A number of commentators have observed that there is an apparent logical problem in the opening of this week's parashah. The opening verses of Exodus, Chapter 35, are as follows:
א) ויקהל משה את כל עדת בני ישראל ויאמר אלהם אלה הדברים אשר צוה ה' לעשת אתם
ב) ששת ימים תעשה מלאכה וביום השביעי יהיה לכם קדש שבת שבתון לה' כל העשה בו מלאכה יומת
ג) לא תבערו אש בכל משבתיכם ביום השבת
1Now Moshe assembled the entire community of the Children of Israel and said to them: These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do. 2For six days work is to be done, but on the seventh day, it will be holy for you, a Sabbath of complete rest for the Lord; all who do work on it shall be put to death. 3Do not kindle any fire throughout your settlements on the day of the Sabbath.
Having assembled the people to hear the most recent commands of God, Moshe gives the people the fundamental law of Shabbat, the prohibition on productive labor during that day. The problem is this: first Moshe says of this law that it is something "the Lord has commanded you to do" – but the nature of Shabbat, especially as described here, is epitomized by not doing (not doing work, not kindling fire). Nor is this the only time this apparent strange use of language appears in reference to the Sabbath in the Torah; similar usages appear in last week’s parashah, in Exodus 31:16, or in Deuteronomy 5:15. The former of these is especially interesting because it contains two words for following the laws of the Sabbath, not only "to do/make" (לעשות), but also "to observe/guard" (לשמור), which seems to be much more accurate to what Sabbath observance actually is. As the medieval commentator Ibn Ezra succinctly sums up the problem in his commentary to Exodus 31:16, "והשביתה איננה מעשה", "But resting is not an active deed!"
One possible solution to our conundrum is that the "do" of this commandment refers to the doing of the six days of the week: "For six days work is to be done." That is, work during the week is as much a commandment as rest is on the Sabbath; it is a commandment to be a productive and active participant in the workings of the world and the community. Or, if we want to stick a little more closely to the context in Exodus 35, the command might be read as a directive particularly regarding the building of the Tabernacle, which occupies much of what follows in this parashah (not to mention several of the parshiyot preceding this one). Even though it is a great and important commandment to build the tabernacle, that commandment only applies for six days of the week, and does not supersede the Sabbath. Even the building of the tabernacle, despite its importance, must cease for one day each week.
But these answers don’t necessarily work for the other contexts in which Shabbat is described as something that is done, so the problem remains. Another possibility is a variant of the first idea above. That is, perhaps the work is indeed the work of the other six days of the week, but more specifically the work that prepares us for the rest of Shabbat: making sure our food is cooked and our lights are lit and all the things we need are ready ahead of time, precisely so that we will not need to do that work on the Sabbath (this is the resolution given by Ibn Ezra, among others).
There are, not surprisingly, yet other suggestions in the midrashic and commentary literature, but I will encourage you to seek them out on your own rather than overwhelm you with an extended list. Instead, I’d now like to note one commentary that reads the verses in a rather different way, a way that I believe then yields an especially beautiful observation about what should happen on Shabbat and how it should be observed. The comment comes from a work called Panim Yafot" (The Beautiful Face), by R. Pinhas Horowitz, an 18th century Polish rabbi. He writes:
ואפשר לומר דהיינו דכתיב ויקהל משה את כל עדת ב"י ואמרו במדרש [ילק"ש ויקהל ת"ח] שהזהיר אותם לעשות קהלות בכל השבתות, היינו להקהל ולהתחבר באחדות האמיתי
And it is possible to say that this is what (is the meaning of what) is written, "And Moshe assembled the entire community of the Children of Israel" – it says in midrash [Yalkut Shimoni, Vayakhel] that he directed them to make assemblies on every Shabbat, that is, to assemble to unite in true oneness.
While he doesn’t quite say this explicitly, here is how I read – or perhaps it is my drasha on –what R. Horowitz is saying. The matter hinges on how we understand the words “these...things” in verse 1, "These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do." What "things" are being referred to here? Our inclination so far has been to read these words as anticipating what comes next – that is, we would punctuate as follows: "These are the things...: For six days..." What is in verse 2 explains the meaning of the ambiguous “things” in verse 1. But another possibility is to read them back to what preceded them: "And Moshe assembled the entire community of the Children of Israel and said to them: These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do." Moshe teaches by demonstration. When he says "These...things," he refers back to what he has just done, i.e., gathering the people.
How do we "do" Shabbat? What positive act do we take to "make Shabbat"? We assemble. We gather together in community. Shabbat does not happen, actively or otherwise, only at the level of individual Jews, each refraining from his or her ordinary occupations and activities. It is not truly Shabbat until each of those Jews uses that freed up time to join together, in harmony, with other Jews: to pray, to learn, to eat, to talk (and yes, to love).
Shabbat shalom.