The Torah tells us about a man who gathered wood on Shabbat who was sentenced to death by stoning by Moshe. It is known from the Gemara and the Midrash that the Mechalel Shabbos was none other than the Tzaddik Tzelofchad ben Hefer (Tzelofchad the letters of the shadow of fear, whose life was out of fear of Heaven) ulterior motivation was to educate us Jews about the sin and punishment of one who deliberately desecrates Shabbat and does so after being warned by two witnesses present for the offense of desecration.
With all his pure intentions, Zelophehad erred in this act, because it is forbidden to desecrate Shabbat even to educate the people of Israel in this way.
Rashi cites the Gemara that this story actually degrades the Jewish people, as it happened on the first Shabbat immediately after Matan Torah, “that they did not keep even one Shabbat.”
And here I ask, how many people actually desecrated the Sabbath? Because of one single person, is the entire people of Israel accused of not keeping the Sabbath? Inevitably, we must understand that God does not expect our mitzvot in our personal identity, but rather as that we’re am part of Am Yisrael.
This can be explained by a parable of a person who knocks on the door in the middle of a meeting of the members of the “Belev Echad leAchdut ” organization, and identifies himself with his private name, and does not receive permission to enter. Only after he explains that he is one of the members of the association do they let him in.
Likewise, God looks at us as one unit, and therefore because Tzelofchad desecrated Shabbat, “the people of Israel” in the general name did not observe Shabbat. And perhaps this is the meaning of the preface to Mitzvot that many say
בשם כל ישראל
that we identify in this mitzva as an integral part of Am Yisrael. This is because Hashem wishes that all Am Yisrael together keep the mitzvot.
Even in a regular association, there are active members who affect the running of the association for the benefit of everyone, and there are passive members who do not fulfill their obligations in the association, which is a shame!
