In Parashat Mekeitz, on the פסוק, קפיטל מ\"ג פסוק ט\"ז, where it says that וירא יוסף, ויאמר לאשר על ביתו, that Yosef saw his brothers, and he told the one that was in charge of his house to bring them in, and he said, וטבוח טבח והכן etc., that you should shachat and prepare food because these people are going to eat with me. So it says in the Midrash in Bereishit Rabbah פרשה צ\"ב ד' that the word והכן, אין והכן אלא שבת. When it says והכן, it refers to Shabbat. היך מה דאת אמר, והיה ביום הששי והכינו, just like the pasuk says in Beshalach קפיטל ט\"ז פסוק ה', והיה ביום הששי, when it'll be Friday, והכינו, you should prepare everything for Shabbat. So when it says here והכן, it also means that Yosef told him to prepare it on Friday for Shabbat. הא דאמרה, this teaches us ששמר יוסף את השבת קודם שלא תינתן, that Yosef kept Shabbat before it was even given. This is also brought down other places, in the Mekhilta in Beshalach קפיטל י\"ג פסוק י\"ט, there it says, אין והכן אלא ערב שבת, when it says והכן, it means Friday. In Mekhilta deRabbi Shimon bar Yochai there, it also says that והכן is only לצורך שבת. Also in Bamidbar Rabbah פרשה י\"ד ב', it says ערב שבת היתה, that when Yosef said this, it was Friday, ואין והכן אלא לשבת, when he said prepare, it means Shabbat. And the explanation to this, how does the Midrash know that this was a preparation for Shabbat? So it's not only because it says the word והכן, and in another pasuk, it also uses the לשון והכינו, and there it means to prepare for Shabbat, but it's more than that. In Tanchuma, Naso כ\"ח, there it says, והרי אין דרך המלכים להכין מיום לחבירו, it is not the custom of kings to prepare from one day to the next day, because they have everything so they could have everything fresh. So why did Yosef say that they should prepare, which seems they should prepare to the next day? So this is a re'iyah that there must have been some reason that the next day they couldn't work, so they had to prepare the day before. So this teaches us that Yosef kept Shabbat. Now from the lashon here in the Midrash, where it says that this teaches us ששמר יוסף את השבת קודם שלא תינתן, that Yosef kept Shabbos before it was given, is mashma that the Midrash is telling us that Yosef kept Shabbos, but not other mitzvot. And also, it seems that the Midrash is telling us that Yosef kept Shabbos, while his brothers did not. But this is not true, because we know that Yosef and his brothers kept all the mitzvot, even though it was before the Torah was given. But we know that the Chazal say in Yoma דף כ\"ח עמוד ב' and in the Mishnah סוף קידושין, that קיים אברהם אבינו כל התורה כולה עד שלא ניתנה, that Avraham kept all the mitzvot even though it wasn't given, and the same is concerning Yitzchak and Yaakov. And it seems that the same thing would be concerning the shevatim, because it says by Avraham, in פרשת וירא, קפיטל י\"ח פסוק י\"ט, למען אשר יצוה את בניו ואת ביתו אחריו, that Avraham would command his children and his household later on that they should also keep the mitzvot. Now since Avraham commanded his children to keep the mitzvot, so probably Yitzchak did the same and Yaakov did the same. So for sure, Yaakov's children also kept the mitzvot. And the truth is, Rashi in Gemara says it clearly, in Chullin דף צ\"א עמוד א', concerning the specific pasuk that we mentioned before, וטבוח טבח, but not concerning Shabbos, but concerning the shechitah that Yosef said they should שחט. So Rashi says there, שבני יעקב שומרי מצות היו, that the children of Yaakov kept the מצות, דאף על פי שלא ניתנה תורה, מקובלין היו מאבותיהם, that even though the Torah wasn't given yet, but they had received it from their parents to keep the Torah. So we know for sure that Yosef and his brothers, not only kept Shabbos, but kept all the mitzvot. So we can't say that the Midrash here means to tell us, that to teach us that Yosef, only Yosef kept Shabbos meaning only Shabbos. What does the Midrash mean? The Midrash means like this, that even though Yosef and his brothers kept all the mitzvot, but concerning all the mitzvot, we don't find a pasuk in the Torah that tells us that. Concerning Shabbos of Yosef, the Torah tells us. This is what the Midrash means: הא דאמרה, this tells us that Yosef kept שבת, קודם שלא תינתן, before it was given. So the real stress is that the Shabbos of Yosef is a mitzvah that we even find that the Torah tells us. Concerning the other mitzvot that the shevatim kept, concerning Shabbos that the shevatim kept, concerning the other mitzvot that Yosef himself kept, we don't find in the Torah. The truth is they did keep it, but the Torah doesn't tell us. Concerning Shabbos of Yosef, we find in the Torah. So it seems as if the Midrash is telling us that there is something special in the fact that the Torah tells us that Yosef kept Shabbos. The truth is we find in another Midrash, the Midrash we mentioned before, in Bamidbar Rabbah, פרשה י\"ד ב', there it says that אמר רבי יוחנן, Rabbi Yochanan said concerning this pasuk that we said before: ערב שבת היתה, ואין והכן אלא שבת, שנאמר, והיה ביום הששי והכינו, as we said before. But then the Midrash says, אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא, השם said, \"יוסף, אתה שמרת את השבת עד שלא ניתנה התורה, you kept Shabbos before the Torah was given, חייך,\" I swear to you, \"שאני משלם לבן בנך,\" that I'm going to pay to your grandson, \"שיהא מקריב קרבנו בשבת,\" that he is going to be makriv his korban on Shabbos. When they dedicated the Mishkan, and the different נשיאים from the different שבטים brought their korbanot, so it came out that Shevet Ephraim brought the korban on Shabbos. So this was the payment for Yosef's keeping Shabbos. So from this Midrash it comes out that not only is there a ma'alah in Yosef's keeping of Shabbos that the Torah tells this to us, but also that there is something special in the keeping of Shabbos of Yosef ad kedei kach, so much, that Yosef got a special reward for his keeping Shabbos. So even though Yosef kept the other mitzvot too, the שבטים, all the שבטים, kept Shabbos too and the other mitzvot, nevertheless there must be something special in the keeping of Shabbos of Yosef. But the question is,

what was so special about Yosef's keeping Shabbos over the other שבטים? To explain that, we first have to understand the expression of the Midrash. The Midrash says, as we said before, that this teaches us that Yosef kept שבת קודם שלא ניתנה, before it is given. Before Shabbos was given as a mitzvah, Yosef nevertheless kept it. So the question is, as the Yafeh Toar on the Midrash asks, מאי קא משמע לן? Why does the Midrash have to tell us that this was before Shabbos was given? פשיטא שבימי יוסף לא ניתנה עדיין. It's simple, everyone knows that in the time of Yosef the Torah wasn't given, so Shabbos wasn't given. So all the Midrash should have said that this teaches us that Yosef kept Shabbos, and we'll understand ourselves that what is the chidush? The chidush is that even though it wasn't given. And the Yefeh Toar answers that maybe because there would be a sevara to say that Yosef was not allowed to keep Shabbos, because the din is that a goy is not allowed to keep Shabbos, a בן נח that keeps Shabbos is חייב מיתה, and since the Torah wasn't given, we would think that Yosef also wasn't allowed to keep Shabbos. That's why the Midrash says that even though it wasn't given, nevertheless Yosef kept Shabbos. But this answer needs some explanation, because if this is what the Midrash is trying to tell us, then the stress is not in the fact that this was before it was given, because this din that a בן נח, a non-Jew, is not allowed to keep Shabbos, is not only before the Torah was given. Even now that the Torah is given, also a בן נח is not allowed to keep Shabbos. So the whole stress is that even though the Torah was given only to Yidden, so therefore we would think that Yosef, who was before the time when the Yidden were chosen to be given the Torah, he wouldn't be able to keep Shabbos, nevertheless he kept. So the Midrash should have said the lashon that Yosef kept שבת שניתנה רק לישראל, the Shabbos, that even though it was given only to Yidden, nevertheless he kept it. But the fact that the Midrash says that he kept Shabbos before it was given doesn't change, because the point that before it was given doesn't stress the idea that a בן נח is not allowed to keep Shabbos. That has nothing to do with whether it was given or not given, because even after the Torah was given, a בן נח is also not allowed to keep Shabbos. So the question is, why does the Midrash stress the לשון עד שלא ניתנה, that he kept Shabbos before the Torah Shabbos was given?

The answer is that obviously the Midrash wants to stress the idea that this was before Shabbos was given. The inyan of נתינה, the inyan of giving, as we understand it, means that the thing is there, it's just given. Given means it's taken from one person, from one place, from one possession, given to somebody else. It is not, so to speak, created. If something doesn't exist, and you want to say that this became, you don't say it was given, you say that this was made. When you say something was given or was not given, obviously the thing is there. The question is whether it's given or not, whether it was taken from one reshus, from one domain, to the other domain. Here, the Midrash stresses that he kept Shabbos before it was given to teach us that Shabbos was there already. The concept of Shabbos was there, but it was not given yet, and nevertheless Yosef kept that Shabbos. What is the pshat in this? Concerning the mitzvah of Shabbos, it says in the Torah, Parshas Yisro, it says that the reason we have to keep Shabbos is because כי ששת ימים עשה השם את השמים ואת הארץ, in six days Hashem made the heaven and the earth. Then the pasuk continues, וינח ביום השביעי, השם rested on the seventh day. Or it says, וביום השביעי שבת וינפש, השם rested on the seventh day in the time of creation, that's why we have to keep Shabbos. So it comes out that the inyan of Shabbos, the fact that this day is a special day, started already right away in the beginning of the creation. Shabbos became a different day than the other days of the week from the beginning of the creation. And as the Torah actually says in Parshas Bereishis, in the beginning of the creation, וישבות ביום השביעי מכל מלאכתו, השם rested from all His work on the seventh day, ויברך אלקים את יום השביעי, השם blessed the seventh day, ויקדש אותו, He made it holy, כי בו שבת מכל מלאכתו, because then He rested from His work. So already then He made it holy. The only thing is that the commandment that the Yidden have to keep that special day, that was given later on by Matan Torah, and even before that, in Marah. But this was only the commandment to Yidden that the Yidden have to keep the day. But the fact that this day is a day which is special, a holy day, this happened before. And as the Rambam actually explains in Moreh Nevuchim, חלק ב׳, the second חלק, פרק ל״א, and the Abarbanel on the Moreh Nevuchim explains it at length, and also in the Ramban in ואתחנן, קאפיטל ה׳ פסוק ט״ו, that the thing that we find that in the first Dibrot, when the עשרת הדברות are mentioned first, it says there that the reason for Shabbos is because כי ששת ימים etc., as we said before, because Hashem created the world in six days. On the other hand, in פרשת ואתחנן, in Mishneh Torah, there he gives the reason, וזכרת כי עבד היית במצרים, you should remember that you were a slave in מצרים, על כן צוך ה׳ אלקיך, therefore Hashem commanded you to keep Shabbos. So the Rambam says that these are two reasons for two separate concepts of Shabbos. The first reason is just for the כבוד היום והגדלתו, the fact that this is a special day and it's a great day, that is because Hashem rested on the seventh day. Then he continues, but the reason Hashem gave us the Shabbos, why did He command us to keep it, is because we were in Mitzrayim, and when we went out He said, because you were avadim in Mitzrayim and I freed you, I am giving you this present that you should keep the Shabbos. So it comes out that the reason Shabbos is connected only to Yidden is because of Mitzrayim. But the fact that Shabbos is a special day, that is because of ששת ימי בראשית, because Hashem rested on the seventh day. So it comes out that there's a big difference between the mitzvah of Shabbos and all other mitzvot of the Torah. All other mitzvot of the Torah, before Hashem commanded the Yidden to do those mitzvot, the whole concept, the whole metziut of the mitzvah didn't exist. There was nothing special, for instance, in matzah before Hashem commanded the Yidden to eat matzah. What makes matzah a special cheftza, a special concept, metziut of a mitzvah? Because Hashem said that you have to eat matzah on Pesach, or the same is with any other mitzvah. So the commandment made up the cheftza, the object of the mitzvah, and the Yidden have to keep that object, have to do that. Shabbos is different. The cheftza of Shabbos, the fact that Shabbos is a special day, that there is an object of a holiness, that was there from the beginning of the creation. What Hashem did in Marah and later by Matan Torah, when He commanded the Yidden to keep Shabbos, He said that this object, this concept that's there already, I want you to keep it. And this is the reason that even though we find the expression of matanah and things like that concerning the whole Torah, that the whole Torah was there even before the world was created, and it was given to the Yidden, but nevertheless, concerning Shabbos specifically, we find an extra expression. The Gemara says in שבת דף י׳ עמוד ב׳, אמר ליה הקדוש ברוך הוא למשה, השם said to משה, מתנה טובה יש לי בבית גנזי ושבת שמה, I have a special present, a good present in My treasure, its name is שבת, ואני מבקש ליתנה לישראל, I want to give it to the יידן, לך והודיעם, go tell them. Likorah this is concerning the whole Torah. Why did Hashem pick Shabbos specifically? The whole Torah was a present Hashem had, and He gave it to the Yidden. Obviously that when we speak about the whole Torah it's one level, concerning Shabbos there's a specific level of a matanah, which means Shabbos is there already from before more than everything else, and Hashem just gave it to the Yidden. He said that the Shabbos which is by Me, which is in essence a special day, but it has nothing to do with the people, I am giving it to the people, to the Yidden, I command them to keep it. But it's self-understood that even though we just said that Shabbos is different than any other mitzvah, Shabbos existed already before the Torah was given, while the other mitzvot did not exist, nevertheless, being that Shabbos was not given yet, when a person did keep Shabbos before the Torah was given, it still wasn't the same Shabbos as after matan Torah. Just like by the other mitzvot, when the Avot or the shevatim did the mitzvot, it wasn't given to them yet, mimela really mitzad Hashem there was no object of a mitzvah, but they as a gavra, as the people, they kept the mitzvah, but the cheftza did not become a mitzvah. The same is concerning Shabbos, that even though the object of Shabbos existed already, but being that it wasn't given to them yet, so therefore, as far as they were concerned, the Shabbos they kept was not the same Shabbos as by Hashem, because it wasn't given to them yet.

On the other hand, when the Midrash tells us that Yosef kept the שבת, עד שלא ניתנה, that Yosef kept Shabbos before it was given, the Midrash is trying to tell us that Yosef, he was the only one that when he kept Shabbos, even though Shabbos wasn't given, but being that Shabbos existed already, he was able to bring down, so to speak, through his keeping Shabbos before it was given, to the level as if it was given. In other words, he kept the same Shabbos as it is by Hashem. Even though Hashem didn't give the Shabbos yet, but being that the Shabbos was there already, for some reason Yosef had this koach that he was able to keep the same Shabbos, so to speak, which is in the reshut of Hashem. And that's why the Midrash stresses עד שלא ניתנה or קודם שלא ניתנה. What is the explanation to this? Why was Yosef special? So to explain this very, very short, the reason takeh why is it that the shevatim or the avot when they did keep Shabbos, it wasn't the same Shabbos as by Hashem, is very simple, because since they weren't commanded, Shabbos wasn't given to them by Hashem, they on their own had no power to bring down into this world the kedushah of Shabbos the way it is by Hashem. When Hashem gives the Shabbos, Hashem who is unlimited, infinite, He has the power of connecting the two, bringing down the kedushah of Shabbos the way it is by Hashem, which is unlimited, etc., etc., into this limited world, to combine the two. But if the Torah was not given, Hashem did not do it, on their own it was impossible for them to combine the two opposites, kedushah of Shabbos the way it is by Hashem, which is completely בלי גבול, unlimited, and ruchniyut, etc., etc., with this physical world, or down here in this world we should have the kedushah of Shabbos, just like concerning the other mitzvot, as it's explained in many places. So, therefore, they were not able to bring down, so to speak, the kedushah of Shabbos into this world. Yosef, he was different. We know it says in sefarim the difference between Yosef and the shevatim, that the shevatim and the avot were all רועי צאן, they were all shepherds. The reason was so they should be able to connect themselves to Hashem without any obstacles, because in the big city the world, so to speak, would be an obstacle to them. In a place where there is nobody and there is התבודדות, as they are all alone, they could be close to Hashem. Yosef, he was in Mitzrayim, in a big city, a משנה למלך, and nevertheless he was able to bring down the kedushah, which means that Yosef was in a higher madregah. His madregah was that he was able to combine the kedushah with this physical world. And that's why Yosef was able to keep Shabbos in such a way that his Shabbos, so to speak, was the Shabbos of Hashem. The Shabbos that existed already by Hashem, he was able to bring that down into this world. And that's why the Midrash stresses that Yosef's Shabbos was a special Shabbos, even though he kept all the mitzvot, and the shevatim also kept all the mitzvot, including Shabbos.