14 Mar Shabbos and Moshe Rabbeinu

The posuk says, “Six days work shall be done and on the seventh day is Shabbos Shabbason.” Rashi explains that “Shabbos Shabbason” is a full rest, not a temporary rest. The question arises; why is it that Succos is considered a Succos arei, a temporary rest for seven day; whereas Shabbos is only one day and it is considered menuchas margoa, a full rest? The Avnei Nezer explains that there is a mitzvah on Shabbos requiring you to feel as if all your work is done. Therefore, when Shabbos starts one must feel as if he will never work another day in his life; hence the reason it is a menuchas margoa, a full rest.

Moshe Rabbeinu was commanded to build the mishkan with the instruction that it should not be done at the expense of Shabbos. Rashi tells us that this parsha of the eigel really came before the building of the mishkan so we see that there is no order to the Torah: “ein mukdam umuchar Be’Torah. The question is, what prompted Rashi to make that statement? Perhaps Hashem commanded Moshe about the mishkan before chait ha’eigel and he only shared the commandment with Bnei Yisroel after he came back down from shomayim after Yom Kippur. The Chanukas HaTorah explains that based on the midrash discussing when Moshe begged for forgiveness after the eigel, he said if you don’t forgive Klal Yisroel please erase my name from the Torah. Even though Klal Yisroel was forgiven, the strength of a tzaddik’s word is not taken lightly and Moshe’s name was not mentioned in Parshas Tetzaveh where we are commanded to build the mishkan and the Kohen Gadol’s clothing etc. Parshas Tetzaveh must have taken place after the eigel, otherwise why would Moshe’s name not have been mentioned?

We see that in order for a Yid to properly be mekayem shemiras Shabbos it must be done with great mesiras nefesh like Moshe was doing for Klal Yisroel. We need to be moser nefesh not only for our shemiras Shabbos, but for the shemiras Shabbos of every Jew.