Now rabbosai, you know already that we don’t pull any punches here so let’s say it like it is; let’s talk straight. There are plenty of frum people, right here, right now, who are very weak in this most important principle.
And you can prove it immediately by a simple experiment. Try listening into the table talk in an Orthodox home. So the ladies will be talking about sheitelech and about how hard it was to buy a dress. “I couldn't get a dress anywhere. I went all over town to get a dress.” Finally she found it in a ‘special place’ – right around the corner.
The men? So maybe, if it’s a good home, they are talking divrei Torah. But listen in, however, and see if you can catch a little snatch of conversation about Olam Haba. No, nothing at all. Vertlach on the parshah, drashos, all good things you’ll hear. Wonderful! Very good! But what about Olam Haba? Did you ever mention Olam Haba even once at your table? I’m afraid not; except in birkas hamozon. Some words that you said by rote without even thinking.
Rav Miller’s Table Talk
What am I telling you? Why am I saying this? Just to fill the time? No; I’m talking to myself. I’m letting you listen in but I’m talking to myself. We have to sharpen our awareness of Olam Haba! We have to bring Olam Haba back to our tables! It has to become once again the parlance, the speech, of our nation.
It’s a must! Because all around you is this world. That’s what we see with our flesh and blood eyes: Olam Hazeh, Olam Hazeh and more Olam Hazeh. So it’s not only a meis, a dead body, that contradicts the emunah in hasharas hanefesh; it’s everything we see! We live in a world of materialism. And today more than any other time. All around us is an ocean of shtus and tipshus. The world has gone crazy. The world today has gone insane with gashmiyus, with materialism, more than any other time. And so we have a big job ahead of us. We have to work hard to counteract all this stupidity, all the darkness, and get as much Olam Haba light into our heads.
Weekend Rehearsals
Now, I have some ideas, different ways we can remind ourselves all the time about the Next World, about the eternity of the soul, and we’ve spoken about some of them before. But there’s one very profitable way that our Chachomim taught us and because it’s something that we have every week, so it’s an especially good opportunity for sharpening this awareness.
Shabbos is me’ein Olam Haba. The Gemara says that in Brachos (57b), that Shabbos is intended as a demonstration of the World to Come. How so? In what way? The truth is there are many ways but we’ll talk now about two of them, two that are easy to apply every Shabbos.
Go to Town!
Number one is to enjoy the Shabbos. Oneg Shabbos! Dive in! Have a good time! Go to town! But while you're sitting and enjoying, you add the thought, “This is only a rehearsal, a premonition of what’s going to be in the future. Because one day, after 120, I’m going to be sitting down to a much greater seudah, a great big banquet just like this one, only that it will be a million times better, a million different things to eat.”
We have to imagine the things in Olam Haba. We have to get these pictures in our heads. The word is pictures, tziyurim - you have to create pictures in your mind. And as much as you picture it, it's never enough because the more you picture it, the more the emunah grows in you. And Shabbos, me’ein Olam Haba, is a glorious opportunity.
So you’re finishing the fish and your wife went into the kitchen now to bring in the next dish and you’re imagining how in the Next World they'll also serve one dish after the other, only it will be much better. You don’t have to tell your wife it will be better but it will be dishes like, I’m not capable of describing it to you, but there will be dishes beyond the ability of the best chef in this world to conjure up in his mind. Happiness without end! You'll never get tired of eating there. Olam Haba is joys after joys, pleasures after pleasures, without end.
Ashkenazi Olam Haba
And Shabbos is the valuable opportunity. A pity that this is not utilized! You're enjoying Shabbos morning after davening a steaming chulent. You, my Syrian friends, maybe don't know what chulent is? If not, find out, because you're missing something. Find out! And while you’re enjoying it don't waste the opportunity. Ah! It's a golden opportunity. You should sit and eat and think, “This is how we're going to be in the Next World.”
Only it's going to be a better chulent. There it’s going to be a chulent that you'll never be surfeited with. In this world sometimes you can't take anymore - you’re full, you’re burping a little too; but there you'll eat and eat and the more you'll have, the more you'll enjoy it. The longer you'll be there, the more delightful it's going to be.
Superimposed Olam Haba
Now, does it cost money to think that? Everyone is there, you’re sitting down at the table and everybody is around you, all dressed in their Shabbos finery and the Shabbos candles are burning and on the table are delicious challos. So you’re imagining how it’s going to be in Olam Haba. You'll be together with your family. They will always be young. Your children will be young. And they'll be old too, getting married. Grandchildren will be there. All together. It's all one panorama. You'll have the children as children and also as grown ups; and you'll have great-grandchildren there too. All together, you'll be together, all of the happiness, one scene superimposed on another. That's how Hakadosh Baruch Hu will make the scenario. And all together you're enjoying the yom shekulo Shabbos forever and ever. The beautiful zemiros are resounding at your Shabbos table forever, and you'll never be tired of eating there.
That’s how you’re thinking as you’re pouring the wine into the becher, getting ready to say kiddush. You know what you’re doing? You’re fulfilling the purpose of Shabbos me’ein Olam Haba.
Others might say it – very good! Others might sing it – even better! But you’re fulfilling it! There’s nothing better!
Isn't it a pity? Isn't it a waste of life sitting at the table and eating up the good things your wife labored to prepare and nothing remains of it? At least there should come a profit, a gain. Not only you gained some poundage; you gained something in your mind too. You become a maamin in Olam Haba as a result of what you ate and enjoyed.
Shabbos Prep
But there’s more than that. While you’re gaining an awareness of Olam Haba by enjoying me’ein Olam Haba in this world, there’s another important thought you should add. And that is that you wouldn’t be enjoying anything if you hadn’t prepared before Shabbos. If someone prepared on Friday, then he’ll be able to eat on Shabbos (Avoda Zarah 3a). That’s a good Torah maxim to remind yourself about a few times every Shabbos.
So as you sit down at the Shabbos table on Friday night or Shabbos morning or Shabbos shalosh seudos, you’re thinking to yourself – everyone else is busy with other things but you’re thinking, “Why am I enjoying the Shabbos now? Only because we prepared everything before Shabbos. But suppose I was loafing all week; suppose my wife also was taking it easy all week. And now Shabbos comes, so at the last minute she thinks, ‘I'll run to the takeout food shop.’ She runs there but it’s closed already. There's a sign on the door, ‘We close at three o'clock erev Shabbos.’ So she goes home. She’s dejected; there's nothing to eat. And they sit at the desolate table on Shabbos. ‘Oh,’ they’re thinking, ‘if only...’”
And that's a very good premonition of what's going to happen in the World to Come too if you’re not busy in this world. Only if you prepared in this world then you’ll be able to eat on the Yom Shekulo Shabbos.
Shabbos Without Havdalah
So imagine next Friday night when you sit down to eat and you take the piece of challah, so you’ll think “I'm eating now only because I made sure that it was prepared before; that's why I have it now. And that’s a reminder for me that whatever I'll prepare for the Next World, that’s what I'll have there, no more and no less. And if I don't prepare, I’m going to be very uncomfortable there.”
At least in this world it’s only a rehearsal – as soon as you make havdalah, you can run out to the supermarket and buy something to eat. But in Olam Haba there is no havdalah. You can wait and wait but the sun never goes down. Three stars will never come out. And it will be a Gehenom forever and ever for people who lived a carefree life in this world and didn't prepare.
120 Years of Shabbos Afternoon
And so, if you want to prepare for the World to Come, you have to do some shopping. You have to work before the Shabbos sneaks up on you. You have to make preparations. You must prepare for the World to Come. The wise son is busy collecting the harvest in the summertime (Mishlei 10:5). As long as the produce is still available he’s collecting. The summertime, that’s this world. When you enter the funeral home, the winter begins and only what you took along during the summertime, that’s what you'll have.
And so that’s the number two lesson of Shabbos me’ein Olam Haba; every Shabbos you put some thought into practicing this idea. Once or twice you’ll stop and think about that. You’re already a head taller than everyone else! If you want to be especially tall, you'll do it more than twice. Because every time you think that thought, you’re fighting back against the laziness of the mind that forgets about Olam Haba.
A New Mind
This Friday night try it out. Number one, this oneg is only a premonition of the ultimate oneg, and number two, it only came because I prepared. That's how you should think Friday night at the table; that this whole day of Shabbos is a rehearsal for the Next World. It’s a reminder, a twenty-four hour reminder, that this world is only for preparing. That’s one of the purposes of keeping Shabbos. Every Shabbos should leave over some residue of emunah in the World to Come in our hearts. It creates a frame of mind, an Olam Haba frame of mind, and that mind is the biggest achievement a man could make in this world. Because it means you’re filling your mind now with the daas, the awareness of where you’re going; and you’re ready now for making this world a place where you’re preparing all the time for the real world, the place of hasharas hanefesh.
Have A Wonderful Shabbos
Let’s Get Practical
Thinking About the Next WorldThis Shabbos I will use every seudah as an opportunity to begin creating for myself an Olam Haba mind. I will spend one minute at every seudah utilizing the two me’ein Olam Haba lessons. For thirty seconds I will remind myself about how the oneg Shabbos I’m enjoying now is only a taste of the oneg in Olam Haba. And the next thirty seconds, I will spend thinking about the Olam Haba ideal of ‘whoever prepares before Shabbos, he’s the one who will enjoy Shabbos.’ And then I will, bli neder, review those lessons once a day throughout the coming week.
This week's booklet is based on tapes: S-8 - Falsehood and Truth | 33 - The World to Come 198 - The Eyes Mislead | 318 - Splendor of Man 722 - Shabbos 13: Day of Knowledge | 791 - Ten Aspects of Shabbos 813 - The Eyes Percieve and Decieve | E-262 - A World of Models Listen: 718.289.0899 Press 1 for English and 2 for Thursday Night Lectures
