And Moshe assembled the entire assembly of the Children of Israel and said to them: ... For a period of six days, work may be done, but the seventh day shall be holy for you, a day of complete rest for Hashem...”.
Rashi states that this assemblage took place on the day after Yom Kippur, when Moshe descended from the mountain. The commentaries all ask; what was it that made Moshe choose this Mitzvah of Shabbos, out of all the six hundred and thirteen Mitzvos, as the first Mitzvah that he would teach the Jews after coming down from the mountain?
The Gemara in Shabbos (קיח ע"ב) says אלמלי שמרו ישראל שבת ראשונה לא שלטה בהן אומה ולשון - If the Jewish people had only observed the first Shabbos, no race or nation could have assailed them. This idea seems to be contradicted from the Gemara in Avodah Zarah (ה ע"א) which clearly indicates that ‘the nations and races were able to assail them’ was a punishment for the sin of the Golden Calf.
We can answer this apparent contradiction by the means of another Gemara in Shabbos (שם) which teaches us that כל המשמר שבת כהלכתו אפילו עובד ע"ז כדור אנוש מוחלין לו - Whoever observes the Shabbos according to its law, even if he worships idols like the generation of Enosh he is forgiven. According to this, we can settle the contradiction as follows. Truthfully speaking, it was as a punishment for the sin of the Golden Calf that the ‘worldly nations were able to assail them’, as we learn in the Gemara Avodah Zarah. When the Gemara in Shabbos says that the ‘assailment of the nations’ was a punishment for the sin of desecrating the Shabbos, it only means that had the Jews observed the Shabbos, then their sin of the Golden Calf would have been forgiven in its merit, and no punishment would have been brought upon them. But because the Jews did desecrate the Shabbos, when it came to the sin of the golden calf they did not have the merit of Shabbos to absolve their sin, and were, therefore, duly punished with ‘the nations being able to assail them’.
When the Jews sinned with the Golden Calf, it was such a terrible sin that the Jewish Nation deserved to be wiped out in its entirety. It was Moshe who then took upon himself the burden of ascending to heaven, while fasting for forty days and nights, to cry and plead on behalf of the Jewish Nation. Finally on the fortieth day, which was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Hashem acceded to Moshe’s entreaty, and forgave the Jews, at least partially.
After forty long days of being up on the mountain pleading on behalf of the Jews, Moshe finally came down and had a strong message to give over to them, regarding the observance of Shabbos. Had they observed the Shabbos, then despite the terrible sin of the Golden Calf, they would have been forgiven in the merit of Shabbos, and Moshe would not have had to put himself through these forty difficult days in order to gain forgiveness for them. But because they desecrated the Shabbos and consequently did not have its merit, then as a punishment for the sin of the Golden Calf, a full annihilation was decreed upon them. When Moshe finally gained forgiveness for them, it was merely a partial forgiveness, as it only pardoned them from being completely annihilated, yet they were still to be punished by ‘the world’s nations assailing them’.
When Moshe taught the Jews the Mitzvah of Shabbos as soon as he came down from the mountain, he was alluding to them the following advice. Moshe was telling them that although they didn’t have the merit of Shabbos to prevent their punishment, neither the original one of annihilation nor the ultimate one of ‘assailment by the Nations’, nevertheless if they would only begin to be more stringent with the observance of the Shabbos, through that virtue they would at least merit to be redeemed from their punishment, ‘assailment of the worldly nations’, as the Gemara in Shabbos (שם) teaches us that אלמלי משמרין ישראל שתי שבתות כהלכתן מיד נגאלין - If the Jewish people would only observe two Shabbosos according to their law, they would be redeemed immediately.
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