Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Commentary פַּרְשָׁנוּת
מוֹעֲדֵי ה' אֲשֶׁר־תִּקְרְאוּ אֹתָם מִקְרָאֵי קֹדֶשׁ
אֵלֶּה הֵם מוֹעֲדָי׃
שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תֵּעָשֶׂה מְלָאכָה וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן מִקְרָא־קֹדֶשׁ
כׇּל־מְלָאכָה לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ
שַׁבָּת הִוא לַה' בְּכֹל מוֹשְׁבֹתֵיכֶם׃
These are God’s moadim (holidays), which you shall proclaim as holy occasions, these are My moadim.
For six days you shall work and on the seventh day shall be a Shabbat of complete rest, a sacred occasion. You shall do no melakhah (productive work). It shall be Shabbat for God wherever you are.
Our פַּרְשָׁנִים (parshanim, commentators) wonder: why is Shabbat included here in the list of the moadim?
מָה עִנְיַן שַׁבָּת אֵצֶל מוֹעֲדוֹת?
לְלַמֶּדְךָ שֶׁכָּל הַמְחַלֵּל אֶת הַמּוֹעֲדוֹת מַעֲלִין עָלָיו כְּאִלּוּ חִלֵּל אֶת הַשַּׁבָּתוֹת,
וְכָל הַמְקַיֵּם אֶת הַמּוֹעֲדוֹת מַעֲלִין עָלָיו כְּאִלּוּ קִיֵּם אֶת הַשַּׁבָּתוֹת.
Why is Shabbat here among the moadim?
To teach us that if you violate the moadim, it’s as if you violated Shabbat,
and if you keep the moadim it’s as if you kept Shabbat.
Here’s a surprising reading: maybe the pasuk that seems to be about Shabbat, isn’t actually about Shabbat!
וְיֵשׁ לְפָרֵשׁ עַל דֶּרֶךְ רֶמֶז דְּהִנֵּה הַמִּסְפָּר שֶׁל הַיָּמִים טוֹבִים הֵם שִׁשָּׁה יָמִים: ב' שֶׁל פֶּסַח, וְא' שֶׁל שָׁבוּעוֹת, וְא' שֶׁל רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, וב' שֶׁל סֻכּוֹת. וְהִנֵּה בְּכָל יוֹם טוֹב מֻתָּר לַעֲשׂוֹת מְלָאכָה שֶׁל צֹרֶךְ אֹכֶל נֶפֶשׁ...
אֲבָל "וּבְיוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי" דְּהַיְנוּ יוֹם כִּפּוּר– "שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן הוּא," כָּל מְלָאכָה לֹא תַעֲשֶׂה, אֲפִלּוּ צֹרֶךְ אֹכֶל נֶפֶשׁ אָסוּר.
One might say that the Torah is hinting at something. The number of holy days listed in the chapter is six: the first and last days of Pesah, one day of Shavuot, one day of Rosh Hashanah, and the first and last days of Sukkot. On these six days, we are allowed to cook and prepare food… (this is what “six days you shall work” means in our verse)
“The seventh day” in our verse refers to the seventh holy day, Yom Kippur—that is the “Shabbat of complete rest,” when no melakhah is allowed at all (like on the real Shabbat), not even cooking.
- R. Avraham Yehoshua Heschel calls his approach a “hint.” Commentators sometimes say that when they think there could be many meanings that are all layered on top of each other. Could the Torah be saying one thing but also hinting to something else at the same time?
- Why do both parshanim seem to think that Shabbat shouldn’t be counted as one of the moadim? How would you explain the biggest differences between Shabbat and the moadim?
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