It was only the second Shabbos that Klal Yisroel kept in the midbar when they saw a yid being mechalel Shabbos, and the Torah says he is chayav misa. Rashi quoting a Sifri says (pasuk 32) that the pasuk here is talking about the criticism of klal Yisroel, that they only kept the first Shabbos properly. Already by the second Shabbos they were mechalel.
The question is, why does Rashi say that by the second Shabbos klal Yisroel transgressed; it was only one man! Also, if the Torah is speaking disparagingly of the yidden, why does the Torah refer to them as “Klal Yisroel”, which is a term of endearment and respect?
Rav Schwab says that only because Bnei Yisroel were on such a high level were they criticized here. On a colored garment, a small ink spot is literally unnoticeable. But if the garment is pure white, then a tiny spot of ink will be highly visible. Klal Yisroel was on such a high level that the chilul Shabbos of one person hurt the entire nation.
Says the Be’er Yosef a yesod: if you have the power to stop someone from doing an aveira and you don’t, you get the aveira. What does that mean? If you see a person eating chazir and you have the power to stop him but you don’t, can it be that it’s considered as if you ate chazir? Says the Be’er Yosef, no. But one exception is chilul Shabbos. If you have the power to stop a yid from transgressing the laws of Shabbos and you don’t, it’s like you yourself were mechalel Shabbos.
That’s why “shamor v’zachor b’dibur echad” – shamor and zachor were said in one dibur. Zachor means you have to remember Shabbos and Shamor means to protect it so that other people are not mechalel Shabbos. If there is a yid out there that is not keeping Shabbos, we are responsible. That is peshat in Rashi that all of klal Yisroel transgressed when in reality it was only one person.
Rav Chaim Kanievski in sefer Derech Sicha said that someone who is very good in learning should not stop his learning and go into kiruv. He explained that if you learn well, your learning has an influence on the entire world and you are doing kiruv anyways without even realizing it.
Rav Yisroel Salanter once came to Paris and saw the open chilul Shabbos there. He said that when a person with yiras shomayim becomes somewhat lax in keeping Shabbos in all its details, it has a negative influence on yidden in faraway places, where the result is blatant chilul Shabbos.
We find a similar idea where a man wrote to Rav Chaim Brisker complaining about his talmidim sitting in Volozhin learning. “It’s a shame that you don’t bring your yeshiva to Paris”, wrote the man, “your very presence would prevent so many of our brothers from giving up their faith”. Rav Chaim answered that this man is making a mistake, that by learning right here in Volozhin he was indeed preventing people from giving up their faith in Paris.
The gemora says in Shabbos 54:– Rav Elazar ben Azaria had a cow and it was taken to be sold on Shabbos. What does that mean? Says the gemora, Rav Elazar had a neighbor who wasn’t religious and it was he who sold his cow on Shabbos. And since Rav Elazar ben Azaria could have stopped him from selling the cow on Shabbos and he didn’t, it’s considered as if it was his cow. He could’ve stopped the chilul Shabbos and he didn’t, so it’s considered as if he himself transgressed.
Rav Druk in his Sefer Darash Mordechai on Parshas Ki Savo asks: Isn't it strange that the wording of the Mishnah sounds like Rav Elazar had just one cow and this was his cow? The whole expression of the Mishna is strange given the explanation in the Gemara. To answer this, Rav Druk brought a Yerushalmi (Shabbos Daf Zayin) that says that Rav Elazar Ben Azarya spent his life doing Teshuva for this mistake of not having corrected the behavior of his neighbor. The Gemara says that he fasted and did Teshuva. Says Rav Druk, Rav Elazar Ben Azarya was very wealthy and probably had a million cattle. However, what remained of all that cattle? They are all gone. What did remain with him? This incident with his neighbor’s cow and Rav Elazar’s full Teshuva. This is everlasting, and so generations later we call this cow “the cow of Rav Elazar ben Azarya”. This reminds us that none of our material possessions are really ours and none of them will remain with us, except those that we use for spiritual purposes.
When we view a fellow yid being mechalel Shabbos, it has to bother us deeply. We should not remain unaffected. We must cry out in pain, try to correct what we can, or we carry the blame for those transgressions. We Jews are responsible for one another, especially when it comes to shemiras Shabbos. May we all merit to fulfill both zachor and shamor properly, remembering and guarding our precious gift of Shabbos.
