselves during these difficult times. They will tell us what the call of the hour is, and what every Yid can do to invoke rachamei shomayim.
The massive Prudential Center will not only be open for men but for women as well. After all, Kabbolas Shabbos is a family affair, and behind every home where the men and the bachurim are learning hilchos Shabbos, there is a wife and mother serving as the backbone on the home front, ensuring their success and cheering them on.
The Kabbolas Shabbos maamad of chizuk at the Prudential Center will feature a combination of live and video addresses exclusively for the maamad featuring luminaries such as the venerated Roshei Yeshiva of the Slabodka Yeshiva, HaGaon HaRav Dov Landau, shlita, and HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, shlita.
The participants will be able to daven together with the gaon, tzaddik and mekubal, HaRav Shimon Galei, shlita and will be there in the room with him as he inspires us to new heights in advance of Kabbolas HaTorah. We will be able to prepare for Shavuos with a powerful, practical message and guidance from HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Sorotzkin, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of the Lakewood Mesivta and Telshe, who will stand at the podium and convey the “Call of the Hour” to Klal Yisrael.
We will be inspired by messages from the great American Rabbanim and Poskim, HaGaon HaRav Hillel David, shlita, Rav of Kehillas Yeshiva Shaarei Torah, Yoshev Rosh of the Vaad Roshei Yeshiva of Torah Umesorah, and a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisroel, HaGaon HaRav Reuven Feinstein, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva of Staten Island, HaGaon HaRav Shlomo Miller, shlita, Rosh Kollel of the Kollel Avreichim of Toronto and Av Beis Din of the Beis Horaah of Lakewood and HaGaon HaRav Yechiel Mechel Steinmetz, shlita, senior Skverer Dayan.
The powerful addresses of the Gedolei Eretz Yisrael, HaGaon HaRav Dovid Cohen, shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of the Chevron Yeshiva, the Sanzer Rebbe, shlita, and HaGaon HaRav Avraham Salim, Nasi of the Shas Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah, will certainly move and inspire the listeners to bring the true bracha and shemira of Shabbos into their homes.
In addition, we will be treated to hear from Gedolim closer to home, powerful and inspirational Rabbanim such as HaRav Shimon Spitzer, shlita, HaRav Dovid Ozeri, shlita, Rav of the Yad Yosef Torah Center, HaRav Zev Smith, Maggid Shiur for Dirshu and Irgun Shiurei Torah, and Rav Dovid Hofstedter, shlita, Nasi Dirshu.
The uplifting, moving music and heartfelt singing by the renowned mezamrim, R’ Zanvil Weinberger, R’ Hershel Weinberger, R’ Baruch Levine, R’ Naftali Kempeh, accompanied by the Shirah Choir and Frelich Orchestra are sure to strengthen the message of the bracha of Shabbos.
Creating a “Shabbos Yid”!
Most important, however, is the ultimate objective of this historic gathering. To follow and heed the call of the Gedolei Yisrael who represent the entire spectrum of Torah Jewry to encourage and ensure that every observant Jew, whether he is a ben yeshiva or kollel yungerman, a businessman or professional, should undertake to learn hilchos Shabbos. What better opportunity than right now, Erev Shavuos when the Daf HaYomi B’Halacha program begins Chelek Gimmel of Mishnah Berurah with the start of hilchos Shabbos while simultaneously, Dirshu’s popular, new Amud HaYomi program is in the middle of Masechta Shabbos?!
Shabbos is the source of all bracha. When we keep Shabbos properly and arouse awareness of the myriad halachos that we encounter every single Shabbos, we are empowered to be careful not to transgress melachos d’oraysah and d’rabbanan, Torah mandated commandments and Rabbinic mandated prohibitions. In this way, we can bring bracha and shemira not only to our own families but to the entire Klal Yisrael!
Those who attend this historic gathering led by the Gedolei Hador, the einei ha’eidah, will never be the same! You will come out a Shabbos Yid, a Yid who wants to truly bring the bracha of Shabbos into your home and the shemira of Shabbos to all of Klal Yisrael.
Yidden of All Types… On the “Same Page”!
100 years ago, when the great gaon and tzaddik, Rav Meir Shapiro proposed the concept of learning a Daf Yomi of Gemara, he gave a transformative speech that echoes until this very day. In that famed speech, Rav Meir Shapiro explained how Klal Yisrael would benefit from individuals learning the same daf world over each day, “When Yankel the businessman from Warsaw will meet his friend Moshe from Krakow at the annual yerid, the business show in Leipzig, what will they talk about? They will talk about the same daf of Gemara that they learned that morning. They will be on the ‘same page’.”
Similarly, it is amazing to see how today, Jews who meet one another – be it in shul, on the street or even waiting at a bus stop – stop to discuss a difficult halacha in the Mishnah Berurah from that day’s Daf HaYomi B’Halacha, or a fascinating practical psak halacha issued by HaGaon HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zt”l, HaGaon HaRav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, zt”l, or HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Wosner, zt”l, that they saw in the incredible Biurim U’Musafim section of Dirshu’s edition of the Mishnah Berurah. Avreichim, bochurim, baalei batim throughout the world all find a common language in the daily Daf HaYomi B’Halacha.
The Key to Shemira is Shabbos! And the Key is in Our Hands!
In advance of the previous machzor of Daf HaYomi B’Halacha when the program began learning hilchos Shabbos, the venerated Rosh Yeshiva of Ponovezh, HaGaon HaRav Gershon Edelstein, zt”l, was asked to give over a message. He said, “It is well known that from a lack of knowledge of hilchos Shabbos, a person can transgress Torah mandated prohibitions. It is so important to learn Mishnah Berurah daily! Learning Mishnah Berurah daily is mamesh hatzolas nefashos!”
The Vizhnitzer Rebbe, shlita, of Bnei Brak has been enthusiastically encouraging everyone to begin hilchos Shabbos this Erev Shavuos. He said, “Chazal teach us that he who learns halachos every day is assured a place in Olam Habaah. When it says ‘every day,’ Chazal didn’t intend it to just mean every day, rather they meant it to include ‘the entire day.’ When a person learns halacha every day,” the Rebbe exclaimed, “his entire day is different! Certainly, when a person’s every action on Shabbos is controlled by halacha, his entire Shabbos is different!”
Klal Yisrael so desperately needs shemira today and the key to that shemira is Shabbos! It is in our hands! That is what the Gedolei Yisrael, Rav Dov Landau and Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein, taught us. That is what the Vizhnitzer Rebbe and Rav Reuven Elbaz taught us. Now, all we have to do is be mekabel Shabbos!
Let us all come together at the Prudential Center this Sunday night, just two days before Shavuos and let us, k’ish echad b’lev echad, be mekabel Shabbos!
For last-minute reservations, please contact: 929-522-1121 or visit www.DirshuSiyum.org
By Chaim Gold
