Vayakail

The Sedra deals exclusively with the making of the Tabernacle, with one exception. Chpt. 35 Vs 1&2 .....

"Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel and he said to them, these are the words that G-d commanded you to do. Six days you will do work and on the seventh will be to you holy. A Sabbath of Sabbaths to G-d. Anyone who does work shall be killed. Do not ignite any fire on the Sabbath no matter where you may live."

The obvious question is why the Sedra begins with a warning about keeping the Sabbath. Reb Zalman Sorotzkin Zt'l points out that both the Tabernacle (and it's successor the Temple in Jerusalem) and the Sabbath, share a common purpose. Both are vehicles for allowing a Jew to have a profound spiritual experience, to come closer to G-d and feel he's done so.

The difference between them is that the Sabbath presents this experience as a point in time. Every six days; fifty times a year, batteries can be recharged.

The Mishkan occupies a geographic location, it is not bound by time. A Jew can experience the effects of the Mishkan 354 days of the Jewish year. The Mishkan and Temple also manifested clear miraculous phenomena. The Sabbath does not operate in that way.

A person could easily have imagined that the first vehicle, the Sabbath had been superseded by the Mishkan. The Sedra therefore starts the instructions of the Mishkan by restating the Sabbath. The Sabbath is eternal and applies, "No matter where you live." Even when there is no Temple there is always a Sabbath.

At the beginning of the century, there was a young man who lived in a Polish town. He bought himself a motor car. It was the first in the town and generated an enormous amount of excitement. He used his car as a Taxi and everyone wanted to be seen being driven in this amazing invention. The young man got carried away with his enterprise and despite his parent's pleas, continued driving on the Sabbath. After some time he became ill and the doctor declared that he had only days to live with no hope of cure. His distraught father had heard that the saintly Chofetz Chaim Zt'l of Radin was arriving the next day in Warsaw. The father travelled to the capital and awaited alongside tens of thousands of Jews who had gathered for a glimpse of the greatest Rabbi of the age. His hope was that somehow he could mange to request a blessing from this holy man. When the Chofetz Chaim descended from the train, a corridor was formed through the crowd. Somehow the father found himself at the front of the corridor. When the diminutive figure passed by, he called out.... "Rebbe, it's my son!"

The Chofetz Chaim stopped and approached the man. Before the father had the chance to explain the situation, the Chofetz Chaim took his hand and amazingly said " Tell him that if he agrees to keep Shabbos (the Sabbath) he will recover." The father was dumbfounded and the Chofetz Chaim continued by quoting the beautiful Lecho Dodi prayer from the Friday night service, "Ki Hi Mikor HaBrocho" "For she (sabbath) is the source of all Blessing."

The Chofetz Chaim moved off and the father rushed to tell his failing son what he had been told. The son promised to stop breaking Shabbos.

He made a complete recovery.

Shabbos has travelled with us wherever we have been.

As one non Jewish writer observed, "More than the Jews have kept the Sabbath...the Sabbath has kept the Jews."