BEFORE I BEGIN TO SPEAK, LET ME FIRST SAY A FEW WORDS…
In this week’s Torah portion, Emor, we find a major section outlining all of the Biblical holidays. But just after saying we are going to learn about these festivals, the Torah pauses to speak about the Shabbat: “Hashem spoke to Moses saying; Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: Hashem’s appointed festivals that you are to designate as holy convocations – these are My appointed festivals. For six days work may be done; and on the seventh day is a day of complete rest, a holy convocation, you shall do no work; it is a Sabbath for Hashem in all your dwelling places,” (Leviticus 23:1-3)
Why does the text have this little interruption before delineating the Biblical feasts?
Rabbi Eli Scheller suggests that there are two aspects to our faith in the Almighty. The first is to know that there is a Creator who brought everything into existence. The second is to recognize that the Creator is profoundly involved with His world. Hashem is aware of all that takes place in the universe, His supervision is never interrupted and He is deeply involved with everything that transpires. When He deems it necessary, the Almighty involves Himself and directs the affairs of the world.
The Sabbath is a testimony to the fact that God created the heavens, the earth and all that exists (Genesis 2:1-3, Exodus 31:16-17). The festivals testify to God’s ongoing involvement in the world and His ability to miraculously control the natural order He created for His purposes. The awesome plagues that He engineered in Egypt prior to the Exodus 3300 years ago and the splitting of the Red Sea to save His people and then drown their pursuers were awesome manifestations of this power and involvement. He then supernaturally sustained His people in the desert for 40 years with wondrous daily miracles.
Throughout history, Deists have believed that there was a First Cause who brought everything into existence, but then left the world to its own fate. Our emunah (faith) is rooted in the belief not only in a Creator, but the conviction that He has remained intimately connected to the world He created and to the destiny of its creatures. Both these ideas are vital, and so the Biblical discussion of our national holidays is preceded by setting the critical foundation of belief in the Creator of all that exists through the institution of the Shabbat.
