From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 1:43 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Mishpotim, 5764


                                                                
                                               Wolf and Lamb

                   By Rabbi Joshua (restfully known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


    Among the many mitzvos recorded in this week's parsha is that of resting on Shabbos. We are told, "For a six-day period you shall do your work, and on the seventh you shall desist, so that your ox and donkey may be at ease and your slave woman's son and the stranger shall be refreshed" (Shemos 23:12). The rabbis, based on various Biblical verses, have taught us that the definition of work in this context is an act that comes under one of the thirty-nine categories of creative work that were performed in connection with the mishkon, and defined as 'melocho'. However, our verse adds an additional element to the prohibition of work on Shabbos, as explicated by the Rambam in his Mishneh Torah, in the Laws of Shabbos (24:12), as cited by the Netziv in his Ha'amek Davar to our verse, and, in a somewhat different way, by Ramban in his commentary to parshas Emor (Vayikra 23:24). The rabbis prohibited a person from moving certain items around on Shabbos, or from doing any strenuous activity on Shabbos, even if it is not included in any of the thirty-nine categories of forbidden labor, because otherwise, a person could conform to the strict definition of desisting from work, and still physically exert himself the entire day. Doing so would then defeat the Torah's mandate to rest on Shabbos, which goes beyond the formal cessation of creative activities, and entails a certain state of being that we need to experience one day out of the week.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the verse we are discussing is its explanation that rest on Shabbos is mandated "so that your ox and donkey may be at ease and your slave woman's son and the stranger shall be refreshed." What role does the rest of our animals and our domestic servants play in our realization of the state of being that we are to achieve on Shabbos? On a formal level, the halocho is that it is forbidden to work one's animals on Shabbos, or to lead them to perform one of the thirty-nine forbidden labors on that day. However, if the animal wishes to perform a certain labor for its own enjoyment, such as plucking out grass in order to eat it, we can leave it to do so. In terms of our domestic servants, the Ibn Ezra to Vayikra (25:2), writes that we are not permitted to allow a ger, a sojourner, to perform melocho within our property on Shabbos. My teacher, Rav Aharon Soloveichik, z"l, explained this to refer to a ger toshav, a non-Jew who observes the seven Noachide laws, and is therefore permitted to dwell in the Holy Land. Rav Aharon noted that there is a dispute among the medieval halachic authorities whether there is such a prohibition, and the Ibn Ezra is on the side of those who say that there is. This prohibition applies even if the ger toshav does the melocho for his own benefit. Although this prohibition would seem to apply only in Eretz Yisroel, Rabbi Eliezer of Metz, who was one of the authors of the medieval commentary Tosafos to the Talmud, wrote in his Sefer Yereim that there is a special prohibition of 'fear of Shabbos,' which, as Rav Aharon explained it, enjoins us to prevent any violation of Shabbos law to take place on our property. Rav Aharon mentioned that, based on this opinion of the Yereim, he directed the owners of the now-defunct kosher, Shabbos-observant country club in the Catskills, Grossinger's, to divert vehicular traffic from their premises on Shabbos.

Rabbi Moshe Hershler z"l, who served for a time as Rosh HaYeshiva in Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Illinois, offered a different explanation of the verse in Vayikra. He said that beyond any formal prohibitions of Shabbos that we must conform to, to assure that we personally rest on Shabbos, we also need to develop an atmosphere of rest in the world at large. Therefore, we must see to it that no one on our premises performs any labor on Shabbos. Although the verse in Vayikra refers only to the ger, Rabbi Hershler noted that Rashi in his commentary to Bechoros (2b), mentions the notion of adding rest to the world by seeing to it that our animals do not work on Shabbos. This view seems to be a broadened version of the opinion of the Yereim, as explained by Rav Aharon. Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin, in his work LeOr HaHalocho, writes that there appears to be a dispute among Talmudic commentators and halachic authorities whether, in essence, the halachos of Shabbos are meant to assure that man himself rests, or that the world at large should be in a state of rest. The Yereim, as well as the Ibn Ezra, as explained by Rabbi Hershler, seem to follow the latter approach.

Following the approach of the Yereim and Ibn Ezra, perhaps we can now expand our understanding of the Torah's reference to the need for animals to rest on Shabbos. The prophet Yeshaya (11:6) tells us that in the future, the world will be in a peaceful state, to the extent that the wolf and the lamb will dwell together. Ibn Ezra mentions an explanation that the prophet is referring to Messianic times, and he takes the verse in a figurative sense as does the Rambam in his Laws of Kings (12:1). However, Rabbi Avrohom ben Dovid, known as the Ravad, in a gloss to that passage in the Rambam, understands it in a literal sense. A well-known comedian and film director once quipped that while this may indeed happen, still, the lamb won't get much sleep! However, I believe that the point of this image is exactly that the lamb, along with all others, will attain rest. The precise nature of Messianic times as well as our future reward is a matter of great dispute, which we will not enter into here. In a general way, however, the end of days, when the world will be at peace and we will be able to pursue our connection with God unhampered by the need to exert ourselves to provide for our basic human needs, is often described as a state of perpetual Shabbos. This was, indeed, the original state of man, when he dwelled in the garden of Eden. While the Torah tells us that Adam was placed in the garden to work it and guard it, the rabbis tell us that this is a reference to spiritual work.   Perhaps, then, we can view the restful state of the animals that Shabbos is designed  to produce as an allusion to the restful state they were in at that time, reflecting the restful, natural state of man, and of  the world in general. It is this kind of atmosphere that we try to engender on Shabbos, and that we look forward to in future times.



Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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