Shabbat and Festival; renewal or fixation
Rabbi Eliezer Shenvald – The Parasha in our everyday life - Emor – 5781
How much thought and effort do we invest in establishing systems and mechanisms that will successfully and efficiently realize the important goals we want to achieve. The secret to success depends on the 'method of operation'. How much thought and experience are required to formulate a successful and winning 'method'. How much should we have to bother to institutionalize them and create stable mechanisms, even if institutionalization takes time and requires patience.
In institutionalization, however, there are also disadvantages and dangers of degenerative fixation that does not allow for adaptation to a rapidly changing dynamic reality. When systems are established and fixed, they may become the goal themselves, the principle and idea they were created for may be forgotten and get a low rating on the scale of importance. Sometimes the fixation is so intense that it produces strong protection systems around it and become unchangeable. The 'method' turns out to be so successful that it does not allow for change, even when it is needed.
In private life the method we formulate for ourselves shapes our stability and routine. In public and national level these are the systems and mechanisms we consolidate as a people and as a collective. However how do we prevent this degenerative fixation.
Nations and countries, larger and with systems that are older than us, admire the creativity and innovation of the people and the State of Israel, for which we have gotten the name 'Startup Nation'. As the leading country that managed to beat the Covid-19 virus and get back to a routine before everyone else. In our encounters with foreign armies there is always admiration for the innovative and creative initiative and the ability to think out of the box where the fixation and rigid procedures can cause awkwardness and fixation that does not allow for operational flexibility.
Some of them seek to trace the cause and crack the secret of this innovation. They look for it in the Jewish culture and heritage. Apparently, there is a paradox here: on the one hand there is nothing like the Torah of Israel that is a 'method', 'practical', permanent and eternal, and on the other hand there is no system as the Torah that contains the personal and national 'renewal' as part of the 'method'.
In our Parasha, the Torah repeats in detail the commandments of Shabbat and the festivals:
...מוֹעֲדֵ֣י ה' אֲשֶׁר־תִּקְרְא֥וּ אֹתָ֖ם מִקְרָאֵ֣י קֹ֑דֶשׁ אֵ֥לֶּה הֵ֖ם מוֹעֲדָֽי׃ שֵׁ֣שֶׁת יָמִים֮ תֵּעָשֶׂ֣ה מְלָאכָה֒ וּבַיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֗י שַׁבַּ֤ת שַׁבָּתוֹן֙ ... אֵ֚לֶּה מוֹעֲדֵ֣י ה' מִקְרָאֵ֖י קֹ֑דֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר־תִּקְרְא֥וּ אֹתָ֖ם בְּמוֹעֲדָֽם׃ בַּחֹ֣דֶשׁ הָרִאשׁ֗וֹן בְּאַרְבָּעָ֥ה עָשָׂ֛ר לַחֹ֖דֶשׁ בֵּ֣ין הָעַרְבָּ֑יִם פֶּ֖סַח לַה'׃
"These are My fixed times, the fixed times of Hashem, which you shall proclaim as sacred occasions. On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day... These are the set times of Hashem, the sacred occasions, which you shall celebrate each at its appointed time: In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, there shall be a passover offering to Hashem" (Vayikra 23:2-5).
דבר במועדים אשר בשביתתם יכוין לשבות ממעשה הדיוט בקצתם לגמרי כענין בשבת ויום הכפורים ולעסוק בכולם בתורה ועסקי קדש... ובקצתם תהיה השביתה ממלאכת עבודה בלבד כמו שהוא הענין בשאר המועדים והכונה בהם שעם שמחת היום שישמח ישראל בעושיו יהיה העסק בקצתו בעסקי קדש ... ובזה תשרה שכינה על ישראל בלי ספק... מקראי קדש פירוש אסיפות עם לעסקי קדש ...
"The Torah spoke of the festivals, days on which one abstains from the pursuit of secular matters. On some of these days one has to abstain from such activities completely, on others only partially. For instance, on the Sabbath as well as on the Day of Atonement there is a total cessation of everything which is called מלאכה, work, in the sense of a productive activity. These days are meant for us to occupy ourselves exclusively with Torah and other sacred tasks… On some of the days described as holy convocations there is a partial prohibition of work, desisting basically from the kind of activity related to the kind of labor involved in earning one’s livelihood. One is to enjoy these days... There is no doubt that when the Jewish people conduct themselves in this fashion that the Divine Presence will be at home among them… The meaning of the word מקראי קודש when applied to the days the Torah calls מועדי ה' אשר תקראו אותם מקראי קודש is: “days of assembles of the people for sacred undertakings.” The word מקרא refers to an assembly, just as the words שבת and חודש are understood as meaning assemblies…" (Sforno ibid).
The Mitzvah of Shabbat begins with the Mitzvah of working and routine: "Just as one is commanded to rest on the Seventh Day, so is one commanded to work on the six days of the Creation".
However, in the Sabbath and festivals there is an examination of cyclical stopping and breaking the practical routine of work and material development.
This is not about physical rest alone but about taking on a spiritual path and renewal. Not as a one-time episode but as part of a structured way of life:
"הטוב האלהי הטבוע בקרבה (של האומה א.ש.), אין חיי החול יכולים להוציאה מן הכח אל הפעל. חיים אלה במהומתם המעשית התכופה מסתירים הם את ההוד הרוחני של הנשמה האלהית, ומעכבים את הזרחת אורה הבהיר והישר לתוך המציאות-החילונית השולטת. דחיפת הגידול וההשתלמות של החיים צריכה שתצא אל הפעל על-ידי נתינת-רוח, של הפסקה והתנערות, ממהומת-החיים הרגילה. היחיד מתנער מחיי-החול לפרקים קרובים - בכל שבת. "בא שבת באה מנוחה", מתחלת הנפש להשתחרר מכבליה הקשים" (הרב קוק זצ"ל הק' לשבת הארץ).
"The Divine good inherent in it, no secular life can put into practice. This life in the frequent practical turmoil conceals the spiritual grandeur of the divine soul and delays the glare of its bright and straight light into the dominant secular reality. The impetus for growth and progress in life should come to fruition by giving spirit, of pause and renunciation, from the ordinary turmoil of life. The individual renounces to secular life for close periods - every Shabbat. "Comes Shabbat comes tranquility". The soul breaks free from its hard shackles". (Rabbi Kook ZT'L).
On the eve of the Shmitah year, it should be mentioned that we find the same principle in the collective national level: "The same action, that Shabbat works on every individual, the Shmitah works on the nation as a whole" (ibid).
Considering all this, arises the question as to how we are fixed on a regular basis in the realm of politics and governance. How is it that we have not been able to find the formula to adapt the model and method to the renewed reality that has long led us to a dead end.