SHABBOS; KEEPING THE WORLD ALIVE
This week’s Parsha, Vayakheil-Pikudei, opens with HaShem’s instruction to Moshe to instruct his people on keeping the Shabbos. “Six days shall your work be done and the seventh day shall be kodesh to HaShem” The Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh asks why the Torah instructs us to work six days, there is no mitzvah to perform work on the week-days. He also notes that the Torah does not say we should work six days but rather that our work should be done on those six days. Why does the Torah not say to work six days?
The Ohr Hachaim references the Midrash that when HaShem created the world, the universe was trembling and precarious, until Shabbos. Once Shabbos came everything was firm and established. What was the cause of the shakiness of the world until Shabbos and how did Shabbos resolve it? The Ohr Hachaim explains that Shabbos is the soul of the world. Just as the organs of the human body may be in perfect working order, nevertheless, until the neshama is placed within nothing will work. At the end of life people who, G.D forbid, are brain dead can still breathe on ventilators with a pumping heart, but it is difficult to say that they are alive. So it was with the world; before Shabbos the entire world was ready to operate everything was finished but it was precarious because the world was missing her neshama. Once Shabbos came everything was established and firm. The world was alive.
With this understanding the Ohr Hachaim explains that our Parsha teaches us that during six days of the week our work will be done only if Shabbos is holy to HaShem. If, G.D forbid, the Shabbos is not holy to HaShem our work will not be done during the six days, the six days of the week will have no neshama.
With this he explains the first two verses of the second chapter in Parshas Bereishis. Immediately following the conclusion of the sixth day the Torah states “And the heavens and the earth were finished. And HaShem finished on the seventh day the work that He did”
The first verse implies that all of creation was concluded with the end of the sixth day. The second verse implies that He finished His work on the seventh day. If His work was already finished at the end of day six what was done on day seven?
If we understand Shabbos as the arrival of the world’s neshama, then these verses are strikingly clear. With the conclusion of the sixth day all of HaShem’s work was done, everything was created and ready to go. There was nothing left to be done in the world. On the seventh day, when HaShem implanted Shabbos into the world as its neshama, He finished or He completed the work that He did on the first six days.
The Talmud discusses a situation where a person lost track of time and did not know which day was Shabbos. The discussion is which day should he observe as Shabbos. The ger tzedek who was close to the Vilna Gaon asked on this Gemara “everything you see appears different on Shabbos, how could someone not know when Shabbos is?”
When I first heard this story I thought that this ger tzedek had Ruach Hakodesh to be able to see Shabbos. However, after learning this Ohr Hachahim Hakadosh, I realized from where the ger tzedek was coming. One who looks at the face of someone who has deceased can tell immediately that he is not sleeping. The difference between a world with a neshama and a world without a neshama is easily discernible.
Have a very safe and very wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind