Closed for Shabbos

In July 2019, Avi, an experienced barber from New York, moved with his family to Boca Raton, Florida. As soon as they settled in, he began looking for work.

Avi had years of experience and was confident in his skills. But as he contacted barbershops throughout the area, he kept running into the same problem. Saturday was one of the busiest days of the week. Shop after shop told him essentially the same thing: They were only interested in hiring him if he was willing to work on Saturday. For Avi, an observant Jew, that was simply not an option.

At one of the last shops he approached, the owner told him frankly: "If you're going to stick to your Sabbath commitment, you don't have much hope. In Florida, everyone gets haircuts on Saturday, and the barbershops are closed on Sunday. That's just how it works."

It certainly did not sound promising. But just thirty minutes later, Avi called another shop, Oasis Barbershop. He spoke to Oscar, the owner, who invited him to come down for an interview. Oscar ran the shop by himself. When Avi arrived, he told Oscar about his experience and demonstrated his skills. Oscar was impressed.

There was only one thing Avi still had to tell him. "I don't work on Saturday," he explained. “I observe the Jewish Sabbath."

Avi waited for Oscar to respond as all the others had. But it never came. Oscar acknowledged that Saturday was one of his busiest days, but Avi's refusal to work that day did not bother him. He was happy to hire Avi for the rest of the week.

For Avi, the job could hardly have worked out better. The pay was good, the arrangement suited him perfectly, and the shop was even seven or eight minutes closer to his home than most of the other places he had approached.

But several weeks later, Avi began noticing something that deeply disturbed him.

Oscar's barbershop operated primarily by appointment, and Avi noticed that a significant number of the customers booking appointments on Saturdays were Jewish. Some were Jews with little connection to Yiddishkeit; others were intermarried. There were even Jewish customers who would come for haircuts on Rosh Hashanah or before heading to shul on Yom Kippur.

Avi could not get it out of his mind. Finally, he approached Oscar with an idea.

"Would you consider opening the shop on Sunday?” he asked. “You can continue working Saturdays, and I'll work Sundays. At least the Jewish customers who want a weekend appointment will have another option. Maybe instead of coming on Shabbos, they'll come to me on Sunday.”

Oscar thought about it. “Let's give it a try.”

They opened on Sunday. Within three weeks, Oscar approached Avi with an astonishing observation.

"You know what's happening?” he said. "My Jewish customers who used to come to me on Saturdays are coming to you on Sundays instead.”

These were not simply occasional customers. Many had been coming to Oscar for years. They trusted him and had developed close relationships with him. Yet now, many were changing their appointments from Saturday to Sunday.

Oscar was deeply moved by what he was witnessing. He had read parts of the Bible and knew enough about Judaism to understand the significance of Shabbos. Soon, when a Jewish customer would try to schedule an appointment for Saturday, Oscar himself began challenging him.

"Isn't keeping the Sabbath one of your Ten Commandments?" he would ask.

The customers would laugh. "What happened to you, Oscar? Avi made you religious?"

"No," Oscar would respond. “This isn't about Avi making me religious. It's in your Bible. You're the Chosen People. This is what you're supposed to do!”

Slowly but surely, something remarkable happened. One Jewish customer after another stopped coming on Shabbos and began scheduling appointments for Sunday instead.

Then Oscar decided to take it one step further. If Sunday was working so well, why remain open on Saturday at all?

He closed the shop on Saturdays.

But Oscar was not finished. Seeing the impact his decision was having, he told Avi that he had made another decision: The barbershop would close on the Jewish holidays as well.

"If Jewish customers come here because they don't know any better," Oscar explained, "I don't want my shop to be the reason they do something they shouldn't be doing.”

The transformation was complete. The very barbershop that had once been filled with Jewish customers on Shabbos was now closed every Shabbos and Yom Tov and open on Sundays instead.

And there was one final surprise.

Oscar later reflected that after he made his barbershop "Shomer Shabbos," business had actually increased by approximately thirty percent. Some of the increase could certainly be explained by the fact that few competing barbershops were open on Sundays. But Oscar saw something more. He was convinced that the bracha came because his business was now helping Jews keep Shabbos rather than enabling them to violate it.

Today, the sign at Oscar's barbershop proudly announces its unusual schedule: Closed Saturdays and Jewish Holidays. Open Sundays.

Avi had moved to Florida worried that keeping Shabbos might cost him his livelihood. Instead, his commitment to Shabbos did far more than protect his own observance. It changed an entire barbershop.