בענין הגבהת התורה
וְזֹּאת הַתוֹרָה אֲשֶר שָם מֹּשֶה לִפְנֵּי בְנֵּי יִשְרָאֵּל, עַל פִי ה' בְיַד משֶה
Upon lifting the Sefer Torah, the custom is to say the two verses above. And this is a wonder since the two verses do not seem to fit with one another. The first verse (וזאת התורה) is written in parshas V’eschanan (ד, מד) concerning the entire Torah (see Rashi). Whereas the second verse (על פי) is written twice in Sefer BeMidbar (ד, לז & ד, מה) concerning the counting of the Leviim, and is not at all connected to the matter of Torah in general. Otherwise this language is not found elsewhere in Tanach. This is a great wonder why these two verses are connected together.
Further, it would have been sufficient to only say על פי ה' and left out the extra words ביד משה, and the understanding would have been clear.
And in addition, the Gemara (Berachos 13b) states that any verse which Moshe did not split, we do not split. This means that when we quote a verse, we do not say only a portion of the verse, and leave off the balance of the verse. Here from either place in Bemidbar, only a portion of the verse is said and the balance of the verse is left out.
Rabbi Epstein then states he does not know how to answer these questions.
(Note that Chabad does not add the words על פי ה' ביד משה)
שָמוֹר וְזָכוֹר בְדִ בוּר אֶחָד, הִשְמִיעָנוּ אֵּ -ל הַמְיֻחָד, ה' אֶחָד וּשְ מוֹ אֶחָד, לְשֵּם וּלְתִפְאֶרֶת וְ לִתְהִלָה.
As is well known, in the first presentation of the 10 Commandments, in Yisro, the verse states זכור את יום השבת and in the second presentation in V’eschanan, the verse says שמור את יום השבת. According to the order of the Torah, it would be proper to mention first זכור and afterwards שמור in Davening.
A simple answer would be that the author wants to write his name with the first letter of each stanza שלמה הלוי. Thus, he placed the word שמור first in order to have the first letter of the line be a ש.
But this is difficult to comprehend that he would rearrange the proper order of the words just to spell out one’s name. Further, the author could have arranged the wording of the stanza that a Shin would be the first letter, such as שבת קודש בזכור ושמור בדבור אחד
In addition, another reason exists to precede זכור לשמור. It is the common method that when a gift is given to a person and then the gift is lost, when the gift is given a second time, a warning is issued to be more careful with the gift. Shabbos was a gift given by HaShem to the Jews (from His treasury). Yet later the Shabbos was violated in public (by the “gatherer”). Thus, in the first set the verse using the word זכור, as a way of a gift. And after the public “dismissal” of Shabbos, in the second presentation, the verse uses שמור as a warning to now be careful with this gift.
However, one must say that the author had a proper reason for the order of the words, especially since the Sheloh haKodesh stated that Lecha Dodi was written with Ruach haKodesh.
Therefore, Rabbi Epstein suggests that שמור properly precedes זכור according to the medrash of Rabbi Nechunyah ben haKanah (one of the great Tanaim) that is brought in Ramban in Parsha Yisro. He mentions that a great secret exists in the concept of זכור ושמור, that the concept of זכירה is connected to the day of Shabbos, and שמירה is connected to the night of Shabbos. The author relied on the great and precious kabbalah for these concepts which are beyond most of us. But we can now provide a reason that the author selected this song to be said at the beginning of Shabbos in order to have שמור (concept of the night of Shabbos) precede זכור (the day of Shabbos).
