This weeks Parshah is Vayakel. In the Parshah Hashem gives us an incredible opportunity. A way to separate ourselves from the lowly toil of this work and for a day become holy, closer to Him. This commandment is Shabbos. The lesson of Shabbos is taught three places in the Torah and each one brings us a deeper understanding of the day. After understanding these we can truly appreciate what this Mitzvah is.
This first place is in the Ten Commandments. “Six days shall you work and accomplish all your work.” There are many lessons in this. Firstly that part of the rest of Shabbos is that you must work i.e. accomplish something positive during the week. Being in a constant state of rest in not elevating but on the contrary is totally apposed to a Jewish way of life. There is a second lesson as well. G-d promises that if you follow these laws the loss of work will not be a detriment but a positive. In these six days you will accomplish. When you give this seventh day to G-d he gives you strength to put into your other sixth day.
The second place is in our Parshah. “Six days work may be done, but the seventh day shall be holy to you, a day of complete rest for Hashem.” When you keep the Shabbos holy for yourself the Almighty Himself joins you in this day of rest. This incredible promise of connection allows us to turn even our work days into days of godly work and allows our spirits to have a weekly realignment better then any new age treatment.
The third place this commandment is giving is in the review of the Ten Commandments. There however the wording is different. After recounting both aspects mentioned earlier and another aspect is given. Hashem instructs us to include our entire household community and assets in the Shabbos and reminds us of our bond of slave and redeemer dating back to Egypt. He teaches that if we all keep the Shabbos this dynamic will repeat it self again on both a personal level with relief from your troubles be it financial, physical or spiritual, and as a nation with the coming of Moshiach and the Final Redemption.
I wish you all a good Shabbos and I invite all of you to improve in your keeping of this day. Those of you who do not yet observe this mitzvah I invite you to join your people and enjoy the windfall immediate, and eventual, physical, and spiritual. And for those of you who keep and guard the Shabbos already I urge you to increase in your observance in someway be it in prayer, spirit, or by incurring someone else to join you. And may we all join together to celebrate Shabbos together this week in Yerushlayim with Moshiach.
This week’s thought is dedicated in Honor of Tzvi Kriegsman and his Ayshes Chayal. May he have many more happy and healthy years and may he be blessed with children as incredible as him and may his home continue to be a place where to spirit of Shabbos constantly dwells until the day when Shabbos reigns eternal. Amen, Good Shabbos.
