{"id":93086,"date":"2026-07-03T17:16:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T22:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/?p=93086"},"modified":"2026-07-03T17:17:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T22:17:02","slug":"sestercentennial-part-iv-shabbat-shalom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/sestercentennial-part-iv-shabbat-shalom\/","title":{"rendered":"Sestercentennial, Part IV: Shabbat Shalom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By RABBI JOSEPH H. PROUSER<\/p>\n<p>In a letter John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail on July 3, 1776 \u2013 250 years ago today \u2013 the future President speculated with remarkable accuracy as to how \u201csucceeding Generations\u201d of Americans would celebrate Independence Day \u2013 which he called \u201cthe great anniversary Festival.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-40581 size-thumbnail lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-350x350.jpg 350w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-40581 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Prouser_Joseph-350x350.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a>Adams foresaw holiday observances including \u201c&#8230;Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations&#8230;.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, as the 250<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of American independence is tomorrow \u2013 Saturday, July 4, 2026 \u2013 some of these forms of celebration would conflict with traditional Shabbat observance: at least until late in the evening.<\/p>\n<p>Happily, the very first form of celebration envisioned by Adams is entirely consistent with Shabbat. Independence Day, he wrote, \u201cought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote that \u201cPesach tells us how the Israelites won their freedom. Shabbat tells us how they kept it.\u201d Shabbat liberates us from temporal entanglements, frees us from the stresses of commerce, and delivers us from slavish attachment to technology.<\/p>\n<p>There could be no more fitting way to celebrate tomorrow\u2019s milestone Independence Day \u2013 American freedom and liberty \u2013 than by the faithful, joyful, loving observance of Shabbat.<\/p>\n<p>Wishing you a very Happy Fourth&#8230; and a Shabbat Shalom.<\/p>\n<p>May it truly be a day of Illumination.<\/p>\n<p><em>Rabbi Joseph H. Prouser is the editor of \u201cMasorti: The New Journal of Conservative Judaism.\u201d The latest edition of Masorti was published online for the winter of 2025-26. A subscription is $18 per annum.<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Sestercentennial%2C%20Part%20IV%3A%20Shabbat%20Shalom\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9415],"tags":[8790,8795,6217,8788,9156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93087,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93086\/revisions\/93087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}