the rebbe's - Beis Moshiach

D’VAR MALCHUS
THEN YOU WILL
DELIGHT IN G-D
- IN THIS WORLD
[Continued from last week.]
5. In this manner we may also explain the
development of the issues discussed in this law in
Rambam’s writing:
The law begins as follows: “Shabbos and [the
prohibition of] idol worship – each of these is weighted
against all the rest of the Mitzvos in the Torah. Indeed,
Shabbos is the eternal sign between the Holy One Blessed
Be He and us. Therefore, whoever transgresses the rest of
the Mitzvos is [merely] considered among the wicked of
the Jewish people, whereas one who desecrates the
Shabbos in public is considered as one who worships
idolatry; both are considered as gentiles for all matters
pertaining to them. Therefore, the Prophet recounts the
following praise [regarding one who observes the
Shabbos], ‘The man is praised who will do this, etc.’”
And the Rambam concludes, “Whoever keeps the
Shabbos according to its law, etc., ‘for the mouth of G-d
has spoken.’”
In this law, Rambam relates a major principle in
defining the Mitzvos of Shabbos. Namely, that Shabbos is
not like the rest of the Mitzvos of the Torah, whose
fulfillment entails only an increase in holiness,
supplementary to the sanctity inherent to being Jewish.
Of consequence, in neglecting to fulfill them, one is still
included among the Jewish people (albeit “the wicked of
the Jewish people”). This is not so, however [with regard
to neglecting to observe the Shabbos], which is
tantamount to idol worship, affecting the very sanctity of
being Jewish. Thus, one who desecrates Shabbos is like
one who worships idolatry, and “both are considered as
gentiles for all matters pertaining to them.”
On the latter point, the Rambam continues that just
as this is so in the negative sense – that one who
4
LIKKUTEI SICHOS, VOL. 30, PG. 125-133
TRANSLATED BY BORUCH MERKUR
BEIS MOSHIACH - 15 Kislev 5766
desecrates the Shabbos is like a gentile – so it is in the
positive – that the observance of Shabbos is not like
something that simply comes to add to one’s status of
being Jewish, but it pertains to the very essence of the
sanctity of being Jewish. And thus Rambam writes
concerning the reward for keeping Shabbos: “tradition
has already been explicit in mentioning that his reward is
in this world, in addition to the reward hidden away for
[him in] the World to Come, as it is said, ‘Then you will
delight in G-d, etc.’” The intent here (as mentioned
above) is that one’s reward in this world [for keeping
Shabbos] resembles the reward of the World to Come,
for the definition of the reward in the World to Come (as
explained by the Rambam in the Laws of Repentance) is
the completion and perfection of the connection and
bond of the Jewish people to the Creator (for which
reason “Dovid pined and yearned for the life of the
World to Come” [Rambam, Ibid 8:7] (likewise all the
Jewish people yearn for this, [including] their prophets
and their sages, etc. [Rambam, Ibid 9:2])). Indeed, by
observing the Shabbos one receives this reward: he adds
strength to the essential sanctity of his being Jewish
(cleaving to the Creator in a way that resembles the
perfection of this bond in the World to Come).
6. According to all the above, we may further explain
why Rambam also quotes the end of the verse, “for the
mouth of G-d has spoken,” which is not brought in the
Gemara. Simply speaking, we may answer that these
words (“for the mouth of G-d has spoken”) come to teach
that since this is an explicit, verbalized promise from G-d,
certainly it will be fulfilled [Footnote 44: as the Radak
and Metzudas Dovid comment in Yeshayahu on this
verse], as Rambam writes in the Laws of the Foundations
of the Torah [10:4] – that every positive matter that has
been decreed by the L-rd, even if it is conditional, cannot