President Shimon Peres Agrees to Keep Shabbat--Once

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B”H

He should be keeping Shabbat once—a week! I am hoping it will become a habit with him (it is the season of miracles!).

The hubris of men comes from not keeping Shabbat. When one keeps Shabbat, they realize that the world does not depend upon them. The world is in the keeping of Someone GREATER.

When one does not keep Shabbat, they end up with the false idea that they are responsible for keeping the world and they get a false sense of their own importance.

Israel would be a lot more successful if we required our leaders to keep Shabbat.

Shabbat reminds us of our mortality. It reminds us that we are not the creator. It reminds us that we must keep the commandments of G-d. It reminds us to rest.

These are all important lessons for everyone to learn.

If you are reading this, and you are a Jew who has never kept Shabbat, please refer to the following resources so that you may work on this important Mitzvot!

It is something that takes practice to do, so don't get discouraged if you can't do it correctly at first. Keep trying! It is a gift from G-d!

http://www.aish.com/shabbathowto/beforeshabbat/Shabbat_Checklist_and_Basic_Laws.asp
http://www.jewfaq.org/shabbat.htm
http://www.chabad.org/generic_cdo/aid/253215/jewish/Shabbat.htm


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http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124501
by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) President Shimon Peres has agreed with the Chief Rabbi of France to keep the Sabbath according to Jewish law, something he has not done since abandoning the influence of his grandfather, a Torah scholar and a descendant of a Torah sage.

Peres's concession to abide by Sabbath laws came in response to a request by Chief Rabbi Yosef Sitruk of France as part of an outreach effort to the approximately 600,000-strong Jewish community of France, according to a report by Israeli religious radio station Kol Chai.

Rabbi Sitruk called on the international Jewish public to unite in prayer and observe the Sabbath.

A spokesman for Peres said Thursday that the president responded with a call to worldwide Jewry to come to the synagogue on the Sabbath to pray for State of Israel on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish State.

Peres's spokesman added in a statement that the president would like to extend the initiative to include Muslims and Christians as well.

The Polish-born 84-year-old president is avowedly secular. However, his grandfather, Rabbi Tzvi Meltzer studied at the Volozhin yeshiva (rabbinical seminary) and was a grandson of institution's founder, Rabbi Chaim Volozhim.

Peres grew up in his grandparents' home and learned Talmud from Rabbi Meltzer, according to a biography published by Wikpedia. "He looked after my education," Peres, born Szymon Perski, once said.

"It wasn't as easy as it sounds. I didn't come from an observant home. My parents were not Orthodox. But I was very religious. Once I found my parents listening to the radio on the Sabbath so I smashed it. But to my father's credit, let it be said, I received a blessing from the Chofetz Chaim in Radin when I was a child. My father took me to see him."

Peres, however, eventually abandoned observance of Jewish law and has maintained a secular home.

Jewish tradition maintains that the Messiah will come when all the Jews in the world observe two Sabbaths.