Tonight we're going to do something different than we usually do, and maybe for some people it'll be a disappointment, I don't know. We once did this, but not fully, so we're going to do this over again, but a different style than we always do. What we always do is we have a topic that we choose, and I discuss that topic from different angles, more the Chassidic angle than others, and that's the way we work this this these classes. What I'm going to do today is a little bit different. I'm going to go through the tefillot of Shabbos. We once did that, we did a little bit of it. Shabbos, we know, have special tefillot. The prayers of Shabbos are different than the prayers of the week, and there are different reasons, some halachic reasons why we say these things on Shabbos, certain things have kabbalistic reasons, mystical reasons why we say these things on Shabbos, certain things have גימטריאות because they have certain numerical values, the certain words mean certain letters and things like that, and that's why we say these different things on Shabbos. So what I'm going to do is try to go from the beginning of the special prayers that we do on Shabbos, go through from Friday, Friday Mincha, when we start with the special prayer, and we will go through, just picking a point here and a point there, till we go through Motzaei Shabbos, which is different than we always do, because we always just stick to one topic, and we go through the explanation of that topic. In this case, well, that's a very good idea, just to give people siddurim and you could follow in the siddur to see the different tefillot, and I will just touch upon every tefillah for a minute or two, because otherwise we could sit here till tomorrow. Yeah, okay, do they all have the same the the same page? Yeah, the page numbers of the same siddur of whether it's the English siddur or the Yiddish siddur, they have the same numbers, and we will just go through the tefillot. Okay, we will start, as I said, from Shabbos Mincha, Friday Mincha actually. Now, Friday Mincha, the regular Mincha is like every other day, which is Ashrei, and then Shemoneh Esrei. During the week, we say Tachanun in the middle, which is when we bang and we say Ashamnu, which is the really the confession that we confess our sins, and then we put our hands down, and we say Tachanun, but on Friday, no, we don't do it, like we don't do it at any time when it is a Yom Tov or an Erev, a day before a Yom Tov. But that's the same every day. What's different on Friday is that we say, you see page 124, we have Hodu, and then פתח אליהו, these are special prayers that we say. Now, Hodu is a chapter of Tehillim, actually is the chapter 107 of Tehillim. The reason we say this, first let me tell you who established us for us to say this: the Baal Shem Tov. In other words, this does not date back all the way to the Gemara's time or things like that, like the regular parts of of davenen, like Shemoneh Esrei, this is the Baal Shem Tov. And the reason he said we should say this is because in this chapter of Tehillim, we mention the different things a person has to be thankful to Hashem. In this chapter of Tehillim, we mention the four that are חייבים להודות, the four types of people that must always give a thanksgiving to Hashem, and that is, those are four people who bentch gomel, there are certain people who do certain things that they have to give a special blessing after they come back, and that is hinted in the word חיים. \"וכל החיים יודוך סלה\", which means all the living should praise You, the word חיים is an abbreviation: חבוש, the ח is חבוש, which means someone that was in jail and came out of jail. The י is ים, someone crossed the sea. The other י is ייסורים, if someone has pain, in other words someone was sick. And the מ is מדבר, someone crosses a desert. And they're all hinted here. And if from here we know these four people that they have to thank Hashem. By the time we're finished with the week, and we're getting ready for Shabbos, we have to thank Hashem for getting us through the week safely, just like these people have to thank Hashem for getting through these problems safely, we thank Hashem for getting through these problems safely. And that's why the Baal Shem Tov said we should say this chapter right before Mincha, when we are entering the preparations, the last last preparations for Shabbos. Also, in this paragraph, this chapter, we have, one of the four is יורדי הים באניות, those people who cross the sea in ships, they go through the sea, they have to thank Hashem. We, the Baal Shem Tov said that we consider ourselves during the week as going through a ship in the mighty waters. You know there is an expression, \"מים רבים לא יוכלו לכבות את האהבה\", there's a phrase that says, a pasuk that says, the mighty waters cannot destroy the love a Jew has to Hashem. The mighty waters refer to all the hardships that we go through throughout the week. which are really tests that test us whether we are still going to stay close to Hashem and faithful to Hashem. When we finish the week, we actually are like the people who succeeded in protecting and staying safe in the mighty waters that they're in. And that's mentioned here, and that's why the Baal Shem Tov said we should say that. After that, we go to the next chapter which the Baal Shem Tov also said that we should say, that's Patach Eliyahu. Patach Eliyahu is an introduction to Tikunei Zohar, which actually means it is a chapter of the Zohar. And here it deals with all the sefirot, all the 10 sefirot that we have in the different higher worlds, and it discusses here exactly what they are and how they are. It's very hard to understand. We just say it. People who have a good knowledge of Kabbalah, of mysticism will understand what it says here. Other people will just say the words, even if you read the English, it's just a translation. You have to really learn, it's very hard, but we do say it on Friday, and the reason is because it says in Kabbalah that Friday before Shabbos is a time what we call דורמיטא דז״א, when all the sefirot, all the sefirot, the 10 sefirot that are above are in a position of being asleep, because since when Shabbos comes, it's a time when Hashem stopped creating the world. He created the world in six days and the seventh day He rested. Now, what it means kabbalistically is that He rested from the influence that the sefirot give to the world, and it entered a different stage. The sefirot are still there, but they're in a complete different stage. Not to get into the details, it goes from dibur to machshavah, I'm not going to go into the details, but because Friday before Shabbos is a time when the sefirot are, so to speak, asleep, that's why in order for us to reawaken the service of these sefirot, we say פתח אליהו which talks which talks about these sefirot. It's interesting that the Alter Rebbe Friday right at that time would go to sleep. He would lay down for a short while, take a nap. And the truth is he wouldn't even lay down to go to sleep, but he would just fall asleep, because he was such a great tzadik that his body functioned according to the mystical things that happened in the higher worlds. Physically his body functioned that way. And since the human being has 10 of these attributes which are a השתלשלות, an evolvement of the 10 sefirot the way they are above, so every human being has within the 10 sefirot in him. But we just don't feel it, because we're not so great. The great tzadikim like the Alter Rebbe felt it, and therefore when the time when these sefirot are asleep, he physically fell asleep, and then he would wake up as Shabbos would come. And that's the reason why we say this פתח אליהו.

Then starting with קבלת שבת, then we daven מנחה, which is the regular Minchah. I know I'm not going to go through everything, because this is going to take forever. Just picking different things. Then we go through to קבלת שבת, which is קבלת שבת we say different chapters of Tehillim, starting from לכו נרננה, שירו להשם, השם מלך, מזמור שירו להשם, השם מלך, and then we go to מזמור לדוד. Here we have six chapters of Tehillim. The reason they we say these specific six chapters of Tehillim is it says five are parallel to the five days of the week starting from Sunday: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The sixth one, which is מזמור לדוד, that is parallel, that is כנגד Friday, ערב שבת, because ערב שבת, Friday, when we get close to Shabbos, we are in a higher state, we're in a higher madregah, a higher level. There are 18 times mentioned Hashem's name in this chapter of Tehillim, 18 times. And it actually says, why do we stand when they we're supposed When we say this chapter of Tehillim Friday night we're supposed to stand. The others, other five, we don't stand. If you want, you can stand, but you don't have to. Here you have to stand, and the reason we have to stand is because this is like Shemoneh Esrei. When you stand, the Amidah Shemoneh Esrei has 18 blessings. Actually it has 19. This one has 18 times Hashem's name, and another time which is hinted here. So this is like the Shemoneh Esrei, and that's why Friday we say this as the last chapter of Tehillim that we say for the six days of the week, the last one is the special one, because that is for Friday. This was established to say these chapters of Tehillim was established about 400 years ago. This didn't start all the way back from the time of the Gemara, this is about 400 years ago, this was established by Yidden. Then after that we go to אנא בכח. אנא בכח is a prayer that was established about 2,000 years ago by Rav Nechunia ben Hakanah. Rav Nechunia ben Hakanah was one of the great, famous Tannaim, scholars of the Mishnah. But this is very, very kabbalistic. Even though in the words itself we don't see it, but this is very kabbalistic. One of the things is that these this prayer You will notice if you go back, we have the same prayer earlier, let's see which page it is, page 22. Hold your hand here and go back to page 22. You see the same Ana Bekoach, but on the side, you see letters of the אלף בית. These letters are the first letters of each one of these words, and if you notice, there are 42 letters here. These letters make up one of Hashem's names. There is a name of Hashem which is called the שם בן מ״ב, מ״ב. מ״ב is 42. There is a name of Hashem which is mentioned in the Gemara, and in the Gemara's time, it says that we already then did not know what the name is, but the mekubalim, the Kabbalah's came back and they said this is the name of Hashem. And this we say Friday night, and the truth is when we say this paragraph here, the right way to do it is that at that time when we say it, we should glance with our eyes at the letters that make up the name of Hashem, which is a name of 42 letters. These letters on the side. If you see, א' ב' ג' is Ana Bekoach, it's the abbreviation of א' - אנא, ב' - בכח, ג' - גדולת, and then the י'. These letters are the abbreviation of these words that we have here in Ana Bekoach. This name of Hashem, it says in Kabbalah, and I'm not going to explain anything I'm saying today, I'm just now stating you facts from Kabbalah, in Kabbalah it says that this name, which is made up of 42 letters, is the שם העליה. That's the name that we use whenever we want to elevate from one level to a higher level. And that is the reason, a person is at a point when he's reaching, supposed to reach the next stage, for whatever reasons, using this name helps the person go to the next level. And that's why we say this certain times when we are interested and when we go from one level to another. So we say Ana Bekoach and we have in mind the name of Hashem that's hinted in the abbreviation of these words. We say this, as we saw on page 22, in the morning right before we daven, because when we daven, that's the time when we elevate ourselves from the low level to the high level. We know what it says in the Zohar, that prayer is like the ladder. Yaakov Avinu had a dream with the ladder. The ladder where he saw malachim going from lower to higher. It says in the Zohar that סולם דא צלותא, this ladder is really prayer. Prayer is a time when we travel, when we go from level to level. So right before we start our prayers, we say Ana Bekoach, because using this paragraph, which has the name of Hashem, the 42 letters, is a time of aliyah, of elevation. Friday, this is right before right in the middle of קבלת שבת, right time when Shabbos starts, when we change from the level of the weekdays to the level of Shabbos, we again say Ana Bekoach, this is the time when we elevate. There's another time when we say this: in קריאת שמע על המטה, in the Shema that we say before we go to sleep. And the reason is because that's the time when we give our neshamah to Hashem, and it elevates from being completely in the body, and it goes away from the body to a certain degree and goes to heaven, we again use the say. And there are other times, for instance, when we count Sefirat HaOmer, when we count Sefirah, we also say this, because Sefirat HaOmer, when we get to Sefirah, we learn about it, that Sefirah is a time when we elevate and purify our neshamah and our body, etc., etc. That's why we say that, too. So Friday night we say here Ana Bekoach.

From here on we go to Lecha Dodi. Lecha Dodi was is like a poem, really. And Lecha Dodi, this was also written by somebody who lived not more than about, I would say, 400 years ago, 420 years ago, Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz. Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz was the brother-in-law and the teacher of the Ramak. The Ramak was Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, who was the famous, famous mekubal. The Ramak was the teacher of the Arizal. The Arizal, who was the famous mekubal, the Ramak was his teacher. And if Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz was the teacher of the Ramak, he must he happened to be his brother-in-law, too. If you notice, his name is hinted here. If you look at the first letters of these verses, you see the name שלמה: ש, ל, מ, ה, הלוי. Look down from the letters: שלמה הלוי. This is the idea of us greeting the Shabbos, because in the Gemara, it says that when Shabbos comes, it's like we greet a כלה, we have to greet Shabbos. The Gemara mentions different חכמים that would actually get dressed nicely just to go out and say, \"We greet you, the כלה,\" just like you go to greet the כלה by a חתונה. That's the reason why by the last one, בואי בשלום, the custom is that wherever you are, you turn around. And the real idea is not just to turn to the back of the shul, like so many people think, really it is because the door of the shul always used to be in the back, as it is still nowadays in most cases. What you're doing is you're really turning to the door. We're turning around when we're greeting Shabbos, we greet the כלה, and we turn around as if we're looking at the door and say Baruch Haba! I'm just coming from a חתונה, from a חופה now, and they said Baruch Haba. They blessed the one that came. We're blessing and we're greeting the כלה, that's why we turn around. That's the next one. Then we go further to the chapter מזמור שיר ליום השבת. This is a chapter of Tehillim that deals with Shabbos. Now this, the Rambam writes that this is a minhag to say this, this is also not from the time of the Gemara, but the Rambam already mentions this and he says this is from מנהג הקדמונים, it's a minhag, a custom from many, many generations beforehand. So it goes back at least, I would say, fifteen hundred years, something like that. This chapter really deals with not the Shabbos as we have now, but the real Shabbos. We know when Mashiach will come we call that יום שכולו שבת ומנוחה לחיי העולמים, that's a time that there'll be completely Shabbos. We'll live a Shabbos life throughout every day, constantly, and this is really what this deals with. But we know that the Shabbos that we have now is what we call מעין עולם הבא. It is a miniature time Shabbos of the way it's going to be לעתיד לבוא when Mashiach will come. So already now, when we start the Shabbos, we say this chapter to mention the fact that this is a beginning of the great Shabbos that we expect when Mashiach will come. The next one, which is ה' מלך גאות לבש, this is a chapter that deals with ה' becoming the greatest of the universe, getting dressed with greatness. Now this chapter deals with Friday, actually. This, as we know that Friday morning, we know every day we say the שיר של יום, every day at the end of the davenen there's a chapter that we say, Sunday a different one, Monday, and these chapters are set special for that day. This chapter is said Friday morning. Why Friday? Because on Friday, the Friday of creation, that's when Hashem' was acknowledged as the Creator of the world. It says in the Midrash that after Hashem' created Adam HaRishon, first human being, and he was beautiful and great and tall, and the only creature that had sechel, that had intellect. So all the creatures in the world looked around and they saw him and they said, \"This must be our Creator.\" And they all came to him and they started bowing down to him. And he said to them, \"You're mistaking. I'm not the Creator, Hashem' is your Creator.\" And he said, \"Therefore, let us all get together, you and me together, and let's go בואו ונשתחוה ונכרעה נברכה לפני ה' עושנו, let us bow down to Hashem'.\" So this chapter, which deals with ה' מלך גאות לבש, that ה' got dressed in גאות, גאות means greatness, when was His greatness seen in the world? Not on the first day of creation, there was nobody to see, not on the second. Even when He created different creatures, they still did not recognize His greatness. It was Friday, and therefore Friday, at the end of Friday, right by Shabbos, we say this chapter Hashem' מלך גאות לבש. Then we go on to Kegavna, see, I'm trying to rush just let's go through as much as possible. Kegavna and Raza dShabbos, the next two chapters, are, okay, we'll see, fine, fine, maybe if we don't don't finish we'll, we're on page 133. Yes, maybe we'll do this, I'll go through it and we'll, Kegavna and Raza dShabbos, these two chapters are pieces of the Zohar. They are actually pieces of the Zohar. Here, some people have a custom to say different things here. They say different Mishnayot, Mishnayot במה מדליקין, different things. The real reason why we say something here is because we want to make a separation between this previous part of the davenen and the next part of the davenen. The next part of the davenen is going to be the regular Maariv. It's the evening prayers, and we have evening prayers every night. Shabbos is specially prayers, but still, it's regular תפילת ערבית. Till now, we had a prayer of what we call, you see on top of the page it says Kabbalat Shabbat, the acceptance of Shabbos. And therefore, being that they're two separate types, we want to make a separation in between. So some people have the custom of making the separation through saying certain Mishnayot, which Mishnayot? במה מדליקין, which is, which are Mishnayot that deal with the laws of Shabbos, and that's how they make the separation, which is similar to a chasunah that we read the kesubah in middle of the chuppah, also to make a separation between what was before and after, because the first part of the chuppah really is just the engagement, the real level of engagement the way they used to have it in the time of the Gemara. From after that, turns into the marriage. To make a separation between the engagement and the marriage used to be a year. Now it's only three minutes, five minutes, so we read the kesubah. Here, too, we make a separation between Kabbalat Shabbat and Maariv. So many people in נוסח אשכנז they make a separation by saying במה מדליקין. But נוסח ספרד and נוסח האר״י make a separation by saying pieces of the Zohar. Now what are these pieces of the Zohar about? They discuss what Shabbos is, that comes Shabbos, all the evil spirits and whatever evil things that we could imagine, all leave. Shabbos is a holy day and there is nothing there as you could probably see in the English translation. It says כל שולטני רוגזין ומארי דדינא כולהו ערקין ואתעברו מנהון, they all run away. All the evil and anger and all the different things go away. There is no other control in all the world but Hashem's smiling face, etc., etc. And in the Zohar it says that this is what we have to have in mind before we say Barchu. Barchu is how we start Maariv. Every day, Barchu, the chazan says, \"Bless Hashem,\" and everyone answers, \"Hashem is blessed forever.\" That's the beginning of Maariv. We always have a little introduction of והוא רחום or similar things, but this is how it starts. So this, the Zohar says, is what we have to have in mind before we say the Barchu. The truth is, if you look in the siddur, right after this, when we finish בנהירו דאנפין, there's another little paragraph, which we... We didn't say Barchu yet. We're on page 133, כגוונא, רזא דשבת, and on page 134, at the end of the paragraph, you have another paragraph, ולומר. Now the truth is this next paragraph is the continuation of the Zohar that we just said before. And usually, if you daven with a minyan, we don't say that paragraph ולומר. We go straight from the paragraph that you said before, which is the introduction to the Barchu, and we go straight to the Barchu. Chatzi Kaddish and we go to the Barchu. If we don't daven with a minyan, that means that we then cannot say Barchu, because you could only say Barchu and everyone answering ברכו את ה׳ המבורך if you daven with a minyan. So if you don't daven with a minyan, then you have to say this ולומר. Because then, since you don't say Barchu, you're saying an introduction and you're not getting to the real thing. You're saying כגוונא, רזא דשבת and then you're starting with Maariv, you're stuck in the middle. But when we continue the Zohar, so then we say that all this was in order to say Barchu. So even if we didn't say Barchu, we at least have something of the Barchu because we said the Zohar which talks about the Barchu. And this we do even if you daven with a minyan, in other words you happen to be by a minyan and you heard Barchu, but you didn't hold at that point when you come to Barchu, then when you finish בנהירו דאנפין you have to say this little piece ולומר. And this is the end of that Zohar. And from here we go on to the regular Maariv, which is, like every Maariv has two brachot, two blessings, first, and then we go to the Shema. Those are called the blessings before the Shema, then we have two blessings after the Shema. The two blessings are, one, thanking Hashem for making the difference between day and night, then we thank Hashem for loving the nation Yidden, the Jewish nation, then we say Shema. And to say Shema, that's a mitzvah. Besides the mitzvah of praying in the evening, Maariv, this תפילת מעריב, we have to say Shema. As a matter of fact, to pray in the evening is only a mitzvah that the Chachamim established. To say Shema in the evening is a מצוה דאורייתא, a mitzvah from the Torah, that's not from the Chachamim, not from the rabbis. That's even more important than saying the prayers. So we say the Shema, the Chachamim established that before we say the Shema, we should say two blessings, two berachot before, two berachot after. That we do every night. So every night we say these two berachot, so do we do so do we Friday night, מעריב ערבים, אוהב עמו ישראל, then we say the Shema, till we come to the other two berachot after the Shema, which is גאל ישראל and then השכיבנו. Now, like I said, we're not going to go into those things which we have all week, we're just going over the different special things in Shabbos. Here we see something different. If you want to compare השכיבנו the way we say it every night, and the way we say השכיבנו Friday night, let's look back at the regular Maariv prayer. Let's see which page that is. That's page 110. You see here is a long השכיבנו, and here by Friday night is a short השכיבנו. And it's not just the difference between long and short, the difference is what we say. השכיבנו, and this is basically our custom, others don't have the completely same custom, השכיבנו Protect us from all problems, from sicknesses, from the sword, from hunger, from all kinds of problems. Take away the satan from us. Protect our coming and going, etc., and then we finish off: ברוך אתה ה', blessed are you Hashem', שומר את עמו ישראל לעד. We thank Hashem', we bless Hashem' for protecting, watching the Jewish nation forever. Now, if we go back at the Friday night השכיבנו, that's not what we say. We don't mention at all the protection. We don't mention at all that you should take away the hunger, and take away all the different problems that we might have, and we don't finish off ברוך אתה ה' שומר את עמו ישראל לעד, that you protect the Yidden forever. What we say is different. We finish off with ופרוש עלינו סוכת שלומך, you shall spread over us the sukkah of your peace. ברוך אתה ה', blessed are you Hashem', הפורש סוכת שלום עלינו, the one that spread out the Sukkah of peace over us, and over all the Yidden, and over Yerushalayim. So we don't mention protection. Why don't we mention protection at all? It's Shabbos. Exactly, because it's Shabbos. And since it's Shabbos, Hashem' protects us, and we are not afraid, and therefore we don't say anything about protection. Besides, to ask Hashem' on Shabbos to give us our normal daily needs is not the right time. During the week we ask Hashem' for all our needs. Shabbos is not the time to do it, and therefore to ask Hashem' on Shabbos to give us our needs of taking away the evil, taking away the sword, taking away the hunger, all these different things, we don't do on Shabbos, therefore we don't say it. Besides, we know that on Shabbos everyone has a neshamah yeseirah, an extra neshamah. We all know that. Every Yid has a neshamah, Friday, from Friday night on through Shabbos, every Yid has a neshamah yeseirah, an extra neshamah. Now, this extra neshamah does a lot of things to a person. One of the things it does, it says, is it makes the person have a better appetite. And it's true. Shabbos, the food tastes different, tastes better. We have the famous story with Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, the Gemara tells that the king was his friend, used to visit him, and once they served on Shabbos special Shabbos food, must have been the tsholent, and the king loved it. And he told the chef, \"Could you go get the ingredients, get the recipe, how to do it?\" And he was a professional chef, so he got the recipe, and came afterwards, and he did exactly as he was told, and he served it to the king, and the king said, \"It's not the same. I wonder, you must have missed something.\" And he said, \"No,\" he went back, everything as he was told. So he came to Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, and he asked him, \"What happened? How come?\" So he says, \"There's one ingredient that he missed.\" \"Oh, he did miss an ingredient! Let's tell him what the ingredient is.\" He says, \"Too bad, you can't do that.\" \"The what is that?\" \"The ingredient is Shabbos. And that gives the food that special taste.\" But it's not only that Shabbos puts the ingredient in the food, it's in the person. The person has a special neshamah, and that special neshamah makes him feel better about the food. It says it also allows the person to eat more. You ever notice on Shabbos you eat more than the whole week? Oh, I don't know, but it's too much. It's Shabbos! So you eat more, and during the week you couldn't even eat that much. It's the extra neshamah. But besides that, the extra neshamah also protects an Yid. Always we have one neshamah, and when we have two neshamot, imagine we have a double protection. We have the malachim who protect, the angels who protect the Yid always, but that's one level. Shabbos, much higher level. And that's why we don't say on Shabbos, we don't, שומר, that Hashem' watches over us, because on Shabbos we don't have to ask that.

Now we go further, we see in the siddur we have here ושמרו, that paragraph ושמרו. Now, it's written in the siddur, and many, many people say it. In our nusach we don't say it. And that's for already a halachic reason we don't say it. It's in the siddur, but we don't say it. The Alter Rebbe, when he wrote the siddur, he put it in. He put it in for They say a story, I don't know how true it is, because of a certain baal teshuvah. There's a whole discussion, and the baal teshuvah, he became a baal teshuvah on condition, whatever, and the end was, I don't know the details, but if the Alter Rebbe would put in ושמרו in the siddur, he would become a baal teshuvah, and the Alter Rebbe said, \"Good, I'll do it.\" But at the same time he said not to say it. Why not? Because this is already a halachic discussion. There is a big argument amongst the Rishonim, amongst the codifiers, the earlier codifiers, whether we are You see, in the Gemara, which is the source of everything, it's not mentioned. We know there is a halacha, a halacha, a law, that we're not allowed to interrupt between the last bracha and starting the Shemoneh Esrei, the Amidah. There is not allowed to be any interruption. Now, this is an interruption. These are pesukim of Chumash that we say. It talks about Shabbos, true, but it's pesukim, and it's an interruption, we call it a hefsek, between geulah, call it, the bracha of גאל ישראל and the next bracha, and starting Shemoneh Esrei. And we know from the Gemara we can't make an interruption. Some, on the other hand, hold that being that we're talking about Shabbos, and it's all in connection with Shabbos, it's not considered an interruption. So there's a big argument amongst the poskim whether we could say ושמרו or not. The Alter Rebbe, who we follow, and it's interesting that the Vilna Gaon, who was his biggest opponent, held the same way, they both hold that it is called an interruption, and therefore he said not to say ושמרו. Other people go according to the other poskim; they hold that it's not an interruption, and therefore they say it. Every time the Jews say ושמרו, and if you ever noticed when you come to a shul, this chapter, this paragraph is said with great enthusiasm, everyone screams out, \"ושמרו!\" He said, \"You know that when the Yidden say ושמרו, ווערט א גרויסע יריד אין הימל?\" Yiddish means, in English, that a big marketplace, commotion takes place in heaven. Know what kind of things take place in heaven when the Jews say ושמרו? But the expression is a יריד really means a marketplace. That's what it means. So the Alter Rebbe said, \"You're right, אבער נישט בא אלע ירידן דארף מען זיין. Not by all markets do I have to attend. I don't have to attend every marketplace.\" He meant to say true, if you feel that way, you pasken, fine. But I pasken different. So the Alter Rebbe פסקנט not to say it, and therefore our custom is that we do not say it. Those that say it, there's no question the Alter Rebbe himself, in the little words here where he writes not to say it, he says that those that say it have on what to rely on. In other words, they're not doing wrong. But on the other hand, he holds that we shouldn't say it, and we don't say it. Then from here, the next step is we go to the Shemoneh Esrei. Okay, now, and let's discuss a little bit not only this Shemoneh Esrei of Friday night, but the others of Shabbos. When we look at the Shemoneh Esrei of Shabbos, we see that it's different than the Shemoneh Esrei of the weekdays. Beside it it's a special Shemoneh Esrei, different words, which is not strange, not unique, because after all, this is Shabbos. The question is something else. During the week, we Daven Shacharis, Mincha, and Maariv, three times. That's when we're supposed to pray. All three Shemoneh Esreis are exactly the same. We repeat three times the same Shemoneh Esrei. Wouldn't it make sense that Friday, that Shabbos would be the same? There should be a special שבת שמונה עשרה, true, not the same like the weekdays where we ask Hashem for all our needs, because on Shabbos we don't do that, besides, it's very long, and Shabbos our Chachamim said want to give you a shorter Shemoneh Esrei, whatever the reason is, there should be a special שבת שמונה עשרה. But wouldn't it make sense that it should have all three the same? Shacharis, Mincha, Maariv would be the same שבת שמונה עשרה. But when we look around, we see that it's not. It's not like Shabbos, it's not like the weekdays, different, not like Yom Tov. Now the truth is the reason we have three Shemoneh Esreis on Shabbos because Shabbos reminds us of three things, which is really called, in different Sefarim, there are three Shabbos's, three Shabbatot, three Shabbos's let's call it, three different things in Shabbos. There is what we call שבת בראשית, I'll explain in a moment, שבת מתן תורה, and שבת לעתיד לבוא. לעתיד לבוא. שבת בראשית means the Shabbos of creation. That means that when we celebrate Shabbos, we keep Shabbos, by doing this, we acknowledge that Hashem created the world. We have the belief in Hashem, we have this proper emunah, not like those people who don't believe and don't believe in creation, don't believe there is a God. We acknowledge that there is a God, and how do we do that? By keeping Shabbos. So Shabbos represents the fact that Hashem created the world in six days, and the seventh day He rested He rested. Then there's another concept in Shabbos: it represents מתן תורה, the giving of the Torah. We know that Hashem gave us the Torah on Shabbos. Shabbos is a special day where the Torah shines, the holiness of the Torah shines. So we have the concept of שבת מתן תורה. So again we have שבת בראשית. בראשית means like the Torah starts with the word בראשית, which is the beginning of the creation, etc., etc. So we have שבת בראשית. Then we have שבת מתן תורה. Then we have שבת לעתיד לבוא, שבת of the future. Like I said before, when Mashiach will come, it will be יום שכולו שבת, it will be complete Shabbos. What we have now is just a ma'ayan, miniature form of the real Shabbos. So we have three levels of Shabbos called שבת בראשית, שבת מתן תורה, שבת לעתיד לבוא. Now when we look at the שמונה עשרה, the three שמונה עשרהs, Shabbos Friday night, Shabbos morning, and שבת מנחה, מוסף we will skip for a moment because that is a special category altogether, the three, Shabbos, the prayer of Shabbos on Friday night starts with, is with אתה קדשת את יום השביעי לשמך, you made the seventh day holy for your name, תכלית שמים וארץ, this is the תכלית, the climax of the creation of the heaven and the earth. ברכתו מכל הימים, you blessed it from all the days, you made it holy from all the times. וכן כתוב בתורתך, and we quote from the Chumash. And what do we quote? ויכלו השמים והארץ, which means that Hashem finished creating the world in six days and that Shabbos it was finished and it goes on and Hashem blessed Shabbos. When did Hashem bless the Shabbos? Right then and there, when he finished creation and Shabbos came, he blessed the Shabbos. So this is what we talk about Friday night. So we have Friday night Shemoneh Esrei is for the שבת בראשית, for that first level of Shabbos. Let's look a little bit further. Let's turn to page 178, or actually 179. That's the Shemoneh Esrei of Shabbos morning. Here we say, how does this Shemoneh Esrei start? ישמח משה במתנת, actually the first beginning is really an introduction to every Shemoneh Esrei, that's what we don't count, the three first berachot is just praise of Hashem, but after האל הקדוש, which is the introduction of every every Shemoneh Esrei whether it's Shabbos, Yom Tov, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, they all have the same. But when we start the different part, here it starts with ישמח משה במתנת חלקו, Moshe should be happy with the share of his present or whatever, we go on and on about Moshe. And then we say, כי עבד נאמן קראת לו, he was a faithful servant and you gave him a crown when he stood by Har Sinai. שני לוחות אבנים הוריד בידו, he came down with two לוחות and in the לוחות by Matan Torah we learned about Shabbos. And here we quote the pasuk, not the same that we quoted Friday night, which is the pasuk about the creation of the world and Shabbos being climax of creation. Here we quote the פסוק ושמרו, which comes from later on from the Shabbos that was given when Hashem gave us the Torah. So this Shemoneh Esrei is the Shemoneh Esrei that is for the Shabbos of Matan Torah. Then let's turn the page, it's to Minchah. Again, page 206. After the introduction, we start with אתה אחד ושמך אחד, you are one, your name is one, and the Yidden are one and you gave them a Shabbos. This refers to the real Shabbos when Hashem is going to be the one. Now he is the one too, there is nothing but him, but now we don't see it. When Mashiach will come, that's when the world will recognize the truth what Hashem is and he is one. That's why we say, והיה ביום ההוא יהיה השם אחד ושמו אחד. That day, then Hashem will be one and his name will be one. That's what we say here, אתה אחד ושמך אחד, you are one and your name is one, which is taken from that phrase that which I just mentioned where the pasuk says that that day you will be one and your name will be one. So this is keneged, this is for the third level of Shabbos, the Shabbos of לעתיד לבוא. So we have אתה קדשת, which is for the creation, ישמח משה the second one for Matan Torah, and the third one is for שבת לעתיד לבוא. Then there is another point concerning these three Shemoneh Esrehs. We know that Hashem and the Yidden are like a chatan and a kalah. Hashem is the chatan and the Yidden are the kalah. Now, when a chatan and a kalah, the chatan gives the kalah kiddushin, when he gives her the ring, that's called kiddushin. That's what it's called, the engagement, the act of engagement, the real one, not I always mention this because otherwise people get confused, what we call nowadays somebody is engaged, that's really nothing, all it is is a promise to marry. But the real engagement according to the Torah was when he used to give her the ring and that made her his wife. Now the would wait a year, and then they would have the marriage. So you give kiddushin, that's the first thing. That's from chatan to kalah. Then, after the kiddushin comes the nisuin, when you get married. And that's where the great simcha takes place. The great simcha is not at the אירוסין, at the kiddushin time. See, nowadays it's all together, so we can't bring any proof from nowadays, but the way it used to be, when was the party? When was the great simcha? The great simcha was when they would have the nisuin. Then, after that, comes the purpose of all this, is when they have the union. And when we look at the three Shemoneh Esreis, that's those are the three levels. אתה קידשת, you gave us kiddushin. אתה קידשת Friday night, you made us holy, but the word kiddushin also comes from holiness. You gave us kiddushin. Shabbos morning, ישמח משה במתנת חלקו, there was the simcha, the great joy that Moshe had. This is the second step, when we have the joy from the marriage. And then the third one is אתה אחד. You are one, and the Yidden are one. That's when the chatan and the kallah become one. That's when we and Hashem become one. So these three levels are the three levels of our marriage with Hashem or Hashem marrying us, and that's Shabbos. It is on Shabbos when this is felt much more than all you all week. So on Shabbos, they made these special Shemoneh Esreis.