Notes from the Underground - Day 8, Erev Shabbos

Today is the 8th work day in the bunker, 8 = l'maalah min ha'teva.  What can we take away from Shabbos, from Shabbos haGagol?


 (8:33) וּמִפֶּ֩תַח֩ אֹ֨הֶל מוֹעֵ֜ד לֹ֤א תֵֽצְאוּ֙ שִׁבְעַ֣ת יָמִ֔ים עַ֚ד י֣וֹם מְלֹ֔את יְמֵ֖י מִלֻּאֵיכֶ֑ם
(8:35)וּפֶ֩תַח֩ אֹ֨הֶל מוֹעֵ֜ד תֵּשְׁב֨וּ יוֹמָ֤ם וָלַ֙יְלָה֙ שִׁבְעַ֣ת יָמִ֔ים



The redundancy here is apparent.  What does pasuk 35 add that pasuk 33 does not already tell us?

This year we can connect to this parsha like no other year before.  For seven days Aharon and his sons were isolated in the bunker -- just like us.  This was their training ground to learn how to properly do avodah.  Netziv explains that "teishvu yomam v'layla ushmarten es mishmeres Hashem" means that Aharon and sons were sitting and were kove'a yeshiva, learning and being mechadesh in halacha.  Netziv says a chiddush: the gemara in Menachos 99 writes that a person who learns something in the morning and something in the evening has been yotzei the minimum shiur of v'hagisa yomam v'layla.  Why does the gemara use davka the term morning and evening -- why not just say if ha person learns something by day and something by night?  Netziv answers that the makor for this Chazal is our pasuk.  The Yerushalmi learns that there was a special inyan of connecting the day and night which demanded that the kohanim be oseik in Torah davka in the morning, as night was turning to day, and/or the evening, as day was turning to night.  So too, there is such an idea in limud haTorah, to begin your day with Torah, to close out the day and come into night with Torah.  Aharon and his sons were modeling for us what it means to be oseik in Torah.  That's why they retreated from the world, that's what they were in Ohel Moed for, and maybe that's what we are supposed to be doing in our bunkers too.  It is amazing how these days you can tune into a shiur on zoom at almost every hour of the day or night without having to leave your desk. The opportunities for limud haTorah have expanded to an unimaginable degree thanks to this crisis.  The shame is that it took a crisis to create this.

Af al pi kein, the goal of life is not to live in a bunker.  The miluim lasted 7 days and that was it.  We've been inside for more than a week already and we are all sick of it.  We want to leave the bunker, but what we need to be careful of, and maybe this is the tnai in the former happening, is that the bunker shouldn't leave us.  Pasuk 33 is the command to spend 7 days in the bunker, in Ohel Moed.  Pasuk 35 is a different idea entirely.  Pasuk 35 is telling you (see Chasam Sofer, Maor v'Shemesh) that when you return to "yoman v'layla," day and night of normal life, you should carry with you and reflect on the "teishvu shivas yamim," to the days of miluim, to the days of the bunker. The experience needs to make a lasting impression.