Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: More On Not Saying שהחיינו On Friday Night

I am very excited to report that a TftD topic ended up as a discussion topic at someone's Shabbos table (not mine :) ).  I am even more excited that questions were generated.  I am just over the top that the questions were forwarded to me.  I shall therefore endeavor to answer those questions in the very same venue that generated them.  That itself is exciting for me, as I have confidence that at least one person will actually read this.  Woo-hoo!  Livin' the good life.

Recall that there are two factors that determine when the bracha of שהחיינו is required:  The event brings one enjoyment/fun and it happens from time to time, not continuously.  Even though Shabbos seems to fit these criteria, R' Moshe says (as reported here) that one is always either celebrating Shabbos or preparing for it.  Shabbos, therefore, does not come from time to time and, ipso facto, a שהחיינו is not required (nor, of course, even permitted).

The questions on the table are:
  1. One the "time to time" requirement: Preparing for Shabbos is only a hechsher mitzvah, not the mitzvah itself; the mitzvah itself, though, certainly is "time to time".
  2. On the enjoyment requirement: מצוות לאו ליהנות ניתנו/mitzvos were not given for our pleasure/enjoyment/fun... so why would I even think that I should make a שהחיינו  for Shabbos?
In answer to the first question, the שהחיינו is a bracha of praise for the funness of the event, not on the mitzvahness of the event.  Funness takes a few forms, one is the fun of anticipation (which is what allows us to make a שהחיינו upon seeing a new fruit).  There is also, though, the fun of the preparations themselves.  Have you noticed that we only make a שהחיינו on the first waving of the lulav?  Not on both of the first days, as you might expect.  That is because the שהחיינו could have been said from the time the lulav was made, but the custom is to wait till waving it the first time (analogously to waiting to make the שהחיינו  when eating a new, even though you could have made it upon seeing the new fruit on the tree).  Similarly, the order of שהחיינו and לישב בסוכה is different on the first and second days to highlight that on the first day the שהחיינו  is also going on the building of the sukkah.

As for the second question: Note, please, this is not a question on Shabbos, this is a question on every שהחיינו we make on mitzvos and Yom Tov kiddush.  The statement that מצוות לאו ליהנות ניתנו is not a statement about the feelings evoked from doing Torah and Mitzvos, but on the intent of them being given to us.  Doing Torah and Mitzvos is automatically the most fun thing you can possibly do!  So much so that we are severely restricted in their performance during shiva and on Tisha b'Av.  Even if you don't consciously feel the joy and fun, your soul is have a grand time!  On the other hand, during times when you are otherwise not allowed to have excess fun -- during the first year after losing a parent, for example -- you are allowed to participate in fun things if they are a mitzvah.  An aveil is allowed to attend a siyum, for example, even though there will be lots of people and food.  Moreover, even if a person takes an oath to receive no benefit from a certain person, he would still be able to hear shofar and megillah from him... because מצוות לאו ליהנות ניתנו.

Any questions?  Please?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Love in the Time of Corona Virus/Anxiously Awaiting the Mashiach

Two scenarios: Scenario I: A young boy awakened in the middle of the night, placed in the back of vehicle, told not to make any noise, and the vehicle speeds off down the highway. Scenario II: Young boy playing in park goes to see firetruck, turns around to see scary man in angry pursuit, poised to attack. I experienced and lived through both of those scenarios. Terrifying, no? Actually, no; and my picture was never on a milk carton. Here's the context: Scenario I: We addressed both set of our grandparents as "grandma" and "grandpa". How did we distinguish? One set lived less than a half hour's drive; those were there "close grandma and grandpa". The other set lived five hour drive away; they were the "way far away grandma and grandpa". To make the trip the most pleasant for all of us, Dad would wake up my brother and I at 4:00AM, we'd groggily -- but with excitement! -- wander out and down to the garage where we'd crawl
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: David HaMelech's Five Stages of Finding HaShem In the World

Many of us "sing" (once you have heard what I call carrying a tune, you'll question how I can, in good conscience, use that verb, even with the quotation marks) Eishes Chayil before the Friday night Shabbos meal.  We feel like we are singing the praises of our wives.  In fact, I have also been to chasunas where the chasson proudly (sometimes even tearfully) sings Eishes Chayil to his new eishes chayil.  Beautiful.  Also wrong.  (The sentiments, of course, are not wrong; just a misunderstanding of the intent of the author of these exalted words.) Chazal (TB Brachos, 10a) tell us that when Sholmo HaMelech wrote the words "She opens her mouth Mwith wisdom; the torah of kindness is on her tongue", that he was referring to his father, Dovid HaMelech, who (I am continuing to quote Chazal here) lived in five worlds and sang a song of praise [to each].  It seems to me that "world" here means a perception of reality.  Four times Dovid had to readjust his perc
Post a Comment
Read more