Machshavot HaLev - Yeshivat Lev HaTorah

124
Vayakhel
Time and Space
Rav Michael Siev
A fter B’nei Yisrael demonstrate an overwhelming response to Moshe’s call for
contributions to the mishkan, Moshe sends word that people should refrain from
making any further donations. Interestingly, the Gemara in Shabbat (96b) considers
this pasuk (36:6) an allusion to the melacha of hotza’ah, carrying an object from one
type of domain to another on Shabbat. According to this Gemara, it seems as though
our parsha is the source for the melacha of hotza’ah.
However, as Rav Ya’akov Kamenetsky (Emet Le-Ya’akov, 36:6) notes, this is quite
difficult to understand. B’nei Yisrael have already been commanded to keep Shabbat
by refraining from melacha. This command was issued as part of the Aseret Hadibrot,
and the Gemara (Sanhedrin 56b) says that it even preceded Matan Torah;
when Hashem gave us “chok u-mishpat” at Mara, one of those mitzvot was Shabbat
(see Shemot 15:25 with Rashi). Why wouldn’t hotza’ah be included in the original
command to keep Shabbat?
Rav Ya’akov explains that the gradual introduction of the laws of Shabbat were part
of a gradual process of educating the Jewish people. At Mara, Hashem sweetened the
bitter waters in a miraculous way, demonstrating that He controls nature, created the
world and continues to create new realities. That was the perfect time to introduce
the melachot of Shabbat, which call for man to take a timeout from his own creative
activity in this world in order to focus on spiritual creativity and to remind himself
that it is God who actually creates worlds.