Shabbos HaGadol: The Power That Lifts and Heals

1“And afterward he may enter the camp, but he shall dwell outside his tent for seven days.”¹ Why must the metzora, the person afflicted with tzara'as, stay outside his tent for precisely seven days?

2The Shabbos before Pesach is called Shabbos HaGadol, “the Great Shabbos,” because of the miracle that happened then.² The halachic authorities, the Magen Avraham, the Taz and the Chok Yaakov, raise a well-known question about this.³ The miracle took place on the tenth of Nissan. Why, then, is it remembered on Shabbos, rather than on the date when it happened?

3aWe can explain this as follows. It is well known that in Egypt Bnei Yisrael had sunk very low. We find that even at the splitting of the Red Sea, the angel appointed over the sea accused them: “How are these different from those? These are idol worshippers, and those …”⁴ They were sunk in the forty-nine gates of impurity, the lowest depths of defilement. Yet when they were given the mitzvah of the Pesach offering, they were told, “Draw out and take for yourselves,” which Chazal expounded: “Draw your hands away from idol worship.”⁵ How could they draw their hands away from idol worship while their souls were still sunk so low?

3bBut we find that Shabbos has a great and special power to lift the souls of Israel even out of a low state. On holy Shabbos the souls of Bnei Yisrael rise, for then they are united, as it were, with the Holy One, blessed be He. As the Midrash says on the verse “Between Me and Bnei Yisrael it is a sign forever”: “This is like a king sitting with the queen seated opposite him; whoever passes between them is liable to death.”⁶ So the special power of the day lifts their souls to draw close to Hashem. That year the tenth of Nissan fell on Shabbos, and with the help of the holiness and exaltedness of Shabbos they were able to strengthen themselves, rise out of their low state and draw their hands away from idol worship. That is why we mark the miracle on Shabbos in particular: only through the power of its holiness were they privileged to do so.

4Because they stood this test and drew their hands away from idol worship, they became worthy of redemption by right, through strict justice, and not only through kindness, as in the saying “By right he should take his reward.” They reached the level of a gadol, an adult, who toils and attains things by his own effort, unlike a katan, a minor, who receives from others. As Chazal said: “An adult is not truly an adult, and a minor is not truly a minor. Rather, an adult who depends on his father's table is a minor, and a minor who does not depend on his father's table is an adult.”⁷ So one who stands on his own strength and does not need others is called a gadol. Since the power of Shabbos enabled Bnei Yisrael to withstand the test and become worthy of being redeemed by right, this Shabbos is called Shabbos HaGadol: through its power they became gedolim, adults, worthy of redemption by their own strength.

5In the same way we can explain why the metzora stays outside his tent for seven days: it is so that a Shabbos will pass over him, since no seven days go by without a holy Shabbos. For Shabbos has great power to bring holiness and closeness to Hashem to anything that needs to be set right.

6May Hashem help us be privileged to keep Shabbos as the halachah requires, to draw close to Him on that day, and to receive the holy abundance that flows on it, a taste of the World to Come. Amen, may it be His will.