A Taste of Shabbos – Parashat Vayakhel

This parasha is explicitly about gathering the many kinds of materials for the Mishkan, the moving sanctuary in the desert. Several times the Torah links the construction of the tabernacle with the observance of Shabbat to teach us that as sacred as that building is, we must still stop to honor the Sabbath.

But here, there is also a specific forbidden activity. It is the command- ‘Do not kindle a fire in all your dwellings on the day of Shabbos.’ Now aside from the directive of transporting objects in the public domain, there is no other of the 39 forbidden weekday activities that are mentioned explicitly in the Torah. So what is outstanding about lighting a fire? On a material plane, it is clear. Fire is the substance that most resembles a divine process. One lesson is that we are meant to be partners with G-d in sanctifying the world, not competitors.

I sometimes fantasize about an alien looking down on earth, wondering who is in charge. They may see people dropping everything when they hear a little device ring and may assume the leader of the world is that device. But when Shabbos comes and the device is put aside, the aliens know better. Of course, during the week, fire and its derivatives are most necessary, especially in modern times. Hence my relief when last week there was a power outage in my neighborhood but it was not on Shabbat.

The image of fire has other levels of understanding. One primary idea conveyed by the sages is that we are told not to get angry on Shabbos, because anger is compared to fire. Is there actually more likelihood to get angry on Shabbos? In a sense, yes. On one hand, the beauty of Shabbos is that we take more time to have meaningful conversations, but the challenge is that those conversations can devolve into arguments. Therefore, like fire itself, we have to be more vigilant to ensure that those conversations are constructive and not the opposite.

Now contemporary thinking may agree that anger can be dangerous but how can we be expected to control it at will? I recently posted a clever image on Facebook: feelings are like children; you shouldn’t let them drive the car, but you should also not stuff them into the trunk. So on Shabbos, it’s fine to bring up feelings when we have the wisdom of our ‘higher souls’ to reflect on them.

There is a curious difference as to how this portion describes Shabbos, from that of the Ten Commandments. In the ten, the statement is straightforward: ‘Keep the Sabbath to sanctify it.’ Here the verse is more unusual: Six days work should be done, and the seventh will be a Sabbath of Sabbaths! A fundamental reason for this change is that though we are enjoined to work on the other six days, we should not be so immersed in our work that we forget who is really running the show.

As one of my favorite quips goes, ‘If G-d is your copilot, you might consider changing seats.’ Another illustration can be the story of a disciple of Rabbi Dovber of Lubavitch who was a perhaps overly dedicated shoemaker. Once when he came to his rebbe, the rebbe gave him a gentle critique: ‘I have seen feet immersed in shoes, but not an entire person.’ Thus the use of the expression: ‘work SHALL BE DONE.’ We are G-d’s emissaries to sanctify the material world but we need to remember who’s in charge. If we can do so for six days, then when the Sabbath comes, it will indeed be saturated with an added degree of holiness, enough, as Yom Kippur is called, to become a ‘Sabbath of Sabbaths.’

Now this year, the extra parasha for the coming week is the reading of the Red Heifer, though I mistakenly referred to it last week. The most striking part about this law is that the priest who performs the service to purify the one who became impure, himself becomes impure in the process. What is a lesson from this apparent contradiction? One is from the Rebbe of Lubavitch, that one should go to such an extent to help another, that even if the helper becomes distracted or besmirched in the process, he/she should go about the assistance joyfully.

Another response to the dynamic is from Rabbi Norman Lamm, z”l: We need to remember that even if we helped one person to become better, there are still more that may need our help, at least until Mashiach comes. These lessons of the Red Heifer dovetail with the above Shabbat points: If we are willing to partner with G-d during the week, then we can be more willing and grateful to extend ourselves to others because we realize we are aligned with G-d’s will both during the week and on the holy Sabbath.