והיה עקב תשמעון את המשפטים האלה ושמרתם ועשיתם אתם“ ” – “And it shall be when you hearken to these ordinances, and you observe and perform them.” The Midrash compares the Mitzvos to pieces of a candelabra being put together on Shabbos for when even the smallest piece is added to the candelabra one is liable for the Melachah of building, since that little piece enhances the candelabra and makes it complete.
What does the Halachah of building a Menorah have to do with this Parshah, of והיה עקב ? The באר משה explains that each piece of the Menorah, each arm, etc... by itself is not called a Menorah, a candelabra. It is only when all of the pieces are put together in the correct place that it is called a Menorah. Each individual’s Avodah is very important to Hakodosh Boruch Hu, and one is to say, “ בשבילי נברא העו־לם ” – the world was created for me. However, without connecting that Avodah to the Avodah of the Rabbim, of Klal Yisroel as a whole, then the individual’s Avodah is not complete. It is only when one’s Avodah is combined with the Tzibbur’s that it is truly complete, just as the Menorah, each part is important on its own, but is not complete until they are all connected in perfect harmony.
- RABBI YAKOV YOSEF SCHECHTER
In Parshas Nitzavim, the Posuk says, “ אתם נצבים היום - כולכם ” – the key word being כולכם – all of Klal Yisroel as one. It is like the example if one has individual reeds, it can be broken even by a child, however, when you put a large group of reeds together, they cannot be broken. The Menorah needs to be whole, all of Klal Yisroel, and then it is indestructible. Why did the Midrash say a Halachah about a Menorah specifically on Shabbos? There is a connection between the Menorah and Shabbos, for we find that the middle lamp of the Menorah is the most important of all the lamps, as the Gemara in Megillah 21b tells us.
The ספרי says that there were three lamps on the east side of the Menorah which faced the middle, and there were three lamps on the west side which faced the middle. All the candles turned towards the middle one, for that was the most important of all the lamps. Similarly, Shabbos is the middle, and there are three days after it and three days before it. As the Gemara in Pesachim 106a tells us that if one did not make Havdalah on Motzai Shabbos, he can do so until the fourth day – meaning that he can do it on the three days following Shabbos. The Midrash begins here with a Halachah regarding the assembly of a Menorah on Shabbos, to teach us that Shabbos is the source of Brachah, as the Yerushalmi in Brachos 2:7 tells us on the Posuk in Mishlei 10:22 “ ברכת ד' היא תעשיר ” – that the source of all Brachah is Shabbos Kodesh.
