This week’s Shabbat is called Shabbat HaGadol, which is literally the Great Shabbat.

One halachic implication is that great Hida brings down that one should say, “Shabbat HaGadol Shalom- The Great Shabbat should bring peace upon you.”

Why is it called Shabbat HaGadol? There are many reasons.

One of them is that it’s because the rabbi gives a long speech in shul. Not many rabbis will be giving a long speech this year, so we need other reasons.

The simplest reason that the Tur brings down is that it’s referring to the Shabbat of the Great Miracle, which was that we got out of Egypt on the 15th, we slaughtered the Paschal lamb on the 14th, and G-d told us to tie it to our bed posts four days prior that, which was on the 10th, which happened to be Shabbat. (We will discuss why we celebrate on Shabbat and not on the tenth further below.)

(This year Shabbat HaGadol actually comes out on the 10th of Nisan. We are in the same cycle as we were when we got out of Mitzrayim)

The great miracle was that we tied the lambs to our bed posts. These were the Egyptians’ gods. Yet when they asked why we were tying their gods to our bedposts, we answered that we were going to slaughter and kill them. It took a lot of courage and guts to tell the Egyptians that we were going to slaughter their gods.

When the Egyptians were told that we were going to slaughter their gods, word of this got out to the first-borns. It says that the first-borns gathered around Pharoah, protested, and told him to let the Jews go. He refused and a civil war broke out.

למכה מצרים בבכורהם G-d hit the Egyptians with their first-borns. It was a first-born fight. The commentaries ask why they are suddenly protesting now, because of the sheep. Later on, the firstborns are eventually to be killed, but why protest now ?

To explain, we need quick background in Astrology.

The nations of the world believed in astrology then, as we do today.

We say En Mazal L’Israel, which means we are above the astrology, but we believe in the concept. For example, the Mazal of Elul is what we call a Betula- a maiden girl, and we say on that,

‎‏אני לדודי ודודי לי

I am to my beloved as my beloved is to me.

G-d and the Jewish people are rekindling the relationship in the month of Elul.

The Mazal of Tishre is Libra- a scale. If you look in the New York Post horoscope section, which I am not suggesting, you’ll see a picture of a scale there. We know why it’s a scale, says the Ramban, it’s because we are being judged. There are many such signs, but we won’t go into all of them now. Our focus is on Nissan. Nissan is the first of the mazalot, constellations. It’s called the Mazal of the Sheep/ Ram or Aries. The Egyptians worshiped it because it’s considered the most powerful of all the Mazalot/ constellations.

In those times, the world believed that G-d had given over His powers and delegated His powers to other forces. That’s what Avodah Zarah was about. They didn’t believe there was no G-d, they believed that there were many gods. They felt that the sheep was the most powerful of the celestial beings in the heavens. G-d’s point was to show them that, “No, I am G-d, and I am above everything. I control all of those celestial beings.”

And G-d proved this, with the plagues. In the final plague, when the first-borns were slaughtered down here, that wasn’t all that happened. There was something very deep going on: When the Jews said that they were going to slaughter the sheep down here, that connected to the sheep constellation in the heavens, which is called the Bechor LeMazalot- the first-born of the constellations in the heavens, and this would cause a ripple effect, causing all the first-borns down here to die.

-Imagine a voodoo doll, made to represent a specific person. When someone stuck a needle in the voodoo doll’s neck, that man’s neck would hurt.

Everything we do down here has an impact in the heavens. That’s an important rule. The Hida says that when we do Bedikat Chametz and we search for the 10 pieces, those 10 pieces correspond to the 10 forces of evil in heaven. It says that the night of Esther HaMalkah’s Bedikat Chametz was the night before Haman’s 10 sons were hung. Her act of putting out and burning the 10 pieces brought down the ten sons of Haman. Our acts down here impact the heavens above, which in turn come back down here to us. And that’s what happened.

The first borns of Mitzrayim understood this. They saw the sheep and said, “ Uh oh, this is for real.” The Jews were going to slaughter the sheep down here on Korban Pesach, then finish eating it the night of the Seder, by Hatzot, (just like we complete the afikoman by Hatzot) thus completing the impact. Then at midnight, when it was all finished, it would bring down the Mazal of the heaven, and with that, the first-borns would die. And that’s what happened.

G-d showed, with Yetziat Mitzrayim, that He is above all celestial beings.

When did this all start?

It all started with Avraham Avinu, when G-d told him to leave his astrology. It was true that his astrology said that Avram would not have a son, but G-d would switch him to Avraham, and switch his whole essence.

En Mazal L’Yisrael.

This occurred when G-d told Avraham Avinu to have a Brit Milah. It was there that He said הִתְהַלֵּ֥ךְ לְפָנַ֖י וֶהְיֵ֥ה תָמִֽים׃

Be perfect.

The Ramban says that this word for perfection from Bereshit is the same word for perfection, תמים,

as when Hashem said in Devarim,

תמים תהיה אם ה׳ אלקיך

Be perfect with Hashem your G-d.

That refers to not relying on witchcraft, black magic, palm readers, etc.

Rabbi Yaakov Hillel has a whole book on the topic, called Faith and Folly, תמים תהיה

The theme of both, when G-d said this to Avraham before his Brit Milah and this mitzvah in Devarim, says Ramban, is what we are supposed to think when we hear a predictor who looks in her crystal ball, for example, and tells us something. When Rabbi Akiva was told that his daughter would would die on her the wedding day, what happened? She gave Sedaka and lived.

The Gemarah says that this is one of the proofs that En Mazal L’Yisrael. Yisrael is above the Mazal.

When we hear predictions of any kind, whether they are from a fortune teller, a scientist talking about the spread of disease, or a financial expert talking about the terrible economy, we are supposed to say in our hearts that it doesn’t have to happen that way. Say in your heart,

‎‏שהכל ביד עליון העליונים

“Everything is up to the G-d who is high above.”

He does things that don’t follow the regular rules We can change things by:

‎כפי שיתהלך האדם לפניו

The more we connect to G-d, the more protected we are.

That’s what Hashem meant when He told Avraham to leave his astrology.

The Ramban says it again in the pasuk in Devarim. He says, don’t listen to the astrologers. Don’t think that what they say will definitely happen. If they say something, we should say:

‎ ‏הכל בידי שמים

it’s all in the Hands of G-d

God is above everything.

We should think that we can connect to Him and it can change.

When we hear predictions that we don’t like, our first reaction should be to think

‎‏הכל בידי שמים

it’s all in the Hands of G-d

It doesn’t mean that we’re not being careful, and it doesn’t mean that we don’t do our hishtadlut. But at the end of the day, we know Who makes things happen.

The third place that Ramban says this is when he counts among the 613 mitzvot

‎תמים תהיה אלקיך

There, he says that this mitzvah is to is to focus and believe that ‏שהוא ‏לבדו עושה כל

Only He makes things happen

Only He knows what will happen in the future; the predictors don’t know everything. And when we hear the predictors, we should think it doesn’t have to happen.

‎הכל בידי שמיים

it’s all in the Hands of G-d

Things change when we connect to Him. That’s the message that started with Avraham Avinu

Leave your Mazal.

Now for the Chiddush:

The Avnei Nezer says that it’s called Shabbat HaGadol, The Great Shabbat because “Gadol” refers to Avraham Avinu.

A pasuk in Yehoshua says

‎‏הגדול בענקים

The greatest of giants,

referring to Avraham Avinu. In the Amidah we say Gadol, Gibor, V’Hanorah- 3 terms referring to G-d, which correspond to Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov. Avraham is Gadol- the Great one. He’s the one that realizes that G-d is the source of everything. G-d is the Gadol.

So Shabbat HaGadol means it’s Avraham Avinu’s Shabbat. We follow him, in our understanding that G-d makes everything happen. He is above all Mazal.

It’s specific to Shabbat, because that’s the lesson of Shabbat.

The word Shabbat comes from the word Shabtai- one of the Mazalot, which was the mazal of destruction. ( as we say in reference to the Chametz, tishbot- which means to destroy)

The goyim thought that Shabbat had a bad Mazal, but we chose the day of Shabbat to show that we don’t go by mazalot.

We made Shabbat into our day because we believe we are above the Mazal. We don’t go by predictions, norms or percentages.

Of course, we aren’t reckless. We follow the rules and do our hishtadlut, but our attitude has to be that Hashem can change anything.

Hashem’s Yeshua can come K’heref Eyin- in the blink of an eye.

We must know that Hashem hasn’t changed. Hashem brought this, Hashem can take us out of it.

This has to be our focus on Shabbat HaGadol, the Great Shabbat The Shabbat of the miracle, the Shabbat of Avraham Avinu.

Shabbat HaGadol Hashalom

More lectures from Rabbi David Sutton

Be a Defense Attorney

Understanding the Hagadah and How To Conduct A Seder- Part 4

You Know What To Do

Understanding the Hagadah and How To Conduct A Seder- Part 3

Understanding the Hagadah and How To Conduct A Seder- Part 2

Understanding the Hagadah and How To Conduct A Seder- Part 1