5784 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld on Parshas Vayakhel: Shammai the Elder, upon finding a nice animal, would say "This is for Shabbos"; upon finding another one nicer than it, he would set aside the second one and eat the first. Hillel the Elder's measure…

00:02 Parshas Vayakhel begins with the mitzvah of keeping Shabbos: “Six days work shall be done, and the seventh day shall be a Shabbos for Hashem. You shall not do any work.” We already have the mitzvah of keeping Shabbos in the Ten Commandments: “Remember the Shabbos day to sanctify it.” There, Rashi explains that if you see something fine, you should set it aside for Shabbos. The Gemara in tractate Beitzah tells us that this was Shammai the Elder’s practice: when he saw a fine animal, he would buy it and say, “This is in honor of Shabbos.” If the next day he found a finer one, he would eat the first and set aside the second. He did this every day, so that throughout the week he was eating in honor of Shabbos. But Hillel the Elder had a different approach: all his actions were for the sake of Heaven, as it says, “Blessed be Hashem, day by day,” and so on. What is the disagreement here between the House of Shammai and the House of Hillel? What are they arguing about? I saw in the book Mishneh Sachir, by the holy Rabbi Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal, may Hashem avenge his blood, who was murdered in the Holocaust, a beautiful explanation of the Gemara. The point of disagreement between the House of Shammai and the House of Hillel, he explains, is not about honoring Shabbos. Both agree that we must “remember the Shabbos day to sanctify it.” If you see something fine, it should be set aside in honor of Shabbos. So what is their point of disagreement? It concerns what the Gemara says just before this: all of a person’s sustenance is allotted to him from one Rosh Hashanah to the next. In other words, each person has a budget for the year—how much he will spend and how much he will receive—except for Shabbos and Yom Tov expenses. What did Shammai do? He came up with a clever way around this. When he saw a fine animal on Sunday, he would buy it and say, “This is in honor of Shabbos.” When, on Monday, he saw a finer animal

02:27 he would put aside the first, eat it, and set aside the second, saying, “This is in honor of Shabbos.” That way, all week long he was eating in honor of Shabbos. Why did he do it this way? Because Shabbos and Yom Tov expenses do not come out of a person’s allotted budget. So he ate in honor of Shabbos all week long. But Hillel the Elder did everything for the sake of Heaven, as it says, “Blessed be Hashem, day by day.” Hillel the Elder said: There is no need to be clever with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Instead, one should trust with complete confidence that Hakadosh Boruch Hu will provide all his needs and give him ample sustenance. I do not need to be clever. “Day by day He bears our burden.” So the point of disagreement between the House of Shammai and the House of Hillel is not about Shabbos at all. It is whether one may use a clever strategy to receive abundant provision, or whether one should not try to be clever with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but should trust with complete confidence that He will generously provide everything one needs. Why does the House of Shammai hold one way and the House of Hillel the other? As explained in Chassidus—and the Alter Rebbe also mentions this in the introduction to Tanya—the souls of the House of Shammai were rooted in the attribute of gevurah, while the souls of the House of Hillel were rooted in the attribute of chesed. That is why the House of Shammai was always stringent and the House of Hillel lenient. Because Shammai’s soul was rooted in gevurah, he was always concerned that he might not be worthy of receiving abundant provision. How could he have plenty? He felt he needed to find a clever way, and that is why he acted as he did. But Hillel the Elder, whose soul was rooted in chesed—everything he did was for the sake of Heaven. In other words, he trusted with complete confidence that Hakadosh Boruch Hu would give

04:22 him everything in abundance, without his needing to be clever. So their disagreement is not about Shabbos at all, but about whether I may or may not use a clever strategy when it comes to sustenance. With that, everything falls into place. Have a peaceful Shabbos and a happy month, and may the verse be fulfilled for us: “It was reversed, so that the Jews themselves would rule over those who hated them,” very soon. Amen. All right.