In Parshat Emor (23:2), God speaks to Moshe and says "Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: Hashem's appointed festivals that you are to designate as holy convocations-these are my appointed festivals. For six days labor may be done, and the seventh day is a day of complete rest, a holy convocation, you shall not do any work; it is a Shabbat for Hashem in all your dwelling places."
Rashi wonders why Hashem mentions Shabbat with all the Mo'adim. He answers that this comes to teach us that someone who violates the Mo'adim is considered as if he violated the Shabbat, and someone who observes the Mo'adim is considered as if he observed the Shabbat. In light of some wisdom I have been opened up to, I would like to provide an alternate yet unified approach to this question.
Commenting upon the festivals that span the Jewish festival year, Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzato writes:
On each of these special days, something happened whereby at this time a great rectification was accomplished and a great [spiritual] illumination shone. The Highest Wisdom decreed that on every anniversary of these days, a complement of their original illumination should shine forth, and the results of this rectification renewed to those who celebrate it. Thus we are commanded to observe Pesach with all its rituals to recall the Exodus. At the time of the Exodus we experienced an extremely powerful rectification. It is for this reason that, on the anniversary of this event every year, a Light shines forth that parallels the one that illuminated us then (Derech HaShem 4:7:6).
The Ramchal's comments provoke us to ask the question-where does this great Light which illuminates all the Mo'adim come from? Rebbe Nachman answers that "this light is borrowed from the Ultimate End, that is, from the Light that will be revealed at that time. For He will show us that there was never any such thing as 'nature.' The so-called 'laws of nature' will be nullified and all will see that they were merely a camouflage for God's direct and uninterrupted Providence. This Ultimate End is none other than the Great Shabbat. It is Alma D'Ati, the complete Shabbat (Likutey Halachot, Netilat Yadayim Shacharit 2).
This term which Rebbe Nachman uses, Alma D'Ati, the Aramaic for Olam Ha'Ba (the World-to-come), actually means the World-that-Came. In Sefer HaBahir (160), Rabbi Berachya expounds:
What is the meaning of the World-that-Came? We have learned: Before the world was created, it arose in Thought to create a great Light to illuminate it. The Holy One thus created a Light so great that no created thing could endure. Foreseeing that the world would not be able to endure [the full intensity] of this Light, the Holy One took a seventh of it and left it in its place for them. The rest He stored away for the righteous in the Ultimate Future. He then said: If they show themselves worthy of this seventh by safeguarding it, I will give them the rest in the Final World. This is why it is called the World-that-Came-seeing that it already existed from [before] the six days of creation.
We learn from our great teachers that each of the Mo'adei HaShem is a unique revelation of this great and unified Light of Shabbat used to create the world. This explains why Shabbat is mentioned before the description of the Mo'adim. Not only that, it provides further depth to the answer given by Rashi. As the Ramchal explained, a renewal of the original illumination-an expression of the Light of Shabbat-is awarded to those who observe each festival with all its rituals. So therefore when someone observes the Mo'adim, it is considered as if he observed the Shabbat, and brings all of creation closer towards a complete revelation of the Light of Shabbat.
This is strengthened and clarified by the verse describing the counting of the Omer between Pesach and Shavuot, as it says, "And you shall count for yourselves-from the day after Shabbat, from the day when you bring the Omer of the waving-seven weeks, they shall be complete. Until the day after the Shabbat of the seventh week you shall count fifty days, and you shall offer a new meal-offering to Hashem (23:15-16)." Pesach and Shavuot-the most explicit revelations of the Unity and Providence of Hashem-are simply related to as "Shabbat."
Each year, after God in His Ultimate Kindness shines forth His Light and redeems us from our personal constrictions, lifting us out of the depths of impurity into which we have fallen, we are commanded to work on every aspect of our essence for a period of forty-nine days so that we may be worthy of being conscious of our true expression of divinity and the Light with which we were created. Therefore, the Torah says "U'Sefartem Lachem"-which on a simple level is translated as "and you shall count for yourselves." However, creatively borrowing a terminology developed by Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heschel of Opt in his commentary on the Haggadah , one may suggest that the word "sefirah" comes from the word "sapir"-sapphire, which, according to the Opter Rebbe is an expression of "behirut"-illumination. Sephirat Ha'Omer is a process of "illuminating for ourselves," drawing down this great Light through our Torah, tefila and teshuva so that when we receive the Torah on Shavuot, the Mo'ed is transformed into an "Atzeret"-a gathering or preservation of the revealed Light of Shabbat within our consciousness, enabling us to live all moments in time as uniquely unified expressions of God's Will. May we all merit to complete the Sefirat Ha'Omer and bask in the Light of the Complete Shabbat speedily and in our days.
1- This quote from the Ramchal, as well as the quotes from Rebbe Nachman and Rav Berachya are extrapolated from Rav Avraham Sutton's essay "Pesah-Lailah Ka'Yom Ya'ir-A Night that Shines Like the Day," which can be found in his compilation of deep Torah thoughts, "Nine Key Essays," which has served as my guide for this Torah as well as some of the more conscious moments of my life. Rav Sutton can be reached at a_sutton@netvision.net.il
2- In Ohev Yisrael (Pesach, pg. 91), the Opter Rebbe expounds that the rabbis who gathered in Bnei Brak and were "mesaprim b'yetziat mitzrayim" were in reality ascending with their expanded consciousness granted to them on that night of the seder towards the Source of the Light, le'saper-to become infused with the Light and draw down its illumination. A complete translation of this powerful piece can be found in Rav Sutton's essay.
Noam Sendor
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Noam Sendor grew up in Sharon, Massachusetts. Before coming to Bat Ayin he was a madrich at Yeshivat Yesodei HaTorah. He is currently a student at Yeshivat Bat Ayin and editor of the Bat Ayin monthly Daff. |