Who could forget Shabbos? Whether you like the preparation or just find it stressful, no one forgets Shabbos. It is impossible to forget Shabbos. Our whole week revolves around Shabbos. Even when making plans for vacations and simchas, Shabbos is front and center. You can't travel on Shabbos, so it is not forgotten. If you are in a hotel, getting in and out with all the electronics is a modern Shabbos problem. We need special food for Shabbos, which has to be prepared before Shabbos. It is simply impossible to forget Shabbos.
So why is there a specific commandment, literally etched in stone (sapphire, actually), to remember Shabbos?
Some background. This came up when the Rosh Kollel, R' Yosef Rajchenbach, shlita, was giving his Friday morning chumash shiur on parshas לֶךְ־לְךָ֛, which commences with the first (at least first explicitly mentioned in the Torah) test of Avraham. The Rosh Kollel noted that the command was for Avraham to go forth. And what does Avraham get for leaving his home and family (you remember, that same family that tried to have him killed for messing with the family business)? HaShem promises Avraham, as Rashi explains, children, wealth, and fame.
So... leave the family that tried to kill you and the country that supported them in their efforts and Avraham gets fame, wealth, and children. What, exactly, is the test?
That's when the Rosh Kollel segued to remembering Shabbos. How can you forget Shabbos? The Dubno Magid explains (no mashal this time 😇). The mitzvah of Shabbos is to acknowledge/experience/testify that HaShem is the Creator and Author of existence and there is none other. Shabbos is essentially -- that is, it's whole essence -- an experience for the נשמה. But, as with most things spiritual, we need to include the body. Even though the real pleasure of Shabbos is spiritual, the Torah wants us to make this an immersive experience even for our physical bodies. The mitzvah of עונג שבת/Shabbos pleasure -- for which we need to make kiddush on wine and enjoy special meals and even enjoy a Shabbos nap -- is precisely to give the body access to the beauty of Shabbos.
But here's the deal: It'svery easy to just enjoy the fish and soup and cholent and wine and schnapps and naps themselves and forget they are actually to enhance and bring a new dimension of pleasure to the essentially spiritual experience of Shabbos. That is, says the Dubno Magid, Shabbos becomes completely forgotten in our "observance" of Shabbos. That's why we need the mitzvah of זכור את השבת לקדשו/Keep the Shabbos -- the Shabbos, not just the pleasures that accompany Shabbos -- in the forefront of your mind and thereby make it holy.
Back to Avraham Avinu: לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ and become famous, wealthy, and have children -- all for HaShem. From that moment on, every thing Avraham Avinu had became an opportunity to serve HaShem. Sarah being taken by Pharoh and taking Hagar as a wife and having to banish her and Ishmael -- one of Avraham's promised children, and then Sarah being taken by Avimelech. Now put the Akeidah -- being asked to offer up his son Yitzchak -- into context; it is not so much test as a fulfillment of לֶךְ־לְךָ֛.
So now we can do our part of continuing that legacy and fulfilling the dream of לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ by remembering Shabbos.
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