Yshai Amichai is a father of six, dedicated to the Shabbat and Torah values. He wrote a Constitution for Israel based on the Torah, and is currently turning psalms and portions of the Torah into songs.
On May 4, President Trump issued a proclamation, declaring May, Jewish American Heritage Month, as other presidents have done before him, but going a step further and saying:
“In special honor of 250 glorious years of American independence and on the weekend of Rededicate 250 - a national jubilee of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving - Jewish Americans are encouraged to observe a national Sabbath. From sundown on May 15 to nightfall on May 16, friends, families, and communities of all backgrounds may come together in gratitude for our great Nation. This day will recognize the sacred Jewish tradition of setting aside time for rest, reflection, and gratitude to the Almighty."
President Trump said: “I further call on all Americans to celebrate their faith and freedom throughout this year, during this month, and especially on Shabbat to celebrate our 250th year."
This is a rare and monumental statement made by an American President in honor of the 250th year of American independence, the fifth jubilee year of this great nation. The White House is asking American Jews to keep the Sabbath in honor of this occasion. It is even asking all Americans to celebrate their faith and freedom on Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath.
What is so important about Shabbat, that the President of the United States should make such a request?
What is Shabbat?
Genesis 1 says that in the beginning God Created the heavens and the earth, and then for the next six days, He Created order, life, and the remarkable world we now have, but on the seventh day, God Rested (see Genesis 2:1-3). God completed His Creation of the world, so He ceased to create, and thus He rested on the seventh day. And God Blessed the seventh day and Sanctified it, because on it He rested from His acts of creation.
The children of Israel went down to Egypt with 70 souls, and there they grew into a nation, as slaves in exile. The Exodus came and God sent Moses to free Israel from slavery in Egypt and to bring them up to Israel to serve God in the Promised Land.
Soon after the Exodus, two things happened that introduced Israel to the Sabbath: The manna and the Ten Commandments. God Rained bread from the sky in the desert and Tested Israel to see if it would listen to Him (see Exodus 16:4). Six days a week they received manna, bread that only lasted a day, but on the sixth day they received a double portion that lasted for Shabbat, so that they would rest and not go out to gather bread on the seventh day.
Then God Spoke to Israel from Mount Sinai, giving us the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20). The Fourth Commandment being the Commandment to remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it. Six days we may work and perform all our acts of creation (or fabrication), but the seventh day is Shabbat to the Lord our God, and we may not do any acts of creation on that day, because it is a holy day to God. It is a day of rest from all acts of creation and fabrication, including gathering anything from the fields or writing words on a piece of paper or on the computer, as I am doing now.
Jews have had a hard time keeping Shabbat when they did not understand it. Even that first time in the desert when Israel was Tested, some people went out to gather manna on the Sabbath and did not find it (see Exodus 16:27-30). God Said, I am giving you the Sabbath, that is why I gave you a double portion on the sixth day. Don’t go looking for it on Shabbat. So the people rested on the Sabbath.
Shabbat is a Gift from God, a day of rest, where you do not go to work. Who wouldn’t want a day off, after toiling six days in a row? Americans have two days off, and some would like three. Why go looking for manna in the desert if you’re not going to find it? On Shabbat there is nothing for Jews to gather in the fields or reap in the offices and the factories, but death. For it is a day that belongs to God and to us for rest and holy sanctification.
What does that have to do with Rededicate 250?
The theme of Rededicate 250 is for Americans to rededicate themselves to God, as one nation under God, in a national jubilee of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. Jews are asked to do their part in this effort by keeping the Sabbath. America remains a Christian nation, and Jews are not asked to partake in Christian faith or prayer, but they are asked to do their part for the nation by serving God.
So how does keeping the Sabbath honor America on its fifth jubilee and rededicate the nation back to God?
Well, let’s begin with the jubilee itself. A jubilee is a Torah concept, celebrating the 50th year (see Leviticus 25), as a year of freedom for the people, where each man is returned to his inheritance, and the land in its entirety is returned to God in a Sabbatical year of rest. The Sabbatical years are the seventh years, or the Shabbat years, where debts are forgiven, slaves are freed, and the land is not plowed or sown, the trees are not pruned, and the produce is not gathered by the landowners, because the land belongs to God. So, after 49 years, seven Sabbaticals, there is a jubilee year, the 50th year.
This ties into Shabbat, which is the seventh day, and it ties in with Shavuot, the Jewish holiday coming up soon, which occurs 50 days after the rest day of Passover, or the day that falls after seven days seven times have gone by. A jubilee is like an extra rest day after seven Sabbaths, or an extra year of rest for the land after seven Sabbaticals. It is something extra to commemorate and celebrate the Sabbath and to rededicate ourselves to God.
It is quite remarkable and humbling that the White House and America have chosen to celebrate the nation this way, by counting its years in jubilees, giving thanks to God in prayer and praise, and aspiring to rededicate themselves back to God, as one nation under God, which sounds like a nation of God.
Jews and all peoples everywhere should observe and pay close attention to what a nation can do when it aspires to know God and dedicate itself to Him, to praise His Holy Name, pray to Him, and seek to walk with Him and in His Council. That is a nation that is worthy of greatness and of God’s Blessings.
So why keep the Sabbath?
Many American Jews are secular, and they find it hard, or inconvenient, or unnecessary to keep the Sabbath. Many of them are also liberals, who are not too fond of President Trump, so if Trump tells them to do something, that is perhaps a good reason for them not to do it, or so they might think. I think that if the President of the United States, your leader, and the leader of the free world, asks you to do something good, something that you ought to do anyway as a Jew, that should be a wake up sign for you.
Very rarely does a gentile ask a Jew to keep his faith and observe God’s Commandments. When has that ever happened to you? Most Jews fear being told by gentiles not to keep their faith or not to be so strange and different in their ways, to be more like them and assimilate or convert. I think that many secular and liberal American Jews have espoused atheism and secular thought and culture to fit into American society and assimilate without converting. They are responding to the pressures of the society they live in, the expectations and the peer pressure that are ever present, by hiding or diluting their Jewish identity, and filling that void in with progressivism and other isms that become their new religions.
What has happened to Israel, ever since we were freed from slavery in Egypt and stood before God on Mount Sinai, has been that we saw the ways of other peoples and felt an urge to be like them. America has been exceptionally good to us. It has allowed us to keep our faith and observe God’s Commandments, to the best of our abilities in exile, and yet, many American Jews have nevertheless felt an urge to abandon their faith and forsake God’s Commandments, to be like other Americans and assimilate with them. What Trump’s proclamation says to them is that you honor us and our nation more by preserving your faith and sanctifying the Sabbath, to bring God’s Blessings to America.
That is a remarkable statement, and it is a correct one. We can find so many things that Jews have done to help America, whether in science, the arts, business enterprise, finance, etc., but these are not necessarily Jewish things. They are not our gift to the world.
President Trump, and many wise Americans before him, have recognized that the greatest gift Israel has brought to the world has been God’s Word, the Torah and the Hebrew Bible, the Message contained within it and our Covenant bound dedication to it. They recognize the Wisdom of the Torah and have utilized its Teachings to help make America great, to help gain the Favor of God and nurture a closer relationship with Him. They see Jews for who they are, God’s people and the people of the Book, and they value these things and seek to preserve them, for the sake of America and the world.
The true power of a Jew lies in his relationship with God. That is why we are an eternal nation. When we keep God’s Commandments, we bless ourselves and the lands in which we reside, with their inhabitants, and God Blesses the nations through us. Like prophets in the land, our power is from God, when we obey Him and convey His Word truthfully. When we do not, we are like false prophets, and our words are for naught.
So why should American Jews keep the Sabbath? Because it makes them great, and since they live in America, it makes America great with them.