by Rabbi Yisrael Rutman

With global media attention focused on the anti-government demonstrations in Egypt, another series of demonstrations, even more significant, have gone unnoticed.

These demonstrations also number over a million people, and not just in one country but all over the world. And they threaten to change the world order no less, perhaps even more so, than the events in Egypt.

I am referring to that mass demonstration throughout the Jewish world on the seventh day of every week—Shabbat.

We are accustomed to thinking about Shabbos in terms of “religious observance,” not in terms of a demonstration, and not in political terms. Certainly, we don’t think of keeping Shabbos as a revolutionary act. On the contrary, most people view it as part of an old tradition, which belongs not to a new world but to an old one.

But Shabbos is, of its very essence, a demonstration. For it is the day on which the Jewish people have always demonstrated, by refraining from work and assembling in prayer and Torah study, that the world has a Creator, who created it in six days and rested on the seventh. We declare that this is our intention in the Shabbos prayers and in the Kiddush preceding the festive meal on Friday night, when we quote the Torah verses which recount the seven days of Creation, and then affirm that Shabbos is “a remembrance of the act of Creation.”

Shabbos began as a revolutionary idea. Until then, slaves and the poor worked all week long, while the nobility and the rich enjoyed their leisure. Of course, people rested, even took days off whenever they could (organized labor unions were as yet unknown); and there were pagan festivals and the days of national celebration, such as great military victories and the kings’ birthdays. But there was no particular day of the week designated for rest. Only after the giving of the Torah which, proclaimed a weekly day of rest for all classes of people, did the idea take hold. Eventually, for Christians it became Sundays, for Moslems it was to be Fridays.

However, it is a mistake to think that Shabbos has thereby lost its unique, revolutionary character. For one thing, the day of rest is only an approximation of the Jewish Shabbos. The day was given at Sinai as a gift to the Jewish people exclusively. Others may take a day of rest or two days, and even stretch it to three on holiday weekends, but the definition of rest and of work are not the same as in Jewish law. For it is not work which is proscribed, but malacha. One may work very hard on Shabbos—moving furniture, for example—but that is not the creative, intelligent work that concerns the Torah. Malacha includes not only driving a car, but carrying a handful of pebbles out into the street or just writing your name.* It’s not the exertion that counts, but the kind of activity. And the intricate laws of malacha are derived from the construction of the mishkan, the sanctuary in the wilderness, which have no counterpart in the non-Jewish Sabbaths.

In the ancient world, polytheism, the belief in many gods, was universal. Jewish monotheism was a radical new worldview that challenged those beliefs. It was so threatening that, as the Midrash says, Nimrod tried to have Abraham put to death for his audaciously iconoclastic behavior, wrecking his father’s idols and openly arguing against the state religion.

Today, in the post-industrial West, at least, people have found other outlets for the deep-seated need to believe in something. They believe that human salvation lies in communism or science or art. Many worship money or pleasure. Instead of wooden or metal idols, they serve themselves. Judaism teaches that there is only one God, the Creator of all. The purpose of life is not to serve ourselves or any man-made system, but to serve God. In the Soviet Union, not so long ago, professing belief in God, whether Jewish or otherwise, was a serious criminal offense. Religious practice is still against the law in China. In American and Europe, religiosity is legally protected, though subject to the ridicule of the liberal elites.

If the uprising in Egypt succeeds, it could mean a better life for the country’s 80 million people. If it ends in the ascent of the Moslem Brotherhood, however, it could mean a worse repression than the Mubarak regime. It could also mean the abrogation of Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, and that Iran will have a major ally on Israel’s border. And so will Hamas. Israel is already reassessing its military and diplomatic policies; America and the rest of the world will have to do the same.

Yet, Shabbos goes further. The Torah teaches that Shabbos desecration brought about the destruction of the Temple, and that keeping the sanctity of Shabbos will usher in its rebuilding.**

The rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem is an integral part of the ultimate historical process known as the messianic era. The Moshiach (Messiah) is more than just a saintly personality whom all will revere. He represents much more than that: a new world order of peace and justice and spiritual renewal; the fulfillment of history for which all human beings yearn.

As we hope for a peaceful resolution to the protests in Egypt, we have to understand that the outcome there may create as many problems as it solves. In the meantime, we continue with our Shabbos demonstrations, and look forward to that new world order envisoned by the prophet, in which all people will take part (Isaiah 56:5-7). Speedily, on our days.

*Actually, writing anything is prohibited.

**Rabbeinu Bachaya, Kad Hakemach, P. 394. Jewish tradition also attributes the destruction to other factors as well, but that’s beyond the scope of this essay.

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