Parshat Kedoshim 5779
Rabbi Jablinowitz
We read in the beginning of this week's parsha (Chapter 19, Pasuk 3), Ish Imo V'Aviv Tira'u V'es Shabsosai Tishmoru. Each person should fear his mother and his father and keep My Shabbos. Rashi comments that the Torah placed the mitzvah of fearing one's father next to the obligation to keep Shabbos. This juxtaposition teaches that if one's father were to command him to violate Shabbos, he should not listen. The mitzvah of Shabbos overrides the mitzvah of listening to one's parent. And Rashi adds that this is true of other mitzvos as well.
If this is true of other mitzvos as well, why is Shabbos singled out as the mitzvah which is used to illustrate this point?
The Sfas Emes answers by referring to the Gemara in Nidah 31A which teaches Shlosha Shutfim Yesh L'Adam. Each person born has three partners in his creation; his mother, his father, and Hashem. This is why the Torah places fearing his parents who created him next to the mitzvah of showing respect to Hashem by keeping Shabbos and acknowledging Him as the Creator of the world.
The connection among the three partners involved in man's creation can be broken down further. Even though Hashem is the source of all life, one's father and mother are directly connected to bringing the physical body into the world while the spiritual Neshamah is gifted to the newborn by Hashem. Though Hashem is involved with the parents in giving the child his physical body, the parents are not responsible for the spiritual component. It is exclusively from Gd.
This breakdown between the different parts of the human is paralleled in the creation of the world. First there was the creation of the physical world. The six days of creation, Sheshes Yemei Ha'Ma'aseh, correspond to the creation of one's physical body. And Shabbos is the world's soul, the holiness and source of Kedushah in the world, as the pasuk says by creation (Shemos, Chapter 31, Pasuk 17), U'Vayom Ha'Shvi'I Shavas Vayinafash. The nefesh of the world is Shabbos, and Shabbos is the day we receive an additional dose of holiness, a Neshamah Yeseirah. The maintenance of the physical world is through Shabbos; Shabbos is the day which infuses the world with its Kedushah. In a similar manner one must ensure that his soul takes precedence in how one leads his life. He must place his spiritual needs before his physical ones.
This explains why Shabbos is used as the paradigm for keeping the mitzvos of Hashem over conflicting demands from his parents. Though a person has three partners, his parents are responsible only for his physical guf. Hashem provides him with his Neshamah. And one's spiritual side is what maintains him and keeps him going in this world. And the mitzvah which most expresses the holiness in this world is precisely the mitzvah of Shabbos which parallels the Neshamah in the physical body. And therefore, if one's parents, his physical creators ask him to violate Shabbos, he dare not listen. For Shabbos, and all the mitzvos are his spiritual oxygen. Es Shabsosai Tishmoru is exhorting us to remain faithful to our soul and its Creator over the demands and desires of our physical body and our parents who brought us into the physical world.
Good Shabbos
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