What is the significance of the Shabbos after Shavuos?
We say in the song כל מקדש שביעי the words המאחרים לצאת מן השבת וממהרים לבוא. The question is why is it in that order? The verse should first say we are ממהר לבוא , regarding bringing in Shabbos, and then say מאחר לצאת מן השבת, regarding concluding Shabbos, so why do we say it in this order?
The Rav wanted to suggest that תוספת שבת only began from after מתן תורה. The רמב"ן explains in his הקדמה to ספר שמות that יציאת מצרים was not complete until we got the Torah. Therefore, only once יציאת מצרים was completed was Shabbos able to take on the dimension of זכר ליציאת מצרים. שבת before מתן תורה did not have תוספת שבת because at that point it was only זכר למעשה בראשית and מעשה בראשית was strictly ששת ימים תעבד ועשית כל מלאכתך ויום השביעי שבת לה' וכו'. After מתן תורה, Shabbos became ראשון למקראי קודש and by a מועד, it’s possible תוספת שבת. Being that מתן תורה was on Shabbos, the first possible opportunity to utilize תוספת שבת was to extend Shabbos and therefore we start off with המאחרים לצאת מן השבת. Then, the next opportunity was the following Shabbos (which was this past Shabbos) and therefore the end of the verse says ממהרים לבא.
But the idea of being ממהר is not merely to be מקדים but rather it is the idea of זריזות. The מסילת ישרים at the end of the sixth chapter explains how the מדה of זריזות is angelic and not naturally found by human beings. The idea is because מלאכים are למעלה מן הזמן, therefore they are able to excel in this מדה as opposed to human beings.
The Gemara in חגיגה כו: says that on the שלוש רגלים, the Jews would witness the miracle that the לחם הפנים stayed fresh from week to week and it was כסידורו כך סילוקו. On Pesach and Sukkos, this would occur on שבת חול המועד. However, on Shavuos where there is no חול המועד, when would the Jews see this miracle? The(ב אלפים קעח) שו"ת רדב"ז answers that the Jews would stay until the Shabbos after Shavuos in order to witness this miracle. The idea of this נס is למעלה מן הזמן. The only way the bread was able to stay fresh week to week was because time had no place there. This is a perspective that a person should have, that every day he should live למעלה מן הזמן and be able to recognize the daily freshness and התחדשות. Each day he should recognize that he could start anew. By all the Moadim, the idea of התחדשות can be seen. The ר"ן in the beginning of תענית quotes the ירושלמי saying the reason why we start mentioning טל on the first day of Pesach and we stop mentioning טל on the last day of Sukkos is so that there should be a mention of טל on each of the Moadim. The idea is that טל represents freshness and התחדשות and the Moadim which are set by the Jews represents the idea that we are שולט on זמן. Therefore, with such a שליטה, we can recognize that we can be למעלה מן הזמן and therefore believe that every day we could start anew. Like we find in the Gemara in מגילה ה: says אמר ר' יוחנן כי הוינא טליא. Rashi says that he was referring to his youth. The word טל is used to refer to youth because טל is the idea of freshness and התחדשות. We further see this idea in a Gemara ברכות מט. which explains מקדש ישראל והזמנים-ישראל דקדשינהו לזמנים. All the Moadim represent the idea that the Jews have the ability to be מקדש הזמנים which is because we are above time.
In Parshas בלק, the פסוק says ויקם בלעם בבקר ויחבש את אתנו. Rashi says:
אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא רשע כבר קדמך אברהם אביהם, שנאמר (בראשית כב, ג) וישכם אברהם בבקר ויחבוש את חמורו
בלעם tried to access this trait of זריזות which is the idea of למעלה מן הזמן, but Avraham already preempted him with this trait. Then when the donkey questions בלעם as to why he hit him שלש רגלים. Rashi says: רמז לו אתה מבקש לעקור אומה החוגגת שלש רגלים בשנה.
From all this we see the concept that the Moadim represent this idea of being שולט on זמן which is because we could live למעלה מן הזמן. This Shabbos which they would show the לחם הפנים on the שולחן and the Jews would see כסידורו כך סילוקו would show this concept as well that the freshness was only possible because it was למעלה מן הזמן and that we could live למעלה מן הזמן when we live every day as if it’s the first day of our lives
The פסוק in the second פרק of תהילים says אני היום ילדתיך. The Zohar (Mishpatim 98a) says that this Pasuk is referring to a Bar Mitzvah boy on the day of his Bar Mitzvah. דוד המלך is referring to something that Hashem told him once in the past because it is referring to when dovid became the king. How did דוד have the confidence to say that he doesn’t need to fear any enemies that stand up against him because Hashem told him בני אתה אני היום ילדתיך if he only told it once in the past? Who says it was still applicable and relevant? From here we see that one could live his life with the mindset of אני היום ילדיך, that every day is a new beginning.
Consolation with הדלקת נרות
The first Rashi in the פרשה says as follows:
למה נסמכה פרשת המנורה לפרשת הנשיאים, לפי שכשראה אהרן חנוכת הנשיאים חלשה דעתו, שלא היה עמהם בחנוכה, לא הוא ולא שבטו, אמר לו הקדוש ברוך הוא חייך, שלך גדולה משלהם, שאתה מדליק ומטיב את הנרות.
The רמב"ן asks why was אהרן consoled with the mitzvah of הדלקת נרות and not with other mitzvos such as the קטורת and קרבנות?
Reb Chaim in הל' ביאת מקדש (פ"ט ה"ז)explains that the Mitzvah of הדלקת נרות in the מקדש was not the action of lighting candles rather the mitzvah was just to have lit candles constantly. Therefore, the action of lighting candles was just a means to have a lit candle, which is the real fulfilment of the Mitzvah. Similarly, the חינוך in מצוה צח explains the mitzvah of הדלקת נרות was to have a lit candle להגדלת הבית לכבוד ולתפארת בעיני הרואים.
We see from here that which is unique about the נרות. The נרות weren’t just a הדלקה that took place in the בית rather it was to enhance the בית. The נרות were a rededication of the בית every day and not that it was a mitzvah done in a finished בית, rather it’s a mitzvah that sets the בית straight every day. It was a contribution that אהרן did every day to make the בית into the type of בית it needs to be. This is a חנוכה, and not just a mitzvah that takes place in the house, but it is a חנוכת הבית.
This idea is also expressed from the Pasuk in משלי (כב,ו):
חנך לנער על פי דרכו גם כי יזקין לא יסור ממנה
The Alter from Kelm explains that לא יסור ממנו is going on חינוך that if you give him the proper חינוך, he won’t move away from חינוך. Meaning, you’ll be מחנך him in a way that he’ll never abandon חינוך, rather he will always be מתחנך anew. Your מחנך him in a way that he’ll always be מתחנך a new and he won’t abandon the way of חינוך. Rashi says in פרשת שופטים (כ:ה) that חינוך is a lashon of התחלה. So we kick start him, but not in the way of inertia, but rather that every day he should be able to experience a התחלה and every day should be the first day of his life. This is the idea of אני היום ילדתיך, that every day a person should experience אני היום וכו'. Although the Zohar says it’s referring to the day of his bar mitzvah, really every day a person should have this experience, that it is alive, fresh, and new.
With this we could also understand that which the רמב"ן says that שלך גדולה משלהם is referring to the חנוכת המקדש during the time of חנוכה. The חנוכה with the חשמונאים was not a חינוך of beginning, but it was a חינוך in the middle of בית שני. Therefore, its גדולה משלהם because the נשיאים only did a חנוכה in the beginning as opposed to the חנוכה of the חשמונאים which was more in the sense that even when things are old and already in the middle of a long process, we should be able to start again fresh.