14 May FLY THE FLAG

This week’s parsha, Emor, tells us about
HaShem’s eternal gift to Bnei Yisroel. The gift
of Shabbos.
“Sheishes yomim tay’aseh melacha, Six days
you shall do work, u’vayom ha’shvii Shabbos
Shabboson mikra kodesh, and the seventh
day, a day of complete rest, a holy day….
Shabbos hu l’HaShem b’chol moshvoseichem,
a Shabbos for HaShem, in all your dwellings.”
(Vayikra 23:3)
Six days we are busy with the daily grind of
living. Work, appointments, keeping up with
our emails, texts, WhatsApp messages, etc.
Come Shabbos, we put it all to rest. We have
one day a week to elevate ourselves, to
envelope ourselves in spirituality, to connect
to HaShem.
Shabbos is spelled shin-beis-tuff. Within the
word Shabbos, we find the word “shov – shin,
beis”, to return. A message to us. With
Shabbos comes the opportunity for the
neshama to soar, to reach the heavens, to
return and reconnect to HaShem. A bond that
fuels us all week long.
Achad Ha’am is famously quoted as saying,

“More than the Jewish people have kept
Shabbos, Shabbos has kept the Jew.” The late
Senator Joseph Lieberman was once asked,
“How can you be a senator and still keep
Shabbos?” to which he replied, “I don’t think
I could be a senator and not keep Shabbos.”
Rabbi Shimshon Pincus zt”l teaches that we
prepare for Shabbos as if we are welcoming
royalty into our home. We set a beautiful
table, dress in special Shabbos clothes, and
serve the finest foods. Our discussions are
elevated, and we sing heartwarming z’miros.
We bless our children, and encourage them to
share the Torah teachings of the past week. It’s
not just about doing for Shabbos; it’s also
about breaking away from the mundane and
giving our minds a twenty-four hour rest from
the pressures of our week.
All for the seventh day. All for Shabbos.
We even speak as if Shabbos itself is our
guest. We’re shopping, cooking, preparing
“for Shabbos”. For on Shabbos, we welcome
the Shabbos Queen.
Leil Shabbos. Friday night. Time for Kabbolas
Shabbos, welcoming the Shabbos. We sing the
words of Lecha Dodi, Come my Beloved.
Likras Shabbos l’chu v’neilcha, To welcome
Shabbos, come, let us go. Kee hee m’kor

ha’bracha, For it is the source of
blessing.
At the Shabbos daytime seudah, many
sing the tune Kee eshmerah Shabbos,
If I guard and protect Shabbos, Keil
yishmereinee, HaShem will protect
me. Shabbos not only elevates us, but
protects us.
Prime Minister Menachem Begin
understood this message well. It was
May 3, 1982. While still in pain from a
recent hip surgery, the Prime Minister
made his way to Knesset, prepared to
deliver a powerful message. A message that
cemented a new policy that remains to this
day. A message that brought the entire nation
to understand the importance and holiness of
Shabbos. A message about El Al, the national
airline of Israel.
“Forty years ago, I returned from exile to
Eretz Yisroel,” he said. “Engraved in my
memory 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.’ Each week,
they forswore two whole days of hard-won
bread. This meant destitution for many. But
they would not desecrate the Sabbath day.”
Despite the hissing and jeering from secular
opposition members of the Knesset, and
many in the public gallery, Begin was not
deterred. He continued, “Shabbat is one of
the loftiest values in all of humanity. It
originated with us. It is all sours. 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 a day of
rest. The Greeks of old exceled 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 the
Shabbat. A small nation, the nation that
heard the voice at Sinai. Ours was the nation
that enthroned Shabbat as our sovereign
Queen.”
The jeering intensified, but the approving
voices of those who were about to make
history overtook them. Begin’s voice
reached a crescendo, and he was not going
to be intimidated from delivering his
message. He was a man on a sacred mission,
about to drop the gauntlet. “So, are we, in

our own Jewish state, to allow our blue and
white El Al planes to fly about, broadcasting
to the world that there is no Shabbat in Israel?
Should we now deliver a message to all,
through our blue and white El Al planes – ‘No,
don’t remember the Shabbat! Forget the
Shabbat! Desecrate the Shabbat!’ I shudder at
the thought.”
“Know this,” Begin told his audience, “We
cannot assess the religious, national, social,
historical and ethical values of Shabbat by the
yardstick of financial loss or gain. In our
revived Jewish state, we cannot engage in
such calculations when dealing with an eternal
and cardinal value of the Jewish people –
Shabbat – for which our ancestors were ready
to give their lives.”
Begin ended with an enduring statement.
“One thing more. One need not to be a pious
Jew to accept this principle. One need only to
be a proud Jew.”
The Prime Minister’s motion was put to a
vote. The tally was 58 in favor, 54 opposed.
Menachem Begin breathed a sigh of relief, as
he limped his way out of Knesset. He had
made history. El Al would no longer fly on the
Shabbos and Yomim Tovim.
My mother, the Rebbetzin a”h had the
privilege of meeting with Prime Minister
Begin on several occasions. At one such
meeting he said to her: “Kavod HaRabbanit,”
I want to share my most personal tefilla
(prayer) with you. When I daven to Hashem in
my most serious moments, I always make sure
to use the words of Tehillim, asking and
beseeching the Master of the world with the
prayer, ‘V’ruach kadshecha al tikach mimeni.’
Pease do not remove the spirit of Your holiness
from me.’ ” This prayer was certainly on the
Prime Minister’s lips as he delivered the
powerful “El Al speech” on that historic day.
El Al has recently introduced a new slogan:
Fly the Flag. Prime Minister Begin foresaw
this over forty years ago, when he declared
that the flag of the Jewish nation would not be
in the skies on Shabbos.
Yehi zichro boruch. May his memory be for a
blessing.