B’Shalach 5777 – The Schar Kaful of Shabbos & Olam HaBa

We have the parsha of Shabbos which is introduced via the Mon.

When Klal Yisroel asks for food HKBH tells Moshe:

{ד} וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָֹה אֶל מֹשֶׁה הִנְנִי מַמְטִיר לָכֶם לֶחֶם מִן הַשָּׁמָיִם וְיָצָא הָעָם וְלָקְטוּ דְּבַר יוֹם בְּיוֹמוֹ לְמַעַן אֲנַסֶּנּוּ הֲיֵלֵךְ בְּתוֹרָתִי אִם לֹא: {ה} וְהָיָה בַּיּוֹם הַשִּׁשִּׁי וְהֵכִינוּ אֵת אֲשֶׁר יָבִיאוּ וְהָיָה מִשְׁנֶה עַל אֲשֶׁר יִלְקְטוּ יוֹם יוֹם:

Shemos 16:4–5

Tell them there will be daily Mon and also there will be double portion for Shabbos, that they need to prepare on Friday.

It’s only 18 passukim later that Moshe has to explain why the double portion and hachana were needed:

{כב} וַיְהִי בַּיּוֹם הַשִּׁשִּׁי לָקְטוּ לֶחֶם מִשְׁנֶה שְׁנֵי הָעֹמֶר לָאֶחָד וַיָּבֹאוּ כָּל נְשִׂיאֵי הָעֵדָה וַיַּגִּידוּ לְמֹשֶׁה:

{כג} וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם הוּא אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר יְהֹוָה שַׁבָּתוֹן שַׁבַּת קֹדֶשׁ לַיהוָֹה מָחָר אֵת אֲשֶׁר תֹּאפוּ אֵפוּ וְאֵת אֲשֶׁר תְּבַשְּׁלוּ בַּשֵּׁלוּ וְאֵת כָּל הָעֹדֵף הַנִּיחוּ לָכֶם לְמִשְׁמֶרֶת עַד הַבֹּקֶר:

{כה} וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה אִכְלֻהוּ הַיּוֹם כִּי שַׁבָּת הַיּוֹם לַיהוָֹה הַיּוֹם לֹא תִמְצָאֻהוּ בַּשָּׂדֶה:

{כו} שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תִּלְקְטֻהוּ וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי שַׁבָּת לֹא יִהְיֶה בּוֹ:

Shemos 16:22–26

Shabbos is introduced with the lechem mishna, the double-portion of the Mon, and that there needs to be a hachana l’shabbos, by preparing the Mon on erev Shabbos.

It begs the question – are the double-portion and the hachana essential elements of Shabbos? We would’ve thought that these are just practical after-thoughts; meaning, once we’re not allowed to gather and cook on Shabbos, to bypass this halachic hurdle, HKBH tells us a work-around, that there’s going to be prep-work on erev Shabbos. It’s an after-thought, not the Roshei Prakim! Yet, here the Torah is starting the conversation with Lechem Mishneh and Hachana. It needs bi’ur.

Similarly, from the words “V’Heichinu es asher yaviyu” we have a makor for Muktzah on a d’oraisa level. This is Hachana d’Rabba. If something wasn’t muchan, it’s muktzah. This is different than the classic understanding of muktzah m’d’rabanan. Muktzah d’rabanan is usually just a harchaka from issurim, like hotza’ah and the like. It’s not that the cheftza is b’etzem problematic, but it can lead to issurim, so Chazal made it muktza. But, muktza m’d’oraisa is saying that lacking hachana is goofa the problem – the cheftza is problematic because it is lacking hachana!

To ask it differently: What would’ve been so bad if Mon came on Shabbos? Is it the hotza’ah or the gathering? Could HKBH not bypass those problems easily? It sounds like the problem is the lack of Hachana! That’s why it needed to be muchan m’erev Shabbos. This is clearly driving home the idea that hachana is essential to Shabbos. As if something is Shabbos-dik only if it has hachana.

And a related inyan: The passuk emphasizes the Lechem Mishna. The Bal Haturim points out that everything on Shabbos is kaful, doubled. 2 kvasim, 2 kikkarim, 2 neiros. Zachor v’Shamor. Halo davar hu – by Shabbos we have tosefes in many ways: We have tosefes Shabbos, we have Neshama yeseira. But what’s this emphasis on kaful? I understand that we want to show that Shabbos is more than just an ordinary day. But what’s the inyan of kaful specifically for Shabbos?¹²³

The Malbim sharpens the point. He differentiates between Hachpala vs pi shnayim, which means doubling. What’s the difference? He says that Pi Shnayim is an amount. Two hundered is doubling of one hundred. But Hachpala is a doubling over, like the word k’fula which means folded over. This means the top half of the fold corresponds to the bottom half. Zeh knegged Zeh. For example, paying Keifel: it’s not just pay more, but rather paying one knegged one. Shabbos, too, has the kaful element. There needs to be a zeh knegged zeh by Shabbos. Why? We’re hearing the words, but what’s the Havana?

The Arizal on these passukim says the Hachana and the Lechem Mishna are alluding to preparation that a person does b’Olam HaZe, and the schar they will get b’Olam HaBa. A person’s entire life is a hachana for Olam HaBa, and the Lechem Misheh, he says, is the Mishna Torah. And he explains: in Olam HaZe we learn the Torah the first time, so that in Olam HaBa we can learn is a 2nd time with all sodos and amkus. Olam HaBa is a chazzara of the torah a person learned in Olam HaZe. And, he concludes, that the people who feel that they don’t have to learn in Olam HaZe but instead they’ll learn in Olam HaBa, will not be able to learn in Olam HaBa.⁴

This Arizal is a completely different framing of the relationship between Olam HaZeh and Olam HaBa. Usually, we understand it as this world is the world of work, the world of mitzvos & avodah, where we earn points, and in the next world we cash in and get the best prizes; as if the work and the reward are two different distinct things. We do tallis & tefillin here and get rivers and pardessim and all sorts of ta’anugim there. The Arizal is saying not like that – he’s saying that the content, the ta’anug of Olam HaBa is the chazzara of Olam HaZe – it’s the Olam HaBa version of Olam HaZe. As if Olam HaBa is a repeat of Olam HaZe. Zeh Knegged Zeh.

Let’s explain:

One perspective of Olam Haze is it’s the place of our limited tchum of Avodah. We do our limited ma’asim, with our limited bechira, and we accomplish our limited results. It is vastly different than HKBH’s world, which is ein-sof, unlimited, and beyond everything that’s shayich to us. HKBH is totally in charge and there’s no makom for Adam.

While true on the surface level, there’s a deeper, truer, havana, where HKBH linked those two worlds in a hafla-dik way. He infused our limited avodah with a power to generate an ein-sof of schar. It’s mafli-la’asos, like the Rama says – there’s a pelah of welding gahsmiyus & ruchnuyus together. So, too, this is a pelah, how HKBH a bli-gvul of Olam HaBa into our ma’asim of Olam HaZe.

We find a similar idea in the Mesilas Yesharim when he introduces the inyan of Kedusha. He says:⁵

עִנְיַן הַקְּדֻשָּׁה כָּפוּל הוּא, דְּהַיְנוּ: תְּחִלָּתוֹ עֲבוֹדָה וְסוֹפוֹ גְּמוּל, תְּחִלָּתוֹ הִשְׁתַּדְּלוּת וְסוֹפוֹ מַתָּנָה.

וְהוּא מָה שֶׁאָמְרוּ זַ"ל (יומא לט א): אָדָם מְקַדֵּשׁ עַצְמוֹ מְעַט מְקַדְּשִׁים אוֹתוֹ הַרְבֵּה.

Mesilas Yesharim, ch. 26

He says it’s an inyan “kaful.” It starts with our avodah where we do a little, and ends with a gift from HKBH, where He rewards a lot. He describes this as kaful, which is exactly the k’feilus of our sugya.

L’mashal: If someone gets a gift, or yerusha. there’s no sippuk from that, because you know you did nothing for it. Also, if a person works and gets a fixed hourly wage, there’s more sippuk, but even that is a limited sippuk, because he feels his input can only yield him a defined, limited output. Even if he puts in hours of work, he knows his output is fixed, defined, limited. But if a person starts their own business, and pours hours of yegi’a and umel into it, he can unlock an income source that far exceeds the work. His input is defined and measured, but the output is well beyond the proportions of an hourly wage. That’s a tremendous sippuk. What’s happening in that case is the person tastes the ta’am of their avodah and the ta’am of HKBH’s gift of bli-g’vul schar at the same time. He’s not saying I did no work and am getting all this b’matana. He knows he did a ton of work, and feels what he’s getting is related to his ma’aseh yadayim, but he also senses how far beyond his limited actions the reward really is. The schar is Zeh Kneged Zeh of his ma’aseh yedayim, it’s just the bli-gvul version of his ma’aseh Yedayim.

It’s like Matching Funds with a charity campaign. If you say to a person “Reuven’s giving 3 dollars, can you also give a dollar?” It’s not so motivating because what shaychus does his $3 have to my dollar? But if you present it as a match “If you give a dollar, Reuven will give 3,” that gets people moving because in that case, you feel as if contained in your one dollar was Reuven’s $3!

This is the Kaful of Shabbos, where something Olam-HaZe-dik contains the bli-gvul Olam HaBa. Zeh Knegged Zeh. Mamash m’eiyn Olam HaBa. The whole parsha of Shabbos is kaful-dik. It’s not just there’s more for Shabbos, but rather Shabbos is davka a Zeh Knegged Zeh. Mi she-tarach b’erev Shabbos yochal b’Shabbos – the achila of Shabbos is davka what was prepared b’erev Shabbos.

The reason we can’t get Mon on Shabbos, is not because of the issurim – we can probably find away around the issurim. The reason is because that would mean the Mon of Shabbos didn’t contain the Mon we prepared during the week. There’d be no zeh knegged zeh. If you are not to’em the ta’am of your Hachana, then it’s not Shabbos-dik!

The application of these ideas are obviously relevant for Shabbos. Mi she’tarach b’erev Shabbos, yochal b’Shabbos. We know Tzaddikei Olam made sure that they did their Shabbos-prep themselves. They didn’t assign it to a shali’ach, chas v’shalom! That would strike at the heart of their Shabbos – where’s the “v’heichinu es asher yaviyu?”

It’s also applicable to our limud haTorah. There is no way a person can get to the heart of an inyan the first go round. It’s not that we’re stupid. It’s just that to unpack the richness within our learning, there needs to be a mishneh Torah. You need to learn the sugya, and after you get your first t’fisa in it, you need to do chazzara, again, and again. You find this many times where the mefarshim would say “Aval achar ha’iyun. I have a different Havana.” Why did they need to send us down their initial way of thinking? Why not just start at their new point of havana? The answer is that the new havanah was contained within, and born out of their initial Havana. They not just writing a travel log. And their initial Havana wasn’t a waste of time. It was needed to bring out the Mishnah Torah within it.

And not just talmid torah, but our entire avodah. There’s no such thing as free schar. An oneg that came without hachana is not Shabbos-dik! It’s supposed to be t’chilaso avodah v’sofo g’mul. We need to inject the element of hachana into our Avodas HaShem. Everything we do in the world of mitzvos has an Olam HaBa within it. It’s not an Olam HaBa which is just an un-related bag of ta’anugim, but rather an Olam HaBa that is the rich, schar-kaful, packed within our ma’asim – zeh knegged zeh. Our ein-sof ta’anug in Olam Haba, which is our yom shekoolo Shabbos, will only consist of the tircha and hachana that we prepared in Olam HaZe. Mi she’tarach b’erev Shabbos yochal b’Shabbos!

Good Shabbos!