YU TORAH Ki Tisa 5775: Making Majestic Moments By Shira Smiles

Parshat Ki Tisa includes verses familiar to many of us as part of the Shabbat morning Kiddush: “The children of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to make (la’asot) the Sabbath an eternal covenant for their generations. Between Me and the Children of Israel it is a sign forever … on the seventh day He rested …” These verses are then immediately followed with Hashem’s giving the Two Tablets of Testimony to Moshe before his descent from Sinai, implying that the mitzvah of Shabbos was the last mitzvah Hashem gave to Moshe before Moshe went back down to Bnei Yisroel. It is a mitzvah that keeps the relationship alive between Hashem and Bnei Yisroel, especially relevant since it is followed immediately with the sin of the golden calf. It would appear from the verses that it is we who “make” the Sabbath just as we ordain the onset of the holidays by proclaiming the new moon, when in fact it is Hashem Who decrees the onset and end of Shabbos every week. We can, in fact, guard and keep (shamor) the Shabbos, but how can we “make” the Shabbos?