by Rabbi Avi Billet
Of the many topics raised in the Torah portion, none are as timeless as what appears at the end of chapter 31:12-17, part of which is an important part of our Shabbos liturgy and ritual. This passage speaks of the importance of Shabbos, and includes the dire consequences facing those who violate it.
The phrase ושמרו בני ישראל את השבת, “And the children of Israel shall keep the Shabbos” is not just a reminder to tick off the checklist of Sabbath observance. Rabbi Chaim ben Atar took this passage to be a formidable instruction regarding Shabbos: we should be making every effort to be sure that Shabbos has no trace of mundane. It’s not enough that a person follows the rules of Shabbos, but we cannot allow the Shabbos to be profaned through conversations and activities which don’t contribute to the holiness of the day.
What is meant when it says לעשות את השבת לדורותם – to do Shabbos for generations? One explanation is that it is meant to be a time in which the older generations instill in the younger generations what Shabbos is supposed to be all about: learning, Torah, mitzvos, setting times for study sessions, and gathering for purposes that are aimed heavenward. Of course we are only able to do that if we live Shabbos on that level ourselves. If we aim to preach, or at least lead by example, then our Shabbos experience should be one others could emulate.
The Chofetz Chaim used a parable to explain the significance of Shabbos for every individual Jew. Anyone who has a business or a store has some kind of sign indicating that the store is “open for business.” As long as the sign is over the store, it indicates that the business owner is alive and still in business – even if he takes a vacation every now and then. However, when the sign comes down, this signifies that the owner is out of the business and that he has moved on in some form.
The same idea is paramount when it comes to the holiness of Shabbos. Shabbos is a sign between us and the Almighty that “in six days He created the world, and on the 7th day He rested…” Shabbos is a sign and a testimony for every Jew that he or she is a Jew. A Jew who violates a mitzvah here or there, or who is not a “perfect” Jew isn’t lost to Judaism as long as he or she keeps Shabbos. Taking Shabbos out of one’s life, however, is a way of removing the business sign which indicates “I am still in the business of living a Jewish life.”
When he was a teenager in Chaslovitch, Yosef Dov Soloveitchik (later to become the revered Rabbi Soloveitchik in Boston and Yeshiva University) walked into a shteeble on a Shabbos afternoon and asked someone “When is Shabbos over?” The response he was given was a surprised stare accompanied by, “You look forward to Chol (weekday)?”
In that time and in that place, Shabbos was a haven from the mundane. Some people were clearly able to disengage, and to enjoy and cherish the disengagement from the week. It seems that the idea of wanting Shabbos to extend longer and longer is testament to what Shabbos is and can be, and also how much people needed an escape from the lives they lived during the week – and Shabbos provided that. Perhaps in a way it was a blessed time of innocence that modernity has taken away from us, and perhaps also a reminder of our own need to uplift ourselves spiritually in this haven in time we call Shabbos.
How many of us say Havdalah and immediately turn on our cell phones or televisions? How many of us make sure to say Havdalah as soon as possible after the listed time for Shabbos being over? How many of us spend the last hour of Shabbos looking at the clock, or even looking at the sky wondering if the time listed for Shabbos to end isn’t later than when the necessary 3 stars emerge?
For some of us, these last 12 months have created a challenge of how to use the time best. For those who are coming to shul, the routine of Shabbos is relatively normal compared to how it was before March 2020. For many who have not been back to shul, we have created a routine that works. And for some, Shabbos is still the dreaded day of loneliness and isolation.
But it does not have to be that way! We can take a Shabbos walk, we can have our reading list for Shabbos, we can go through the Torah portion in greater depth, especially if we print the many divrei Torah available on the Internet – see here, for example: https://torah.org/series/dvartorah/ or here: http://torah.saadia.info/ We can make an effort to greater appreciate the chosen Haftorah of each week. Sometimes that entails reading more than the specific section, to understand background and context, all while we aim to understand why this section was chosen – how does it parallel the Torah reading? Or in cases such as this Shabbos, what is its connection to Parshat Parah?
Much has been written about Shabbos throughout the generations. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel spoke of it being a sanctity in time. Many of the early Chassidic rebbes preached about Shabbos to their constituents – not just about observance of it, but about taking Shabbos to the higher levels Shabbos is to be, and the higher levels we are to personally reach through carving out meaning for ourselves through enhancing our Shabbos experience.
It doesn’t happen automatically, but we can put the right steps and stops in place to make our Shabbos day majestic.
May we be blessed to do so.
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