Rabbi Warren Goldstein
The Shabbat Project
Rabbi Warren Goldstein -The Shabbat Project
- So it’s gone two minutes. So I really would like to introduce you, just to say welcome everybody, and it’s a great pleasure for me to introduce Rabbi Warren Goldstein, who is a very close friend. Rabbi Goldstein is the current Chief Rabbi of South Africa, and a global leader. Two of these local projects have been under his leadership, have been embraced and championed by World Jewry, the first one being Generation Sinai, an annual family learning experience, as well as the Shabbat Project, which unites Jews annually in over 1,600 cities, on an unprecedented scale. Rabbi Goldstein has featured in “The Algemeiner’s” top hundred people, positively influenced Jewish life multiple times, as well as “The Jerusalem Post” top 50 most influential Jews in the world. He is an executive member of South Africans’ National Religious Leaders’ Council, and the Chief Rabbi has a PhD in human rights and constitutional law and is a regular columnist for “The Jerusalem Post.” Thank you very, very much for joining us tonight. It’s a great privilege to have you, and I’m so happy that you are going to be joining the Lockdown University Faculty. Welcome, and I’m going to hand over to you. Thanks.
- Thank you so much, Wendy. Thank you so much for such a warm and generous introduction, which I appreciate so much. And also, want to thank you for your friendship and your vision and leadership, Wendy, in the establishment of the Lockdown University. I think that, you know, when the world, you know, went into the pandemic and everyone’s lives were turned upside down, you know, there were different reactions to that. Some people’s reaction, you know, was to really hunker down and wait for the storm to pass. And others, like you, Wendy, was to say, “Well, how can we make this world into a much better place in the eye of the storm?” And you did that on an educational scale here with this Lockdown University, which is an astonishing success. You’ve maintained the numbers and the level of interest and the quality of lectures and the quantity of participation is something which is really outstanding and phenomenal. But also I know that during the pandemic, ‘cause I saw it firsthand in terms of the work that we were doing in South Africa, that Wendy, you were at the forefront of so much that happened in South Africa during the pandemic. I know that South Africa is so close to your heart and that, you know, things for the Jewish community, for the broader South African society, poverty alleviation and also, you know, in the space of business rescue and all kinds of different initiatives to uplift people’s dignity and to make the society a better place in spite of the enormous challenges of the situation. So again, I think that’s a testimony to your leadership and vision.
And I think that really is a call to action. And I think in a certain way, what you’ve done here with Lockdown University and the actions that you did for human dignity in South Africa during the pandemic is an example of, as I was saying before, that in times of crisis and challenge, there are two approaches. One is, you know, to hunker down and hope for the storm to pass. And another is to say, “No, let’s proactively change and make the world into a better place.” So I salute you for that, Wendy. And I thank you so much for the gracious invitation to address this gathering. And I say good evening, good day to everybody. It’s evening time here in South Africa, just after 8:30 PM in South Africa. And then I know that this is a global audience. So I greet you from Johannesburg, South Africa with a warm South African hello. And say what an honour it is to engage with all of you and to be, have this opportunity to talk. And I want to today to share a story, a South African story that began in South Africa, but then became a global story. And it began in South Africa in 2013. And the reason I want to tell the story is not for the story’s sake, of course, you know, tonight we are just about 24 hours away from this year’s Shabbat Project, which began in 2013. And as Wendy mentioned, it’s a project which, in which there are Jewish communities involved in more than 1600 cities all around the world. And so I speak to you tonight as communities.
There’s, there are photographs and videos coming in from Challah bakes from all different parts of the world as people prepare for the Shabbat and to really engage and to connect with it, to keep Shabbat, to celebrate it. And I wanted to try and understand how a small local project, started in South Africa, could actually then spread across the globe. And what lessons can we draw from that? 'Cause I think that that’s the important thing. It’s not about the story. It is about the lessons that can be learned from it and to look at it as a case study and then understand for ourselves how, you know, how that impacts our lives. And, but let me first tell you the story and when I’m, you know, going to speak initially and then I certainly want to leave chance for questions at the end so that I can engage with you as the audience and not just be the one who is speaking, but also to hear and understand, you know, where you coming from and the questions which you have and that you would like to have addressed. So let’s start with the story. It started in South Africa in 2013 with an idea to call on the South African Jewish community to keep one Shabbat. It was an idea that began at the beginning of 2013 and was announced in June. Didn’t have much of a plan for it. We called it the Shabbat Project with the byline, which has always remained a classic for me ever since, that I really love, “Keeping it Together.” 'Cause it emphasised the concept of the unity, the fact that, you know, Shabbat helps us to keep our lives together. And with that made a call to the South African Jewish community for a Shabbat in October, the beginning of October, Parashat Lech-Lecha, you’re saying to the community, “Let us all keep this one Shabbat and to celebrate.”
And I didn’t know what the response was going to be. I remember talking to my wife Gina about it. We discussed and thought about it and thought, you know, “How will people respond?” Will people respond negatively, positively? Will they be interested? Will there be apathy? What will be, and in fact, there were many sceptics amongst, you know, the people that we mentioned this to and said, “No, this can never work, don’t try it, you know, it’s”- And at the end we went for it. 'Cause we said to each other, “look-” I remember my wife saying to me at the time, you know, “So if 10 people will keep Shabbat and you know, and just a handful of people will be involved, well it’ll be worth it for that,” you know, you don’t have to measure life only in terms of numbers. You can measure it in terms of quality, of impact. And so what we did was we just went for it and the community embraced it in the warmest way possible. The warmest way imaginable. People, you know, there was that spontaneous Challah bake, which took place on the Thursday afternoon, the evening just before the Shabbat Project, where there was a huge Challah bake in the streets of Johannesburg out in the open. It was magnificent.
And there was an electric energy, and the entire community was electrified by it. The parking lots of our shuls were empty. The sense of community and celebration and thrill was palpable in the air. And everybody joined in. In fact, we did surveys afterwards that found that more than 80% of the community participated. And it was something which was, which was truly spectacular. There was a sense of celebration, a sense of complete participation right across the board, people really getting involved. And then, you know, these reports started to go out into the world. And at the time we did it in South Africa, there was no intention to turn this into a global project. But then as the photographs were shared on social media, and more and more people started to hear about it, I started to get emails from different people around the world to say they also would love a Shabbat project for their communities. And so we had to decide what to do now. What were we going to do with the project? How would we make it an international project? Perhaps let each community choose their own Shabbat for the year? And what we decided to do was to make one Shabbat for the whole world. And that year, we did it, in 2014, in October. We put out a video in March, my wife and I told the story of what happened in South Africa. We invited Jewish communities around the world.
And at that moment, after that video went on to YouTube, emails and the messages started to pour in from every corner of the globe. And a people’s movement sprung up to the point where, within a few years the project had grown to Jewish communities in more than 1600 cities, in a hundred countries. We have 6,000 volunteers spread across all of these cities and countries. And it’s something which is truly remarkable when one considers the sense of an army of volunteers all around the world speaking all different languages. And so the Shabbat Project was born and it’s spread across the world. We have today in the partners and events which are taking place in, you know, in the, in France and the French speaking countries, in Latin America and the Spanish speaking countries, in Russia, former Soviet Union, in the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, all over the world. People flooded in to participate in it. And you know, the thing that has always stood out for me in this project is how surprising it has always been. It has never been what we expected. When we started off, we didn’t know what it would be, thought it would be something small. It turned into something big in South Africa. Never dreamed it would be an international project. Then it turned into an international project and grew from year to year with an amazing energy that had a natural sense of speed, agility, and energy that just spread to every corner of the globe.
And then, you know, last year, in 2020 when the world was deep in the pandemic and there was lockdowns all over the world, of course it was a smaller project, you know, by the standards of the previous years. And we were wondering, “What is going to happen this year?” Because there are still many countries where there are heavy restrictions. One of the most vibrant centres for the Shabbat Project has been in Australia. And as you know, Australia’s been in really hard lockdown for a long time with heavy, heavy restrictions. So that impeded- And we weren’t sure even those countries where the restrictions have been lifted, like in the United States and Israel and Europe, it was a concern that people would still be held back by the pandemic. And the sense of being worn out. We weren’t sure what was going to be with the project this year. And as things started off slowly, but I’m happy to say to you tonight, with just 24 hours to go before the start of the Shabbat, the Shabbat Project, this year’s actually turning out to be the strongest year yet. And again, enormously surprising. The number of events, which is going to be more than 1,200, excuse me, 1,200 events all over the world. If you can- official unity events taking place all over the world, you know, some of them enormously large, some of them smaller, but they, they’re happening in every part of the globe.
And so again, there’s this element of surprise, thinking, “No, well the pandemic has crushed the project, will it return?” And there it is. And so the question that I want to deal with, and that’s why I thought this would be an important topic to address to the Lockdown University, and that is, “What can we learn from this case study? What can we learn from the case study of the Shabbat Project?” What does it teach us? And why has it been so successful? What has been the root of that, that has driven it in a way that in a certain sense has a speed and an agility, which has reached so many people in such a way and in such a powerful, visceral way. And I want to suggest to you three things, three learnings that we can take from it and therefore, you know, to apply these in other areas of what we do. Number one is the issue of Jewish unity. And I think that, you know, this is an important thing. A crucial dimension of the Shabbat Project has been the concept of Jewish unity. That we link as Jews, we try to set aside all of the labels and the identifying things and the things which separate us, and we rather say, “No, we are- We’re the Jewish people. One person with one heart.” That has become the mantra of the Shabbat Project, in a certain sense was born from the ethos of the South African Jewish community where there is a tremendous amount of unity and inclusivity.
And we’ve tried to infuse the Shabbat Project with that South African DNA, of unity, which has been amazing. Like for example, I just heard about an initiative in Israel that is taking place in honour of the Shabbat Project where Bnei Akiva and Tzofim, the two youth movements- Bnei Akiva, which describes itself as a religious youth movement, and Tzofim, describing itself as a secular youth movement- They joined forces and they are delivering Shabbat packages to IDF soldiers in a battalion near where they live in Karnei Shomron area. I’ll never forget in the, one of the very early years of the project, the Ramat David Air Force base, in the north of the country, was one of those that embraced the project in a deep and profound way with a tremendous number of events and celebrations that took place. And I remember visiting that Air Force base and meeting with the pilots and the staff members on the site of the base and getting from them firsthand the inspiration that they were drawing from it. And again, there was always this presumption that this wouldn’t, this couldn’t happen in Israel because of the situation of being, often there’s tension between religious and secular.
And yet the Shabbat Project, or what we call it in Israel, Shabbat Olamit, the global Shabbat, that’s the name for it in Israel, that has managed to overcome these barriers. In fact, just in the last few days there’s been a big campaign of Instagram influencers in Israel coming out in support of the Shabbat Project, calling on people to keep Shabbat, to make it part of their lives and to make a difference again, cutting through the barriers of religious, secular, et cetera. And finding one another. And that has become something which is such a special dimension. And my experience has been this, is that Jews are searching for true Jewish unity. And we want that unity not in times of trouble, because when there is a terrorist attack or when there is a situation of a crisis, of course there’s unity. But that is a unity imposed by the hatred of others. We are seeking and thirsting for a unity which we choose, a unity of celebration, a unity of joy, a unity of a Jewish identity which we choose ourselves and which is not defined by the hatred of others. And I think that is always the big challenge with so much anti-Semitism around in the world. We need to ensure that our Jewish identity is not moulded by anti-Semitism. We cannot transfer a Judaism to our children if it is a Judaism which is seeped in a sense of persecution and anti-Semitism, because that doesn’t provide a compelling and inspiring vision for our children and grandchildren to take on for themselves. And so therefore, when we talk about this, we are talking about a Jewish unity and Jewish identity, which is indeed chosen and not forced on by others. But I think there’s something else about it. And that is the nature of Shabbat itself. So the one dimension that has driven this journey of the Shabbat Project has been Jewish unity.
The other is Shabbat itself. Shabbat is a compelling mitzvah in our times. It was given by God more than 3,300 years ago at Mount Sinai, but it remains something which is compelling and powerful for who we are today in the most profound way because the world is seeking and the world is searching for a form of a better way of living. And you see, there is the sense often that we have of thinking, “Well, we need a weekend and a day off.” But there is a profound difference between Sunday and Shabbat. And I wanted to analyse that with you because you can say, “What is the value of Shabbat today?” You know, the world has Sunday, the world has a weekend. So firstly to step back and realise that the concept of a seven day week, that comes from the “Torah.” There were other attempts by different cultures to establish a 10 day week or a five day week. The fact that seven day week is something which is so universally accepted, that has its origins in the creation of the world, right from the “Book of Bereshit,” from the “Book of Genesis,” from the “Torah” itself. That’s, that found its way into the psyche of the world. But what then is the difference between Shabbat and a Sunday? And this we need to understand. In fact, I’ve been part of an initiative in Israel to put forward the idea that Israel should embrace the concept of a Sunday. Because that part of the religious conflicts that emerge around Shabbat is because there’s only one day a week that people have off, and therefore everyone’s fighting over the same piece of real estate.
And Shabbat is so important for the Jewish identity of the state of Israel. And so therefore, by having a Sunday we’d be able to provide the space for the State to recognise Shabbat and give it the holiness that it needs and the sense of Jewish identity that it provides the society. But then at the same time, to have a Sunday for that day that people can have, which is off from work. So that just draws to sharper focus the question, which is this very simple question, “What is the difference between Sunday and Shabbat?” How do we understand the difference? And this goes to an even deeper philosophical question. And that is, “What is the difference in the philosophy of leisure, of Judaism versus Western culture?” And I would like to suggest to you the following. And it goes down to a very interesting verse, a very interesting passuk in the “Book of Bereshit,” the “Book of Genesis,” right at the beginning. And after the first few paragraph which describe the creation of the world, the verse says, the passuk says, “And God finished all of his work on the seventh day.” That’s what the verse says. And Rashi, one of the great, one of our great commentators asks on that verse. He says, “But how can you say that God finished his work on the seventh day? He completed the creation of the world in six days. On the seventh day he rested. So what does it mean that he finished his work on the seventh day?”
And then Rashi, quoting from the Midrash, which is part of the oral tradition of the “Torah” that was given at Mount Sinai- Quoting from the Midrash says, “That God did create something on the seventh day. What did he create on the seventh day? He created Shabbat and he created m'nuchah, rest.” And then Rashi gives the following analogy. He said it would be like a king who makes a tremendous banqueting hall, and he puts all of the lavish fittings and furnishings into the hall, and it is ready for the wedding and everything is there. And then the hall and everyone who is gathered is only waiting for the arrival of the bride. And if the bride does not arrive, then all of what they have done is in vain. And if the bride does, then everything fulfils its mission and its purpose. And this then is the, this then becomes the fascinating analogy to Shabbat, where Shabbat is compared to a bride. And we know that in the “Lecha Dodi,” the famous prayer of Kabbalat Shabbat, welcoming in the Shabbat, it says, “Come my friend, as we go out to the bride.” And who is the bride? The bride is Shabbat. And so one of the commentators, Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch, Telz Rosh Yeshiva, who was a Holocaust survivor, in fact. He escaped from Europe in 1940, just before the Germans arrived in Lithuania and in his shtetl of Telz. He was sent by the Yeshiva- No one knew what was going to happen. He was sent together with his brother-in-law, Rabbi Mordechai Katz.
They came to the United States with the view to bringing across the Yeshiva and the entire village. By the time they got to the United States, they received the terrible news that their families and the entire shtetl had been wiped out by the Nazis. And then they began the process of rebuilding the Telz Yeshiva in the United States of America in Cleveland, Ohio, and with tremendous heroism rebuilt their lives and rebuilt the Yeshiva and produced students And students of that Telz Yeshiva ended up in South Africa. That’s why I have a personal connection to it. 'Cause one of the students that came was Rabbi Avraham Tanzer of Blessed Memory who founded the Yeshiva, who was instrumental in building up the Yeshiva College Campus from very small beginnings to a mighty Jewish campus today, with many Minyanim, with a vibrant school and so much Jewish life happening in it. And then of course, another one of the students of the Telz Yeshiva that came to South Africa was Rabbi Azriel Chaim Goldfein, who set up a Yeshiva in Johannesburg, where I learnt and received Semikhah from him. Rabbi Suchard, who came and joined the Beth Din in Johannesburg and became the rabbi, who was there at the Sandton Shul in its infancy. So through their heroism, so much came into the world and in particular in South Africa, but many other places in the world.
I digress when I share that with you, but I think it provides important context to understand the biography of the person who said it. Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch, one of those two heroic souls who survived the Holocaust and was able to rebuild the Yeshiva. He had a question on this Midrash. “How can Shabbat be compared to a bride which enters into the room?” “Because,” he says, “Shabbat or m'nuchah, rest, is a description of when you stop working. It’s a description of when you are freed from the burdens and from the stress of a situation in life and from all of your responsibilities so that you have a chance to have a rest. That is an absence of stress. It’s not something which is positive. How can that be compared to a bride, which is a positive presence?” And then, from that, he has a profound analysis of the concept of leisure. And this helps us get to the bottom of the difference between Shabbat and Sunday. And what that is, is as follows. What that is, is as follows. He says that there are two views of leisure. You can have a view of leisure, which is an absence of stress. The Jewish view of m'nuchah, of inner peace, is that inner peace does not come from removal of stress, and removal of burden and responsibility. He gives the following analogy. Analogy of a river. A river flows down to the sea. If you have a mighty river and it’s flowing and it’s water is flowing and in a natural way, there will be a tranquillity on the surface of the water.
If you try to stop the water from flowing and dam it up with rocks and boulders to try and stop the water from flowing, it turns into rapids and the water itself becomes filled with turbulence. And so what he explains is this, in the same way that water flows down to the ocean and a river goes with the gravity all the way down to the ocean, so too our soul, what we call the neshama, the soul of a human being is like the river. The river flows down to the ocean. Our souls flow up to God. And when we are flowing with the natural flow of our souls, and we are living with purpose and with meaning, then we are at peace. In the same way that when the river is flowing down to the ocean, the surface water of the river is at peace. And it flows naturally. When we flow up to God and we are living with our purpose, and we are living with meaning, and we are living with doing good because that is what we were created to do, then we are fulfilling our purpose. Then we have a sense of tranquillity and inner peace. Inner peace and tranquillity does not come from escaping responsibility. It comes from embracing meaning and doing good in the world. That is what it comes from. And that is the message of Shabbat. The difference between Shabbat and Sunday. Sunday is a day of emptiness. It’s a day where the stresses of life and the demands of life are removed.
Shabbat is a day which is full of activity. It is a day of gathering of family. It’s a day of food. It’s a day of prayer. It’s a day of learning. It’s a day of walking. It’s a day of living. It’s a day of being. It’s a day which is filled with meaning and purpose. And that’s where the inner tranquillity comes from. And so what I think our world is searching for, firstly, our world is searching for meaning and purpose. But secondly, our world is also searching for connection and therefore, connection with a sense of what Shabbat brings. Shabbat brings this positive purpose into our lives. That is why it’s compared to the bride. In the same way the bride gives purpose to the meaning of a wedding hall, so too Shabbat and what it represents, which is our values, gives meaning and purpose to our lives. It fills us with an inner sense of purpose. It also allows us to connect to our true selves and connect to our loved ones and connect to God. That space to connect, which the world is thirsting for, the world is thirsting for meaning. The world is also thirsting for a sense of connection. You know, it’s becoming more and more of a crisis.
That concept, where a recent survey, that I heard in a recent study that I heard from Dr. David Pelcovitz, Professor of Psychology at Shiva University, is that when surveyed, six out of 10 parents felt that their children were on screens too much, on their devices, on their phones, on the screens too much. But when interviewed the children, then seven out of 10 children said that their parents were on their devices too much. That the children had a greater concern about their parents being disconnected from them. And Dr. Pelcovitz talks about many children that he has met in therapy sessions who feel hurt and abandoned by the lack of attention. We live in a world which is now totally relentless. It is relentless and prevents us from connecting with our true selves. And we don’t have even one moment’s break from that world. Even the, in fact, with lockdown and the pandemic and everything that has happened, the difference between our work and home lives has been blurred even further. There is no such thing as never been available. Everything becomes one, and we’re constantly immersed in a world of the virtual, in a world of social media without a break from it. And what Shabbat provides is 25 hours of total disconnection from the outside turbulence so that we can reconnect with what is inside, with who we are, connect with ourselves, connect with the people around us, connect with God, connect with our purpose, connect with true life, to really live.
So often we’re in a virtual world that we do not have an opportunity to live life in the truest sense of the word. In fact, one of the best descriptions of Shabbat that I’ve heard comes from United States Supreme Court Judge Louis Brandeis, who as you know, was Jewish. He did not keep Shabbat, but he spent many Shabbatot with his uncle. And his uncle did keep Shabbat. And he, so he saw the observance of Shabbat firsthand. And he was so moved by it, that Justice Brandeis described Shabbat as, “Stealing a day out of life to live.” Stealing a day out of life to live. Hear that phrase saying that first you have to steal it 'cause if you don’t take it, it will never happen. But also to truly live. When we are around our Shabbat table and we are tasting the food, Friday night, Shabbas lunch, and we are with our family and friends, and there are no, there’s no cell phone on the table and no one’s looking and there’s no cell phone in our pockets. And there is a sense of immediacy, of presence, where we have presence of mind, we have presence of being with those, with our loved ones.
That is a unique experience. I’ll never forget a number of years ago when I was involved in a particular matter that involved the office of the President in South Africa. And it was a Friday afternoon and I was waiting for an answer from the President on a particular matter. And I was speaking to a senior official within his office. And I was concerned that since it was Friday afternoon, that I should tell them that my phone was going to be switched off from sunset on Friday afternoon, only switched back on on Saturday night after stars out. So I told them, I said, “Look, I am concerned that, you know, if you want to give me an answer, you try to get a hold of me, I won’t be available because my phone will be off because these are the laws of the Sabbath.” And I didn’t, I wasn’t sure how she was going to take it. And yet this official said to me, she said, her answer to me was this, and I was so surprised by it, but actually in retrospect, I shouldn’t have been surprised. She said, “I’m jealous, I wish I could do that as well.” And there was that real sense of the preciousness of what Shabbat is.
And I think that’s why the Shabbat Project has taken on so much because of the power of what it’s offering. You know, for this year’s Shabbat Project, for example, three interesting things. One is that Instagram influencer campaign in Israel that I mentioned to you, across the board where Instagram influencers talking about the importance of keeping Shabbat. Number two at Cornell University in the United States, there is a group of students who are going on a campaign for this year’s Shabbat Project to switch off their phones for 25 hours of Shabbat. And number three, there is the beginnings of a TikTok campaign of famous TikTok influencers who are also, we together with the Shabbat Project, we have a campaign which is going under the hashtag of “Disconnect Connect.” So there is a tremendous thirst for the power of connection and that people want this more than anything else in the world. And that therefore that has driven- what has driven the Shabbat Project has been these two items. Number one, these two values, these two concepts. Number one is Jewish unity, number two is Shabbat.
And the power of Shabbat, which is so much more elevated, so much more abundant than Sunday, so much more providing a powerful insight into human nature as to what brings inner peace. It’s the real sense of connection and meaning that brings inner peace. It’s not, the inner peace does not come from a deserted island, lying on the beach, sipping a cold drink. There’s a time for a holiday, but that’s not going to give ultimately inner peace. Inner peace will come from living a life of abundant connection, relationships, connection with the people around us, connection with God, connection with our soul, connection with our purpose. It is that sense of connection that becomes such a compelling message. And so the Shabbat Project has been driven by Jewish unity. It has being driven by the compelling dimension of Shabbat. And then the third and the last point that I want to mention, and then I’m really looking forward to taking some questions. The third and last point that I would like to mention is this. That what has driven the Shabbat Project is that it has been a grassroots movement. It has shown and demonstrated a new leadership model, which I believe should be a guiding leadership model for the world today, and for Jewish communities around the world. And that is a sense of personal responsibility, which is connected to a vision for the future and not dependent on official position. Most of the volunteers who have been involved in the Shabbat Project do not occupy official positions. The project spread through the power of social media where one person after another decided, “This is what I want to do.” And I’ll give you one example.
In one of the early years of the project, there was a woman, Kelly Ray, living in Fernley, Nevada. There are 19,000 people in the whole city of Fernley and including the Jews. And she in fact thought that she was the only- her and her family were the only Jews in Fernley. She lived there with her daughter and her granddaughter. And they felt so alone and isolated that one day her granddaughter said to her, “Are there any other Jews in the world?” Can you imagine that? Living in a place where granddaughter says, “Are there any other Jews in the world?” And then along came the Shabbat Project. And when she heard about it, she put a message on Facebook calling, “Are there any other Jewish families, Jews in Fernley who want to do the Shabbat Project together?” And you know what happened? Six families wrote back to her and they said, “We are Jewish and we live in Fernley and we want to make a Shabbat with you.” And they all came together for Shabbat.
That is what the concept of grassroots leadership is all about. Kelly Ray could then say to her granddaughter, “There are other Jews in the world.” But she took personal responsibility. She didn’t occupy any official position or hold anything in some sort of hierarchy or organisation. She just took it upon herself because she felt a sense of connection to it. And that is how this movement has spread so far and wide. So that it has reached 1600 cities in the world. How do you do that? We didn’t set it up with an organisation that had a head of North America and a head of Latin America and a head of Europe. And then to create an entire infrastructure and bureaucracy. Rather, it is being fueled through dynamic marketing campaigns with grassroots volunteers taking up the project, new people pouring in all the time. There’s a natural energy and people are empowered. And that is the key model for revitalising community today. People have to have a sense of co-creation, a sense of participation, a sense of partnership where this is something that really belongs to them. And when people feel ownership and they feel partnership, when they feel responsible for it, then they will make a difference.
If you say, “Listen, as a leader, I’m in charge, I will take full responsibility,” then you will have no, then you won’t have partners. You may have people who will take orders, but you will never have partners. And if you don’t have partners, nothing can grow and develop and flourish. And that has been the magnificence of the Shabbat Project. It has flourished because it is a people’s movement and it is grassroots leadership. These three principles that we’ve been speaking about, Jewish unity from joy and from our values, not from crisis and the hatred of others. That’s principle number one. Principle number two, Shabbat as a compelling mitzvah for our days, for our times, because it has the answer to so many of the problems of modern life. And it is the greatest gift that God has given us. The gift of Shabbat itself, which the Talmud actually calls a matana, a gift. And principle number three is the concept of leadership cannot be a top-down hierarchical position-driven leadership. It needs to empower. Any model of Jewish leadership and Jewish community needs to empower people on the ground to take responsibility, to own initiatives and to go out and to make the world into a better place. I believe it is the combination of these three principles that has driven the Shabbat Project over all of these years. And these principles become a model for things that we can do.
The Jewish world needs more than anything, these three things. It needs Jewish unity, a Jewish unity chosen from joy. The Jewish world today needs Shabbat because more than ever, because Shabbat is the source of our Jewish values, it is the testimony to the fact that God created the world. Shabbat is the essence of the Jewish family. Shabbat is the essence of the quality of our lives and the restoring power that we have to be able to sustain energy and to do good in the world. So the Jewish world needs Jewish unity, it needs Shabbat, and it needs empowered grassroots leadership. Empowered grassroots leadership. Those three things. As the world emerges from the pandemic, we need a blueprint for the Jewish future. And I believe in these three principles, we have a blueprint for the Jewish future, Jewish unity, Shabbat and empowered grassroots leadership. If we combine these three principles, then the future of the Jewish people looks bright and there is nothing which is beyond our reach. And together we can make this world into a better place.
So I want to thank you for listening and for being part of this. I’m very happy to take some questions and also to say to all of you, although it’s only just 24 hours to this year’s Shabbat, of the Shabbat Project, you can really get involved, sign up if you want to make an event, you can go onto our website of the shabbatproject.org and you can find out all about it and keep the Shabbat. I think it’s something which could be absolutely magnificent. So I want to thank you, I want to thank you, Wendy, for inviting me to deliver this lecture and I’m very happy to take questions for a few minutes if people have questions.
[Lauren] Great, thank you so much Rabbi Goldstein. We do have a few questions.
May I just ask you, sorry, I just want to jump in just for a minute. Thank you for a really excellent presentation. Before you take questions, why don’t you just repeat for our audience, because I’ve got one or two people who’ve texted me to say, “Please, will you ask Rabbi Goldstein to repeat what is one, you know, about what you said about inner peace, What does one need to do in order to achieve inner peace?”
Okay, good, thank you, So I was saying, that I, you know, thank you so much. I think the issue of inner peace is this, and this is the model that Shabbat provides us. Inner peace comes from living with purpose and meaning, and living with how God created us to live in this world. That’s where the depth of inner peace comes from. And Shabbat teaches us how to do that. 'Cause it teaches us to connect to God, to the people around us and to ourselves, and to the concept of mitzvah, of doing good. That brings inner peace. When we are pursuing a sense of a lack of responsibility or when we are trying to find a sense of escape that, you know, and of course you know, the concept of a holiday and a bit of escapism from the stresses of life, that is part of what it means to be a human being. And that’s part of what we need in order to function. But that cannot be the purpose of our lives. The purpose of our lives is not that. And what we have in Shabbat is that this kind of model for inner peace, which is living with meaning and purpose, which is in fact what our, you know, what Judaism provides, is a blueprint for, for that meaning and purpose and connection. Connection to God, connection to our loved ones and connection to ourselves. Connection also brings a deep sense of inner peace.
Thank you. So that’ll satisfy what they’re asking. I’m just asking if that’s any more questions. They should post questions on the platform. Thanks Lauren.
[Lauren] Of course, alright, so we’ll take some questions now.
Q&A and Comments:
Sharon says, “Well done, so deserving.”
Jerry says, “As a result of your initiative and that of Chief Rabbi Mirvis, we on the Costa del Sol had a superb successful Shabbat.”
Romaine says, “Thanks for the sense of a need for a Jewish community. Since retiring in Florida I do a Shabbat and invite a small number of people interested.”
Q: Joel wants to know, “How many Jews worldwide do you think participate in the project? Yasher Koach for this year and good Shabbas from Dallas.”
A: - Okay, good. So, you know, because it’s a grassroots movement, it’s very hard to count the exact numbers, but I can tell you this, that our, firstly, our numbers of events this year are higher than ever before at around 1200 events globally. There’ve been newspaper reports over the years that have estimated around a million Jews participating in one way or another. And it’s remarkable, you know, there are literally hundreds of events taking place across the length and breadth of Israel. In Sderot there’s an amazing initiative where they’re handing out care packages to the Magen David Adom volunteers in, you know, in Russia. There’s a group of students, university students, who are handing out food packages to the old age homes in Russia. There are so many heroic and moving stories which are happening. I mean, there are 6,000 volunteers. There’s, you know, 1600 cities, and reports have spoken about a million participants within it. And it’s something which, you know, has had such a profound impact on so many different places. And, you know, so thank you for that question.
Q: - [Lauren] Of course, Sarah says, “I agree about the telephone, et cetera in general. On the other hand, being isolated and not able to communicate does not make for a happy Shabbat. Also not driving makes it very hard for many families to be together. Sleeping over is not always a feasible solution. Would you please comment?”
A: - Yeah, sure, of course, you know, these, very often with, you know, in a process like this when it’s also about where one, you know, eventually chooses to live, physically to live and to find, to be, you know, to live near a shul is something which is important so that you can build up a community life that is within walking distance. And sometimes these things, you know, require a journey. And also, you know, I think what is important, if one is living near community, then we’ll be able to reach out to other people. And so communication is not dependent on a telephone. Communication is face to face as well. And I think that becomes so important, such an important message of what Shabbat is saying is that communication does not have to be electronic. It does not have to be virtual. It can be real.
Q: - [Lauren] Great. Leah asks, “How does it work in practise? How are you using social media during Shabbat?”
A: - No, we don’t use social media during Shabbat. We use the social media in, you know, in campaigning for the Shabbat Project, but not on Shabbat itself. And that’s the beauty of it, you know, like the whole world when Instagram and WhatsApp collapsed a few weeks ago, like everyone was frantic six hours without it. And yet, you know, Shabbat is 25 hours without it. And that becomes something which is so, it’s very liberating to be able to do it. And it’s worth giving it a try for this week to see how that feels.
Q: - [Lauren] Carla asks, “How would you go about keeping Shabbat for a lot of families where the children have left town. So many parents have been left alone, so the idea of being with the family no longer exists weekly.”
A: - Yeah, look, these are difficult questions, you know, if a person is dealing with a situation like that. I think also it’s about creating the concept of community. You know, if a person is not blessed to be near family, then the next thing is to start working on community and you know, communities of people can be created. We need each other. People, you know, can’t be, you know, it’s something that we draw strength from.
Q: - [Lauren] Faye wants to know if the project is connected to one particular Parashat?
A: - The last few years it has been on this Parashat, Parashat Vayera, which actually, this week’s Parashat is that. And you know, in this week’s Parashat we read about the tent of Abraham and Sarah, that it was a tent that was open on all four sides. So it was about the real sense of, you know, of hospitality and being open and inclusive like the Shabbat Project is. But it’s also about the relief from the heat. And Shabbat is like this tent, which is a relief from heat, from the heat of the world in which we live.
Q: - [Lauren] Roberta is asking, “What is the nature of doing good on Shabbat?” She says, “I am moved to join the Shabbat Project, I’m not a religious Jew.”
A: - Yeah, so I think that you know, the day itself, if one goes into it, and I would suggest to have a look on the Shabbat Project website, shabbatproject.org, and you can see all about the different customs. We got a lot of, you know, content and material on the website that guides you in the journey. Go, have a look. We’ve got a document there on the website called the Seven Steps. And it takes you through it and you’ll see that the day is filled with a lot of, with a lot of moments and traditions and experiences which are very rich and abundant from a spiritual point of view, from an emotional point of view, from an intellectual point of view and it fills it. The idea of doing good is around the concept of mitzvah, but Shabbat has its own rhythm that fills the day with real meaning and a real sense of connection in the deeper sense of the word.
[Lauren] Great. Moira says, “A fabulous lecture. The project has been a wonderful success and hopefully it continues. Miss the homeland, but continue to have Shabbat and keep the tradition.” And Faye says,-
Very good.
[Lauren] “That this presentation reawakened her appreciation.” Oh, sorry.
No, no, I just said the homeland misses you Moira.
[Lauren] Faye says that, “the presentation reawakened appreciation for all the warm and welcoming Shabbat invitations she has received.”
Q: And one last question from Sybil. “Many Jews and non-Jews need to work more than one job to keep bread on the table. How can they take advantage of Shabbat if they literally don’t have enough time?”
A: - Yeah, you know, as Jews, we have been through all different times, you know, there’ve been times of prosperity and times of poverty. I know my great-grandfather on my mother’s side, when he came from Lithuania to South Africa, he was so poor. He was a painter and he didn’t work on Shabbas. And that meant a loss of a lot of earnings because, you know, he only got paid for what he worked on that day. But he was prepared to give that up for Shabbat because he realised that he was getting something, he was getting something else. And the Talmud says that, you know, that God gives blessing, that God gives blessing and that our ultimately, our livelihood comes from God. And so, you know, if we have trust in him, then he will look after us in that. And that’s how generations of Jews got through it, you know, through grinding poverty. And the truth is that what Shabbat was not the extra burden that burdened their poverty. The Shabbat for my great-grandfather was I imagine, I never met him and I never spoke to him about this, but I would imagine that Shabbat gave him joy within his poverty. It was the day- because what Shabbat does is it gives dignity and creates equality in society because it is a day off. No matter who you are, on Shabbat we are all equals. We are all kings and queens and princes and princesses. It is a day of dignity. That is why one of the messages of, you know, in the 10 Commandments, when it says to keep Shabbat, it says in one place it says, because God created the world. And in another place it says, because he took you out from the land of Egypt. It is from slavery. Shabbat is freedom. It is freedom from poverty, it is freedom from wealth, it is freedom from the burdens of society in which we live. It liberates us and makes us all equal. And it’s that one day that we all have that sense of dignity of who we are. And it’s an opportunity to look at our lives and the world in a completely different way.
- Well, thank you very, very much. I actually want to jump in and just say, I love this project, as you know, I love this Shabbat Project. I love the sense of baking Challahs together and us all being a community. And you know, I just remember once my cousin William, a story, and I hope I’ve got it right, but my cousin, William Kirsh, Willie Kirsh, was a brilliant cricket player and he played for one of the provinces. And I remember there was a test match and it fell on, I think it fell on Yom Kippur, it was either on Yom Kippur or Rosh Hashanah, or maybe it was important Shabbat. And he had this big dilemma whether to play or not to play. And I remember him being extremely, extremely disappointed that it had fallen on, probably it was Yom Kippur, thinking about it. And of course he opted not to play.
And I remember him being very, very, very disappointed. And as it happened, the heavens absolutely opened on that day. The game was cancelled. And Willie played, you know, he was able to play at the next match. I mean, that’s probably coincidence, but for us, we were thrilled. So it just brought back, you know, it just brought that back. So I just want to say just before we end up, just to say thank you for a really excellent presentation and a very meaningful presentation. And I hope that everybody enjoyed it as much as I did. Thank you, Warren. Thank you very, very, very much. And we are looking forward to this week’s Shabbat programme, project.
Thank you so much. Thank you Wendy-
[Wendy] All right.
For inviting me to speak. And thank you to all for listening. It’s been an absolute pleasure and an honour. Thank you.
Good, thanks everybody. Thanks Lauren, thanks again. Take care. Thank you all.
[Warren] Bye.
[Wendy] Shabbat Shalom, bye.