For a more comprehensive explanation of this topic, please see the essay “Shabbos, Dual Foundation of Our Faith” appended to Sidra of the Week: ïðçúàå.
The wording of the Luchos (the Two Tablets of Testimony on which were engraved the ò úøù úåøáãä, “the Ten Commandments”) is given in this week’s Sidra. The wording is given again in Sidra ïðçúàå but there are noticeable differences, particularly in the command concerning Shabbos.
Here is the version in this week’s Sidra, åøúé :
Remember the Shabbos Day to keep it holy. Six days shall you labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is Shabbos to G-d your Lord. You shall not do any kind of Melochoh, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant nor your maidservant, nor your animals, nor the stranger that is within your city gates. For in six days G-d made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that it is in them and He rested on the seventh day. Therefore G-d blessed the Shabbos Day and He made it holy.
Clearly, therefore, the Shabbos is the weekly reminder that G-d Almighty is the Creator of all the world. He is our Creator and we must at all times use all our powers in His service and live our lives according to the Divine Will. By our not doing “any manner of Melochoh” on Shabbos, we testify that G-d is the Creator of heaven and earth.
Now here is the translation of this same Fourth Commandment in the Luchos in Sidra ïðçúàå:
Guard the Shabbos day to keep it holy as G-d your Lord has commanded you. Six days shall you labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is Shabbos to G-d your Lord. You shall not do any kind of Melochoh neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your ox, nor your ass, nor any of your animals, nor your stranger that is within your gates so that your manservant and your maidservant may rest just as you rest and you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and G-d your Lord brought you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore G-d your Lord commands you to keep the Shabbos day.
But the reason for Shabbos — that is, that G-d created the heavens and earth in six days and rested on the seventh day — is not given there in Sidra ïðçúàå at all! Why is this?
First of all, it must be understood that in reality there is no such thing as “the First Luchos” and “the Second Luchos” as if there were two versions. (Although there are authorities who speak in such terms, what they probably mean is that the two accounts of the Luchos teach us different things.) After the episode of the Golden Calf, G-d told Mosheh to hew out another two tablets of stone and that He would inscribe these new tablets with the very same words that were on the first Luchos — "ëåúøáù øùà íéðåùàøä úåçåìä ìò åéä øùà íéøáãä úà úåçåìä ìò éúáú". Clearly, then, the words on the Luchos were the same.
So why the different wording in the two Sidros?
The Mystery of the “Second Luchos”
The answer is that in this week’s Sidra åøúé is the description of the actual wording of the Luchos as it was. The report in Sidra ïðçúàå, on the other hand, is the review of the event of the Giving of the Torah and includes the explanations of Mosheh our Teacher (as can be seen there from the repeated phrase ä êåö øùàë 'à-êéäì ).
It is the special talent of a good teacher to anticipate the questions of his pupils and to address them even before they raise them. In Sidra ïðçúàå we see how Mosheh our Teacher, the greatest teacher we ever had, anticipates the question that the Mitzvah of Shabbos might raise in the mind of some people and he addresses that question. As follows:
A person might say to himself or herself: Can it really be that through my observing the Shabbos I bear testimony that HaShem is the Creator of the Universe? But how can it be that little me, by my not switching on a light on Shabbos, by my desisting from watering my plants on Shabbos, should be a witness that HaShem is the Creator? He is so unspeakably powerful, so incredibly great, so remote — aren’t my actions or inactions so insignificant? It is hard to believe that G-d Almighty should be concerned with me at all, that He should have ever commanded that I am to observe and guard the Shabbos as my testimony to His being the Creator of all. Maybe, great and holy people, yes, they should keep the Shabbos! But little me? He is so great and I am so small — surely my observing the Shabbos is a presumptuous futility!
Says Mosheh our Teacher: And this thinking is wrong! HaShem is indeed great, unspeakably great, yes. And with all that, He is indeed interested in all His creatures and especially in each and every one of us, His Chosen People. See! We were a people enslaved in Egypt, powerless and without any rational hope of redemption from there by our own efforts. But then HaShem, the Creator of all and the Father of Mankind, looked down from On High and He Himself took us out from that House of Slavery to be His People, as He had promised our forefathers, Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov. And as His People, it is our sacred duty to bear testimony to HaShem not only as the Creator of the World but as the G-d of all Mankind, Who wishes His creatures to conduct themselves according to His wishes. This, that HaShem is the G-d and Father of all Mankind and the Master Controller of everything, is the reason and the testimony of Shabbos no less than the Shabbos being testimony of HaShem the Creator.
In his review of the event of Mattan Torah in Sidra ïðçúàå, Mosheh our Teacher means to stress that not only are we ourselves to observe the Shabbos but we are to observe the Shabbos together with our manservant and maidservant, “so that they shall rest just as you do.” Remember the less fortunate, says Mosheh. Don’t be all holy and spiritual at the expense of others, or even without including others. Be considerate to those who are your subordinates, too. Remember, you were slaves in Egypt, and therefore G-d commands you to observe the Shabbos day together with your manservant and maidservant. For great as He is, even as He is Almighty G-d, the Creator of heaven and earth, He is involved with all His human creatures. And He is the Lord and Judge and rewards each according to how he or she obeys His commands.
This, too, is no less a part of the Shabbos, says Mosheh our Teacher.
Shabbos is the foundation of our faith for it is the weekly reminder, firstly, that G-d is the Creator of All and, secondly, that He is the Father of all Mankind Who protests against slavery and oppression of the human spirit.
No wonder that tyrants of all times have tried to stop the Jewish People from celebrating G-d’s holy Shabbos. But despite all difficulties, the Shabbos will always be our special bond between G-d and us, His holy People.
