Rabbi Roodyn

I imagine that this will be the first Shabbos since the founding of our Shul, indeed most Shuls (apart from those who closed their doors during the war), that regular Shabbos services will not be held.

This is a drastic yet necessary measure. It goes without saying that pikuach nefesh trumps all apart from three cardinal sins and certainly tefillah be’tzibbur. We and all the other local shuls are doing the right thing; although we won’t be davening together in shul, I am sure that our tefillos will go up together as a community.

On the other hand, it is rather convenient to have a Shabbos morning drosho in the comfort of your living room! Please don’t get used to it! Please G-d we will be back in business sooner rather than later.

Call it irony or call it Providence, the first word of this week’s parsha is all about kehilla: vayakhel moshe, and Moshe gathered the Bnei Yisrael to teach them about Shabbos. In fact we learn all the rules of Shabbos from the melachos of building the mishkan. The mishkan was a microcosm of ma’aseh bereishis, creating a space for man and G-d to develop a sense of real closeness and as such, all of the diverse aspects and actions of creation had to be employed in this act of creation.

You might think that building a space, a home so to speak for the Almighty is the most important thing in the world. In fact, so much of our religious and cultural identity is wrapped up in our yearning for Moshiach and getting that place back. However the Torah tells us that there is a higher value that that: Shabbos. It all comes to a halt, so that we can realise Who is in control. Our cessation from all types of creative activity clearly demonstrates our emunah that there is an Almighty Creator who sustains and gives life to all of existence at every given moment. That awareness is crucial to who we are and to our lives as Jews.

Beginners to Yiddishkeit, people who have not been brought up with Shabbos, often struggle with the fact that flicking on a light is far less work than moving heavy tables or chairs around for a Kiddush or Shabbos lunch; and that driving to shul is far more restful than walking. Melacha doesn’t mean work. It’s an act of creation, and so most melachos have a common theme, affecting a change in an item.  There is one melacha however that doesn’t fit with this: carrying. It’s the same frontdoor key whether it’s at home or in the street. In fact those who are learning Daf Yomi will know that the melacha of carrying makes up almost 40% of Gemara Shabbos, not to mention eruvin.

What is the idea behind it?

During the last years of the first Jewish state, the prophet Jeremiah, Yirmihayu Hanavi, proclaimed to the Jewish people that the Temple would be saved and they would even flourish, if only they upped their game with regard to Shabbos. He specifically singles out carrying from domain to domain.

“So said the Lord to me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, in which the kings of Judah come, and out of which they go, and in all the gates of Jerusalem. And you shall say to them: Hearken to the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and all of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who come into these gates. So said the Lord: Beware for your souls and carry no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring into the gates of Jerusalem. Neither shall you take a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day nor shall you perform any labor, and you shall hallow the Sabbath day as I commanded your forefathers. But they did not hearken, neither did they bend their ear[s], and they hardened their nape not to hearken and not to receive instruction.” (Yirmiyahu 17:19-23)

Rav Hirsch points out that all other melachos pertain to the physical world. If I take a raw piece of chicken and I roast it, then I have changed the item so it’s now edible. The melacha of carrying belongs strictly to the social sphere. The most complete picture of national life is the relationship between the private domain, reshus hayachid and the public domain, the reshus harabbim. Or put differently, the relationship between the individual and society and society and the individual; what we as individuals do for society and what society does for us. These relationships are most clearly expressed in the prohibition of hotza’ah, transferring.

So, if all the other melachos express our submission to Hashem in the physical world, carrying expresses our submission to Hashem in the social sphere. The former is subordination to Hashem in nature, the latter in history. Hashem’s kingdom on earth only comes when both spheres are full of an awareness of Hashem. Hotza’ah is therefore the prime example singled out by Yirmiyahu, as he is telling us that both the activities of the individual for the community and the community for the individual have to be in accordance with the will of Hashem.

Maybe because eruvin are commonplace, maybe because we live such interconnected lives, we are not always cognisant of these distinctions. But this week, more than ever, we have learned the difference between reshus harabbim and reshus hayachid. A small cough, that ordinarily I wouldn’t have thought about, has brought our entire family back into our reshus hayachid, not to step foot in the reshus harabbim. Tonight the entire State of Israel has gone into lockdown. We are seeing a reinstatement of boundaries like never before.

An Englishman’s home is his castle. There is something special about being at home, but it carries with it unique challenges and opportunities. Baruch Hashem, we are blessed with many modes of communication and we can and will adapt to this new reality. But perhaps the lesson of Vayakhel and Pedukei is to realise and strengthen our belief that Hashem is in control and now, more than normal, we need to redouble our commitment to tefilla and our core values of Torah, avodah and gemillus chassadim.

As we go into Shabbos, make sure to reach out to others, ensure that the most needy have the physical and emotional support that they need.

May Hashem bless us all with good health and bring us out of this most challenging situation quickly, so we can get back to normal, with an enhanced perspective on life.

Be well and Good Shabbos.