Weekly Torah Portion: the Great Shabbat miracle

This Shabbat, we will read in the synagogues the weekly portion of “Tzav,” the second portion in the book of Leviticus. This portion continues to explain the rules of sacrifices in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. However, public attention will mainly be focused on the unique name given to this Shabbat, which is “Shabbat HaGadol,” meaning “The Great Shabbat.” This is the name of the Shabbat that precedes the Passover holiday.

Why was this Shabbat given this title? Different explanations have been suggested throughout the generations. Some people think that the name reflects the fact that a city or town’s most prominent rabbi traditionally delivers a grand sermon on that Shabbat (with some clowns saying the title denotes the unbearably long sermons given on that Shabbat in the synagogues). Others linked the title with the corresponding section from the book of prophets read on that Shabbat in conjunction with the Torah portion. The corresponding portion for this week tells of the “coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.”

The main reason behind the title, however, is related to the final days of Israel’s stay in Egypt before the great exodus. Our sages say that on that final Shabbat, a great miracle occurred.

And what is that miracle? The Torah tells us that when our forefathers dwelled in Egypt, they were told they would be leaving the country on the 15th day of (the Jewish month of) Nissan. On that night, the people of Israel were told to sacrifice a lamb (which is known as the “Passover sacrifice”) and smear its blood on their door posts to distinguish their homes from those of the Egyptians.

They purchased the lambs on the 10th of Nissan, which happened to be a Shabbat. Everything up to this point is clear. So where was the miracle? As it turns out, the lambs they were told to sacrifice just happened to be one of the Egyptians’ gods, which made sacrificing a lamb in front of the Egyptians an incredibly brazen act.

If we add to this act the fact that for four days prior to the sacrifice the lambs were tied to the beds of Jews in full view of the Egyptians, and the Egyptians did absolutely nothing about it, you can begin to see what the miracle was.

I have always wondered why so many miracles in Egypt - the ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, and the amazing exodus of Israel from slavery in Egypt to freedom after 200 years - were not mentioned as “great” miracles, while this more or less insignificant point (which by the way is not explicitly mentioned in the Torah) of tying up the animals to the bedposts without being taken to task by the Egyptians for doing so, was given the title “great miracle.”

It seems that our sages were dropping a hint about a primary religious principle: God controls nature and changes it in both big and small ways as He sees fit. Who can tell God what to do? But God has also embedded a great rule in the world: He does not want to change people. Mankind will decide its own fate and which path it wants to take in the world. God will help man and do much for him, but man will determine the lifestyle he wishes to adopt. A man’s life will be guided by the road upon which he wishes to travel.

God can produce many miracles in Egypt, but one thing He does not want to do is to dictate a man’s life. The decision of whether or not to rebel against the Egyptian gods and how to do so was left in the hands of each person of Israel.

This is where the great miracle occurred, perhaps the greatest of all the miracles in Egypt. A nation of slaves was willing to commit to the responsibility of taking a huge step forward from which there was no turning back. They were not aware of what we know today. They had not yet experienced the tenth plague that struck the Egyptians (whereby all their eldest sons mysteriously fell ill and died) and the drowning of Pharaoh’s army in the sea. They were in the midst of World War II, at the stage where Nazi Germany has still not showed signs of surrendering to the Allies. They were in the midst of the Syrian uprising, at the stage where no one knows how the uprising will end. And despite all of this, they were still willing to risk their lives and take action.

That was a great miracle. It was the greatest miracle, because it was not an act of God through nature, but rather an act of man through his spirit. It was an act of man who was willing to rise up and publicly declare that he is a member of the Jewish nation and scorns all that Egyptian tyranny represents.

That was, as we said, a great miracle. And in commemoration of that miracle, we mark this coming Shabbat as the “Great Shabbat.”

טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו