Parasha Vayakhel

“Lord Almighty I feel my temp’rature rising,

Higher and higher it’s burning through to my soul”

-The Tupelo Rebbe

Our sidra  opens with yet another mention of the mitzvah of Shabbat. It seems that Shabbat is a running sub theme of the entire tabernacle (mishkan) section, woven throughout the text like a design in a flowing tapestry. It is no surprise that the entire methodology of tabernacle building is what we use to codify the specifics of shabbat observation.

The Talmud (Shabbat 49B) teaches that the specific activities involved in building the mishkan are the source of the 39 catagories of creative activity (melachot) that are to be curtailed on the shabbat.

Curiously, the text of our parasha does not present us with a list of these activities, only (after threatening blatant scofflaws) a directive to refrain from building a fire on shabbat. (Ex.35:3)

Why was fire singled out from among the 39 melachot? Perhaps we can learn something from the nature of fire itself.

Rabbi Ovadia Sforno (1470-1550) points out that fire can be destructive or constructive. Fire was a necessary component of processing mishkan materials, and it was this beneficial use of fire that the Torah prohibits on Shabbat. It was the intention that turned a potentially destructive act into a creative endeavor.

This concept is discussed at length again in tractate Shabbat (105B), as well as many other places in the Talmud. Melachot done for the wrong reason, or without intention are not considered significant.

I think we can play with this idea a bit, and apply this approach to all our activities, and the observance of shabbat itself.

Through sincere intention our activities can turn from a trivial exercise into a significant statement. Mindless ritual, especially of the type that would seem to technically avoid shabbat desecration actually is destructive-it removes us from the “zone” that is shabbat itself.

We have a choice: we can look at the cessation of creative labor as a prison, and a parallel reality emerges. Our activities and rituals can become spiritually destructive, and create a harmful fire inside that prevents us from experiencing our taste of heaven on earth.

Alternatively, we can choose to perform or refrain from the same activities, with an intention of immersing ourselves in shabbat and basking in a glimpse of revealed light. This can actually have the constructive benefit of giving our bodies pleasure, our minds stimulation, and letting our spirits soar.

That same burning fire, while capable of reducing a house to ashes, can heat a home, and warm our hearts.

“You light my morning sky with burning love

With burning love (hunka hunka burning love Ha)”

ibid.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Greg

For more info on the Tupelo Rebbe:

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