As a Mohel who often has to ‘break-Shabbos’ to do a Bris – as the actual bris entails performing various Shabbos prohibitions, it’s hard for me not to speak about the opening verses of our Parshah, “when a woman … gives birth to a male … on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised”. The instruction to perform the Bris is totally out of context here in a section which is primarily discussing various states of ritual impurity, and details regarding a Bris have already been laid down when Avraham had his Bris in Parshas Lech-Lecha. It is repeated here to teach us a new law; the verse did not need to say, “and on the day” since already in Lech-Lecha we were told to do Bris during the day and not night. The spare word here is therefore to teach us that a Bris pushes away Shabbos.
Furthermore we know that the Bris is a prerequisite to Shabbos observance. We say in davening on Shabbos morning, “and also its (Shabbos) rest, the uncircumcised shall not abide”.
There is a fascinating Medresh that records a ‘conversation’ between ‘Shabbos’ and ‘Bris’ who were arguing as to who is greater. They each bring verses to support their claim. The argument is settled by way of a parable. Two noblewomen were standing by and the by passer didn’t know who was the more important of the two. When he saw that one of them made way for the other he realised now who was more important. So too, when we see that Shabbos steps aside for Bris we now know the great value – up and above that of Shabbos – that is achieved through performing Bris Milah.
The question however is, why does Bris push away Shabbos? The punishment for breaking Shabbos is more strict than not having a Bris. The Rambam writes that from the punishment meted out for a transgression we can deduce the reward for keeping the Mitzvah, and Shabbos is therefore ‘worth’ more than doing a Bris – especially when the Bris can still be done after Shabbos. Furthermore the Bris is but a positive commandment whereas Shabbos is also a negative commandment, and is repeated many times in the Torah.
Let me share with you a suggestion I saw from Rav Nevenzhal, the Rov of the Old City of Jerusalem. He points out that we find two other things that push away Shabbos. One is the sacrificing of offerings which are to be done “at their appointed time”. From which the Gemora expounds to mean “even on Shabbos”. The other is the saving of life which take precedence over Shabbos.
In describing the rest of Shabbos we say, “Vayinafesh”. This word is explained by the Gemora to be an amalgamation of the two words, “Vay nafesh” – “woe to the soul”. We are bemoaning the – extra dimension of soul that we are blessed with on Shabbos because we are going to lose it when Shabbos departs. We mention it at the beginning of Shabbos as if to say to us, “don’t forget you are going to lose this extra spiritual dimension in 25 hours! Make the most of the time you have with it”.
Shabbos therefore is in some way the special ‘soul’ – our neshama that we merit to be in touch with once a week. We know that we have to be ready to give up our soul rather than transgress the three cardinal sins; murder, idolatry and immorality. Corresponding to this perhaps then we can suggest there are three cardinal Mitzvahs which promote the exact opposite of the three cardinal sins which we must keep EVEN at the expense of breaking Shabbos. They are Bris Milah, saving of life and sacrifices.
We readily understand how the Bris is the symbolic Mitzvah of control over our bodies and thus represents the positive side of staying away and girding ourselves against the evil inclination that leads to the negative trait leading to immorality.
The importance of saving, preserving and valuing the precious gift of life is the antidote to murder.
Finally to combat idol worship we have the offering of sacrifices which the versus in next week’s Parshah attest to are the way to oppose idol worship, “so that the Children of Israel will bring their offerings … to Hashem to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting … and they shall slaughter them … to Hashem … for a satisfying aroma to Hashem. They shall no longer slaughter their offerings to the demons after whom they stray”.
And so when Shabbos needs to be overridden for these three purposes we are reinforcing our acceptance of the three special Mitzvahs – the ones for which we have to be prepared to give up our life for.
Good Shabbos,
Yaakov