This parsha has one of the many parshios of Shabbos in the Torah. And each parsha gives us a k’neitch in how we’re supposed to relate to Shabbos.
By other parshios, we have an explanation for why HKBH made Shabbos. One says that it’s the day Hashem was Shuvas; another says it’s because Hashem took us out of mitzrayim. But here the passuk says Shabbos is an Os – “ כִּי אוֹת הִוא בֵּינִי וּבֵינֵיכֶם לְדֹרֹתֵיכֶם לָדַעַת “. Rashi says Shabbos is an Os gedolah that HKBH chose Klal Yisroel from among the nations.
I don’t understand: Do goyim have tallis and tefillin? Do goyim have any other mitzvos other than the sheva mitzvos b’nei No’ach? So, all the mitzvos can be an Os. How is Shabbos different than any other mitzvah?
Another ha’arah in the passuk. The passuk calls it Shabbos Shabbason. And Rashi explains the double lashon with two p’shatim:
- The first pshat is Menuchas Margu’a v’lo Menuchas Arai. What exactly is the difference? Are we talking a big nap vs a little nap? Or keeping Shabbos a lot vs a little? What’s the hesber?
- The second pshat Rashi says is that Shabbos is doubly assur, in that we don’t have the hetter of Ochel Nefesh. So, pashut pshat in Rashi is that Shabbos is supposed to have more menucha than Yuntif. Yuntif is a mini-shvisa, and Shabbos is big shvisa. It sounds quantitative. But, in the context if the passuk, it actually sounds qualitative, not quantitative. As if shvisa with hetter ochel nefesh is not Shabbos-dik. But it still needs hesber, how does issur ochel nefesh make much of a qualititve difference?
There’s the passuk in Shabbos Breishis “ וַיְכַל אֱלֹהִים בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וַיִּשְׁבֹּת בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מִכָּל מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה “. There’s Vaychal & Vayishbos. Two ways of describing ceasing your work. Let’s explain the difference.
Imagine two boxes of lego. One box is just a bunch of lego pieces thrown into a box. It’s very entertaining, and can keep a kid busy for hours. The other box is a lego set, which has a set tzura to it, you know what the finished product is going to look like.
Both legos are entertaining. But the difference is what causes the kid to stop playing with the lego? With the box of lego pieces, the kid can play endlessly, and the stopping point is when the mother calls for dinner or the kid finds something else to play with. There’s no pre-determined stopping point built into the set. However, the lego set has a pre-defined ending point – when the set tzura is put into place and it’s now complete. You’re not done because you ran out of time, or you need to do something else. You’re done because it reached its tachlis.
The Maharal makes this point many times. He says Menucha is not stopping a ma’aseh, but rather when the ma’aseh has reached it’s end result. A child will keep on growing until it reaches it’s tzura. The tzura was pre-embedded in its genes. Once it reaches that point, m’mayla it’s shavas.
This is the idea of Shabbos. HKBH didn’t just end work on Friday night because there were other things to do. He put into the briya a tachlis, and the tachlis pre-sets the ending point.
The tachlis of the briya is pre-set. Sof ma’aseh b’machshava t’chila. It’s pre-set. It’s not that HKBH happened to have the sof ma’aseh b’machshava t’chila – No! Only a chaser da’as acts without a tachlis in mind. A child doesn’t have da’as. But a bar da’as acts with intent on reaching a tachlis. HKBH acts with a tachlis; He built a tachlis into the world so the world is heading toward a defined tzura. Once it gets there – it’s done. Ba Shabbos, Ba Menucha. Shabbos is essentially a declaration that there’s a pre-set tachlis to the world.
However, we have to distinguish between different types of shvisa. L’mashal, in the melacha of Hotza’a, it requires an akira and hanacha. But halacha distinguishes between hanacha l’fush vs hanacha l’kaseif. Hanacha l’fush is where you want to be done carrying the object, and you’ve completed the act of hotza’ah. However, Hanacha L’kaseif means you put something down with the intent of restarting the carrying. Its a hanacha for the sake of doing more work, which means you’re still in the middle of the act of hotza’ah. What this means is that there’s a hanacha where menucha is tafel to the carrying. The ikar is the work, the tafel is the rest. Such a menucha is not hanacha for Shabbos. Menuchas Shabbos is when the rest is end product, not when the rest is subservient to the work.
These are the two types of Menucha that Rashi is describing – Menuchas Marg’oa versus Menuchas Arai. Menuchas Arai is where the menucha is just a breather to help you do the work better. The work is the ikkar, and the menucha is tafel to the work. That’s not Shabbos Shabbason. The emeseh menucha of Shabbos is where the menucha is the sof ma’aseh of the work. The work produced it’s sof ma’aseh, and m’mayla a person is shuvas.
This is also the chiluk between Shvisa on yuntif vs Shvisa of Shabbos. Shvisa by Yuntif is heichi timtza. We want you to be focused on the inyanei d’yoma of yuntif, so we don’t want you doing melacha. But that’s a menucha that’s heichti timza. It’s not because the week has reached it’s tzura. You can still do meleches ochel nefesh, because there’s still a makom for you to get involved in inyanei d’yoma. Menucha that’s heichi timtza is not Shabbos-dik.
The idea that work is pre-set to reach an end-point of menucha, and not that menucha is subservient to work is the Declaration of Shabbos which a goy has no shaychus to. A goy can do mitzvos – he can put on tallis and tefillin if he wants to. And a goy can also not work for a day – he can be unemployed or take a vacation. But that’s a menucha of heichi timtza because a goy has no sense that the world has a tachlis. Ask a goy what is “success,” and they’ll say success is getting bigger and better. There’s no defined point when they’re done. There’s always more to do. It’s correct from an Olam HaZe perspective. Olam HaZe does not have rest. A person can always do more. A Goy she’shuvas is chayav missa because he’s not functioning in this world anymore.
But HKBH was modi’a us of the Olam HaBa perspective. The briya has a pre-set tachlis, HKBH invested in it menucha. HKBH was modi’a klal Yisroel that you don’t just going thru endless motions, with an omed l’kaseif here and there. Klal Yisroel’s motions bring the world to it’s tzura, k’tikuna, and m’mayla they will have shvisa.
BH, everyone here is shomer Shabbos, but our limited understanding of Shabbos can prevent us from seeing and feeling it’s true tochen. We think we understand Shabbos b’chlal – not that we know every halacha but we think we know the general sense of what there is to know.
One of the great brachos and kallos of modern civilation, is we don’t need to work until our last day. We have pensions and savings so we have what to eat and can at some point retire. But then we see something terrible happens – people who have nothing to do and they’re far from a state of menucha. He’s bored, and restless, and feels there’s more work to do. And that’s a correct restlessness for the days of week – but not Shabbos!
On Shabbos there’s should be a recognition that HKBH created an end-point of menucha. A menucha where you can do things, but you’re no longer doing as a heichi timtza to reach new goals, or get someplace other than where you are. There’s an Oneg in the day itself. There’s an Oneg in the fact that your life is not pointless and without tachlis.
We daven “Harachaman hu yanchileinu yom shekoolo Shabbos u’menucha l’chayai olamim.” Did you ever think about that? Do you really want an eternity of Shabbos? On a 3-day yuntif you’re climbing the walls and now you’re asking for an eternity? Is that a sincere request?
We don’t know what menucha is. We transform Torah and Mitzvos into heichi timtza. When we hear something is wrong in the world, or someone needs a refuah, we learn and daven for z’chusim. Or we learn to get a shteller. That’s heichi timtza, which is Olam Haze-dik. But what about getting an Oneg from the tefilla, or the mitzvah, or the talmid Torah itself.
When we daven, do we ever pause to think that the tachlis of t’filla is not just to ask bakashos, but it’s to be lifnei Hashem? That’s the tachlis.
When we do mitzvos, do we do it mechanically, or just to check off boxes, or is there an Oneg that you are being m’kayem the tachlis of the world?
When we learn, is it to say something smart, or do you feel the Oneg of knowing the da’as of Hashem?
Where’s the sincerity in doing Avodah just because it’s d’var Hashem, and for no other reason. That’s not a far-fetched accomplishment. That’s what HKBH was mod’ia us – it’s an Os Gadol for Klal Yisroel -that there’s an Olam HaBa element of tachlis to what we do. Our avodah has a pre-defined tachlis which creates an Oneg u’menucha that we’re able to taste now. That’s the Shabbos Shabbason which Klal Yisroel knows every day of the week.
Good Shabbos!