The Sabbath Contract between Jew and G-d (Exodus 31, 16-17) - part 1

These two Biblical verses define the Sabbath Contract between G-d and each Jew. The obligations of the Jew, and Nature's rules of recompense for fulfilling or ignoring them, are explained in the following article, from a magazine published by the Previous Rebbe [הקריאה והקדושה, July 1941]. (After you've read it, you'll also appreciate the Rebbe's insistence, elsewhere, on the number of days of creation to be taken literally as 6, i.e., six 24-hour days.) (The highlighting is my own.)

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ושמרו בני ישראל את השבת

"And the children of Israel shall observe the Sabbath"

The Jews must observe the Sabbath day - guard it so as not to desecrate its holiness. They must not work, nor kindle a fire, nor bake or cook on the Sabbath ; They must not carry anything either in their hands or in their pockets, not may they occupy themselves with any of the usual weekday occupations. The Sabbath must be a day of rest in accordance with every concept of complete rest, and in accordance with all the rules of the Oral Law. "Veshomru" signifies that they, themselves, must observe, each person individually. Every Jew must be a Sabbath-Jew, observing the Sabbath exactly as his ancestors and great-ancestors did.

This alone, however, is not enough. A Jew who is merely himself a Sabbath-observer has not completely fulfilled the requirement of "Veshomru". There is something more to it, namely:

לעשות את השבת לדורותם ברית עולם

"To observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant."

The Jew must so guard his Sabbath as to make a perpetuity of it for all future generations. This means, naturally, he must first of all see to it that the very next generation, his own children, should keep the Sabbath. For, if only he keeps the Sabbath, but not his children, then the Sabbath is already broken, and he is guarding the fragments of a broken vessel. He was given a whole Sabbath - a vessel that was whole, and in good condition. He ought to have guarded this vessel, kept it whole as long as he possessed it, and passed it on to his children in good condition. But if he did not safeguard it and it was broken, then he is continuing to guard only its broken fragments. Its owner, the Almighty who put the keeping of the Sabbath in his charge, can be very little pleased with the fact that he keeps watch over the broken fragments of that vessel of blessings, the Sabbath.

Under no circumstances can this be considered keeping a proper guard. For he received a whole vessel and it was broken in his possession! His children have nothing to guard in turn. The Sabbath must be observed throughout all the generations, from the father down through the great-grandchildren. It is "a perpetual covenant", an everlasting contract that all future Jews shall maintain this guard, and take care that the Sabbath shall not be broken.

ביני ובין בני ישראל אות היא לעולם

"It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever."

The Jew must keep the Sabbath because it is a specific sign between him and G-d, for eternity, that G-d will always watch over him, too. The Jew keeps the Sabbath and G-d keeps him, the caretaker whom G-d appointed to guard His Sabbath. These were the terms of the contract, "a perpetual covenant": That G-d should never entrust His Sabbath to another nation for safekeeping, and the Jew should never relinquish his guardianship of the Sabbath. The Christian religion, which has copied many Jewish laws including the principle of resting one day a week nevertheless did not make Saturday its rest day. G-d so contrived that they should choose a different day for rest - Sunday. The Mohammedans likewise, and for various reasons, chose Friday for their day of rest. The Buddhists chose Wednesday. But to this very day, only the Jews have the true Sabbath as their day of rest.

(The small Christian sect which recently has begun to observe the Sabbath on Saturday instead of Sunday is merely acting foolishly in this respect. In the first place, they do not observe the Sabbath as prescribed in its fundamental laws. Secondly, they accept all the religious practices and principles of the rest of Christendom. Thirdly, there is, besides the Sabbath, still another sign between G-d and the Jews - the covenant of circumcision. One sign without the other is an anomaly, and these Sabbath-Christians definitely do not believe in circumcision. The Arabs, on the other hand, believe in circumcision but not in the Sabbath; So that no one actually possesses both these signs together except the Jews. And it is really amazing that no other religious sect in the world has accepted both these G-dly signs. The Almighty did not permit this to happen, because these two, and only these two commandments are expressly set apart with the words "for it is a sign between Me and you," and they would be ineffectual as signs if others also possessed them both.)

The Jews, therefore, must also keep their part of the contract and never relinquish the guardianship of the Sabbath. Should they break this contract, they would lose the right to claim or to expect that G-d should watch over them. It is thus in the Jew's own interest to observe the Sabbath, for he thereby obliges G-d to protect him.

See Part 2.

Pesach 5771 - The Holiday of Redemption

Happy and kosher Pesach my friends!

Below I include another sign of the imminent Era of Final Redemption, may it happen now already, and catapult the world into a higher sphere of experience!

Signs are nice - but we've had our fill of signs already. We want the real thing, and we want it now. The Rebbe said, "We're the last generation of exile"; Well, how long is this last generation to last?

A few posts ago, I translated The Previous Rebbe's explanation of Psalm 93 (link), and how turbulent waters shall submerge much of a country, which apparently refers to the Japanese tragedy. Here below is new footage of the incredible disaster.

See what 4 or 5 minutes can do to a town.

Wal-Mart Economics

The Emma Maersk, part of a Danish shipping line, is shown in the photos below.
Wal-Mart commissioned these ships to get all their goods and stuff from China. Each ship holds an incredible 15,000 containers on its 207 foot deck beam! A full crew amounts to just 13 people on a ship longer than a US Aircraft Carrier, which has a crew of 5,000. With its 207' beam, it's too big to fit through the Panama or Suez Canals; It is strictly trans-Pacific.
Cruise speed: 31 knots. The goods arrive 4 days before the typical container ship (18-20 knots) on a China-to-California run. 91% of Wal-Mart products are made in China. So this behemoth is hugely competitive, even when carrying perishable goods.

The ship was built in five sections. The sections were floated together and then welded. It has 11 cargo crane rigs that can operate simultaneously to unload the entire ship in less than 2 hours.
The command bridge rises higher than a 10-story building.
Silicone painting applied to the ship bottom reduces water resistance and saves 317,000 gallons of diesel per year.A recent documentary in late March, 2010 on the History Channel noted that all of these containers are shipped back to China - empty! Yep, that's right. We send nothing back on these ships. What does that tell you about the current financial state of this country? Just keep buying those imported goods (mostly gadgets) until you run out of money.

Then you may wonder what the cause of unemployment (maybe even your job) in the U.S. and Canada might be.

'nuff said ?

A Lapse into Secularity

Only occasionally do I bring secularity into this blogspot. Here, because I enjoy how Rush Limbaugh eloquently lambasts our rogue in highest office.

Black Gold - in Jewish Territory

Israelis have this grievance against Moses. They complain, "He took us through the desert 40 years, to bring us to the only place in the Middle East without a drop of oil!" Arab neighbors have more than enough; Israel ends up with nothing!

Golda Meir's joke aside, Israel recently made discoveries of oil and natural gas in its coastal waters. Unless they give it away, like they did last time to Egypt, in exchange for a piece of paper, the Jewish state has a promising future of energy independence.

You think they can join alongside Iran and Iraq as a member of OPEC?

Dr. Harold Vinegar, chief scientist at Royal Dutch oil company Shell, now scientific director of the Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI), believes Israel's discovery of oil reserves amounts to an awful lot!

IEI is working on an ambitious project to extract oil and natural gas from oil shale in a 238 square kilometers area, off Shfela Basin, Southwest of Jerusalem. As for concern of pollution emissions, he says, "Our techniques are cleaner than those currently used elsewhere because the oil will be separated from the shale rock 300 meters below ground. This allows us to greatly reduce the amount of water consumed."

According to Dr. Vinegar, Israel has the second largest deposits of oil shale in the world outside the United States. "We believe it has the equivalent of 250 billion barrels of oil. To put this in context, there are proven reserves of 260 billion barrels of oil in Saudi Arabia." If IEI claims become a reality, Israel will become one of the richest countries in the world.

Besides other indications the Era of Final & Ultimate Redemption is almost here, this one may well confirm the verse, (Shmos 13, 18), "... and the Israelites left Egypt [exile] 'well-provisioned'".

The Oncoming Tsunami of World-Wide Jew Hatred

Hatred of Jews is on the rise. The "one sheep among 70 wolves", as our sages refer to the Jewish nation, is no myth. Ever since the event of Mount Sinai, it has persisted, and only Moshiach will finally eradicate it.

I'm not saying this new onslaught of hate will hurt us, G-d forbid, but it can lead to paroxysms of fear if you don't brace yourself or prepare for it, wherever you are. And don't fall for the illusion a democratic process will fend for you.

And, don't think debating your case will help, because Jew haters are spiritually blind and logically warped. What more proof do you need of this blindness than the fact that anti-Semitism is again on the rise even after the Holocaust! (And even after the holocaust destroyed much of the Gentile world in the process). Just look at the perverse attempts to demonize Israel, even though the country bends over backwards (with its leftist agenda) to favor its 5th column or their aggressive neighbors.

The best way to defend yourself is to get on G-d's side and follow his Torah dictates. Sweet and simple.

Some of this Hebrew clip is translated, but not all of it. It's produced by Rabbi Amnon Yitschak in Israel.