The Gemara recounts the following conversation: "The Holy One, blessed be He, said to
Moses: 'Moses, I have a fine present stored in my treasure house and Shabbat is its
name'(Beitsah 16).
The Torah permits violating the Shabbat in order to save a life or perform a
circumcision. Thus, the holy Alshikh expresses surprise that the commandment of
building the Mishkan does not take precedence over the Shabbat too. For after all, in
building the Mishkan, we are, as it were, inviting the Holy One, blessed be He, to dwell
among us.
In order to dispel
this presumption, the Torah had to expressly declare at the
beginning of Parshat Vayyakhel "These are the things which the Lord
has commanded that you should do them. Six days shall work be done
…"(Ex 35:1-2). The Torah teaches us that the Mishkan and its vessels
during their production stages do not possess sanctity. Only when
the Mishkan is fully established does the Shekhinah
dwell in it. The building of the
Mishkan is only the means to an end, not the end itself.
The Shabbat possesses intrinsic sanctity that
overflows onto us, endowing us with the extra Shabbat soul
(nefesh yeteirah
). Additionally, the Shabbat's sanctity takes
precedence over (and, indeed, preceded) the Creation of the world, as the Holy One,
blessed be He, said to Moses: "A beloved [present] hidden away …"
Performing a circumcision and saving a life
preempt the Shabbat because every Israelite is considered holy (cf.
Isaiah 3:4), for Israel is sanctified to the Lord (cf. Jeremiah
2:3). And, furthermore, on Shabbat Hashem directs an effluence of
holiness to envelope every Jew; each and every individual is
gathered under the wings of the Shekhinah
touched to
the very roots of his specific soul. Thus, man enters a dialogue with his Creator and in
connecting with Him is separated from his externals.
Symbolizing this process, Jews are forbidden on
Shabbat to carry objects from the private domain – an allusion to
the authority that we cleave to – to the public one, an allusion to
the "world of separation" (olam ha-peirud) from wherein the
other nations derive. Likewise, Jews are forbidden to carry objects
from the public domain into the private one for symbolically this
would bring about a mixing of the holy and the profane (hol), or the
profane and the holy, be that as it may. By analogy this insight can
be applied to explain why the other creative labors are forbidden on
Shabbat. For the labors are of a piece with the mundane
(hol
) world, and resting from them smacks of the sanctified supernal world.
Thus, we may deduce that Judaism perceives the particular, the individual human being,
the private domain to be holy, while the public domain, the outside, is profane. And the
holy and the profane may not be mixed, except for the purpose of preparing food (on the
festival days). But on Shabbat, there is no need whatsoever for the profane.
Thus, we may also deduce that Shabbat possesses intrinsic sanctity independent of how
man treats it. Indeed, far from Shabbat being dependent upon man for its stature, man
depends upon and is intoxicated by the Shabbat. During the six days of productivity, man
worships Hashem by sanctifying the world. Like Shammai and Hillel he accomplishes
this by performing the mundane labors for the sake of Heaven. As the Gemara in Beitsa
relates, when Shammai saw a choice animal during the week, he would declare: "This
animal is for Shabbat." However, if Shammai found a choicer animal later in the week,
he would eat the first animal he had found and keep the latter for Shabbat. When Hillel
chanced upon a choice animal during the week, he would eat it, trusting that G-d would
cause a choicer one to cross his path before Shabbat, saying: "Blessed [art Thou] Hashem
each and every day."
Perhaps the
distinction between Hillel's and Shammai's positions stems from
Hillel's leaning toward anthropocentrism and
Shammai's leaning towards theocentrism
. Hillel
conceived of divine worship as man fulfilling his tasks for the sake of Heaven. Shammai
adopted a more literal approach to the phrase divine worship: the divine is a value both as
the object and central focus of the worship.
Thus, for Shammai, Shabbat functions as an
aspect of the divine presence connected to Hashem, so the Shabbat
can unmediatedly express His presence; man does not need to function
as a bridge to the Divine. Man must relate to the Shabbat via the
unmediated presence of the mitzvah
; he cannot relate directly to G-d. Hillel views man's
sanctification of the material world through his labors as an expression of his divine
worship, a level attainable not only via performing G-d's commandments.
The divine attribute of mercy stems from an anthropocentric orientation, Hillel's.
The divine attribute
of justice (din
) stems from a theocentric orientation – Shammai's.
Likewise, the priestly categorizations as "emissary of the Merciful One" or as "emissary
of the congregation" may also be defined as, respectively, theocentrically and
anthropocentrically oriented. This distinction is later applied to the two types of righteous
men.
Indeed, Hashem is worshipped in both ways: Observing the Shabbat engenders a
theocentric approach; worshipping Hashem during the six days of the work-a-day week
engenders an anthropocentric one where man's holiness manifests itself.
That performing a circumcision and saving a life preempts the Shabbat is due to the
anthropocentric tendency. Circumcision, by removing the orlah, actually reveals the
inherent holiness in man who was created in the image of G-d.
An idolater who observes a day of rest is liable to be put to death (Sanhedrin 58b):
Rabbi Chiyya bar Abba said in
the name of Rabbi Yochanan: When a king and a noblewoman are
conversing, if someone breaks into their conversation is he not
liable to be put to death? Likewise, the Shabbat is [a sign] between
the Holy One, blessed be He, and Israel, as it is written: "It is a
sign between me and the children of Israel for ever
[le-'olam
]"(Ex 31:13). (Deut Rabbah 1:21)
As the
midrash notes, the word le-'olam is written without a
vav. So it contains a double entendre, meaning "for ever"
and "concealed". The secret bond between Hashem and Israel is
created by the Shabbat through the extra soul (nefesh
yeteirah) which cleaves to Him, may He be blessed, in the
"world of unification"(olam ha-achdut
). So how can
someone whose soul is external (the gentile) place himself between those who cleave to
one another. Thus, the Shabbat reality is by its very nature theocentric, while the gentile's
worship is exclusively anthropocentric, completely divorced from the dimension of
holiness; performed solely for the sake of Heaven without the deeper grasp that Jews can
obtain by observing the theocentric commandments.
Translated by
Rabbi Meshulam Gotlieb
www.MGtransEd.com
|
