Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi, Rabbi David Yosef, has urged the leaders of the Jewish state to join US President Donald Trump’s call for Jews to observe the coming Shabbat.

Speaking during his weekly Torah lesson on Saturday night, Yosef called on President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to encourage Sabbath observance in Israel and among Jewish communities around the world.

The upcoming Shabbat coincides with the Torah portion of Bamidbar and comes shortly before Shavuot, the festival marking the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.

“If a non-Jewish person so greatly respects our religion and even calls on non-Jews to rest on Shabbat, then all the more so should we Jews,” Yosef said. “We have the Torah, our tradition and the precious gift called the holy Shabbat.”

Trump issued his appeal on May 4 as part of Jewish American Heritage Month and America’s 250th anniversary commemorations. In his proclamation, he encouraged Jewish Americans to observe a national Sabbath from sundown Friday to nightfall Saturday, describing Shabbat as a sacred Jewish tradition of rest, reflection and gratitude to the Almighty.

He also invited Americans of all backgrounds to honor faith and freedom during the year of national celebration.

🔥BIG: Harav Dovid Yosef, the Rishon L’Tzion and Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, called on Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Herzog to join President Donald Trump’s recent public call to honor Shabbos.

Speaking during his weekly shiur, Harav Yosef connected Trump’s White… pic.twitter.com/g7PFzQhux2

— Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) May 10, 2026

For Yosef, the significance was clear. If the president of the United States — a non-Jewish leader of a Christian-majority nation — publicly honors the Sabbath, then Israel’s own leaders should not remain silent.

“I expect and call upon the president of the state and the prime minister of the Jewish state to join the call of the American president,” Yosef said, urging the message to be heard “at the very least here in the Land of Israel,” and also among Jews in the Diaspora.

The rabbi concluded by invoking the traditional teaching that Israel’s redemption is tied to national Shabbat observance.

It is a striking moment: the head of America calling Jews back to the Sabbath, and the chief rabbi of Israel asking the Jewish nation to listen.

The Jewish state is being reminded that its strength is not only in its army, technology or alliances — but in the covenant that made it a nation in the first place.

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