MAY 4 • 2023 | 45

T

here is something unique 
about the way Parshat Emor 
speaks about Shabbat. It calls it 
a mo’ed and a mikra kodesh when, in the 
conventional sense of these words, it is 
neither. Mo’
ed means an appointed time 
with a fixed date on the cal-
endar. Mikra kodesh means 
either a sacred assembly, a 
time at which the nation 
gathered at the central 
Sanctuary or a day made 
holy by proclamation, that is, 
through the human court’s 
determination of the calen-
dar. Shabbat is none of these things. It has 
no fixed date on the calendar. It is not a 
time of national assembly. And it is not a 
day made holy by the proclamation of the 
human court. Shabbat was the day made 
holy by God Himself at the beginning of 
time.
The explanation lies in the context in 
which the passage containing these terms 
appears, the chapters of the Torah whose 
primary theme is holiness (Lev. 18-27). 
The radical claim made in these chapters 
is that holiness, a term normally reserved 
for God, can be acquired by human beings 
when they act like God. The festivals stand 
to Shabbat the way the Sanctuary stands 
to the universe. Both are humanly created 

domains of holiness constructed on the 
model of Divine creation and sanctification 
as they appear at the beginning of Genesis. 
By inviting human beings to create a sanc-
tuary and determine the monthly and year-
ly calendar, God invests us with the dignity 
of a holiness we have not just received 
passively as a gift but acquired actively as 
co-creators with God.
Mikra kodesh and mo’ed as they appear 
in Leviticus have an extra sense that they 
do not bear elsewhere because they evoke 
the opening verse of the book: “He called 
[Vayikra] to Moses, and the Lord spoke 
to him in the Tent of Meeting [Ohel 
Mo’ed], saying…
” (Lev. 1:1). The focus is 
on mikra as “call” and mo’
ed as “meeting.
” 
When the Torah uses these words 
uniquely in this chapter to apply to Shabbat 
as well as the festivals, it is focusing on the 
encounter between God and humanity in 
the arena of time. Whether it is God’s call 
to us or ours to Him, whether God initiates 
the meeting or we do, holy time becomes a 
lovers’ rendezvous, a still point in the turn-
ing world when lover and beloved, Creator 
and creation, “make time” for one another 
and know one another in the special form 
of knowledge we call love. 
If this is so, what does Parshat Emor tell 
us about Shabbat that we do not learn else-
where? The answer becomes clear when we 

look at two other passages, the two versions 
of the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, 
as they appear in Exodus and Deuteronomy. 
Famously, the wording of the two versions 
is different. The Exodus account begins 
with the word Zachor, remember. The 
Deuteronomy account begins with Shamor, 
“keep, guard, protect.
” But they differ more 
profoundly in their very understanding of 
the nature and significance of the day. 

TWO VERSIONS
Here is the Exodus text: “Remember the 
Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days 
you shall labor and do all your work, but 
the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord 
your God. On it you shall not do any work 
… For in six days the Lord made the heav-
ens and the earth … but He rested on the 
seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the 
Sabbath day and made it holy.
” (Ex. 20:7–9)
According to this, Shabbat is a reminder 
of creation. The Deuteronomy text gives a 
very different account: “Six days you shall 
labour and do all your work, but the seventh 
day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On 
it you shall not do any work, neither you, 
nor your son or daughter, nor your male 
or female servant … Remember that you 
were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your 
God brought you out of there … Therefore, 
the Lord your God has commanded you to 

Three Versions 
of Shabbat

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

continued on page 46

