The Torah, as we know, fills our days with opportunities to do Mitzvos, to fulfill the will of our Creator. What others call the “Ten Commandments” is actually a misnomer: in the ten statements that we read this week, said at Mt. Sinai, there are actually fourteen distinct Commandments.

Two of these pertain to the Sabbath. As found in the Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 27a), Shamor and Zachor, the Commandments to Guard and Commemorate the Sabbath, were given “in one utterance.” We read Zachor this week and Shamor in Devarim (Deuteronomy) later in the year, but at Sinai they were said together at the same moment, “what the mouth is unable to speak and the ear is unable to hear.”

These two facets of the Sabbath, the positive Commandment to commemorate, and the negative to guard ourselves from prohibited labor, are thus bound together. The obvious question, of course, is why. The Torah does not even spell out explicitly what the Sabbath prohibits. It is common shorthand to say we cannot “work,” but that’s at best a crude estimate: to deliver a three-hour class is both permitted and lauded, but to drive down to the beach to relax is prohibited. What the Torah prohibits is creative labor, and the specific prohibited activities are those involved in building and providing offerings in the Tabernacle and Holy Temple.

That lesson, that what is prohibited are the activities done to build and maintain the Tabernacle and Temple, is learned by inference, simply because the Torah juxtaposes Sabbath observance together with building the Tabernacle [e.g. Ex. 35:2-4]. But Zachor and Shamor had to be said together! Again, why was this important?

One answer was given by the Dubner Maggid, Rabbi Yaakov Kranz. He said that people naturally are liable to prefer one side over the other. A poor person is happy to refrain from business, as he doesn’t stand to lose much, but finds it hard to spend money to honor the Sabbath. A rich person, on the other hand, is happy to spend money on fine wine and delicacies, but finds it hard to set aside his business deals and opportunities.

This, like saying we cannot work on the Sabbath, is a crude estimate. In the early twentieth century, it was poor immigrants who found it very difficult to not go to work, as one who didn’t work six days a week would be fired. So they, too, found the Shamor more difficult than Zachor, although they were very poor.

But the Dubner Maggid’s lesson remains true: that the rules of Shabbos come together as a package, with the Command to commemorate bound to the Command to refrain. That is how the Shabbos becomes a unique opportunity to elevate ourselves and attach ourselves to our Creator. And, the Maggid adds, this means that not only must the wealthy person set aside his business, but he must help the poor person, so that both can enjoy special foods and drink on the Sabbath!