Shabbos 4

שמור את יום השבת לקדשו כאשר צוך ה' אלהיך ששת ימים תעבד ועשית כל מלאכתך ויום השביעי שבת לה' אלהיך לא תעשה כל מלאכה אתה ובנך ובתך ועבדך ואמתך ושורך וחמרך וכל בהמתך וגרך אשר בשעריך למען ינוח עבדך ואמתך כמוך וזכרת כי עבד היית בארץ מצרים ויוצאך ה' אלהיך משם ביד חזקה ובזרוע נטויה על כן צוך ה' אלהיך לעשות את יום השבת.

So in the in the Asseres HaDibros in Parshas Va'etchanan the Torah associates Shabbos not with the ששת ימים עשה ה' את השמים ואת הארץ but rather with Yetzias Mitzrayim. The Ramban here basically presents three three approaches to to what connection the Torah has in mind. The first one is that of the Ibn Ezra who says that the psukim don't really mean what what we just the way we just presented it. The Ibn Ezra says that the pshat of וזכרת כי עבד היית בארץ מצרים the Torah doesn't isn't associating that with Shabbos in general but rather the last detail of the previous pasuk that mitzvas Shabbos is even למען ינוח עבדך ואמתך כמוך. But not only do you have to abstain from melacha on Shabbos but you have to allow your eved and amah to to abstain from Shabbos as well. That the Torah is now coming and explaining vos eppes that the that we have to have this sensitivity that not only that we should be shoves from melacha on Shabbos but that it should extend to our eved and amah. So the Ibn Ezra says וזכרת כי עבד היית בארץ מצרים you should have some you should have that sensitivity that appreciation that what the eved and amah need. Ramban doesn't like this. He says in Kiddush we say that Shabbos is zecher liyetzias Mitzrayim. The way the Ibn Ezra is reading the psukim there's not really a connection between Shabbos and Yetzias Mitzrayim just the prat of למען ינוח עבדך ואמתך כמוך. Then the Ramban quotes from the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim that the Rambam says that there are two distinct reasons for Shabbos. One is that that Shabbos is a zecher lema'aseh bereishis as in Parshas Yisro and the other is that Shabbos is a zecher liyetzias Mitzrayim as is presented here in Parshas Va'etchanan. The Ramban could be the Ramban is sort of insinuating that he doesn't really like this idea of two different reasons two different reasons but that's too much of a difference in in emphasis. And the other thing the Ramban says is how is Shabbos zecher liyetzias Mitzrayim? He says meila mitzvas matzah so we understand how matzah mitzvas matzah evokes Yetzias Mitzrayim. לא הספיק בצקם להחמיץ. We understand how issur chametz evokes the zecher liyetzias Mitzrayim. But Shabbos it seems totally totally artificial. So the Torah will say ich veis every now and then wave a pink flag and that will be zecher liyetzias Mitzrayim. How is that zecher liyetzias Mitzrayim? Because we said it's zecher liyetzias Mitzrayim so mimaila it's zecher liyetzias Mitzrayim. Ramban says it's circular. There's nothing inherently or or intrinsic about it which which conjures up zecher Yetzias Mitzrayim. So the Ramban thinks that really there aren't two different reasons for Shabbos but Shabbos is again testimony to the fact that Hakadosh Baruch Hu to chidush ha'olam that Hakadosh Baruch Hu willingly voluntarily was mechadesh the beriah. Lest a person begin to doubt that Rachmana litzlan so וזכרת כי עבד היית בארץ מצרים and according to the Ramban the emphasis here is on ויוצאך ה' אלהיך משם ביד חזקה ובזרוע נטויה that all the osos u'mofsim which Hakadosh Baruch Hu performed in taking us out of Mitzrayim in turn are proof to chidush ha'olam. My the only way Hakadosh Baruch Hu can override natural law is if Hakadosh Baruch Hu willingly and voluntarily created and sustains natural law. If if that exists Rachmana litzlan if one would think that that exists behechre'ach so then Hakadosh Baruch Hu can't override it. Ran says it's not really two different reasons. It's a triangle between Shabbos and Zechiras Yetzias Mitzrayim and Maaseh Bereishis. Shabbos is an eidus on Maaseh Bereishis. The belief in Chiddush Ha'olam in turn was demonstrated through Zechiras Yetzias Mitzrayim. And in that sense Shabbos, where we're being me'id on Chiddush Ha'olam, is also zecher l'Yetzias Mitzrayim because what made possible the often the nissim veniflaos associated with Yetzias Mitzrayim is the fact to which Shabbos is attesting. So that's the Ramban's understanding. It's not really two different reasons but rather the Zechiras Yetzias Mitzrayim is a way of reinforcing the reason of כי ששת ימים עשה ה' את השמים ואת הארץ. And how do we know takeh that that's the case, that כי ששת ימים עשה ה' את השמים ואת הארץ? Well, that was clearly and unequivocally demonstrated when ויוציאך ה' אלוהיך משם ביד חזקה ובזרוע נטויה. Let's perhaps briefly try to outline another approach, more at least initially more in keeping with the Rambam's approach: two different reasons. And let's try to understand what an answer might be to the Ramban's question of how does Shabbos serve as a reminder for Zechiras Yetzias Mitzrayim? At the end of Parshas Behar, the Torah says

כי לי בני ישראל עבדים עבדי הם אשר הוצאתי אותם מארץ מצרים אני ה' אלוהיכם.

Hakadosh Baruch Hu stakes His claim as it were to our avdus in the fact that He took us out of Mitzrayim. Avdai heim,

כי לי בני ישראל עבדים עבדי הם אשר הוצאתי אותם מארץ מצרים.

It's a little tamuah. The fact that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the Borei Olam, the fact that ואתה מחיה את כולם would seem to be more than enough basis and justification as it were for any claim. Okay, would that explain why we're mechuyavim in more mitzvos than bnei Noach? But אף על פי כן, what's the Torah emphasizing here that kavyachol Hakadosh Baruch Hu says, you know why Klal Yisrael are my avadim? Because עבדי הם אשר הוצאתי אותם מארץ מצרים. Somehow or other Hakadosh Baruch Hu's claim to our avdus has to be rooted in the fact that He took us out of Yetzias Mitzrayim, that He took us out of Mitzrayim, is rooted in Yetzias Mitzrayim. There are two basic elements to avdus which are especially pertinent to us, to our present inyan. First of all, the din מה שקנה עבד קנה רבו. That יד עבד כיד רבו, which signifies basically that the eved has no identity of his own. The eved exists as the eved of the adon. He's k'shoro vechamoro. He has no independent personal identity, agenda, but he's kullo kullo totally given over to the adon. And that's signified by the din of מה שקנה עבד קנה רבו. But there is another aspect to avdus as well. And that's highlighted by the famous Gemara in Berachos when Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai's son becomes seriously ill. So he sends a messenger to Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa that Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa should be mispallel for his son. And Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa davens for him and the fever breaks and the son lives. So Reb Yochanan ben Zakkai says to him וכי חנינא גדול ממך? How is it Reb Yochanan ben Zakkai's reaction is that

אלמלי הטיח בן זכאי ראשו בין ברכיו כל היום לא נענה.

I could have put my head down between my knees and davened all day long, but I wouldn't have been answered the way Reb Chanina ben Dosa was. So his wife says to him וכי חנינא גדול ממך? So he says no, but אני דומה לשר לפני המלך and Reb Chanina is דומה כעבד לפני המלך. So what is what is the moshal express? A sar certainly outranks an eved, certainly outranks an eved. But if he wants an audience with the melech, he has to make an appointment. He can't just he can't just walk in. You may be a you may have cabinet status, you may be a member of the cabinet, but you can't just walk in to the into the Oval Office and meet with the president. You have to have an appointment. The president has a personal secretary or chief of staff; he's יוצא ונכנס כל היום כולו. So avdus also represents a certain intimacy that an eved is yotzei venichnas. It doesn't only represent מה שקנה עבד קנה רבו that the eved has no no identity, no agenda, no plans of his own, but that he's totally totally given over to the adam. It represents that, but it also represents perhaps because of this, right? The second aspect is rooted in the first one, that there's an intimacy between the eved and the adam that even the sar doesn't enjoy. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu says כי לי בני ישראל עבדים, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu is tove'a not only not only that we should be an eved in the sense of having no identity and no focus in life other than being avdei Hashem. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu is also tove'a that the avdus should express itself through a personal intimate relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Not just that a person has a sense of a shibud, of being meshubad, that I have to do because מה שקנה עבד קנה רבו, I have no no independent standing, I have no no independent existence because לית ליה מגרמיה כלום as as the lashon the sefarim quote. But Hakadosh Baruch Hu says no, an integral part of of avdus is to be כעבד לפני המלך like the bechina of Reb Chanina ben Dosa to develop, to pursue a a personal and intimate relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Aye, but can you have such a such a relationship if it's unilateral? Hakadosh Baruch Hu's the borei shamayim va'aretz, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is mechayeh es kulam, but if Hakadosh Baruch Hu's not personally involved with us, so how can He be tove'a, how can He be tove'a that we should that we should cultivate and that we should pursue that kind of personal intimate relationship with Him? So says Hakadosh Baruch Hu כי לי בני ישראל עבדים עבדי הם, not simply because אשר בראתי שמים וארץ, not simply because אני מחיה את כולם, but because of what's represented and what's signified by Yetzias Mitzrayim אשר הוצאתי אותם מארץ מצרים because I'm personally involved with them. I have a personal intimate relationship with them and therefore I'm tove'a that they reciprocate. So avdus Hashem again means that a person has no independent agenda. It's not that a person is kove'a ittim laTorah, a person does whatever mitzvos hamutalos alav hayom, he puts on tefillin, he davens three times, and then the rest of of the time is his to do what he wants? No, avdus Hashem means that it's the person is totally totally given over to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He doesn't have his own, doesn't have his own agenda. But it also means it also means developing, developing a personal connection and relationship through Torah, through mitzvos with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Shabbos, in in Mah Yedidus we we reflect the pesukim in Sefer Yeshayahu of ממצוא חפצך ודבר דבר. And say chafatzecha asurim, so the Gemara darshans on that ממצוא חפצך ודבר דבר that you can't talk about the business, you can't talk about money, that chafatzecha asurim but chafatzei shamayim mutarim. So Shabbos is a day when mimtzo chafatzecha, a person has to abstain mimtzo chafatzecha. We mentioned last week, two weeks ago, I don't remember, that the omek hapshat in the Mechilta of

ששת ימים תעבוד ועשית כל מלאכתך, כאילו כל מלאכתך עשויה.

What do you mean כאילו כל מלאכתך עשויה, that I've got so much hanging over me, there's so much work to come back to on my desk? The teretz is no, that Shabbos, Shabbos is lashem Elokecha, a person doesn't have melachtecha. Melachtecha doesn't exist on Shabbos, because Shabbos is purely lashem Elokecha. The Gemara in Shabbos tells a story about this chasid who on Shabbos entertained the thought that there was a breach in the fence around the field, so that he needed to be goder es hageder, he needed to fill in that breach. And because he had that machshava about his own mundane affairs on Shabbos, so then he never fixed it. So Shabbos represents the first aspect of avdus, that the eved has no, there's no chafatzecha on Shabbos. There's chafatzei shamayim but there's no chafatzecha. There's no melachtecha, כאילו כל מלאכתך עשויה. But Shabbos also represents, so that's the hisbatlus, the aspect of hisbatlus of avdus is accentuated on Shabbos. Rav Pinkus sort of develops this in a slightly different way, but the point is the same: ובמערכת המצוות הוראת ההתבטלות וקבלת המלכות שונה ממצוה למצוה. Right? To a degree, every mitzvah reflects a קבלת עול מלכות שמים and hisbatlus lirtzon Hashem. Every mitzvah.

אמנם המצוה המורה ביותר על העבדות היא שבת קודש שאין מצוה הכוללת בחינת עבדות כמותה.

And he says it a little bit differently, but it's the same point:

שהרי כל עמל האדם לפי פיו ופרנסתו וחיותו של האדם תלויים במלאכתו והנה ביום השבת בטל האדם מכל מלאכתו היינו שנטש את מציאות החיים הטבעיים האנושיים וכולו עכשיו עבד להקדוש ברוך הוא.

And also

ועוד שכך גם צורת החיים ביום השבת. השומר שבת כהלכתה ידיו ממש כבולות,

as if he's chained,

שאינו עושה תנועה מבלי להימלך תחילה בתורה בהשם יתברך האם תנועה זו מותרת או אסורה. ואין לך מצוה שמקיפה את כל תנועות האדם וכל חושיו.

There's no other mitzvah which is just so totally all-encompassing כמו שמירת שבת שבכל רגע ובכל מעשה הוא טרוד, a person is always, always preoccupied,

האם אין בזה משום מוקצה משום בורר משום ודבר דבר,

can I touch it, can I take this, can I say that,

או אחד משאר איסורי שבת המרובים שזו מרות ועבדות שאין כמותה.

So Shabbos certainly represents the first aspect of avdus, but Shabbos also represents the second aspect of avdus, like eved lifnei hamelech. In Parshas Ki Sisa:

ושמרו בני ישראל את השבת לעשות את השבת לדורותם ברית עולם ביני ובין בני ישראל אות היא לעולם כי ששת ימים עשה השם את השמים ואת הארץ וביום השביעי שבת וינפש.

The Medrash Rabbah says, I think the Medrash Rabbah is in Beshalach, on the pasuk of

ראו כי השם נתן לכם את השבת ומהו נתן לכם? לכם נתנה ולא לעובדי כוכבים מכאן אמרו אם יבואו מעובדי כוכבים וישמרו את השבת לא דים שאין מקבלים שכר וכולו שנאמר ויום ולילה לא ישבותו וכן הוא אומר ביני ובין בני ישראל.

So ביני ובין בני ישראל means that this is some special relationship between the Ribbono Shel Olam and Klal Yisrael. Shabbos, the experience of kedusha Shabbos is a private special relationship between Hakadosh Baruch Hu and Klal Yisrael. And the Midrash concludes משל למלך יושב ומטרונה יושבת כנגדו. The king is sitting and the queen is alongside him. Ha'over beineihem, if someone intrudes on that private space and walks between the Melech and the Matrona, chayav. So Shabbos also beini uveinechem, so ke'eved lifnei hamelech. Shabbos also represents that aspect of avdus as well. In another context, Rav Pinkus quotes the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh on this pasuk. The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh says,

ואמרו ביני ובין בני ישראל פירוש אין זר איתנו בעולם הזה.

No stranger can enter the world of Shabbos where Klal Yisrael is alone with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Ve'olai, says the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh, שגם המלאכים לא ישבו במסיבתנו בעולם זה. Even the malachim are not invited. Pinkus says with this Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh a mora'dige vort. The welt asks when we sing Shalom Aleichem, why it is that we're ushering the malachim out so quickly? And what would be so terrible if the malachim stay and they enjoy the Seudas Shabbos and maybe they'll even stay for the entire Shabbos? No, right away Shalom Aleichem, within two minutes, already tzeitchem leshalom, already tzeitchem leshalom. So there are different answers, some people taka, there are some who don't say tzeitchem leshalom for this reason. So Rav Pinkus says and then refers to this Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh, he says itachen the malachim can't stay. Shabbos is so holy, Shabbos is so holy,

משל למה הדבר דומה וכל אדם לא יהיה באהל מועד בבואו לכפר בקודש,

that when the Kohen Gadol goes into the Kodesh Hakodashim with the Ketores, so vechol adam, so Chazal darshen that even the malachim can't be there, even the malachim can't be there. So Pinkus says maybe that's the pshat, tzeitchem leshalom. Thank you for coming, thank you for walking me home from shul, thank you for the bracha, but now you have to leave. This is just ביני ובין בני ישראל. Al kol panim, al kol panim, so Shabbos represents both bechinos of avdus. The bechina of hisbatlus,

מה שקנה עבד קנה רבו חפצך אסורים חפצי שמים מותרים כל מלאכתך עשויה,

there is no notion of melachtcha on Shabbos, but also the ke'eved lifnei hamelech, ביני ובין בני ישראל. Lefi ha'amur, when the Torah says וזכרת כי עבד היית בארץ מצרים, so the Ramban asks a kasha, Ramban says, so how can the Ramban take this as a ta'am for mitzvas Shabbos? So the Rambam himself, the emes is, the Rambam gives the answer like this. The Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim says that the pshat is that an eved, if a person is self-employed, he can go on vacation whenever he wants, he can decide I'm going to work six days a week, I'm not going to work seven days a week. If a person is an eved, he doesn't have the independence to say I'm going to work six days a week, not seven days a week. So the Rambam says that's how Shabbos reminds us of Yetzias Mitzrayim, the fact that we have the independence and the liberty to take Shabbos off is because of Yetzias Mitzrayim. But lefi ha'amur could be that the pshat is something else in addition, dehinu with the etzem, Shabbos is the ultimate expression of avdus, the shvisas haShabbos when a person keeps Shabbos, the hisbatlus of Shabbos. of Shabbos of חפצך אסורים חפצי שמים מותרים, of kol melachtecha asuya, of ke'eved lifnei hamelech, of ביני ובין בני ישראל, so that's the ultimate expression of avdus. The ultimate expression of avdus, so how is it that we're in a position to be avdei Hashem? What's the what's the root of of of our avdus Hashem?

כי לי בני ישראל עבדים עבדי הם אשר הוצאתי אותם מארץ מצרים.

So when you keep Shabbos and and you experience that avdus, both aspects of the avdus, the hisbatlus of of the avdus as well as the intimacy of the avdus, ki li the the ביני ובין בני ישראל, so you'll remember, you'll remember וזכרת כי עבד היית בארץ מצרים, Hakadosh Baruch Hu took you out and that's and and that's what what you're now able to experience, the avdus which reaches its its ultimate expression in in Shabbos.