Torah Sparks
Parashat Va’et’hanan/ Shabbat Nahamu
Our Torah portion contains, among many other elements, a restatement of the Ten Commandments. Close readers of the text have noticed the various differences, small and large, between the original version in Exodus (20:2-14) and Moses’ version (Deut. 5:6-18).
A famous difference is found at the first word of the commandment to observe Shabbat. In Exodus the word used is “Zakhor – Remember [the day of Shabbat],” (Ex. 20:8) while Moses chooses to begin with “Shamor – Guard, keep, protect [the day of Shabbat ].” (Deut. 5:12) The discussion of this difference is rich and ongoing. But I wish to look, instead, at the difference in the ending of this commandment.
In Exodus God tells us that the Shabbat is being commanded “because God made the heavens and earth in six days … and on the seventh day He rested, and therefore the Eternal blessed the Shabbat day and sanctified it.” (Ex. 20:11) In Deuteronomy the last verse of this commandment is: “And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and that the Eternal took you out from there with a strong Hand and an outstretched Arm; therefore the Eternal, your Almighty God, has commanded you to make the Shabbat day.” (Deut. 5:15)
The difference is immense. When God speaks in Exodus, God explains what God’s own motivation is in commanding this observance. But when Moses repeats the commandment he shifts focus to what the observance should mean for us. He roots the significance of the Shabbat, not in the creation of the cosmos, at the very start of time, but in the immediate past experiences of the Jewish people.
Moreover, the “making” described in these versions refers to and means different things. God “makes” the world in the beginning. This is an act with a very tangible result. But Moses tells us that it is up to us to “make” the Shabbat. (This is where the Yiddish expression comes from – “to make Shabbes.”) We are not only called upon to observe and guard a pre-existent concept or practice. We are commanded to “make” a day, to bring it into being, just as God brought the world into being.
In Moses’ telling of this commandment, we were taken out of slavery so that we could stop making bricks and mortar for others and so that we could start making Shabbat for ourselves and for God. The Creation story seems to be left out, until we realize that it has been taken from God and given to us. We are tasked with making Shabbat. If we do not make the Shabbat it will not exist. A part of the world will be missing, lost. But if we make Shabbat we will restore that missing piece to the universe. This is one key way that we can repair the world.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi David Greenstein
image: “Children Footrace DA Blodget Adoption Picnic” © Steven Depolo altered and used with permission via Creative Commons License
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