The ‘First Shabbat’: A World Calling Us Home |
In a move that should send a tremor through the Jewish world, an official proclamation connected to Jewish American Heritage Month has encouraged Americans to observe a “National Shabbat.” For 25 hours—from sunset Friday, 28 Iyar (May 15, 2026), to nightfall Shabbat, 29 Iyar (May 16, 2026)—the highest office in the United States has invited a nation to stop. This is not merely a political gesture; it is a historic and public recognition by President Donald J. Trump of the spiritual foundation that has sustained the Jewish people through every exile and every storm for thousands of years.
Why now? The reasoning behind the President’s call is as powerful as it is humbling. A free society cannot survive on material success alone. Its foundations rest upon the *Mesorah*—the timeless values of the Torah that teach that a human being is not a machine.
By encouraging a National Shabbat in honor of America’s 250th anniversary, President........