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Ein Ayah (Gemara Shabbat 12a)
And you shall bind them as a sign (lit. אות) upon your arm, and they shall be for ornaments between your eyes. (Devarim 6:8)
Rabbi Akiva says: One is exempt from wearing tefillin on Shabbat and Yom Tov, because the Torah says that tefillin are meant to be a “sign” (lit. אות). The implication is that on Shabbat and Yom Tov, which are themselves a ‘sign’ [1] the mitzvah does not apply. (Gemara Menachot 36b)
Broadly speaking, religious life unfolds on two different dimensions. The first is the outer world of action and activity, structured through mitzvot ma’asiot and the intricacies of halachic observance. The second is man’s ‘inner world’ – intellect and consciousness, emotion and feeling.
Obviously, these two worlds do not exist in isolation. Outward activity is the catalyst for inner kedushah. G-d’s Torah contains many mitzvot and ritual activities whose purpose is to deepen our inner world. The Torah commanded these acts because G-d, in His wisdom, knows that man would not achieve maximal spiritual growth without them.
However, the demands of the world of action are not static. They change in response to spiritual crisis, when our inner fortitude and commitment is challenged or even compromised. At such times, both individual Jews and the collective Israel must take on additional acts to preserve and protect their inner kedushah. As Jews, we can see this clearly in the history of the galut and our response to its spiritual calamities.
In particular, let us examine how exile affects Torah law. In our land, the Sanhedrin was the final authority and we had clarity in matters of Torah law. In exile, matters of doubt proliferate and parts of the Torah are forgotten. [2] There is no central authority to resolve halachic disputes. The inevitable consequences are a tendency towards stringency (lit. חומרה), establishment of boundaries around permitted matters, and an increased emphasis on the particulars of halachic observance – in other words, a general expansion of the outer dimension of Jewish life. [3]
Granted, the ultimate ideal is the deepening of Israel’s inner world, not the expansion of the outer, more practical aspects of Jewish life. However, this expansion is precisely what has preserved our inner kedushah, protected our inward faithfulness, and drawn our hearts closer to G-d during the centuries of exile. And as long as we have not returned to our pre-exilic spiritual state – with prophecy and ruach ha’kodesh, the Mikdash, a king, and a Sanhedrin to issue incontestable halachic rulings – the expansion of outer life is indispensable to our spiritual wellbeing. The consequences of tampering with these aspects of halacha are disastrous. They cannot be rolled back or rescinded until the Messianic future, which our Sages describe as “a day that is entirely Sabbath.”[4]
Rabbi Akiva is alluding to these profound truths in his above statement about being exempt from tefillin on Shabbat and Yom Tov. Tefillin is a paradigmatic outer mitzvah, for impacting our awareness and consciousness. As the Torah states explicitly, [5] “And it shall be a sign upon your arm and a remembrance between your eyes that G-d took you out of Egypt with a mighty hand, in order that the law of the Lord shall be in your mouth.” [6] The Torah exempts us from tefillin on Shabbat/Yom Tov to teach us that our inner, essential kedushah is primary. According to Rabbi Akiva, “Shabbat and Yom Tov are themselves a sign – meaning, they are times for a person to draw close to G-d with his very being, without a need for assistance from externals.
Until Shabbat comes, we need our tefillin and must keep them on. However, with the arrival of Shabbat, the external kedushah of tefillin is supplanted by an inner, essential kedushah. In miniature, we reenact what will happen with the perpetual Sabbath of the Messianic era. At that time, clear teaching will go forth from Yerushalayim [7] and matters of halachic doubt will be clarified. The Jewish people will shed many of the practices that they required to spiritually sustain them during exile. The outer dimension of Jewish life will contract, and the world of inward kedushah will expand, becoming deeper and richer in ways that we can scarcely comprehend.
“And the redeemed… shall return, and they shall come to Zion with song, with everlasting joy upon their heads[i.e., instead of the figurative tefillin shel rosh]; they shall achieve gladness and joy, and sadness and sighing shall flee.” (Isaiah 35:10)
[1] I.e, of Israel’s status as G-d’s nation and the Exodus from Egypt (רש׳י).
[2] Rav Kook references Gemara Shabbat 138b –“And they will wander from sea to sea, and… will roam to find the word of the Lord, but they will not find it” (Amos 8:12). According to R. Shimon bar Yochai, this means that they will not find clear halakha and clear teaching together (lit. הלכה ברורה ומשנה ברורה במקום אחד). [I.e. there will be an abundance of disputes among the Sages.]
[3] As examples, Rav Kook mentions Yom Tov Sheni and the obligation to separate challah outside of Israel.
[4] In both zemirot and the siddur (see after Mussaf in השיר שהלויים היו אומרים בבית המקדש), we mention the idea of Shabbat as a symbol or re-enactment of the Messianic era. This notion is mentioned explicitly in the gemara and midrash.
[5] Shemot 13:9, as interpreted by Ramban.
[6] R. Yoel Sirkes (או׳ח סימן ח, תרכ׳ה), one of the major halachic codifiers, derives from this verse that one doesn’t properly fulfill the mitzvah of tefillin unless they have in mind its specific purpose. He applies the same rule to tzitzit and sukkah.
[7] In the Hebrew Rav Kook alludes to Devarim 17:10 – “And you shall do according to the word they [i.e. the Sanhedrin] tell you, from the place that G-d will choose, and you shall observe to do according to all they instruct you.”
Food for Thought
Sefer haChinuch (Mitzvah 16): A person’s heart and thoughts are constantly affected by the actions he takes, whether for good or evil. Even if someone has a wicked heart, if he dedicates himself consistently to Torah and mitzvot, even if not l’shem shamayim, he will immediately begin to incline towards goodness… and defeat his yetzer ha’ra. Conversely, even if a person has a good and righteous heart, but spends his time engaged in worthless activities, his spiritual goodness will ebb away. This is the meaning of the teaching of our Sages in Gemara Makkot (23b) that רצה הקב”ה לזכות את ישראל לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצות – “G-d wished to confer merit upon Israel, and therefore He gave them an abundance of mitzvot.”
Someone Who Didn’t Get Rav Kook’s Message (Tablet Online Magazine, 2011): Janet Fuchs, a 44-year-old stay-at-home mother in Los Angeles, sends most of her four kids to Orthodox schools and attends an Orthodox synagogue. But she quietly stopped observing the second day of yom tov two years ago. “My husband announced it first,” she told me. “He couldn’t miss that much work, he decided, and he doesn’t like to daven.” At first the family continued observing the second day without him, going to synagogue and a celebratory meal. “But it wasn’t fun without him, so we stopped going to shul and were just going to lunches,” Fuchs said. “Then we stopped going to shul or going to lunch, and then I let the kids use electronic entertainment on second day.”
Rav Aharon Lopiansky (Jewish Action Magazine, 2019): There are oversimplified slogans that tend to come back to haunt their formulators. For the longest time, we have proclaimed religious superiority over Christianity and Islam with the following formula: “Those religions are all about believing, with action a mere appendage.”… [But] Judaism is about what you have done and accomplished. Even if you ‘believe,’ if you have transgressed and not accomplished you will go to Gehinnom.” This slogan was transmuted into the following caricature: “Judaism has no beliefs, just action.”… [However] the first [paragraph of Shema] is called “accepting the Yoke of Heaven”; the second is “accepting the Yoke of mitzvos.” They are not synonymous; they are complementary. The first paragraph provides the context for our world of mitzvos: acknowledging an all-encompassing G-d who is the sole Moral Force, and Whose moral proclamations are the source of all mitzvos. And only then do we commit ourselves to the fulfillment of the mitzvos themselves…Indeed, let us encourage keeping mitzvos, for as the Sefer HaChinuch writes, one’s inner self is affected greatly by his external actions. But let us never cease to remind ourselves that the world of mitzvos is preceded by the world of kabbalas ol Malchus Shamayim!
Rambam (Hilchot Melachim 9:1): Six precepts were commanded to Adam, and the prohibition against eating flesh from a living animal was added for Noach… These matters remained the same throughout the world until Avraham. When Avraham arose, in addition to these, he was commanded regarding circumcision. He also ordained the morning prayers. Yitzchak separated tithes and ordained an additional prayer service before sunset. Ya’akov added the prohibition against eating the sciatic nerve. He also ordained the evening prayers. In Egypt, Amram was commanded regarding other mitzvot. Ultimately, Moses came and the Torah was completed by him.
Questions for Discussion
- Why is it difficult to observe mitzvot/halacha in a way that affects our inner spirituality? As individuals, families and communities, what can we do to address some of those difficulties?
- For Rav Kook, tefillin are the paradigm for outward mitzvot Divinely designed to affect how we think and feel. What other mitzvot fit in this category?
- How do you think Rav Kook would feel about Orthopraxy? (“The Orthoprax are an informal, incognito group of unknown size and scope who, for the most part, practice halachic norms but do not really believe in G-d (or that He chose us as the nation that would carry His moral message to mankind) or understand what they are doing. They might not even believe in the divine origin of the Torah, but identify themselves with the Orthodox community for social, ethnic, cultural or even aesthetic reasons.” (Rabbi Steven Pruzansky – The Rise of Orthopraxy))
- Rav Kook does not elaborate about the dangers that result from tampering with the expansion of halachic observance and established stringencies like Yom Tov Sheni. What do you think he has in mind?
- According to Rav Kook, the expansion of Jewish’s life’s outer dimension is necessary, but not ideal. Can you think of any other aspects of Torah law that are similarly necessary, but not ideal?
