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Shabbat Parashat Tzav 5780

Parashat Hashavua: Two Types of Shabbatot

Harav Shaul Yisraeli – from Shirat Hageula, p. 34-36

There were two stages to the liberation from Egypt: 1) The first night of Pesach. 2) The end of the interaction with what remained of Egypt, after the splitting of the sea. Why couldn’t it occur at one time? The gemara (Shabbat 118b) says that had Bnei Yisrael observed two Shabbatot, they would have been immediately liberated. This apparently refers to two types of Shabbatot: the standard one commemorating Creation; the holidays that Bnei Yisrael sanctified by their setting of the calendar. The Torah calls the first day of Pesach “Shabbat,” so that the count of the omer begins the day after Shabbat (Vayikra 23:15). Why is this called a Shabbat, and why must Israel sanctify it? Almost everything is in Hashem’s hands, but man is charged with sanctifying the mundane. Man consists of contrasting elements. He is made from earth, but Hashem blew His Spirit into man’s nostrils. While the individual man struggles with internal contradictions, it is much more complex for a whole nation. While an individual can separate himself from the world of physical activity, an entire nation cannot. They must sew, harvest, etc. These take time and can “swallow up” the persona the person wants to be. When our forefathers were a family in Egypt, an individual could decide to have someone else take care of his physical needs. However, a nation needs to fulfill the goal of “I will bring you to the Land …” (Shemot 6:8). Even if, initially, they may have inherited riches from those they conquered (see Devarim 6:11), they had to start working the Land themselves. Hashem wanted them to be like all the nations, but also very different from other nations. They needed to learn to sing, but not of struggles, harvest, or first fruit. The experience of harvest needed to revolve around the rules of the Torah; the experience of the first fruit needed to be connected to the mitzva done at the Beit Hamikdash. Actions and times needed to be sanctified. These matters are related to the second Shabbat. Only Israel, as holy human beings, with spirits and bodies, can build this Shabbat; it cannot be divinely dictated. That is the reason that the harvest festival (Shavuot) is to be prepared for from the day after “man’s Shabbat.” How do we create this Shabbat? It is by bringing a Korban Pesach, which is unique in that the main part of the Korban is eating rather than that which was put on the altar. Everyone, old and young, has to take the material meat and eat it in a manner of sanctification. This was a preparation for the full exodus, which had to be not just physical but also spiritual, so that something all new could emerge – a holy nation. Then one can start reaping the grain without it causing boastfulness; he can start preparing for the receiving of the Torah, to complete the liberation. Before the events at the sea, slavery was over but there was not a move from subjugation to liberation. We could have built an independent nation, but it might have looked like a Jewish Egypt, with all the technological and societal developments. Only after eating the Korban Pesach and appreciating the beauty of a holy, physical national life, Hashem could destroy Egypt in a manner that we would never see them again. Then, the people could sing – not just about the past, but for what it did for their future (yashir).
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Dedication

We daven for a complete and speedy refuah for:

 

Nir Rephael ben Rachel Bracha
Refael Yitchak ben Chana

Netanel Ilan ben Sheina Tzipora

Netanel ben Sarah Zehava

Meira bat Esther

Yair Menachem ben Yehudit Chana

Rivka Reena bat Gruna Natna

Lillian bat Fortune

Yafa bat Rachel Yente

Eliezer Yosef ben Chana Liba

Ro'i Moshe Elchanan ben Gina Devra

Esther Michal bat Gitel

Yehudit Sarah bat Rachel

 

Together with all cholei Yisrael

 

Hemdat Yamim is dedicated

to the memory of:

those who fell in wars

for our homeland

 

Eretz Hemdah's beloved friends

and Members of

Eretz Hemdah's Amutah

 

Rav Shlomo Merzel z”l
Iyar 10 5771

 

Rav Reuven Aberman z"l

 Tishrei 9     5776

 

Mr. Shmuel Shemesh  z"l
Sivan 17 5774

 

R' Eliyahu Carmel z"l

Rav Carmel's father

Iyar 8    5776

 

Mrs. Sara Wengrowsky

bat R’ Moshe Zev a”h.

Tamuz 10       5774

 

Rav Asher Wasserteil z"l

Kislev 9   5769

 

R'  Meir ben

Yechezkel Shraga Brachfeld z"l

&

Mrs. Sara Brachfeld z"l

Tevet 16 5780

  

R'  Yaakov ben Abraham & Aisha

and

Chana bat Yaish & Simcha

Sebbag, z"l

 

Rav Yisrael Rozen z"l
Cheshvan 13 5778

 

Rav Benzion Grossman z"l
Tamuz 23    5777

 

Rav Moshe Zvi (Milton)

Polin z"l

Tamuz 19     5778

 

R' Abraham Klein z"l

Iyar 18 5779

 

  Hemdat Yamim
is endowed by Les & Ethel Sutker
of Chicago, Illinois
in loving memory of
Max and Mary Sutker
and
Louis and Lillian Klein, z”l

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