At the time of the revelation on Mount Sinai, God instructs
Moshe Rabbeinu regarding the nation’s upcoming journey to the land of Israel, “הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי שֹׁלֵחַ מַלְאָךְ לְפָנֶיךָ
לִשְׁמָרְךָ בַּדֶּרֶךְ ... אַל-תַּמֵּר בּוֹ ... כִּי שְׁמִי בְּקִרְבּוֹ ... וַעֲבַדְתֶּם אֶת ה' אֱ-לֹהֵיכֶם וּבֵרַךְ אֶת-לַחְמְךָ ... וַהֲסִרֹתִי
מַחֲלָה מִקִּרְבֶּךָ/Behold I am sending an angel before you to
safeguard you on the way … Do not defy him … for My name is within him … You
shall serve God your Lord and He will bless your bread … I will remove illness
from your midst.” (Shmos 23:20)
The Sfas Emes understands this paragraph as a metaphor
explaining the difference between serving God during the days of the week and
on Shabbos. The Torah requires us to
work during the week, “שֵׁשֶת יָמִים
תַּעֲבֹד .../You shall work for six days …” (Shmos 20:8) During the week the Torah tells us,
essentially, to immerse ourselves in the matters of this world. Should we not live a life of holiness? How can we immerse ourselves in the physical
world and still live a holy life?
The Sfas Emes explains that holiness is latent in our weekday
activities. We have the ability to
transform our mundane activities into spiritual acts – into mitzvos – drawing
out the hidden holiness. How? God gives life and existence to
everything. Creation was not a one time
event. Existence itself is a continuing
act of creation. We and every other part
of the Creation continue to exist so that we may do God’s will. Furthermore, since God enables every action
we take, it follows that every action that we do is inherently part of His
will. If we recognize it as such we turn
the action into a mitzvah.
The pesukim mentioned above suggest this. The angel that God sent is the holy life
force within every part of the Creation.
We can recognize it by recognizing that we are doing God’s will with
every action that we do even if that action seems to us to be mundane. Regarding this the pasuk says, “... אַל-תַּמֵּר בּוֹ ... כִּי שְׁמִי בְּקִרְבּוֹ/… Do not defy him …
for My name is within him.” (Shmos 23:21) When we go to work, for example, without
recognizing the angel within our work, without recognizing the potential
holiness inherent in our work, we are defying the angel. Significantly, the Hebrew word for work – מְלָאכָה has the same root as
the Hebrew for angel – מַלְאָךְ. The מְלָאכָה/work enclothes the מַלְאָךְ/angel.
During the week this applies to our weekday work. On Shabbos, though, there is no מְלָאכָה/work. We are prescribed from doing any work. This is because on Shabbos we can serve God
without the outer shell of work. Chazal[1] teach us that Shabbos is like
the next world. Just like there is no work in the next world,
so too, there is no work on Shabbos.
This is alluded to in the pasuk, “וַעֲבַדְתֶּם אֶת ה' .../You shall serve
God …” (Shmos 23:25) It implies
that there are ways of serving God directly.
We can experience God directly on Shabbos by being sensitive to the
holiness of Shabbos.
The pasuk continues that God will remove illness from our
midst. The automatic result of serving
God on Shabbos is that He will remove all illness from our midst. According to the Sfas Emes, eating and the
removal of illness is symbolic of all our activities and needs. This is why, on Shabbos we do not request
things for ourselves in our prayers.
There is no need to. Why does the
pasuk speak specifically about eating?
The reason is that there is a particular physical connection between
eating and illness. The Zohar says that
all of the body’s illnesses have dietary causes.[2]
How does serving God on Shabbos result in His taking care of
all our needs? The Sfas Emes
explains. Directly following the
requirement to serve God the pasuk states that God will bless our bread. The Hebrew word for bless – בַּרֵךְ has the same root as
the Hebrew for a type of grafting – הַבְרָכָה. Grafting
means that a branch from one tree attaches to and gains nourishment from a
different tree. The pasuk is teaching us
to “graft” our mundane activities, such as eating, to God by using them to
serve Him. We then gain nourishment from
Him and He removes illness from our midst and takes care of our needs.
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