70. "Hashem shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace" (Shemot 14:14). Rabbi Aba opened the discussion, saying: "If you restrain your foot because of the Shabbat, from pursuing your business on My Holy Day" (Yeshayah 58:13). Fortunate are Yisrael that the Holy One, blessed be He, desires them and wishes to join with them more than all the nations of the world. Because of His love for them, He brought them close to Him and gave them the Torah and the Shabbat, which is holier than all the other days. And IN IT is rest from everything, and the joy of everyone. Shabbat is equal to the entire Torah, and one who observes the Shabbat is as though he observed the whole Torah.
71. "And call the Shabbat a delight" (Ibid.). NAMELY, delight of all, delight of the soul and the body, delight of those above and those below. "And call the Shabbat." HE ASKS, What does "call" mean? HE ANSWERS, ITS MEANING IS that he should invite it, as it is written, "holy gatherings (lit. 'callings of holiness')" (Vayikra 23:4), which means invited FROM THE HOLINESS, as when inviting a guest to his home. And, "And call the Shabbat a delight," is that you should call and invite it as you invite a guest with a set table, with a house which is in order as it should be, with proper food and drink, more than on the other days. "And call the Shabbat," meaning beforehand, THAT YOU SHOULD ADD FROM THE WEEKDAY TO THE HOLY. "The holy day of Hashem, Honorable" (Ibid.) is Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), and they are two that are one, BECAUSE YOM KIPPUR AND SHABBAT ARE ONE. THEREFORE, IT SAYS IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THEM, "And you shall honor it, not doing your own ways" in the singular, as we explained.
72. "Nor pursuing your own business, nor speaking of vain matters" (Yeshayah 58:13). And it is explained THAT YOUR SPEECH OF SHABBAT SHOULD NOT BE LIKE YOUR SPEECH OF WEEKDAY. Because that talk, SECULAR SPEECH THAT IS SPOKEN ON SHABBAT, rises and stimulates secular things above. AND THE SHABBAT BECOMES BLEMISHED. One who invites a guest should strive to please him, and not someone else.
73. Come and behold, that word that comes from the mouth of a person rises and stimulates an awakening above, either for good or for evil. And whoever dwells in the delight of Shabbat is forbidden to stir to secular subjects, because he causes a blemish on the Holy Day. One who participates in the celebration of a king is not permitted to forsake the king and deal with someone else.
74. Every day, it is necessary to perform an action to awaken FROM BELOW what must be awakened. BUT on Shabbat, it is necessary to awaken ONLY in the words of the Name and the Holiness of the day, and not in any other thing. FOR AN AWAKENING FROM BELOW IS NOT NECESSARY ON SHABBAT.
75. Come and behold, when Pharaoh approached to do battle with Yisrael, the Holy One, blessed be He, did not want Yisrael to awaken from below at all, because the Patriarchs preceded and caused this awakening from above. And their merit stood before Him. The Holy One, blessed be He, did not want Yisrael to arouse from below at all. This is the meaning of, "Hashem shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace." Assuredly, you shall hold your peace, and do not arouse what is not needed by you. THE REASON IS MENTIONED LATER, and here the Holy Name is included in imprinted letters, YUD HEI VAV HEI, WHICH INDICATE MERCY, FOR IT SAYS, "HASHEM SHALL FIGHT FOR YOU," EVEN THOUGH YUD HEI VAV HEI IS MERCY AND WAR IS JUDGMENT. The friends have already commented on this, AS IS DISCUSSED LATER ON.
76. Rabbi Yosi and Rabbi Yehuda were traveling on the road. Rabbi Yosi said to Rabbi Yehuda: Most certainly, we have learned that Hashem is always a connotation of Mercy, and even though He carries out wars and executes Judgment, that Judgment is with Mercy. Yet here we saw that it is written, "Hashem shall fight for you," but no Mercy was visible at all in that Judgment, for it is written, "There remained not so much as one of them" (Shemot 14:28).
77. He said to him, This subject I heard from Rabbi Shimon, for he said that there was Judgment with Mercy even here, because the sea covered them over, they perished, and afterwards the sea ejected them. But the Holy One, blessed be He, desired their honor, that they should be buried in the ground. The earth did not want to accept them until the Holy One, blessed be He, stretched out His right hand to her, and she accepted them. This is the meaning of, "You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them" (Shemot 15:12). And because of this, this Judgment was tempered with Mercy.
78. For that reason, the Holy One, blessed be He, did not want the children of Yisrael to arouse anything in the world FROM BELOW. For if the children of Yisrael had aroused something FROM BELOW, the name of Mercy would not have been aroused, and Judgment would not have been executed with Mercy. This is what is written, "Hashem shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace." You should not arouse anything, because the name of Mercy must be aroused upon them in order to do the Judgment with Mercy. Therefore, it is necessary not to make a blemish and arouse something else; NAMELY, JUDGMENT WITHOUT MERCY. AN AWAKENING FROM BELOW WOULD CAUSE THE ACTIVATION OF ONLY JUDGMENT.
79. He said to him, But it is written, "Then shall Hashem go out, and fight against those nations" (Zecharyah 14:3). Was this Judgment with Mercy?! He said to him, Certainly, the Judgment was with Mercy because their death was not like the death of the other people of the world. Rather, the Holy One, blessed be He, had Mercy on them, so that their deaths should not be like those of the other people of the world. For they were slain gently, without pain, NAMELY, "HIS FLESH WAS CONSUMED AWAY WHILE HE STANDS UPON HIS FEET" (IBID. 12). Hence, the Judgment contained Mercy.