The #ShabbatChallenge (Fiction)
To coincide with Passover, and Easter, here's a little holiday story that asks, "What if We Did Better?"
By Leah Eichler,
It started as a TikTok and snowballed from there.
In the original post, six 13-year-old girls from Shaliach, a Jewish sleepover camp in Northern Ontario, danced in unison to Lizzo’s It’s About Damn Time. Then, after 30 seconds, one of them announced, “Tick Tock, it’s Shabbat o’clock!” The other quickly girls shut off the music, turned off the lights and huddled together around two lit candles, covering their eyes with their hands.
At the end, they yelled “Shabbat Shalom, y’all,” a nod to one of the girls, Minna, who makes the trek every year from Ann Arbor, Michigan to the camp in Sudbury. Delighted to be the centre of attention, Minna responded, “We want Moshiach now!”
Her line appeared to be off script and the video cut to the end abruptly after. In the caption, they dared their entire camp to observe the rules of the Sabbath for a whole day, a culmination of their Ruach, or Spirit Week, dubbing it the #ShabbatChallenge. The entire video ran for only 60 seconds.
Camp Shaliach took the bite, although it wasn’t a huge stretch to get everyone to observe the Sabbath. While technically secular, the camp already made a to-do about lighting candles on Friday nights, blessing the challah and the grape juice before the head staff led the camp in the Sabbath Song from Fiddler on the Roof.
The camp merely added in a few technicalities for this particular Friday evening into Saturday; everyone shut off their phones, the lights stayed on (or off) and no one drove to town. The kitchen staff left large crockpots filled with oatmeal for breakfast and chili for lunch on a low simmer. Most campers spent the day relaxing by the lake or napping in their cabins, without any supervision or programming. Everyone agreed: it was the best day at camp, ever.
The #ShabbatChallenge was such a hit on TikTok that, by the following weekend, competing Jewish summer camps joined in on the fun, coming up with similar videos but in unusual locations, on a dock, in a canoe, sometimes with a curious dog or horse in the background. By the end of the summer, it spread to kids back in the cities, who found even more creative venues, on a roof, in a bus and even at the CN Tower.
The video always relied on Lizzo’s lyrics and after “it’s about damn time,” was lip-synced, it segued into some act of receiving the Sabbath. Some signed off, saying “Shabbat Shalom, ya’ll,” before shutting off a light. A few of the more devout teens, finding themselves suddenly cool, added the We want the Moshiach now bit, with an aspirational hashtag, such as #worldpeace or #endhunger. The understanding was that after the video was published, the poster would adhere to the basic rules of the Sabbath: no technology, no working, nothing that can light a fire. For many, it didn’t even come across as religious, merely a way to shut off for a bit.
The synagogues began to take notice and the more tech-savvy ones started to leverage the trend. After experiencing decades of declining memberships, they promoted weekend slumber parties in their dusty ballrooms that used to host extravagant Bar Mitzvahs. “Come TikTok with us,” they offered in a cringey-yet endearing way. Surprisingly the teenagers ate it up. Even non-Jewish kids asked to join and were eagerly welcomed.
Sure enough, the haters moved in, offering competing TikToks referencing Hitler and Kanye saying “about damn time” these Jews went away, but they often fell flat, especially after the majority of celebrities embraced the trend. Lizzo’s song became the official anthem of Shabbat after she sang her own lyrics in a #ShabbatChallenge post. The Kardashians flashed their Shabbat candles on Instagram. Drake dropped a new song, which included a hip hop tribute to the blessing of the wine. The official video included 30 seconds from his own Bar Mitzvah.