Shabbat and the Holiness of Life

There is no stronger reminder of the holiness of the Shabbat than the categorical imperative not to violate this day while building the Mishkan (Tabernacle). While the children of Israel are commanded to build this most sacred place on earth, symbolizing the encounter between God and man, God makes it clear that the Shabbat is still not to be violated. There is a need to stop this holy work, even in the middle, to make space for this holy day: It is more holy than the Mishkan and (later) the Temple.

Ramban, however points out that the word “but” (“ach”) also alludes to the fact that, in accordance with Talmudic tradition, this word means: With the exception of certain cases, you shall always observe the Shabbat. The most famous case of such an exception is saving a human life on the Shabbat. When human life (Jew or non-Jew)^[1] is in danger, the law actually requires the violation of the Shabbat so as to save this life even when it would be for only a few more minutes. Failure to do so would be a clear transgression of God’s Torah.

From this we learn two important facts: The Shabbat is more holy than the Mishkan, and human life is more holy than the Shabbat.

So that you may know that I sanctify you

We may now suggest a novel interpretation: God seems to be saying: Do you know why I gave you the Tabernacle and the institution of the Shabbat? You may think that they are the supreme manifestations of holiness in the world. But they are not! What I am trying to teach you is that there is one other manifestation of holiness that surpasses the holiness of the Tabernacle and of the Shabbat. And that is human life.

This, says God, is the reason why I first introduced you to the Mishkan. No doubt you must have thought that there can’t be a more exalted form of holiness than the Tabernacle-Temple. After all, it is there that man and God can “meet” as nowhere else. I even told you that this place is so holy that only the High Priest on Yom Kippur would be allowed to enter the Tabernacle’s most sanctified inner spot, the Holy of Holies.^[2] And should he fail to live up to its supreme holiness, it could become the place of his undoing. What could be holier?

And still, there is an even greater form of holiness: Not the holiness of space but, as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously called it, the holiness of time: The Shabbat.^[3] You must observe the Shabbat even when you are building the Mishkan. So how holy is the Shabbat? Holier than the Holy of Holiness! Now, no doubt, you must have concluded that nothing can be more holy than that! The Shabbat! And again I, God, must warn you, that you are mistaken. There is something even more holy: human life.

Not only will the holiness of the Tabernacle have to make space for the holiness of the Shabbat, but the Shabbat has to give way for the holiness of human life. Only when you have reached the sanctity of human life have you reached the supreme unchallenged manifestation of holiness. There is no greater holiness than that. And now, as a result, you are able to understand why I commanded you that while building the Tabernacle you will have to observe the Shabbat: “So that you may know that I sanctify you.”^[4] Not the Shabbat, but you!

How else, after all, could I have made you aware of your unchallenged supreme holiness? This is only possible when I first introduce you to what you would have thought to be the peak of holiness: The Tabernacle, and afterwards to the even greater holiness of the Shabbat. Only then are you able to grasp the ultimate manifestation of holiness: The sanctity of human life.

And this is the reason why I asked you to build Me a Mishkan and observe the Shabbat. The main reason for these “institutions” is not that they themselves merely need to be observed, but to teach you one unequaled lesson: the unparalleled holiness of you and your fellow human beings!

At the same time, you should know that it is only through your observing the Shabbat that you will be able to grasp the unprecedented holiness of human life. Just as it is possible to violate the holiness of this day with what you believe to be a single, minor, or trivial act (such as lighting a candle), so could you violate a fellow human’s holiness and kavod (respect) by one “insignificant,” “trivial” wrong. Just one slightly unpleasant and unnecessary word may be all that’s needed to cause irreparable damage to another person.

Nothing is more holy than a human being. No religious item, not even the Tent of Meeting or the Shabbat can compete with the sanctity of God’s ultimate creation: The human being. As noted above, what is most astonishing is that we are required to violate the Shabbat even when one is able to sustain human life for only one minute or less. This one minute is more holy than the sum-total of the holiness of the Shabbat and the Tent of Meeting. This is dazzling.

Questions to Ponder

1. Shabbat is called me’ein olam haba, a taste of the World to Come. What about the Shabbat is otherworldly?
2. Why do we need a taste of the World to Come in this world? Is it just to encourage us through the difficulties of this life, or is it so that we can use the example of Shabbat to create a better world — to shape our world into an ideal World to Come?
3. On Shabbat, there is no hierarchy — no one can make another person work for him or her. Is this taste of the world to come an ideal that it would be possible to maintain at all times in this world? Is it even an ideal that is possible to maintain for one day a week when one is running a modern state?
4. If it’s more important to keep Shabbat than to build the Mishkan/Mikdash — the means of communicating with God — then isn’t it more important to keep Shabbat than to build a railway in the modern State of Israel? Or can it be maintained that building the railway serves to maintain human life, and that therefore it is more important than Shabbat?
5. Is it the same to say that human life is holy and that human beings are holy, or are we confusing two separate things? Could it be that human life is holy because it furnishes the possibility for a human being to become holy?
6. If human beings are not automatically holy but rather have the potential to become holy, then how can one become holy or holier? Are Shabbat and the Mikdash vehicles to holiness? Are there other ways?

Notes:

^[1] For a discussion about violating the Shabbat to save the life of a non-Jew, see Avraham Steinberg, Encyclopedia Hilchatit Refu’it (Jerusalem: Falk Schlesinger Institute, 2006), 2:452-457.

^[2] See Vayikra chapter 16.

^[3] See Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1951).

^[4] Shemot 31:13.