PARSHAT VAYAKHEL - WORK IN THE TEMPLE ON THE DAY OF REST

[TorahZionist]

BS"D

YESHIVAT HARA'AYON HAYEHUDI
Jerusalem, Israel
HaRav Yehuda Kreuser SHLIT"A, Rosh Yeshiva

PARSHAT VAYAKHEL
24 Adar I 5768/29 February-1 March 2008


WORK IN THE TEMPLE ON THE DAY OF REST

"And Moshe assembled the entire assembly of the Children of Israel and
said to them: These are the things that Hashem commanded to do. For a period
of six days work may be done, but the seventh day shall be holy for you, a
day of complete rest for Hashem; whoever does work on it shall be put to
death."

Our parsha continues to describe the details of the works of the
Tabernacle, as we have been reading during the past few weeks. But here the
Torah opens with the laws of the Shabbat. Our Rabbis deduce from this that
even though we have been commanded to build the Tabernacle, still, this does
not take preference over the holy Shabbat. For five parshiyot, the Torah
goes into great detail about the construction of the Tabernacle. But when it
comes to the Shabbat - all works stop.

This is also true with the temporary house of the Tabernacle, and even
more so with the Temple itself when it was built in Jerusalem. As the Rambam
brings down from the Talmud, one does not build the Temple, even on the
Holidays. Interesting, though, is the fact that once the Tabernacle, and
later on when the Temple was built, sacrifices and other works did take
place there on the Shabbat. For we know that all public work in the Temple,
like the daily sacrifices, the incense, and the lighting of the Menorah all
took place in the Temple, even on the Shabbat.

Similarly, we find that when the Jewish people went out to war, we were
commanded not to lay siege to a non-Jewish city to wage war with them three
days prior to the Shabbat, in order not to have to profane the Shabbat, if
not absolutely necessary. Still, we are taught that if the non-Jew comes
against us, even just to take hay or something else that is worthless, we
have to go out and fight, even if it's on the Shabbat. For the preservation
of the Land of Israel is so vital, that we are commanded to go out and wage
battle, even if we have to profane the Shabbat.

We find, by the battle for Jericho, that Hashem commanded Joshua and the
Jewish people to circle the city every day once, and on the seventh day to
circle the city seven times. It was only then that the walls came tumbling
down and the Jewish people went and battled with the city. In the end they
utterly destroyed and burnt down the city. And on what day did the battle of
Jericho take place? It was none other than on the holy Shabbat! Why was it
that Hashem commanded the Jewish people to destroy the city on the Shabbat?
After all, He could have as easily started the war on any other day and thus
spared profaning the Shabbat. Rather, Hashem was teaching us the very
important lesson that the wars of the Land of Israel - the wars of Hashem -
override even the Shabbat.

So, too, with the Temple service all the "public work" was done, even on
the holy Shabbat. So great is the service of Hashem in the Temple, that
"public work" not only overrides the Shabbat, but even the laws of Tum'ah
(uncleanliness), too, thus enabling us to bring sacrifices even today, when
we are all spiritually unclean. All that is missing, then, is our will to go
up and climb Hashem's Holy Mountain.


With love of Israel,
Levi Chazen

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REMINDER - Every Wednesday at the Yeshiva: "The Lenny and Levi Show"

Two great classes on the Authentic Jewish Idea

5:00PM Levi Chazen on the parsha

5:45PM Lenny Goldberg on TaNach

!BE THERE



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