What Is the Greatness of One Who Observes Shabbat?

Shalom and blessings

First I will write about the great importance of Shabbat. Our Sages said: Anyone who observes Shabbat becomes a partner with Hashem in Creation. Who has ever heard such a thing, that a person should come and participate in something whose work has already been completed? After an act is finished, nothing remains to be done; so in what sense does he become a partner? What is this great action through which he attains such an understanding? Even if this act is extremely great, from where did they derive the statement that he becomes a partner?

The Or HaChaim explained that at the time of Creation, Hashem did not create a force in the world except to last for six days, and He created one day, which is Shabbat. On that day Hashem again bestows a soul upon the world in the amount that sustains it for another six days, and so on. Without this day, the world would have been ruined at the end of the six days and would have returned to chaos and void, and Hashem would have needed to prepare it a second time. Through Shabbat, the world stands. And since Shabbat sustains the world for all six days, after six days pass another Shabbat comes and gives it life and sustains it for another six days. You should know that the existence of Shabbat in the world is its very preservation: they preserve it, for if Shabbat is not observed, there is no Shabbat. And if there is no one who observes Shabbat, what does it accomplish? Therefore, anyone who observes Shabbat, meaning preserves and guards its sanctity, through this there is Shabbat, and through him the world is sustained. You see and know that one who observes Shabbat is the one who sustains the world, and there is no greater partnership than that, according to law and according to halacha. You should also know that from the day the world was created, the world has never lacked a Shabbat observer, for Adam was a Shabbat observer, may his memory be for a blessing, and after him came Seth his son, for he was completely righteous. After him came many righteous individuals, and when one fell, another Shabbat observer had already risen in his place: Methuselah, and so on, Noah, Shem, Abraham, and so forth. From there, Shabbat observance never ceased among Israel, and even in Egypt there were Shabbat observers, as our Sages said, and rightly so. End of his pleasant words.

Our Sages also sa9d: Had Israel observed two Shabbatot, they would have been redeemed immediately, for Shabbat is a taste of the World to Come. If Israel merits to observe Shabbat and to sense a taste of the World to Come, they will immediately merit the coming of the Messiah and the World to Come itself. You should know that when Mashiach Tzidkeinu comes, he will point to the Shabbat observers, through whose merit Israel was redeemed.

Our Sages also said: Anyone who observes Shabbat properly, even if he worshipped idolatry, he is forgiven. Observance of Shabbat is equivalent to all the mitzvot. The reason is that observance of Shabbat is clear proof that a person believes in the Creator, Who created everything in six days. Therefore, even if he stumbled in sin, he is not denying his Creator, and thus his repentance is accepted and all his sins are forgiven. And one who believes in the Creator certainly wants to fulfill all the mitzvot, so through Shabbat observance, which shows a person’s faith in the Creator, it is counted as though he fulfilled the entire Torah.

Shabbat is the source of blessing, and all the abundance of the entire week comes through Shabbat, and a person will not gain anything from desecrating Shabbat, as is well known. Shabbat is the sign that we are Hashem’s people, as it is written in the Torah: Between Me and the children of Israel it is a sign forever.

Our Sages also said that Hashem made a condition with Abraham that in the merit of circumcision and Shabbat, his children would not descend to Gehinnom.

Our Sages also said that even Gehinnom rests on Shabbat, and it is known that seances cannot be conducted on Shabbat, because even the wicked are at rest on Shabbat.

I could have continued at length. But what the heart desires, time consumes, and perhaps I will return and review this topic in the future, if Hashem wills.

One who desecrates Shabbat, in the time when we had a Sanhedrin, is liable to stoning. Today, when we do not have a Sanhedrin, he is liable to karet, and the matter of karet is explained in the Tanach section, see there. One who desecrates Shabbat has his wine prohibited, his slaughtering is invalid, he is disqualified from testimony, and he is considered like a heretic in the entire Torah. And see, I have placed before you life and good, death and evil, and choose life. If you want, for a special booklet on the subject of Shabbat, write to me and I will send it to you as soon as possible.

And I will quote for you from the words of the Chofetz Chaim in his introduction to the Mishnah Berurah, where he explains the great importance of Shabbat:

It is written in the Torah: Remember the day of Shabbat, to sanctify it. Six days you shall labor, and so on, for in six days Hashem made the heavens and the earth, and so on. Hashem taught us in this verse that the matter of Shabbat is the root of faith, to know that the world is newly created and was made, not formed by itself. And since Hashem created everything, He is Master over all, and we are His servants, and we are obligated to do His will and serve Him with all our bodies, souls, and property, for everything is His. The Torah warned about observance of Shabbat twelve times, and our Sages said: Anyone who guards Shabbat is as though he fulfilled the entire Torah, and anyone who desecrates Shabbat is as though he denied the entire Torah. And all this is because Shabbat is the root of faith.

Similarly, it is also written in the Midrash: Rabbi Elazar bar Avina said, Hashem said to Israel: If you merit to observe Shabbat, I will regard it as though you observed all the mitzvot in the Torah. And if you desecrate it, I will regard it as though you desecrated all the mitzvot. And so it says: One who keeps Shabbat from desecrating it and one who guards his hand from doing any evil, etc. That is, the opposite of Shabbat observance is the doing of all evil.

And see the severity of the sin involved in the prohibition of desecrating Shabbat. It is known that there are several categories of punishment for sins. There are matters for which, when a person transgresses them, there is only a prohibition of a positive command; more severe are sins that carry a prohibition of a negative command; more severe are sins punishable by death at the hands of Heaven; more severe are sins punishable by karet; more severe are those punishable by death at the hands of man, namely strangulation; above these are those whose punishment is execution by the sword; above all are those whose death is by burning; and above all is stoning, for it is the most severe of deaths. For the sin of deliberate desecration of Shabbat, the death penalty is stoning.

And the punishment of one who desecrates Shabbat is stoning, like an idolater. And when it is without warning, at least he is liable to karet. From all this, a person can see the great significance of Shabbat. There are also many other statements of our Sages that greatly magnify the sin of desecrating Shabbat. And this is the language of the Rambam, in chapter 30 of the laws of Shabbat: Shabbat and idolatry, each of them is equal in weight to all the other mitzvot of the Torah. Shabbat is the sign between Hashem and us forever; therefore, one who transgresses the other mitzvot is included among the wicked of Israel, but one who desecrates Shabbat publicly is like one who worships idolatry, and both are like idolaters in all respects, etc.

One must also know that the 248 positive mitzvot of the Torah which Hashem placed upon man to remember and observe correspond to the 248 limbs in man. Just as there are different limbs, some of which are not essential to the soul, such as the hand and the foot and the like, which if they are missing, although the loss is very great indeed, he is still called only a person with a blemish; and there are limbs through whose loss a person cannot live on the face of the earth, such as if his head is severed or his heart, the source of life, is torn out.

So too is it with the mitzvot, concerning which it is written: Which a person shall do and live by them, and it is said: For it is your life and the length of your days, and many other verses like these, teaching us that the essence of the life of the soul in the World to Come depends on fulfilling the Torah. There are mitzvot that even if a person has sinned and transgressed them, he is called in the World to Come only a person with a blemish, and this too is a great disgrace forever. For it is known what the Ruch has written in Shaar HaKedushah, that the wound will remain forever in his soul in that very limb in which he sinned against the will of Hashem. Thus, if he did not put on tefillin, even if he fulfills all the mitzvot, he will be a person with a blemish in that left arm. And when he rises at the time of the resurrection, all Israel will stand alive and complete in all their limbs, while he will remain with this blemish in the left arm forever, for only through the merit of the Torah commandments that a person fulfills with his limbs do they gain life in the future World of Life. Each mitzvah of the 248 mitzvot gives life to the corresponding limb, as we say: And He planted eternal life within us. And since he brazenly transgressed that mitzvah, there is no one to give life to that limb. How greatly that person will then be anguished, because everyone will know the extent of his rebellion against Hashem in the mitzvah of tefillin.

Likewise, if he has a blemish in other limbs because of other matters he corrupted, as is written in the Targum on Kohelet on the verse: The end of the matter, all having been heard, meaning that in the end everything will become public before all. Therefore: Fear Hashem and observe His commandments, for this is the whole of man, meaning that from the 248 positive mitzvot and the 365 negative commandments through which a person is preserved in his lifetime, the whole man will be built in the future. Thus, when he rises and is found to have a blemish in some limb, or some sinew among his sinews becomes damaged [corresponding to the 365 negative commandments in the Torah], everyone will realize which positive or negative command he brazenly transgressed, and what disgrace and shame he will bear then forever.

And there are matters corresponding to the head and the heart, which are the essence of the life of the sacred soul, such as faith in Hashem and in His Torah, and the matter of Shabbat observance, which is also the foundation of faith. If these matters are lacking, then all the essential life of his sacred soul has already been removed. While he lives in this world, he lives only with his animal soul, and he will have nothing with which to rise at the resurrection. The merit of proper Shabbat observance helps to forgive all his sins, as the Gemara says: Anyone who observes Shabbat properly, even if he sinned like the generation of Enosh, is forgiven, as it says: Fortunate is the man who does this, and the son of man who grasps it, one who keeps Shabbat from desecrating it and one who guards his hand from doing any evil. Do not read from desecrating it, but rather forgiven him.

End quote from the words of the above-mentioned rabbi.

Success - Binyamin Shmueli