Dennis Prager observes the Jewish Sabbath without following all Orthodox rules. He skips work and his radio show but uses electricity and sometimes gives paid speeches, arguing that Orthodox rabbis do the same thing and the community accepts it.
The question is, given that I observe the Shabbat, the Sabbath, not quite in the way Orthodox Jews do— there are things I will do that they don't do, I will use electricity, for example— but I go to synagogue every Sabbath, I have Shabbat dinner every Friday night. I don't work, I don't do a radio show, I don't do podcasts, I don't go on shows, uh, uh, during that 24 hours. So I'm, I'm pretty serious about the, the, the Sabbath. It's in the Ten Commandments, which I take really seriously. I believe they were in fact revealed by God, which is a big deal. So he asks the question, so what he's really asking, what is work? So the Orthodox Jew would say that I can do reading on Leviticus, but I couldn't do writing on Leviticus. On the Sabbath. Writing is one of the prohibited acts in Jewish law, rabbinic law to be precise. So first let me take the larger question about working on the Sabbath generally. So my grandson, who is a very serious Orthodox Jew, my son is Orthodox, my My two grandsons are Orthodox. So he has been working his way through a sort of dilemma, I think. I think I can say this, and I think I can say it publicly. I share a lot of my life with people, but I think what I'm saying is accurate. He's working through understanding, of course, Judaism, but me, his grandfather, whom he has, I think, love and respect for. So how is it that I'm so committed to Judaism, to God, to the Torah, and yet I'm not Orthodox? Which, by the way, puzzles a lot of Jews, not just my grandson. The younger grandson is not yet of age to ask these questions. Questions. So he asked if I give speeches on Friday nights, for example. Do I give a speech? If I'm invited by a group to give a speech, will I do it? So I told him that if the topic is morality, religion, and related subjects, on occasion I do take it. I don't like it. Because I'd rather be home for Shabbat. But on occasion I do take those speeches. And I said, working on the Sabbath is exactly what your rabbi, your Orthodox rabbi, does. In fact, he works harder on the Sabbath than he works on a Wednesday. That's his day of work, not his day of rest, ironically. And nobody thinks that your rabbi is violating the Sabbath. When I go and speak about the necessity of God in our civilization, for example, why am I doing anything different than your rabbi does? The only thing different that I'm doing is that I will travel, that I will drive, let's say, from my hotel to the venue. By the way, many times I don't even do that because the venue is the hotel that I'm staying at. So, uh, what am I doing? By the way, he accepted this. It made perfect sense to him. Poppy, that's me, does what my rabbi does. He speaks about God, religion, morality, etc. on the Sabbath. So my rabbi does it and gets paid, and my, my grandfather does it and he gets paid.
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