Mother’s Day. A day for remembering to appreciate Mom. We send flowers, balloons, cards, and take her out to dinner.
Mothers, after all, do so much for us. They raised us, coddled us, counseled us, and made us feel better about ourselves when things were seemingly dark. Mother’s Day is a beautiful day on the calendar.
Yet, so often we hear frum Jews deride the concept. “Every day is Mother’s Day” is the standard quip. “We appreciate and respect our mothers every day of the year” is what’s commonly heard. I received two clips today imparting just that message.
But aren’t we required to do t’shuvah every day?” Repent one day before your death,” is how the Chazal expressed that in Maseches Avos (2:15). Or “More beautiful is one moment of repentance and good deeds in this world than all the days of the World to Come” (4:22).
Yet we have a special day, Yom Kippur, to dedicate to doing t’shuvah. It seems that although we are bidden to do t’shuvah every day, Hashem saw to it that we have one day a year dedicated to doing just that.
Truthfully, Thanksgiving Day is also a wonderful concept. One day a year we pause to give thanks that we have this wonderful country, America – regardless of whether one eats turkey on that day.
I don’t know why our knee-jerk reaction must be that if the secularists are doing something, then it is no good. It’s just not so.
We have one day a week called Shabbos. It is to bring us closer to Hashem. And the truth is that we recall Shabbos every day of the week. The Shir Shel Yom – the daily psalm that we say in commemoration of the song of the Leviim in the Temple – begins with “Today is the first day of the Shabbos,” etc. Yet, we have one day a week to commemorate the Shabbos. Sometimes we just need a special day for introspection.
This is why President Trump’s call for all Jews to observe this Shabbos is very special. As Chief Rabbi Goldstein of South Africa, founder of Project Shabbat, said, “This is the first time since Shabbos was given to us 3,338 years ago that a head of state of any country has called upon Jews to observe their Shabbos. Shabbos is truly a day when we can have total immersion into our own selves, which will allow us to recognize the greatness of the 250th anniversary of our country.
So, I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day and look forward to a meaningful Shabbos.
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, former President of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, and the Rabbinic Consultant for the Queens Jewish Link.