5785/2025
An overarching theme of ויקרא ספר is קדושה, holiness, and this week’s פרשת אמור ,פרשה, discusses holiness in the context of the calendar, those times of year that are elevated and distinct from others, what the תורה calls מקראי קודש.
This is far from the only place where the holidays are mentioned. פרשת אמור is one of five פרשיות that discuss the various מועדים (the others are פינחס , כי תשא ,משפטים and ראה).
The fourth עליה of אמור introduces the topic as follows:
דבר אל בני ישראל ואמרת אליהם מועדי ה׳ אשר תקראו אותם מקראי קדש אלה הם מועדי
Speak to בני ישראל and tell them: “These are My מועדים, the fixed times of ה׳ that you should proclaim as sacred occasions.”
However, the first occasion mentioned is not what we might expect.
ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה וביום השביעי שבת שבתון מקרא קדש כל מלאכה לא תעשו שבת היא לה׳ בכל מושבותיכם
On six days work may be performed and on the seventh day there shall be a sabbath of complete rest… The תורה then says again in the fourth פסוק of the עליה:
אלה מועדי ה׳ מקראי קדש אשר תקראו אתם במועדם
and launches into a description of חג הפסח (and then שבועות and so on).
What is going on here?
None of the other four פרשיות that discuss the חגים mention שבת as one of them. In פרשת פינחס a description of the special קורבנות for ראש חודש and שבת immediately precedes a listing of those for the holidays, but it is only here in אמור that we find שבת grouped in with the holidays and described as a מועד.
Then perhaps our פרשה is not suggesting that שבת is a מועד; the תורה seems to start over and specify that it is the holidays that follow the fourth פסוק that are אלה מועדי ה׳, (these holidays that follow, are מועדי ה׳, the תורה seems to be emphasizing, and it also closes this passage at the end with the same word אלה).
Furthermore, we know that בני ישראל do not “proclaim” שבת the way they do the other holidays. The precise timing of the holidays is based on the בית דין’s sanctification of the new month, while שבת comes every seven days regardless of anything the nation does, since it commemorates the end of Creation.
A מדרש in ספרא, the מדרש הלכה on ספר ויקרא, tries to clarify why שבת is mentioned here, finding significance in the emphasis on the prohibition of מלאכה on שבת prior to the listing of the חגים. The מדרש says that this is here to teach that one who desecrates the חגים is considered like one who desecrates שבת.I (כל המחלל את המועדות מעלים עליו כאילו חילל את השבתות) I interpret this to mean that violators of the איסור מלאכה on ימים טובים have the status of מחללי שבת (for example, they cannot be relied upon in matters of כשרות), although it seems that this is the subject of disagreement among later sources, with רמב״ם holding that they are not equivalent and the אור זרוע, a 13th century work that
reflects the views of the בעלי התוספות holding that they are. In any case, if that is the thrust of the פסוקים this is a seemingly strange and rather indirect way to express it.
Another explanation comes from רמב״ן who sees the inclusion of שבת and its prohibition against מלאכה here as a Scriptural hint at the principle that the tighter restrictions of שבת are not suspended when it coincides with a חג. If יום טוב falls on a day that would otherwise be חול, we may of course perform מלאכת אוכל נפש so that we may eat well and enjoy the holiday as commanded, but this does not apply on שבת. This, too, seems a reasonable lesson to link to this unusual passage, but it does not seem to account for its awkwardness.
Leave it to the Vilna Gaon to offer a novel way of looking at things that resolves this difficulty in a way that bolsters the רמב״ן and does not conflict with the מדרש in the ספרא. The גר“א says that the פסוק that says ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה וביום השביעי שבת שבתון מקרא קדש is not about שבת at all, but about the ימים טובים. In the תורה (although not today when ראש השנה is observed for two days even in ארץ ישראל) there are precisely six days during the מועדים during which certain work, i.e. מלאכת אוכל נפש, may be performed: the first and seventh days of פסח, one day of שבועות, one day of ראש השנה, the first day of סוכות and שמיני עצרת.
Note that the פסוק says תעשה מלאכה and not תעשה כל מלאכה. There is one type of labor that may be performed on these six days; it does not say that labor in general is permissible, which also strengthens the case that this is not a reference to חול.
The seventh day of מועד, on the other hand, is a שבתון שבת, a day of complete rest during which no work at all may be done, יום כיפור. This is, of course, exactly how יום כיפור is described in the verses that follow שבת שבתון מקרא קדש כל מלאכת עבודה לא תעשו. Once you become aware of the גר״א’s insight, it becomes difficult to read these פסוקים any other way!