In this week’s parsha we have the Aseres HaDibros being mentioned for the second time. If one compares the Aseres HaDibros in this week’s parsha with those in Parshas Yisro one will find various differences. One such difference is regarding the mitzvah of Shabbos. In this week’s parsha the pasuk says: שמור את יום השבת — “Guard the day of Shabbos”, however, in Yisro the Torah says: זכור את יום השבת — “Remember the day of Shabbos.”
Rashi brings from Chazal that: זכור ושמור בדיבור אחד נאמרו ובתיבה אחת בראשונות הוא אומר — “In the first Luchos it says ‘zachor’, however, both ‘zachor’ and ‘shomor’ were said in one utterance, as one word, and heard at the same time.”
Hashem doesn’t make miracles for nothing, so why did Hashem make it that zachor and shomor were both said in one utterance (בדיבור אחד)?
To understand this, we must first understand what the concept of “b’dibur echad” means.
The Yerushalmi (Nedarim 3:2) lists instances in the Torah where two commands were said simultaneously. One such example is: “gedilim ta’aseh lach” (make tzitzis) and “lo silbash sha’atnez” (do not wear sha’atnez). Since Hashem formed the world by looking into the Torah, the prohibition against sha’atnez created the spiritual reality that sha’atnez harms the soul. Even when the Torah later commanded us with the mitzvah of tzitzis — which would technically require wearing sha’atnez — that spiritual harm remains unchanged. To avoid this problem, Hashem gave both the mitzvah of “gedilim ta’aseh lach” and “lo silbash sha’atnez” at the same time, and this way the mitzvah of tzitzis was never included or subject to the spiritual damage that comes from the mitzvah of shatnez (similar to the distinction between hutrah and dechuya). When two contradictory commands are said in a single utterance, a new reality emerges in which they no longer contradict.
R’ Yosef Sorotskin in Meged Yosef suggests that the same applies to “shomor” and “zachor”:
“Shomor” encompasses the thirty-nine melachos and the full weight of Shabbos’s prohibitions — so demanding that Chazal said (Shabbos 118b): If Yisrael would keep just two Shabbosos fully, Moshiach would come.
“Zachor” on the other hand encompasses oneg Shabbos — kiddush over wine, meat, fish, delicacies, rest, and pleasure.
On the surface these clash: After all the restrictions of “shomor”, how can one experience genuine delight? And if one is absorbed in the pleasures of “zachor”, how will one remain vigilant against the aveiros of “shomor” lurking in every act and thought?
Therefore, Hashem said shomor vezachor b’dibur echad — creating a new reality for Klal Yisrael in which shomor and zachor do not conflict but rather feed each other. Eating, drinking, and resting alone would never produce genuine oneg Shabbos. It is precisely because of the shemirah and prohibitions woven into every Shabbos act that the physical pleasures reach their true depth.
The same is true with other types of pleasure as well: The Jewish soul finds genuine enjoyment in them only within the framework of the Torah’s boundaries. Any pleasure that breaches those boundaries loses its real delight. The person may continue to pursue it compulsively, and yet find it increasingly hollow and repellent — unable to let it go, and unable to enjoy it.
