Weekly D'var

Drash Passover
Jorde Nathan

Now is the part of the service … the SHABBAT SERVICE… where in every shul across the world someone comes up and takes about ….. the parashat. Wonder why?  We have the entire week to learn the parashat and only one day for Shabbat.  But on Shabbat we commonly discuss the parashat.  I wonder why.  Why not use the time on Shabbat to learn about shabbat?  Let’s try to do this today.

Genesis 2 discusses creation and that God “blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it He abstained from all His work.”  He gave us shabbat in two expressions:  the first ( zachor creation) is discussed in Exodus 20 parashat Yitro and the second (shamor exodus) is discussed in Devarim 5 parashat V’etchanan.  So shabbat connects us to Creation and Exodus.  

The modern world might guide us as follows:  shabbat is a day about rest.  Passover is about freedom from slavery.  Both give us as individuals freedom and freedom to rest.  Now let’s have a l’chayim and a schnotz.  Not so fast.

This argument would continue:  on 6 days we work. On the seventh day, we rest. In Egypt we were slaves.  But now…as free people…..we are free to rest.

Shabbat, as a day of rest, offers us a moment to pause, to remember the grace of God in our lives, and to renew our spirits. Passover, while centered on the freedom of the Israelites, also invites us to experience the rest that comes from liberation. The connection between freedom and rest is crucial. In the same way that Shabbat is a weekly pause from the demands of daily life, Passover reminds us that true freedom is not only about political liberation but also about emotional and spiritual renewal.

One of the most profound ways these two observances connect is through the concept of rest as freedom. The Israelites were freed from the relentless labor of Egypt, and on Shabbat, we experience a microcosm of that freedom by stepping away from the pressures of work and daily tasks. Shabbat is a weekly “mini-exodus,” a brief return to the peaceful, restful state that the Israelites sought after their escape from Egypt.

Now that everyone is comfortable and resting, I want to turn this idea of rest and freedom to rest upside down.  We hold that Moshe Rabeinu was the greatest novi of all.  The pasuk says that not only was Moshe the greatest…but that there will NEVER be anyone greater.  So what is it about  Moshe … what is the iker midah of this Greatest Jew of All Time ?  We might expect in the modern spirit of our new-found shabbat and Passover connection, we might expect to see that Moshe was a great RESTER!  He was so good at Shabbat and Passover that he was completely free…and free to rest.

Not so fast.  How was Moshe known in Tanakh?  He is referred to as Eved.  He is an Eved Hashem.  Moshe is a servant to ha’Kadosh ba’ruch’Hu.  A servant?  THAT does not sound too restful.  

Let’s go back to the Shabbat connection:  we zachor the creation story and we shamor the exodus story.  What is in common here?  What is our “job” so to speak:

On shabbat we Witness and attest to the creation of the world and we experience and attest to the exodus from Egypt.  God gave us the exodus as a new creation story…as we were not present at the first creation … the creation of the world.

Our job?  On shabbat we bear witness to the world that God reigns over the “natural” and created world.  This gives us an obligation to serve… to serve the master and creator of the Universe.  Similarly, on Passover, God took us out of slavery……for the purpose of serving Him and testifying to his mastery and Kingship.  As we stand here on shabbat…and prepare for Passover, the goals are the same:  we stand in thanks to Hashem…as creator of the world shabbat and deliver of the Jewish people into His service Pesach.  And being a witness to creation and giving testimony is not restful.  Being living proof of the yad hazakah of a boundless God taking us out of servitude is not a passive job we do leisurely.  We are servants.  Shabbat and Passover call on us to be avadim…to be an eved like Moshe.  We are free…free from Egyptian slavery.  But we are not free to leisurely wander and pursue our will.  Rather, we are free to serve to Creator haKadosh baruk’Hu.

We can learn an interesting lesson connection going back to Rosh Chodesh Nissan.   We know rosh chodesh and the choosing of the new moon is a mitzvah given by God to man.  We select which day will be rosh chodesh and in turn this determines upon which day each of the chagim .  Based on OUR declaration of rosh chodesh,  this determines if a chag will fall on a Monday or aTuesday.  We in effect decide if yom tov Shavuot will be Wednesday or Thursday.  On the first Rosh Chodesh Nissan, however, it’s different.  Here, God told us TODAY is Rosh Chodesh.  He thus determined the actual day of the first seder.  Hashem determined the day of the week for this first seder on Nissan 15.  This day determination proscribed by God and not man happens in one other instance.  And that is on shabbat.  Shabbat is always the seventh day.  And like this first Pesach, says the Meshach Chochmah, shabbat too has the Kedushah of a day given to us by God.