Parshas Vayakhel
A Public Observance of Shabat
Rashi points out that the section of the parsha that deals with the
observance and holiness of Shabat was related to the Jewish people in a
public manner with all of the people in attendance. Moshe gathered all of
Israel to him to declare the concept of the sanctity of the Shabat.
We are taught that almost all of the other precepts, values and commandments
of the Torah were taught by Moshe firstly to a select group of his relatives
and then to the elders of Israel and then finally they taught the general
public the understanding of Torah and the workings of the Oral Law.
Apparently this method was deemed insufficient when it came to the core
principle of Judaism which Shabat represents.
Shabat needed a public forum and its importance needed to be emphasized in
front of the entire gathering, similar to the granting of the Torah itself
at Sinai or the final covenant with Israel at the end of Moshe’s life as
recorded for us in the book of Dvarim.
In my opinion, the Torah alludes in this fashion to the fact that the
survival of the Jewish people is dependent not only on the private
observance of the Shabat by every Jew but that Jewish society must recognize
and incorporate within itself a public observance of Shabat as well. It is
not only the Jewish home that must be recognizable as being special and holy
on Shabat but the Jewish street must also be so recognizable and special on
Shabat as well.
The private Shabat observance has made positive strides over the past few
decades. The public Shabat however has regressed both in Israel and in the
United States. The JCC centers in almost all major Jewish communities in the
United States have abandoned the Shabat.
Many of them claim that it is because the majority of their clientele is no
longer Jewish. The irony of this excuse is apparently lost on them. The
reason that the Jews have abandoned JCC centers is because those Jews also
previously abandoned the Shabat. Here in Israel the public Shabat many times
is observed mainly in the breach of the existing Shabat laws rather than in
observance and conformity with them.
Again, the irony of those who want Israel to be a Jewish state but are not
at all supportive of a public Shabat is exquisite. For it is the public
Shabat more than any other public sign of Jewishness – flag, language,
culture, etc. – that defines Israel as being a Jewish state.
And its continued erosion by greedy kibbutz shops, city malls, open
businesses and nightclubs – and, by the way it appears that Friday night,
leil Shabat, is the most violent and crime ridden night of the week – have
only made our country not only less Jewish but less safe, less civilized,
more emotionally unsatisfactory and less secure.
Most of the children here in Israel receive no education regarding Shabat,
its history and importance in Jewish history and life. That is a sure fire
recipe for diminishing our chances to have a Jewish state here in our holy
land. The public Shabat should be strengthened in all ways in order to
guarantee a meaningful future for Jewish generations that are yet to come.
Shabat shalom.
Rabbi Berel Wein
