Vayakhel 5785

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Automatic labor[1]

ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה וביום השביעי יהיה לכם קדש שבת שבתון ליקוק כל-העשה בו מלאכה יומת: לא תבערו אש בכל משבתיכם ביום השבת
Six days work will be done, and on the seventh day it will be for you Holy, a sabbath of sabbaths for Hashem. Anyone who does creative activity on it will die. Do not ignite a fire in all of your dwelling places on the sabbath day[2]

There is an opinion that Moshe died on Shabbos. This proves difficult, for we are taught[3] that Moshe wrote thirteen Torah scrolls on the day that he died. One is forbidden from writing on Shabbos, so how did he accomplish such a thing[4]? The common approach is he didn’t write it himself. Instead, he used his powers of prophecy to command the spiritual forces to write the scrolls for him. His quill moved on its own and wrote the Torahs[5]. Therefore, there was no Shabbos prohibition[6].

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Vaeschanan 5780

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Shabbos: which kind of rejuvenation?[1]

שמור את-יום השבת לקדשו כאשר צוך יקוק אלקיך: וזכרת כי-עבד היית בארץ מצרים וגו’‏
Safeguard the Shabbos day, to sanctify it, as Hashem your G-d commanded you…[So] you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt…[2]

The Ten Commandments make two appearances in the Torah. The first is parshas Yisro[3], when the Torah relates how the Jews heard Hashem speak at Mount Sinai. The second is this week’s parsha, where Moshe recounts that monumental event. A careful examination of the two listings will yield some slight but significant differences. Some of the most pronounced is with regards to the mitzvah of Shabbos. There are different themes and details that are chosen in the second instance, which don’t appear in the first. We are adjured to safeguard the Shabbos, instead of simply remembering it[4]. There’s also a focus on the fact that we were slaves in Egypt. What is the Torah highlighting with this connection to the Exodus?

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