Shabbos – Obtaining Kedushah – Parshas Vayakhel 5770
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Loading ...ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה וביום השביעי יהיה לכם קדש שבת שבתון לה’ כל העשה בו מלאכה יומת – Kodesh is given to you. How do you get kedushah only by working six days and the seventh day shall be for you kodesh. It isn’t kodesh just by being sanctified itself, rather through the work of the week can you create the kedushah of Shabbos. Shabbos is not an absence of work but an active state of not working. There is a difference between not working and taking a break. Not working is when you are supposed to work and you choose not to. Taking a break is a time set aside for rejuvenation. Can you have a break if you don’t work? It isn’t only that you cannot have a break without working but the contrast between the two gives more meaning to each. That is kedushah. Kedushah is taking the mere mundane and elevating it by using it for a purpose beyond the ordinary. While we may seem to exist primarily in the mundane world, we are really well beyond a realm of constriction and boundaries. The vast plains of toil in the physical world comprise the corridor to a great existence. The usage of this world is in order that we may be able to do the will of the Almighty in its glory. The greater purpose of our lives is revealed through the lens of Shabbos. Shabbos is the gift that makes everything have a purpose. It is a glimpse to the future which had been the past.
Why is it that the desecration of Shabbos is punishable by death? Perhaps an understanding of this idea is because the purpose of the weekdays are to bring out the Shabbos. Their whole purpose is to create Shabbos. By desecrating the Shabbos you are undoing the reason for the week all together therefore you have taken away your life in that world. That is of course true in the positive as well. When you keep Shabbos it is as though you have given purpose to life once again.
Why is Shabbos the first aspect of this parshah which is specifically directed at the congregation of the Jewish people? The Rokaiach gives a very fundamental answer to this question which seems to be based on the midrash brought in the Yalkut Shimoni. He says for six days we work and are involved in our work, but on Shabbos we must only be involved in the learning of Torah. Shabbos is the time given to be fully immersed in the learning of Torah which will enable the overall observance of mitzvos. It seems from the yalkut that the role of the learning on Shabbos is in order to ensure that the people will keep the mitzvos.
The major subject of this parshah is the tabernacle therefore there must be a reason why the parshah begins with Shabbos. It is well known that the laws of Shabbos are derived from the building of the tabernacle. That means that there is an inherit connection between the building of the tabernacle and the sanctity of Shabbos. The Sages learn from the pasuk אלה הדברים the thirty-nine different labors prohibited on Shabbos. אלה is gematriah thirty-six, דברים which is plural adds another two and the ה adds another one resulting in thirty-nine. Therefore the prohibited acts on Shabbos are enumerated from the pasuk that begins our parshah.
Shabbos is an אות and a ברית. An ose means it is a sign, a bris means a binding relationship. Ose which also literally means a letter is the formation of the thought that is represented in that letter. There are twenty-two different ways of expressing thought in the Torah and each one of those letters contain every single thought. Shabbos is one of the few sets of laws that are learned from gematriah. Perhaps an explanation is because the idea of gematriah is that each letter contains a numerical value. That numerical value is not arbitrary rather it is an expression of the thought behind the letter itself. That is Shabbos. Shabbos represents the completion of the world. Shabbos is one of the things that binds us through a bris to Hashem that makes us unique from the nations. Shabbos contains the deep fundamental ideas that define the Jewish people which qualify to be called an ose. It is an ose because it goes back to the source of the world which is the six days of creation and the day of rest, Shabbos. The gematriah for Shabbos teaches us the amount of the activities done in the building of the tabernacle which also are the prohibitions on Shabbos. The actions that create a place for the divine presence to rest in this world are the same actions which also create a time that is special to Yisroel. Shabbos is the relationship with Hashem through time just as the Land of Yisroel is through place. The Land of Yisroel is of course given its kedushah due to the holy temple. The tabernacle is the first initiative for a place for such a relationship. The kedushah found in the tabernacle is like that which is found on Shabbos. The ose which is the letters of the Torah are what binds the Torah together. The letters of the Torah are the names of the Almighty. The divine presence rests upon anyone who mentions His name, this is through Torah. The Shabbos is the inner thought of the Torah, just as the Torah is just for Yisroel so is Shabbos. Torah is that which transcends time and place. It binds us to Hashem both in the evening and the morning.
