The children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout the ages as a covenant for all time. (Shemos 31:16)

Not long ago, I was standing on Rechov Lachish on Shabbos and a car drove by, R”L (Hashem should have mercy on us!). There was a Jew nearby who shouted at the car, “Shabbos! Shabbos!” Another Jew standing next to him turned to him and asked, “Why are you screaming? He can’t even hear you! Just let him be!” In addressing the point about not being heard, the first Jew responded, “I am doing my obligation! I have to make it clear that I’m not happy that he’s desecrating Shabbos!”

Can and should a Jew say, “Just let him be!” when he sees another Jew sinning?

Kol Yisrael areivim zeh l’zeh – Each Jew has an obligation to ensure that his fellow Jew fulfills all commandments to which he is obligated. Yes, there are methods (some better than others) that will be effective in encouraging other less-religious Jews to keep the commandments. Obviously, there are also other methods which will not work. But we must never forget that it is our obligation to try. In fact, Rav Elyashiv ZTZ”l explained the verse 31:16 in the following way: Not only do we have an obligation to personally observe and guard the Shabbos, but we also have a general obligation that Shabbos be upheld, which is learned from the words “laasos es hashabbos” – “to make the Shabbos happen.”

Rav Elyashiv continues and says that indeed, the mitzvah of Shabbos is not only an obligation on every individual Jew, but it is also a “bris”– a covenant between all of us collectively and Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The bris milah that a father does to his son is a private covenant between the son and Hakadosh Baruch Hu, whereas Shabbos is a covenant between the entire congregation of Israel and the Shabbos, as the medrash tells us, “Each day was looking for a partner, and Hashem said that Shabbos’ partner is Knesses Yisrael.” This means that there is no specific person with whom Shabbos creates the covenant, but instead it is all of klal Yisrael together.

With this idea we can understand that when Chazal say that if all klal Yisrael will keep Shabbos, Moshiach will come. Perhaps Chazal is telling us that it is not just an accumulation of individuals observing the Shabbos, but the communal “laasos es hashabbos” which will bring about the purpose of creation. Even though arvus applies to all commandments, in order to create the ultimate Shabbos we need everyone to cooperate, and not say, “just let him be!”

When we see or hear of someone who does not understand the importance of Shabbos and desecrates it, we must understand that not only has he done a private sin, but he has taken away some of the beauty of our Shabbos. How we can convince the other Jew to observe the Shabbos properly is secondary to understanding that it is our obligation to get everyone to keep Shabbos. For lacking this one Jew observing Shabbos, we will not have the proper connection to Hashem.

An American seminary girl once told me about her experience in a home while there was a protest outside against Shabbos desecration. She said that while she heard a great commotion outside as her host was protesting (and even the sounds of what might have been rocks being thrown), inside she saw her hostess crying, repeating over and over, “Shabbos! Shabbos!” This private protest definitely made an impression, as at least this seminary girl now has an appreciation of our obligation to ensure that everyone keeps Shabbos.

Now that Purim is behind us, we have just a few precious opportunities until Pesach to make our Shabbos even greater. We know that the Pesach Seder is a “tradition” that nearly all Jews keep. Let us use these next few weeks to raise our own shmiras Shabbos to a level which will thereby elevate our fellow Jews around us to keep Shabbos as well. Then when all Jews are observing Shabbos, we will truly go from Chayil el Chayil and offer the Pascal Lamb in the Temple in Jerusalem this very year, on Shabbos!