Holy Padlock

Rabbi Baruch Ber Leibowitz, the Rosh Yeshiva of Kamenetz, visited America in 1928 and strengthened Jews struggling with Shmiras Shabbos. Seeing stores locked on Shabbos, he said, “This holy padlock proclaims: Hashem is God, and we are His servants.”

Today, our challenge is different: do we lock away what isn’t Shabbos-dik and preserve the day’s sanctity? Our distractions, devices, and weekday mindset? The padlock of Shabbos still speaks, if we allow it to.