Mina's Musings - Va'ethanan 2017 - Shamor v'Zachor

Shabbat Shalom.  As our Bat Mitzvah noted in her d’var Torah, this morning we read Moses’ repetition of the Aseret Ha-Dibrot, known as the Ten Commandments, to the Israelites whose parents had heard them originally at Mt. Sinai forty years earlier.  Moses felt compelled to repeat the Ten Commandments at this moment, just before the people was to enter the land of Israel precisely because other than himself, Joshua, and Caleb no one else was still alive who had been standing at Mt. Sinai.  So he had to repeat the commandments for a new generation.

What is interesting about the repetition is that there are a few fairly significant differences, most obviously in the wording of the fourth commandment concerning Shabbat.  Let me share the two versions with you.

In the book of Exodus (20:8-11) we read:  Zachor et ha-Shabbat – “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God:  you shall not do any work – you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements.  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

However, in this morning’s Torah reading we read (Deut. 5:12-15): Shamor et ha-Shabbat l’kodsho – “Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; you shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the stranger in your settlements, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do.  Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God freed you from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.”   

So what happened here?  Did Moses forget what was said at Mt. Sinai nearly 40 years before?  He was 120 years old after all.  Was it mistake?  Did he change it on a whim?  Or was something else going on? The classic rabbinic commentators spent a great deal of time discussing this discrepancy between the two versions of the Decalogue.  However, their resolution is that Moses did not make a mistake.  They resolve the difference by explaining that God spoke both zachor and shamor and the accompanying versions at Mt. Sinai.  That’s something God can do that humans can’t – say two things at once.  This is in fact the reason why during Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat services we say in the Lecha Dodi “Shamor v’zachor b’dibur echad – Observance and remember in a single word.”

However, this doesn’t explain why God would NEED to say both at once.  What was the purpose?  Rabbi Joseph Albo, the author of a 15^th century philosophic work called Sefer Ha-Ikkarim, explained this need as follows.  He said Shabbat as explained in Exodus cannot only come to teach us that there was a Prime Mover Who created the world because even non-Jews acknowledge this.  Rather Shabbat comes to teach us that after creating the world, God STILL directs it on a constant basis, is still concerned with it and the actions of its inhabitants.  This idea that God is still intimately involved in the world is something that many philosophers dispute.  As it is explained by Rabbi Nachshoni in his work Studies in the Weekly Parashah, “The connection between zachor and shamor is that in the first passage in Exodus the Torah mentions only the existence of the Prime Mover, whereas the idea of Hashem (God) continuing to direct the world is to be found in the second passage (in Deuteronomy), where we are told of Hashem (God) taking us out of Egypt.  Both of these were said with the same utterance, namely that the mitzvot of Shabbos include both of these fundamental principles.  Hashem created the world, and it is He Who still guides and controls it.  This action of His is a continuous one, and this is in opposition to those who say that there is nothing new under the sun. Yetziat Mitzrayim (the Exodus from Egypt) was a new action by Hashem, after the world had been created by Him; it resulted from His continuing direction of the world.”  Or as another commentator named Ramban simplified, Shabbat and the Exodus both reinforce our belief in God as the creator and master of the world.

I find this a very interesting idea.  But how does it impact our day-to-day activities?  I believe understanding Shabbat as a day devoted to reminding us of our relationship with God and perhaps more importantly God’s relationship with us, is very important.  On Wednesday of this week I had the privilege once again of sitting on the Bet Din of a person who wanted to join the Jewish people through conversion.  In her essay she spoke at length of finding the time despite her busy school, work, and life schedule to come to synagogue on Shabbat, pray, find a moment to let the week go and focus on her relationship with God, the Jewish community, her family, and others.  Shabbat has literally become her haven, her temple in time.  It was inspirational and I wish more people saw the beauty of Shabbat as she does.

She understood at its core what I spoke about last Shabbat – the fact that observance of Shabbat is part and parcel of the covenant we made with God.  It is a brit olam, an everlasting covenant with us.  It is because of this that the rabbis had an expression – just as much as the Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews.

May we each find it within ourselves to carve out in our busy – overbooked lives – a haven, a temple in time and truly come to embrace Shabbat.