Something astounding has just happened in America.

In an official presidential proclamation marking the 250th anniversary of the United States, the President has called on Jewish Americans to observe a national Shabbat — from sunset Friday 15 May to nightfall Saturday 16 May.

In over 3,300 years of Jewish history, no head of state has ever officially recognised Shabbat in this way and called on Jews across an entire nation to keep it. Never before. Not in America. Not anywhere.

In this address, Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein — founder of the global Shabbat Project — calls on every Jewish American to answer the proclamation. To rally every family, every community, every Shabbos table. To make this Shabbat a moment of unity, pride, and Jewish connection across the United States.

Above politics. Shabbat is a gift. And this is the moment to open it.

We live in an age of headlines.

One event follows another so quickly. Wars and crises. History can begin to feel fragmented and almost impossible to understand.

But the Torah asks us to step back and see something larger.

In this week's talk on the Parsha of Behar-Bechukotai, the Torah confronts us with one of the most difficult questions in Jewish thought: how do we understand suffering, history, and the unfolding story of humanity itself?

Drawing on Pirkei Avot, the Maharsha, the Rambam, and the broader sweep of Jewish history, the Chief Rabbi argues that current events have a shape, even when they feel like chaos.

Key Questions

• Are we living through random events, or part of a larger story?

• What changes when history stops feeling random?

• What does it mean to see yourself as part of history, rather than merely watching it?

• How do ordinary lives shape the moral direction of the world?

We all have values. Family. Faith. Integrity. Honesty in business. Loyalty in marriage. We list them so easily it can feel like having them is settled.

In this week's talk on the Parsha of Emor, the Chief Rabbi opens with a question that sounds simple. It turns out not to be: what is a value?

We begin somewhere unexpected: economics.

In economic terms, something is worth only what someone is prepared to pay for it. What does that say about the things we claim to value?

Drawing on Pirkei Avot, the Sefer HaChinuch, and the structure of the mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer, the Torah introduces a deeper question about value. One that is not so easily reduced to price.

And leaves us with a question many would rather not answer.

Key Questions

• Is a value still a value if you're not prepared to pay for it?

• Where does the very idea of intrinsic worth come from?

• Can a society have objective values without God?

• Why are the values we say we have so often the values we don't live?