By: Nomi Kaltmann, as seen in the Herald Sun
14 June 2025
“My favourite day of the week is Saturday. I know most of you may assume I love Saturdays because of the weekend, but as an orthodox Jew, Saturdays are the only day of the week that help me breathe because each week I celebrate Shabbat.
The roots of the Shabbat are found in the Bible, where the Jewish people were commanded to emulate G-d who created the world in six days and rested on the 7th. Accordingly, in Jewish tradition, from sundown on Friday evening until Saturday night each week it is Shabbat, a day meant for rest and relaxation.
On Shabbat you have three meals with your family, including the hallowed Friday night dinner. You attend synagogue and most importantly, you turn off your phone, refrain from using money or talking about business. You don’t use your car, so you walk everywhere and there’s no digital escape to anywhere.
As a kid, I thought it was just rules. No phone, no driving, no television, no shopping, no tech. I didn’t get it. But now, as an adult, juggling work, kids, deadlines, expectations, I’ve come to love these boundaries. Shabbat is the only time in my week when the noise actually stops.
For 25 hours, the world can keep spinning without me. And in my mind, that’s not just comforting, that’s essential. I don’t have to respond, react, produce, or scroll. I sit. I eat slow meals with people I love. I think. I pray. I rest. I read. I play board games with my children. When we play trivia, we can’t use our phones to cheat or look up answers. There’s something powerful in surrendering to time rather than always trying to control it.
In a world that never stops, where phones buzz constantly, news updates are relentless, and the anxious feeling that we are lonely pervading every age group, for more than 2,000 years, orthodox Judaism has a secret weapon: Shabbat.
It’s not a wellness hack. It’s not a mindfulness trend. It’s ancient, it’s structured, and it works. Now when my kids occasionally complain on Shabbat that they are bored, and that they are sad we can’t watch TV, I tell them that while in the short term it this might feel hard, but in the long term they will thank me and thank our tradition for this sacred day of rest.
Shabbat is the most consistent beautiful day each week that I have in my life. And in this restless, overstimulated world, I think more people, Jewish or not, are craving exactly this kind of stillness.”