Continues the Chofetz Chaim: “This is the meaning of the pasuk in Yeshaya (66:1-2), ‘This is what Hashem says: The heaven is My throne, and the earth, My footstool;… for My hand has made all those things, and thus they came to be, says Hashem. But I will look to the man who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at My word.’ Hashem is saying: ‘I created the heavens – the place of My throne – and the land which is My footstool. They exist because I want them to, and I definitely know how great they are and what their qualities are. Nevertheless, the main thing that I pay attention to in this world is the person who trembles at My word to fulfill it – even if he is a poor man –
because this is more important to Me than anything else!’… Not only that, Hashem gives so much value to the person who fulfills the mitzvos with truth and faithfulness that He views it as if the person invented the actual mitzvah, as Chazal say: ‘U’zechartem es kol mitzvos Hashem va’asisem osam’ – meaning, it is as if the person invented it!”
Of course, we know that it is impossible for a human being to understand the infinite wisdom of any mitzvah, so certainly he can not invent one. What Chazal mean is that Hashem treats the person who takes the mitzvah seriously as if he had invented it.
These two attitudes go hand in hand. Because we want to fulfill the Will of our Creator, we will make sure to fulfill every aspect of every mitzvah – and that includes not getting stuck in situations where it will be difficult to do the mitzvah. And if such situations do arise, we will not merely raise our hands in surrender. We will express our pain that we are not able to do the mitzvah, and that in itself will show Hashem how important mitzvos are to us, and may even bring about the ability to fulfill them.
Now we can return to our original question. The pasuk states (Bamidbar 31:16): “Ve’shameru B’nei Yisroel es haShabbos la’asos es haShabbos l’dorosom bris olam –
B’nei Yisroel shall thus keep the Shabbos, to make Shabbos for all generations as an eternal covenant.” Once again we see that we “make Shabbos,” and after seeing the words of Chazal quoted by the Chofetz Chaim, this is well understood. “Keeping” Shabbos means to guard it and make sure to keep every aspect and detail of it. In this way, it will be as if we made and invented the actual mitzvah of Shabbos! And this may be the source of the expression “to make Shabbos.” If we put our hearts and souls into preparing for Shabbos and think about what we can do to make it more special – not only with delicacies and nice clothing but also through preparing divrei Torah and stories for the children – we demonstrate how important Shabbos is to us. Of course, at the same time, we must also be extremely careful about every aspect of Shabbos, making sure not to transgress even the smallest halacha. In this way, we can say that we truly “made Shabbos!”
