Bereishis 2:3 “ויברך אלקים את יום השביעי ויקדש אותו”
“Hashem blessed the seventh day, and He sanctified it.” How can one not work on Shabbos? One who struggles all week to put food on the table for his family – can he sit idly and not seek to provide for his family?
The Sefer צמח דוד explains that had Adam Harishon waited until Shabbos Kodesh, he would have been permitted to eat from the Eitz Hada’as. He brings a proof to this from Bereishis Rabbah which says that Klal Yisroel wait for three years – the Mitzvah of Orlah – before eating from a tree – and Adam couldn’t even wait an hour. Just as the Mitzvah of Orlah was only for a limited time, so too the Mitzvah of not eating from the Eitz Hada’as was only for a specific time. The מגלה עמוקןת explains that on Shabbos there is no mixture of good and bad, and therefore that tree too would have been elevated to only “good” just like Shabbos Kodesh, and then it would have been permitted to eat from it. The words, “ומעץ הדעת טוב” is the same Gematria as, “שבת” – which is a Remez that on Shabbos, to eat from the Eitz Hada’as would have been good.
On Shabbos, the tree would have been elevated to being only good, and then Adam could have eaten from it. “מכל עץ הגן תאכל ומעץ הדעת טוב” – You can eat from all of the trees of the garden, including from the tree of knowledge which is good – when – on Shabbos, for that is when it is good. “ורע לא תאכל ממנו” – And when the tree of knowledge is “bad”- during the weekday, you shall not eat from it. It says in the Sefer Hagilgulim that the eating of Shabbos is completely Ruchniyos, even if one eats more than he needs to. If one were on the proper level of Ruchniyos – there would be no refuse from the food he eats on Shabbos Kodesh, for it is a Ruchniyos eating. Adam was not to eat from the Eitz Hada’as to teach him the Midah of Anavah, humility, that he shouldn’t think that he needs to have everything in this world, and that he needs to follow after every temptation of his heart.
- RABBI YAKOV YOSEF SCHECHTER
