Why the Shabbos before Pesach is Called Shabbos
HaGadol
A Novel
Understanding from the Chiddushei HaRim
Why do we call the Shabbos before Pesach, Shabbos HaGadol – The Great
Shabbos? Various reasons are
brought. The Chiddushei HaRim[1]
gives two answers. The first one
follows.
The Chiddushei HaRim associates this question with a similar
question we find in a Gemara[2]
regarding the name of the assembly of Torah greats that functioned during the
Babylonian exile and at the beginning of the second Beis
HaMikdash.
R’ Yehoshua ben Levi asks, “Why are they called Anshei
K’nesses HaGedola – Men of the Great Assembly? Because they returned the crown
to its former glory. Moshe said, ‘God,
the great, the strong and the awesome.’ Yirmiyahu
said, ‘Gentiles are cackling in His sanctuary.
Where is the awe?’ (Therefore),
he did not say, ‘the awesome.’ Daniel
said, ‘Gentiles are enslaving His children.
Where is His strength?’
(Therefore), he did not say, ‘the strong.’ They came and said, ‘Just the opposite. His strength is because He overcomes His
anger and displays patience to the wicked.
His awesomeness is because if it weren’t for the fear of God, one nation
(Israel) would not be able to exist amidst all the others.”
We see though, that Yirmiyahu and Daniel never removed the
appellation “great” and it therefore never had to be returned. It is true that the Anshei K’nesses HaGedola
returned, “the strong” and, “the awesome” but why is this a reason to call
their assembly, “great?” The Chiddushei
HaRim explains that the Anshei K’nesses HaGedola did more than give a novel
definition to God’s awesomeness and strength during the exile. They realized that God’s patience towards our
enemies and the trying circumstances in which we survived the exile were the
very key to making the subsequent redemption complete. After the redemption from our enemies in
Persia and the miracle of Purim, it became clear that everything that we
endured – that His “awesomeness” and “strength,” – were indications of God’s
great love for us. This realization was
understandably missing during the tribulations of the exile. For this reason, they were called the “great”
assembly. They really returned the
understanding of God’s greatness – His great love for us.
What is the connection between this and Shabbos HaGadol? The Chiddushei HaRim applies this same
concept to the Creation. The Creation is
an expression of God’s glory. However,
this only became apparent when the Creation was completed, on Shabbos. On the first Shabbos it became clear that the
entire Creation is really one integral system, each part of which works toward
the common goal of revealing God’s glory.
When we say that it became clear, the meaning is that it
became clear to man. God created the
world for man to recognize Him through it.
Before the nation of Israel accepted the Torah, only individuals
recognized God in the Creation. The
first time that an entire nation collectively recognized God as the Creator was
on the Shabbos before the Exodus when we performed the mitzvah of taking the
lamb in preparation for the Korban Pesach. This mitzvah represents the first time in
history that God commanded an entire nation to perform an act and that nation
submitted to God’s command. In terms of
recognizing God in the Creation, this Shabbos was the culmination of Shabbos
Breishis. On this Shabbos, it finally
became clear to an entire people that everything that happened until this point
in history including the Creation itself was the hand of the Creator. God’s greatness was finally revealed in the
Creation. We commemorate the revelation
of God’s greatness on this Shabbos by calling it Shabbos HaGadol – the great
Shabbos.
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