Parshat Emor 5784
Rabbi Jablinowitz
We read in this week’s parsha about the Moadim, the festivals in the calendar which include the Shalosh Regalim, plus Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. But this section which lists the yearly festivals actually begins with the mitzvah of Shabbos. Though both Yom Tov and Shabbos are holy days during which the prohibited Melachos can’t be done, there are fundamental differences between them.
The Meshech Chachmah teaches that there are mitzvos which connect man with Hashem, like Tefillin, Tzitzis, and Mezuzah, while there are others which are meant to connect man with his fellow man, like Chesed, Terumah, and Ma’aser. Shabbos falls into the category of those mitzvos which connect him with his Creator. There is a prohibition of Hotza’ah; one can’t move things form his private domain to the public domain, and the Torah even states (Shemos, Chapter 16, Pasuk 29)אל יצא איש ממקומו ביום השביעי; one may not leave his area. The Torah was speaking about leaving his home to collect the mahn and we learn from here a reference to walking past Techum Shabbos. And one may not cook food, even for unexpected guests, on Shabbos.
This all points to Shabbos as a day where one needs to look inward, study Torah, and focus on his relationship with Hashem. But when each Jew keeps Shabbos in the privacy of his home, this ultimately serves as a unifying factor among Clal Yisrael. As we say in davening, we are described as an עם מקדשי שביעי. Bnei Yisrael are defined as being שומרי שבת וקוראי ענג.
Conversely, the Chagim serve as a mitzvah which connects the members of Clal Yisrael together. There is a היתר אוכל נפש; one is allowed to cook on Yom Tov. Even to the point that we learn in the Gemara in Pesachim 46B that according to Rabbah, if one bakes on Yom Tov for the next day, which is prohibited, he doesn’t receive lashes. This is because guests might arrive on Yom Tov and he will need the food to feed them. On Yom Tov one is allowed to carry from one domain to the next, and on Yom Tov all of Clal Yisrael has a mitzvah of travelling up to Yerushalayim to be seen and bring sacrifices. All of this signifies the festivals as a time when we affirm our connection to one another as members of Clal Yisrael.
The Sfas Emes highlights this distinction between Shabbos and Yom Tov and explains it with different terminology. He refers to Shabbos as חיי עולם, eternal life, and to Yom Tov as חיי שעה, temporal life. This is a distinction we find in the Gemara in Shabbos 10A in describing the difference between Torah and Tefillah. Studying Torah is meant to provide us with eternal life in Olam Haba. Tefillah is meant to provide ourselves with that which we are lacking in this world, as Rashi explains in the Gemara there, like health, peace, and physical sustenance. Shabbos is Torah, while Yom Tov is Tefillah.
Shabbos, therefore, is a day which is not connected with our lives in this world, it is מעין עולם הבא. Yom Tov, on the other hand, is very much connected to our lives in this world, particularly to the changes in the agricultural seasons. Pesach is חג האביב, Shavuos is חג הקציר, while Succos is חג האסיף. The Mishnah in Rosh Hashanah 16A teaches that on Pesach we are judged on the grains, on Shavuos on the fruits of the trees, and on Succos on water. We daven on Yom Tov for bracha in this world, and that we be judged favorably in these matters. But Shabbos is above all these changes and is the source of all bracha, as we say on Shabbos, כי היא מקור הברכה, based on the Zohar Hakadosh which states דכל ברכאין ביה תליין; all bracha is dependent on Shabbos.
Since Shabbos is חיי עולם and focuses on our relationship to Hashem and His Torah, the Sfas Emes learns that Moshe Rabbeinu represents Shabbos. And one aspect which the Sfas Emes uses to explain Moshe as being connected to Shabbos is that which we learn in the Gemara in Ta’anis 11B. The Gemara teaches that Moshe Rabbeinu served in the Mishkan during the שבעת ימי המילואים wearing a simple white garment without a hem.
The Sfas Emes teaches, based on the Maharal in the Gur Aryeh on parshat Tzav, that the simple, white garment without a hem, represents the notion of שכל פשוט; the intellect unaffected and unburdened by the physical. And this is represented by white, which is not a color. And its being without a hem expresses that it was all one, unlike physical matter which is composed of parts.
But there are three Regalim, and they correspond to the three Avos. And each one had his own defining characteristics. And the Chagim relate to our physical lives in Olam Hazeh. But on Shabbos, both according to the Sfas Emes and the Meshech Chachmah, we connect to Hashem and attempt to live on a higher plane. We strive to leave behind our life in this world, and through our study, connect to the wisdom and intellect of Hashem and His Torah.
Good Shabbos
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