Spending Shabbos with the Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh Author - Guest Post

As I posted a couple of weeks ago, there was a Shabbaton near Meron with the author of the Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh seforim, Rav Itamar Shwartz, shlita. A friend of Dixie Yid, the heiligeh Reb Tuvia, was at the Shabbaton with him family and has been kind enough to write the following summary of his experience that Shabbos:

Shabbos with the Rav and talmidim sponsored by Mercaz Shorashim in Ohr haGanuz (near Meron).

It was a mixed crowd- about 100 men, women and children. Streimels, knitted kippas, black kippas, Ashkenazim, sefardi, frum, not frum, the Rav's parents. There was a big mechitza for the seudas and the drashas. The director of the Shorashim Center (where the Rav gives drashas on Thursday evening) is a Belzer Chossid. He had the zechus of sponsoring the Shabbos in conjunction with Mrs.Weber, head of the Bilvavi non-profit organization of Israel.

It was the yahrzeit of the Ohr haChaim haKadosh on erev Shabbos. The Rav gave a drasha explaining the minhag of chassidim to learn Ohr Chayim Friday night and to learn a Torah from the Baal Shem Tov motzoei Shabbos. Minhag Yisrael is Torah. The Ohr haChaim is m'ramez the ruach and the Bescht is m'ramez the nefesh. The connection between the nefesh and ruach. The connection between the body and soul.

How we can merit in ourselves to see the light of the Moschiach.

The seuda was long and we benched after midnight. Afterwards the Rav went out into the fields with

talmidim and talmidot. The Rav asked a question: "with all of the advice and different forms of avodah being suggested in the seforim of Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh- how can one practically put them into effect? " For 10 minutes of solitude everyone contemplated in the hills of the Galil near Meron. Everyone thought of an answer. The Rav did not give “an answer.”

Davening at 8 AM (so early!). After the seudah the Rav spoke on men and women covering their hair according pinimius haTorah. First the Rav reviewed the halacha for men and women. Borer on Shabbos is not the same as borer during the week. The follicles of hair that fall upwards and downwards are close to the brain and should be covered. Very deep.

Before Mincha the Rav gave a drasha on the parsha- Pinchas, Eliahu, Rebbi Akiva, Moschiach. Gilgulim and tikkunim.

What stayed with me was what the Rav said before mincha: The body is really the light of the neshama in the lowest world." In Da-Es the Rav clarifies the dichotomy between thinking: Am I a body with a neshama in it? OR am I a neshama clothed in a goof? Here the Rav said something else: the body is actually the light of the neshama in the lowest world- there is no dichotomy!

Lets hope that during the upcoming tour of the Rav to the States we can ask the Rav to explain the drasha on the ohr haChaim and the Baal Shem Tov, and on men and women covering hair. Let’s hope.

-Tuvia

(Picture of Meron countryside courtesy of bridges of peace)

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