Gathering Together: Every Shabbos a Yom Kippur

1“Moshe assembled the entire congregation of Bnei Yisrael and said to them, ‘These are the things that Hashem commanded, to do them.’”¹ Why does the Torah mention here that all Israel was assembled? The whole Torah, after all, was taught to the entire people gathered together. The Gemara describes it: “What was the order of teaching? … All the people came in, and Moshe taught them their portion.”² Notice, too, the word adas, “congregation.” Why was it not enough to say “all Bnei Yisrael”?

2“These are the things that Hashem commanded, to do them.” The commentators, among them the Ohr HaChaim, raise a question.³ The mitzvah of Shabbos, which the following verses set out, is a passive one: it asks us to refrain from work. If so, the verse should have said “not to do them.”

3The next verse says, “Six days work shall be done, and on the seventh day it shall be holy for you, a Shabbos of complete rest, Shabbos Shabbason …”⁴ This is puzzling. Elsewhere we find the title Shabbos Shabbason only for the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur, as the verse says, “It is a Shabbos of complete rest for you.”⁵ Why, then, does the Torah give this title here to the holy Shabbos?

4aWe may explain this through a story told in Nifla'os HaTiferes Shlomo, a collection of stories about R' Shlomo of Radomsk, author of Tiferes Shlomo.⁶ It reads: The first time the Tiferes Shlomo came to Lizhensk, he went to great lengths to find out whether anyone there had known R' Elimelech of Lizhensk, zy"a. They told him of one old woman and brought her before him, and he had her asked whether she remembered anything of R' Elimelech. She answered that she still remembered this much. She had been a maidservant in R' Elimelech's house. All week long she would insult the other maidservant and quarrel with her, insisting that the other one do the housework. The other would shout back, “You go about idle all day, and I should do your work?” and so on, as servants do.

4bBut when Erev Shabbos came, fear and dread fell on them, as on any Erev Yom Kippur, and even more toward evening, as before Kol Nidrei. They would make peace with each other humbly and with gentle words, and ask each other's forgiveness, resolving that from that day on there would be no more dispute, quarrel or strife between them. “What difference does it make whether I do it or you?” they would say. “On the contrary, ‘Each man helps his fellow.’”⁷ They spoke other such words of reconciliation, in dread and awe, until their hands almost trembled with fear as they carried the pots of cholent, the Shabbos stew. So it was every Erev Shabbos, and above all as darkness fell. It is a wonder. So far its words. [See also the sefer Ohel Shlomo, which brings from the sefer Eser Tzachtzachos that this old woman said every Erev Shabbos was like Yom Kippur. The people of the town would gather in the synagogue to say Tehillim with weeping, and R' Elimelech would speak to them words of mussar, of moral rebuke.⁸]

5Indeed, Chazal said that even an unlearned man has the awe of Shabbos upon him: he is afraid to lie, and speaks only the truth.⁹ Yet in our days we do not see this; there are people who can say something untrue even on Shabbos. We must say that in Chazal's time, through the holy Tannaim, the sages of the Mishnah, the holiness of Shabbos flowed onto everything around them. So the awe and fear of Shabbos fell on everyone, so much so that even an unlearned man would not, Heaven forbid, tell a lie. In the same way, the awe and holiness of Shabbos flowed onto everyone around R' Elimelech. All of them felt the awe of the day stirring them to teshuvah, just as everyone feels it on Erev Yom Kippur. But today we lack the great tzaddikim, “the men of renown of old,”¹⁰ and so we fall short in feeling the holiness of Shabbos.

6We may say that this is hinted in the name the Torah gives Shabbos, Shabbos Shabbason. The name teaches that the holy Shabbos has a power like that of Yom Kippur, so that everyone feels the need to ask for pardon and forgiveness. For Shabbos stands on the level of Shabbos Shabbason, a kind of Yom Kippur.

7aThere is, however, another way to reach the level of Yom Kippur. When Bnei Yisrael gather together in unity, they reach the level of Shabbos. This follows a teaching quoted in the name of the holy Rebbe R' Dovid of Lelov, zt"l, and cited in the Divrei Binah:¹¹ when two Jews are together in unity, a holy Name of Hashem is formed. If so, when many Jews gather together, there are surely many holy Names there, in the spirit of “the sound of a multitude, like the voice of the Almighty.”¹²

7bThis is in line with what the holy sefarim Yismach Yisrael and Me'oran shel Yisrael write on the verse “He has not beheld iniquity in Yaakov, nor seen wrongdoing in Yisrael; Hashem his God is with him, and teru'as melech, the King's friendship, is in him.”¹³ Rashi explains: “When they transgress His words, He does not look closely at them, to examine their iniquities and the wrongdoing with which they transgress His law.” But this is difficult, for Chazal said: “Whoever says that the Holy One, blessed be He, overlooks sins, his life will be overlooked.”¹⁴ The Yismach Yisrael explains that Hashem “has not beheld iniquity in Yaakov” when Bnei Yisrael are bound together in unity and friendship, the friendship of which the verse speaks: Rashi explains teru'as melech, “the King's friendship,” as a word of affection and friendship.

8That is why on Shabbos, too, when Jews gather together, they can rise to lofty levels. No accusation and no accuser stands against them, and they come especially close to Hashem. As we have seen, unity brings them to the level and greatness of Yom Kippur, with its pardon and forgiveness. For when many Jews unite, they reach the holiness of Shabbos, which is “a reflection of the World to Come,”¹⁵ a kind of life of souls. [They gain added strength of soul, which is the light of the holiness of Shabbos, for Shabbos is “a day of the soul and not of the body at all.”¹⁶] And so there is pardon, forgiveness and atonement, as on the holy day of Yom Kippur.

9This is the meaning of “Moshe assembled the entire congregation of Bnei Yisrael,” and it answers our questions. The word adas (עדת), “congregation,” has the same letters as da'as (דעת), “awareness”: by gathering together they gain a spirit of purity, a taste of the purity of Yom Kippur. Moshe Rabbeinu told them, “These are the things that Hashem commanded, to do.” He meant the gathering of Vayakhel, “he assembled”: to come together as a gathering of friends and companions and engage together in avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem. That is why the verse says “Hashem commanded, to do,” an active deed, for through this they would gain a purity like that of Yom Kippur. And that is why the Torah says Shabbos Shabbason: through “Moshe assembled,” one reaches the level of Yom Kippur, Shabbos Shabbason, even on an ordinary Shabbos.

10Especially in our own generations, at the end of days, we need the power of Israel gathering together. Tzaddikim, zy"a, are quoted on Yaakov's words to his sons, “Gather together, and I will tell you what will befall you at the end of days”:¹⁷ only through the power of gathering together will Bnei Yisrael be able to stand strong at the end of days.

11[Indeed,¹⁸ in our own generation, had we been united and gathered together as we should be, the son of Dovid, Moshiach, would already have come; but because of our many sins we have not been privileged to see it. May Hashem help us not only to preach well but also to practice well,¹⁹ and to unite, act together and become one band. This will surely bring the time of the redemption near.]

12May Hashem grant that we be privileged to have true unity of hearts, and through it to see the coming of the righteous Redeemer. Amen, may it be His will.