There are certain aveiros that a person needs to bring a korban chatas for if they do it unintentionally. If one does multiple aveiros that would each require him to bring a korban, he’ll need to bring one korban for each one. One would assume then, that if someone does an aveirah unintentionally one Shabbos, and then the next Shabbos he does the exact same aveirah again, he’d be required to bring a korban for each time he sinned. However, the Rambam writes that in this scenario, he would only be required to bring one korban, and it would atone for the aveirah he did on both Shabbosos.
These two aveiros took place on different days in the calendar, and different times of the day, with a full week in between each one! But the Rambam seems to be viewing these two different aveiros as taking place in one instance of Shabbos. What does that mean? Every single idea in halachah reverberates with a spiritual truth as well. What does this halachah of the Rambam tell us about Shabbos?
This halacha teaches us that Shabbos is not just a day of the week within which we commemorate the fact that Hashem created the world. That’s what Shabbos is on a more superficial level. If that’s what Shabbos is, then a sin committed on two separate Shabbosos would not be viewed as one. The essence of Shabbos is, that on Shabbos the soul is reattached to its Source, to the singular place which everything comes from, which is G-d’s presence. During the week you could find yourself anywhere, be it New York, Vermont, Venezuela, or anywhere else. But there is one location that you return to every single Shabbos, and that place is: the presence of Hashem Yisborach. And there is one ‘time’ that we are brought to on every single Shabbos, and that time is: the moment before Hashem created this complex universe, when all that existed was the presence of Hashem. In the depth of our soul, on every single Shabbos we find ourselves back in the same place and at the same time as all previous Shabbosos and all future Shabbosos! That’s what Shabbos is. It’s a mechanism in which we all return to that singular place and time.
Let’s look at an example of where one plows two fields on different days, all the while being unaware that such plowing is prohibited. The first plowing is done on the 1st of Tammuz in New York, whereas the second plowing is done on the 8th of Tammuz in New Jersey. On the outside, this looks like two actions in two places at two different times. On the inside, however, both Shabbosos occurred in the same place and at the same time. This is why the Rambam would consider these two occurrences as “one big plowing,” and one korban chatas will atone for both mistakes. This is the secret of Shabbos that is being revealed to us with this halachah.
Shabbos reveals to us that from the beginning of time to the end of time, to a certain degree, nothing has changed. Before creation our souls had the ultimate connection with Hashem, and it was as if we were just standing before His presence, so to now, to a certain degree that has not changed and remains constant throughout our lives. Hashem should bless us that this reality of Shabbos should reverberate within ourselves in an extreme way to the point that no matter where we find ourselves in the world, we should feel that connection and sense of being at home and secured in Hashem’s embrace.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 5.
