- Q. See question above.
Dear Rabbi, thank you so much for your prompt answer and I hope yo can attend our Kiddush and early breakfast meal on Thursday, (May/ 29/ 2025), as I will be speaking to thank you and all my friends who stopped to save me, I would also like to know more about the relationship of that Yom Hameyuchas and saving others, please tell. (I will quote you.
Thanks so so much.
A. As you thank them all for their kindness and sacrifice in stopping to save you, tell them following great story:
The Alter Gerer Rebbe was once asked ‘What should be the correct name for the Shabbos before Shavuos?’
After all we know that the Shabbos before Peisach has a special name and is called Shabbos HaGodol, (The Great Shabbos). Then the Shabbos before Yom Kippur is Shabbos Shuva, so what about the Shabbos before Shavuos?
In an instant he replied: It should be called ‘Shabbos Derech Eretz’ – or the Shabbos of menchlechkate, (Being kind and Human) or of being a "considerate Mench", and being a decent and nice human being.
After all, the Mishna teaches us that ‘Derech Eretz Kodmo la’Torah’ – ‘being a kind good person precedes the Torah’. And that is why the Shabbos before Shavuot and the Giving of the Torah should be also called ‘Shabbos Derech Eretz’.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by, Horav Yaakov Hirschman, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit'a
Important Numbers
