Shabbat Is Trending Up For Younger Jews … And Holding Steady For Centuries

Promoting Shabbat meals is a worthy project. But don’t forget the source of its power.

A 25-hour experience: Lighting candles ushers in Shabbat, a time of family, friends, prayer, food and rest.

Many years ago, when I was editor of the Baltimore Jewish Times, I called a very talented journalist I knew in Washington, D.C. to see if he could cover a story for us there. 

I had met him through my Dad, a rabbi in nearby Annapolis, Md., and I knew that this young man, let’s call him William, was a former reporter for Time magazine who had recently expressed a renewed interest in Judaism. I thought he might be drawn to the story I had in mind, which had a Jewish renewal angle, though I can’t remember the details.

When I spoke with William, he did seem interested, but when I told him the event was taking place the following Tuesday, he said he’d be unable to attend. Haltingly, and a bit sheepishly, he explained that though he was trying to become more ritually observant, he had to work on Saturdays – so he had designated Tuesdays as his personal Shabbat. 

As a result, he didn’t work or drive on Tuesdays.

After we hung up, I had a distinctly mixed reaction – an initial dose of easy scorn for William’s violating tradition followed by admiration for him doing his best to keep the spirit of the mitzvah. 

I was reminded of that incident on reading an upbeat New York Times article this week on the growing trend among young professionals – Jewish and not Jewish – celebrating elements of Shabbat. It highlighted a recent gathering of more than 100 millennials and Gen Xers in a SoHo loft, on a Thursday night.

The hostess, 36, and a designer of a fashionable clothing line, wanted a young rabbi friend to attend her Shabbat evening soiree. But since he had to be at services on Friday evening, the dinner was held the night before.

“It’s a little weird that it’s not on a Friday,” the rabbi was quoted as saying, “but whatever gets people excited about Shabbat works for me.” After leading “the blessings over the candle, wine and challah,” the article goes on, the rabbi smiled and told the group of more than 100 millennials and members of Gen Z, “we are all trying to figure out how to be Jews in the 21st century. And this is it.”

I understand the rabbi and agree with his approach – engage people where they are – up to a point. But at least as far as the article goes, there is no mention of  connecting the relaxing festive meal with the central importance of Shabbat in Jewish life, namely as a Torah-based mandate of observance. Would citing God’s charge on Mount Sinai to observe the Sabbath have risked endangering the good vibes in the room?

The article offers some dramatic statistics in noting a steep increase in such informal Shabbat meal gatherings among younger people around the country. It mentions the growth of OneTable, a group that encourages and offers funds to young Jews hosting Shabbat meals, and Trybe, a Los Angeles group that offers Shabbat experiences.

Credit should also go to Reboot, a hip non-profit think tank that seeks to re-invent Jewish rituals for modern times. One of its major successes over the last dozen years has been spreading the concept of unplugging one’s devices on Shabbat. 

The Times article suggests that the recent uptick in Shabbat meals might be attributed to an eagerness to socialize in a meaningful way after more than two years of pandemic as well as a quest to identify with and celebrate Jewish rituals in the face of growing anti-Semitism.

That makes a lot of sense, and is reason for optimism amid all the worries over losing the next generation to assimilation. But I was struck particularly by a comment from Chaya Bindell, a founder of Trybe, who said: “Shabbat is an ancient ritual, but it’s really a simple and genius community-building tool,” she was quoted as saying. “Shabbat provides an answer to deep human need. You stop working, share a meal with family or chosen family, put away your phones, look each other in the eyes, connect and talk.”

All true, insightful and eloquently said. But more than that, Shabbat, a religious and communal experience, has been a core of Jewish life for thousands of years. It has often been said that “the Jews kept the Sabbath and the Sabbath kept the Jews.” Shabbat is not just a means of socializing, as beneficial as that is emotionally and in many other ways today, as it has been for many centuries. It’s a full experience, a 25-hour break from the daily grind, a time for family, friends, food, prayer and rest. And it’s a commandment – the Fourth of the Big Ten – and carries the weight of obligation. 

The approach of what I think of as “Judaism Lite,” emphasizing powerful Jewish values while soft-pedaling their Biblical and prophetic contexts,  has been prevalent in modern American Jewish culture for some time now. Perhaps the most vivid example is “tikkun olam,” the beautiful concept of repairing the world. 

(It’s a phrase so common that, according to a friend, a young man on a Birthright trip asked his guide, “how do you say ‘tikkun olam’ in Hebrew?”) 

The phrase can be found in the Aleinu prayer, recited three times daily in services, but it is cited popularly without the second half of the passage, which calls on us to repair the world “under the sovereignty of the Almighty,” tying the directive to its ultimate goal.

It’s true that one need not be “religious” to benefit from the power and wisdom of Jewish texts and teachings – from making the Sabbath a day of rest and renewal; emphasizing social justice and caring for the needy; or recognizing and appreciating the spark of the Divine in every human being. But it is important to recognize that the source of those precious values are rooted in our history, heritage, traditions and yes, commandments. 

That should be a source of Jewish knowledge and pride for all Jews, every day. Even on Tuesdays.