כי תשא וענייני שליטה במידת הכעס
In this week’s Parsha, Hashem commands us to keep the Shabbos. The verse says, “For six days you will toil, and the seventh day will be a day of rest for you”. Rashi comments on this verse that this rest must be a complete relaxation and not a partial one. I would like to explain this concept of “complete rest”. Is this merely a cessation of one’s weekly obligations? If this were true, how is Shabbos different then what we do every night when we go to sleep tired and wake up refreshed?
R’ Chaim Freidlander ZT”L, the former Mashgiach of the Ponevitch Yeshiva discusses this concept at length. He begins by quoting the verse in Bereishis, “And God finished his work on the seventh day”. This verse implies that Hashem actually did work on Shabbos before He rested. Rashi explains that Shabbos was not merely a time in which Hashem passively created the concept of rest by not working, but rather Hashem actively created the concept of rest in the world on the seventh day. We see from here that in order to keep the Shabbos properly for us, we are not meant to just abstain from doing physical labor, and take a four hour nap, but rather we must actively keep the Shabbos by choosing to completely “clear our schedule” so that we can seek God out in every way. It comes out that Shabbos is more of a spiritual rejuvenation then a physical rest. In return, God goes “out of His way” to come closer to us and make Himself available to anyone who wants to seek Him, which creates a synergistic relationship in which perfect harmony is achieved between Hashem and His people.
Parenthetically, another way that we see that Shabbos is not merely a cessation of physical activity is from Adam. Adam was created on the sixth day of creation, only a few hours before Shabbos, and he was created in paradise where he didn’t have to perform any labor. Shortly afterward Shabbos began. Clearly he didn’t need any physical rest. From here we see that Shabbos is meant to be a time to get closer to Hashem and achieve a state of spiritual wholeness. Indeed, all the prayers on Shabbos indicate this. The only things we ask for on Shabbos are, “God make us spiritually happy and complete and purify our hearts so that we may serve you in earnest”!
However there is another aspect of rest on the Shabbos that I would like to discuss as well and that is the complete rest from anger or disharmony on Shabbos. The verse says, “Do not ignite a fire in your camp on the day of Shabbos”. The Zohar comments on this verse that this “fire” is referring to the fire of anger or discord on Shabbos and that anyone who experiences either of these emotions transgresses a very serious sin on any day of the week, and infinitely worse on Shabbos. The Shelah expounds on this point and explains how crucial it is to be wary of it. He says that the Satan tries doubly hard to entice a person to anger on the Shabbos, because he knows how detrimental it is, and he begins on Friday afternoon at midday. He warns that a person should be aware of this trick of the Satan and be on his guard from midday and onward in order not to become easy prey to the Satan. He adds that the word “Lo” in the verse is the numerical value of 31 which corresponds with the 31 hours from midday Friday until Saturday night. R’ Chaim Shmuelevitz used to add that this is what Rashi meant when he said that Shabbos has to be a time of extreme rest, meaning a time when there is no anger or feelings of animosity and in general one must strive to uproot these feelings from his heart.
The Rosh, in his famous work “Orchos Chaim” (24) writes “Anger is one of the primary causes which confuse and disturb man’s equilibrium. It destroys his innards and completely upsets his essence to the point that Chazal say about a person who becomes angry, ‘It is as if he has worshiped other Gods’.” Every day one must be extremely cautious not to transgress this sin, but on Shabbos where one is trying valiantly to reach a spiritual connection with God and to rejuvenate himself spiritually as we explained, one must be extra careful.
Many of our holy books delineate a number of practical tactics how to control one’s anger. Perhaps we will list a few of them for the benefit of the reader. One way mentioned is that when one feels himself getting angry, he should speak in a soft tone, and this ‘external’ action of tranquility will help a person to calm his rising rage. Another one is to immediately leave the room or to distract himself until he feels that he is in control of his passions. A third possibility is to offer a short prayer to God to help him control his temper.
However, one should be aware that all of these aids are merely substitutes for helping him when he is already in the throws of a tantrum, but truthfully it is incumbent upon every Jew to reach a level of calm in which he does not lose his temper under any circumstances the same way that he would not eat pig. The way to do this is to slowly accustom himself to remain tranquil in every situation by always realizing that just as someone around him may be acting inappropriately, he too is not perfect and sometimes falls short in his conduct. It is brought down in many places in Chazal, “On every offense, one should cover it with love”. Meaning, if one ever feels himself becoming offended, all he has to do is realize how much he loves the person who is offending him, and he will not be offended. The best way to do this is through empathy. If one can understand the person who is offending him, and achieve an acceptance of every other human being’s quirks and idiosyncrasies and relate to where he is coming from, by definition you will love him and not be offended by him. R’ Volbe Z”L used to demonstrate that Hashem himself practices this attribute. We find the Gemorah in Berachos (6) says that God becomes angry with the Jewish people, but sometimes His feelings of compassion overcome his anger. Now one can be sure that if Hashem is angry with us, there is good reason for it. Yet Hashem still teaches us that He has the ability at that time to display compassion and overcome his anger. We too must emulate God and overcome our anger, even when there is ‘good’ reason for it, by allowing our natural feelings of love and compassion which Hashem created within us to overcome our indignation at being offended.
May we merit to experience complete and total rest on the holy Shabbos and to save ourselves from anger on Shabbos and at all times!