Shabbat Is Core to Jewish Identity—Even for the Secular
Drawing on the Cultural Zionist vision of Ahad Haʿam and Hayyim Nahman Bialik, Dr. Zierler explores in her article for thetorah.com how Shabbat is not about belief, but about belonging. That vision of Shabbat emerges as the aesthetic, temporal, and cultural heart of Jewish identity—one that sustained the Jewish people across generations and could anchor a renewed secular Hebrew culture. By reimagining rituals, spaces, and song, Bialik and his circle positioned Shabbat as a weekly act of cultural renewal, welcomed as a queen at the heart of modern Jewish life.