Shabbat – Taking Control
This week's parsha starts off with a commandment to keep Shabbat. The Torah writes:
"Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of solemn rest to the LORD; whosoever doeth any work therein shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day." (Exodus 35, 2-3)
This commandment of Shabbat is obviously out of place as the Torah is currently dealing with the construction of the Mishakan (Tabernacle). It is also redundant as the Torah commands us to keep Shabbat in many other instances. Why does the Torah repeat the commandment of Shabbat here?
Rashi answers this question by explaining the Torah brings the commandment of Shabbat preceding the commandment of building the Mishkan in order to teach that the building of the Mishkan does not take precedent over keeping Shabbat and one is not allowed to build the Mishkan on Shabbat.
The difficulty with this answer is that this lesson was already taught to us in last week's Parsha. After the Torah finishes all the commandments regarding constructing the Mishkan before the mentioning of the sin of the golden calf, the Torah commands:
"And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 'Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying: Verily ye shall keep My sabbaths, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the LORD who sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore, for it is holy unto you; every one that profaneth it shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD; whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He ceased from work and rested.'" (Exodus 31, 12-16)
Rashi in his commentary on last week's parsha gives a very similar explanation explaining that Shabbat is mentioned in order that the people filled with enthusiasm and excitement building the Mishkan should not desecrate Shabbat in the construction of the Mishkan. Why does the Torah need to teach us the same lesson twice?
The answer is connected to our discussion last week in which we explained how sometimes a mitzvah seems important in theory, it is still hard in practice as we are stiff necked and it is hard to break habits. The Torah commands the people of Israel once before the actual construction but sees it necessary to repeat during the actual building of the Msihkan in order that in practice they will be able to follow through.
The Mitzvah of Shabbat is the appropriate commandment to reiterate the divide between theory and practice. On Shabbat Hashem introduced a new concept, rest. The idea is that work has a purpose and one must take the time and contemplate that purpose and not just work out of habit. The concept of stopping the construction of the Mishkan takes this one step further. The idea may seem very obvious that one's busy work schedule may not give one time to reflect on the purpose of one's work. Everyone can appreciate the concept of a day's rest. However, the Torah points out that even while doing a Mitzvah such as building a Holy Temple to worship Hashem one can get caught up and without the appropriate rest may lose focus. It is therefore incumbent even on those performing Mitzvot to take control and not lose focus on the purpose behind everything one does.
This concept is also celebrated in the first Mitzvah of Torah, to declare the new month. As the Torah states "This month is yours" (Exodus 12,1). Time was given to the people of Israel. It is up to us to remember who is in control. Both the rest from our work on Shabbat and the significance of declaring the New Month remind us that we have control over our destiny and are blessed to be able to give purpose to everything we do.
We should never lose sight of our goals and never under estimate our potential to perform Hashem's will and give purpose to our world.
Shabbat Shalom,
Reb Yitz
Torah Insights