"And Moshe assembled the entire assembly of the Children of Israel and said to them: These are the things that HaShem commanded to do. For a period of six days work may be done, but the seventh day shall be holy for you, a day of complete rest for HaShem; whoever does work on it shall be put to death."


Our parsha continues to describe the details of the works of the Tabernacle, as we have been reading during the

We have been commanded to build the Tabernacle; still, this does not take preference over the holy Shabbat.

past few weeks. But here, the Torah opens with the laws of the Shabbat. Our rabbis deduce from this that even though we have been commanded to build the Tabernacle, still, this does not take preference over the holy Shabbat. For five parshiyot, the Torah goes into great detail about the construction of the Tabernacle. But when it comes to the Shabbat - all work stops.


This is also true with the temporary house of the Tabernacle, and even more so with the Temple itself when it was built in Jerusalem. As the Rambam cites from the Talmud, one does not build the Temple even on the holidays. Interesting, though, is the fact that once the Tabernacle - and later, the Temple - was built sacrifices and other works did take place there on the Shabbat. For we know that all public work in the Temple, like the daily sacrifices, the incense, and the lighting of the Menorah all took place in the Temple even on the Shabbat.


Similarly, we find that when the Jewish people went out to war, we were commanded not to lay siege to a non-Jewish city to wage war with them three days prior to the Shabbat, in order not to have to profane the Shabbat if not absolutely necessary. Still, we are taught that if the non-Jew comes against us, even just to take hay or something else that is worthless, we have to go out and fight, even if it's on the Shabbat. The preservation of the Land of Israel is so vital that we are commanded to go out and wage battle, even if we have to profane the Shabbat.


We find in the case of the battle for Jericho that HaShem commanded Joshua and the Jewish people to circle the city every day once, and on the seventh day, to circle the city seven times. It was only then that the walls came tumbling down and the Jewish people went and battled with the city. In the end, they utterly destroyed and burnt

"Public work" not only overrides the Shabbat, but even the laws of tum'ah.

down the city. And on what day did the battle of Jericho take place? It was none other than on the holy Shabbat!


Why was it that HaShem commanded the Jewish people to destroy the city on the Shabbat? After all, He could have as easily started the war on any other day and thus spared profaning the Shabbat. Rather, HaShem was teaching us the very important lesson that the wars of the Land of Israel - the wars of HaShem - override even the Shabbat.


So, too, with the Temple service, when all the "public work" was done even on the holy Shabbat. So great is the service of HaShem in the Temple that "public work" not only overrides the Shabbat, but even the laws of tum'ah (uncleanliness), too, thus enabling us to bring sacrifices even today, when we are all spiritually unclean. All that is missing, then, is our will to go up and climb HaShem's Holy Mountain.