{"id":43243,"date":"2018-11-03T23:58:10","date_gmt":"2018-11-03T21:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=43243"},"modified":"2022-05-29T12:55:21","modified_gmt":"2022-05-29T09:55:21","slug":"shabbat-eternal-sign-of-the-covenant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/shabbat-eternal-sign-of-the-covenant\/","title":{"rendered":"Shabbat: Eternal Sign Of The Covenant"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Just before Moses returns to the people with the detailed instructions for building the tabernacle and making its various appurtenances, God repeats the commandment to keep Shabbat (Exodus 31:12-17). As in Exodus 20, the origin of Shabbat in Creation is stressed. This is a message that the newly freed slaves needed to hear. After experiencing uninterrupted labor throughout the years of slavery, they may have found it hard to believe that the new Master\u2013who had defeated Pharaoh with great force, and is now handing down work orders\u2013does not also demand constant work. But the language here is stronger, and two severe penalties, being cut-off from the people and death, are explicitly stated for Shabbat violation.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is so critical?<\/span><\/p>\n

First, note the word \u201cnonetheless\u201d (<\/span>\u05d0\u05da, ach<\/em><\/span>). God is emphasizing that building the tabernacle and its furnishings, does not supersede Shabbat rest. The tabernacle is \u201cfor\u201d God (although not as a dwelling) but Shabbat is the everlasting sign (<\/span>\u05d0\u05d5\u05ea, ot<\/em><\/span>) of the covenant between God and the Jewish people. Before the tabernacle, in the Temple, and after its destruction; in the wilderness, in the Land of Israel and in exile: Shabbat is eternal and therefore prior.<\/span><\/p>\n

But there is more. Apparently, the harsh threats are needed because it is hard for people to accept that our worth as human beings does not derive solely from our work, the income we earn, or even from our creative activity, but rather from the simple fact that we were created in the image of God, just before that very first Shabbat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Economic production is not the be-all and end-all of society. The economy exists to serve society and not the other way around. That is the deeper message that is often lost, both by those who observe Shabbat and those who do not. In the early years of Zionist settlement, prominent leaders fought for Shabbat to be kept even among \u201csecular\u201d Zionists, as Haim Nahman Bialik urged members of the Kevutzat Geva:<\/span><\/p>\n

It is Shabbat, not the culture of oranges or potatoes, that preserved the existence of our people during all the days of its wanderings, and now that we are returning to the land of our forefathers, you want to discard it like an unwanted object? Without Shabbat, there is no Divine image and no human image in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

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