by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com

Dear Honorable Senator Charles Schumer,

I hope this letter finds you well.  It discusses a unique opportunity. It is an opportunity to honor the greatest flag the world has ever known.

But firstly, on behalf of your brethren, the Jewish people, a  “thank you.”

Thank you for granting the request of attorney David Schoen’s request that the impeachment trial of former President Trump be placed on temporary hold from before sundown Friday through starlight on Saturday night.

As you know, David Schoen wrote you and other senate leaders last week, “I apologize for the inconvenience my request that impeachment proceedings not be conducted during the Jewish Sabbath undoubtedly will cause other people involved in the proceedings.  The practices and prohibitions are mandatory for me, however; so, respectfully, I have no choice but to make this request.”

Yesterday, you announced through your spokesperson, Angelo Roefaro, that the Senate would grant David Schoen’s request.

Mr Roefaro said, in your name, “We respect their request and of course will accommodate it. Conversations with the relevant parties about the structure of the trial continue.”

We are truly living in historical times, when the strongest nation in the world defers a trial of the formerly most powerful person in the world, so that a Sabbath-observing Jew can properly observe the Sabbath.

You have thus made history twice, within a month.  You have become the highest ranking Jewish person ever in the history of the United States, the Senate Majority Leader.  And you have also participated in one of the greatest sanctifications of G-d Al-Mighty’s Name – that His Holy Sabbath is observed.

Secondly, a request.   Come back to us.  Reclaim the glorious heritage of your people – Shabbos observance.

A few months ago, you celebrated your 40th wedding anniversary.  That wedding took place in the Young Israel of Flatbush.  Rabbi Solomon Sharfman ob”m, uncle of my good friend, Rabbi Duvie Sharfman ob”m – officiated at that wedding.  You are no stranger to your birthright – the birthright of Sinai.

We, your brethren, have seen you appear at countless Yeshiva dinners, graduations, Jewish day school dinners, and Agudah dinners.  At each of these dinners and graduations we have heard you tell us that your name, “Schumer” comes from the expression, “Shomer Yisroel – guardian of Yisroel.”  You promised that you always be faithful to that – because that is your very name.

Senator, “Shomer Yisroel” is intimately associated with the observance of “Shabbos.”   That is why, on Friday nights, the terms are interchanged.  We say the words, “VeShamru bnei Yisroel es HaShabbos.”  This replaces, “Shomer amo Yisroel lo’ad.”

Tomorrow, you will oversee an impeachment trial over an issue that involves the flag of the United States of America and the allegiance of our former president to it.  Allegiance to a flag is no insignificant matter.

Senator, Shabbos has always been viewed as the symbol or flag of the Jewish nation. 

Just as patriots look at their flag as more than a mere dyed cloth with fancy designs, so too is Shabbos viewed in the eyes of the Jewish people.  The Sheiltos of Rav Achai Gaon explains that G-d has instructed us to rest on Shabbos, just as He rested from all creative acts on Shabbos.  Observing Shabbos is a sign of our deep belief in G-d – that it was He who Created the world. Not observing the Sabbath is like stepping on the flag.  You have an opportunity now – one demonstrated by David Schoen – to honor that flag.

Please do not let the opportunity to honor the flag pass by.

It is not just Jews who have an abiding belief in G-d.  A Gallup poll taken in June of 2016 of over 1000 Americans in all fifty states showed that 89% of Americans believe in G-d.  This figure has been constant since Gallup first started surveying this in the 1940’s.

But, for Jews, it is more than this too.

Our belief in G-d is not just limited to the notion that an omnipotent entity created the world.  No.  An integral aspect of Torah theology is that this omnipotent entity is the source of all good.

He rewards good and punishes evil.  The Jewish understanding of G-d and His unique Oneness is that ethics and monotheism are intrinsically interwoven with each other.

In other theologies they may be two separate concepts.

Not so in Judaism.

A belief in the Oneness of G-d perforce also includes the notion that He defines what goodness is.  Altruism, goodness, and ethical behavior are not the results of evolutionary biology – no, they are part and parcel of the Creator Himself.

Indeed, this is the raison d’être of Creation itself – so that G-d Al-Mighty can reward those who follow His will.   If, in the path of life, we successfully attempt to both emulate G-d and follow His instructions too – then we will be rewarded.

The Observance of Shabbos is thus the flag of the Jewish people – the idea and notion that represents all this. 

Speaking of history, two thousand years ago, Roman civilization dominated the world.  Many nations have battled the Romans, the Mithridates, the Parthians, the Sassanians, and especially the Carthaginians.  The Carthaginians had three major wars with the Romans and lost the last and most critical one.  The Romans destroyed the city of Carthage.

The Incas and the Aztecs were highly evolved civilizations in the Americas.  The Spanish conquerors destroyed these civilizations approximately 500 years ago.  These people assimilated into the melting pot of what is now Latin America.

It is unimaginable to think that these civilizations, the Carthaginians, the Incas, and Aztecs could survive intact after these long centuries “exiled,” so to speak, from their homeland or city and deprived of their socio-religious cultural center.

It is even more unimaginable for these civilizations, after many long centuries of such an exile, to return to their land.  Finally, it is entirely inconceivable that the homeland remained unimproved and uncultivated for those many long centuries, until its people had returned.

Yet, this is precisely what happened to the Jewish people. 

The Romans had conquered the land of Israel.  They destroyed the Temple.  They ransacked Jerusalem and exiled the Jewish people.

Josephus (Wars of the Jews 7:1:1) writes that Jerusalem “was so thoroughly razed to the ground by those that demolished it to its foundations, that nothing was left that could ever persuade visitors that it had once been a place of habitation.” The Romans re-named the holy city of Jerusalem “Aelia Capitolina.”  The Jews were exiled and spread throughout the western world.  There they remained for twenty, yes, twenty centuries.

All of this leads to the fact that there is a G-d that runs the world.

This G-d is clearly concerned with the destiny of the Jewish people.  This G-d, according to the sacred writings of the Jewish people, rewards good and punishes evil.

Indeed, G-d, in the eyes of Judaism, is the essence of all that is good.  All this was revealed to the Jewish nation at the foot of Mount Sinai.  This occurred over 3300 years ago.

The Jewish people were given a unique mission.  The mission is to declare the concept of G-d and the obligation to emulate Him in all we do – in all our actions.  This mission has only been partially completed.  The vast majority of the peoples of the world are only somewhat aware of who G-d is, but have a woefully incomplete picture.

Judaism has always felt that concepts and ideas are not enough – they must be accompanied by action.

For example, a person who wishes to become a master musician cannot merely peruse the musical notes of a concerto but must actually practice music.  Hours and hours of practice are necessary.  By the same token, a student of the martial arts cannot become a proficient fighter merely by reading a karate instruction manual.  Years and years of practice are required for the proficiency and expertise to develop.

The prophets of Israel speak of the noble ideals of universal peace, brotherhood, seeking truth and justice, and walking humbly before G-d.  They speak of the notion of hakaras haTov – recognizing the good that one has done for them.  But Judaism requires that these noble ideas be put into action through the vehicle known as Mitzvah.

Thus, there is a commandment to give charity.  There is a commandment to recite a short formula thanking G-d for the bread that we have consumed. And the observance of Shabbos is no different.

The concept of G-d to the genuine Sabbath observer is tangible and real.  The exodus from Egypt is as genuine and vivid to the Sabbath observer as is the placing of a man on the moon during the Apollo space missions in the 1960’s.

Senator Lieberman observes the Sabbath – you can do it too.

Prime Minister Menachem Begin faced an irreligious Knesset membership when he argued that El Al, Israel’s national airline should not be flying on Shabbos.

He began:  Forty years ago, I returned from exile to Eretz Yisrael. Engraved in my memory still are the lives of millions of Jews, simple, ordinary folk, eking out a livelihood in that forlorn Diaspora where the storms of anti-Semitism raged.  They were not permitted to work on the Christian day of rest, and they refused to work on their day of rest. For they lived by the commandment, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ So each week they forswore two whole days of hard-won bread. This meant destitution for many. But they would not desecrate the Sabbath day.

Shabbos is one of the loftiest values in all of humanity, it originated with us. It is all ours. No other civilization in history knew of a day of rest. Ancient Egypt had a great culture whose treasures are on view to this day, yet the Egypt of antiquity did not know of a day of rest. The Greeks of old excelled in philosophy and the arts, yet they did not know of a day of rest. Rome established mighty empires and instituted a system of law still relevant to this day, yet they did not know of a day of rest. Neither did the civilizations of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, India, China – none of them knew of a day of rest.”

“One nation alone sanctified Shabbos, a small nation, the nation that heard the voice at Sinai, – so that your man-servant and your maid-servant may rest as well as you.’ “Ours was the nation that enthroned Shabbos as sovereign Queen.”

“So, are we in our own reborn Jewish state to allow our blue-and-white El Al planes to fly to and fro as if broadcasting to the world that there is no Shabbos in Israel? Should we, who by faith and tradition heard the commandment at Sinai, now deliver a message to all and sundry through our blue-and-white El Al planes – ‘No, don’t remember the Sabbath day. Forget the Sabbath day! Desecrate the Sabbath day.’ “I shudder at the thought.”

That was Prime Minister Menachem Begin.  But it can also be you.

So, Mr. Schumer, come back to your people. Come back to the greatest flag the world has ever known.  Come back to the badge, the flag that declares to the world that there is an Al-Mighty G-d who rewards good and punishes evil.  It will be your greatest legacy.

(Rabbi) Yair Hoffman

The author can be reached at [email protected]