Zachor and Shamor: Holding Competing Values Makes Us Holier 

Sarah Abramson, PhD

Posted on February 11, 2026

Shabbat is commanded in the Torah with two words: “zachor” (remember) and “shamor” (observe or guard).

The rabbis teach that these words were spoken simultaneously by God, even though human language cannot hold them at the same time. There is a seemingly inherent tension — how can it be possible to engage in the holiness of Shabbat while also refraining and restricting? This foundational question is not abstract. It is deeply practical: holiness is created not by choosing between competing values, but by holding them together. Shabbat endures because it insists that remembering and restraining, welcoming and protecting, joy and discipline, are not contradictions but partners.

This teaching sits at the heart of Jewish life. And it sits at the heart of OneTable’s Core Commitments:

– Jewish Joy and Pride, Oneg, B’simcha;
– Welcoming and Respect, B’tzelem Elohim, Hachnasat Orchim;
– Global Peoplehood and Connection, Am Yisrael;
– Constructive and Challenging Dialogue, Machloket L’shem Shamayim.

While each commitment is important individually, their full potential to add holiness to one’s life  emerges when they are held as a set. Recent media coverage that spotlighted just one of OneTable’s commitments missed the substance of the matter: tension amongst our commitments is intentional. Jewish tradition has never promised simplicity. It promises meaning through complexity. In fact, OneTable’s guiding principle is that we uphold three principles together — respect for the individual, commitment to the global Jewish people, and embracing challenging dialogue — because the richness of Jewish life is found in the balance of these ideals, not in shying away from the push and pull they can create. 

OneTable’s work is, and has always been, about helping the young adults who come to us each year (more than 80,000 in 2025) create warm, meaningful, and inclusive Jewish community through Shabbat. Our Nourishment subsidies help all kinds of people gather at the end of the week to connect, reflect, and relax, and bring in Shabbat in ways that feel right for them. We do not litmus test individuals who attend dinners posted on our platform, nor do we ask hosts to do so at the door. Anyone is welcome at the table. We believe deeply in the power of shared ritual to build belonging, even among people who do not agree on everything.

At the same time, organizations, like people, must be clear about their values and boundaries. OneTable does not fund dinners that align with any political party or candidate. Nor do we partner with organizations or sponsor other events that are explicitly anti-Israel. This is not a contradiction of our other commitments, it is an expression of shamor — a boundary that protects the integrity of the community we are trying to create, sustain, and help flourish.

Judaism has always understood that openness without boundaries is not inclusion, it is erosion. And boundaries without openness are not strength, they are fear. Shabbat teaches us that both are necessary. Zachor fills the day with holiness. Shamor makes space for that holiness to exist.

In that same tradition, our Core Commitments affirm pluralism and belonging alongside responsibility and care. They reflect a belief that Jewish community can be expansive without being unmoored, principled without being punitive, and clear without being cruel. This framework requires nuanced thinking in an increasingly unnuanced, hyperpolarized world. 

This moment in history, especially in the wake of October 7, demands more from us. Many in the Jewish community are just coming out of a prolonged period of grieving in which we felt afraid, angry, or exhausted. The temptation to collapse nuance into slogans or headlines is understandable. But Shabbat reminds us that the work of holding multiple truths is not optional. It is sacred. OneTable’s Core Commitments are an attempt to live that teaching out loud. As OneTable’s support helps set hundreds of Shabbat tables each week, we try to model a table that is set with intention. That table is strong enough to hold difference, grief, joy, and disagreement — but only when we resist the urge to reduce it to a single place setting. Holiness emerges when we honor the whole: the welcome and the boundary, the joy and the responsibility, zachor and shamor held together.

Shabbat asks that of us every week. Our communal life deserves no less.

– Sarah Abramson, PhD

President and CEO, OneTable

Sarah Abramson

Sarah Abramson is OneTable’s President and CEO. She joined OneTable in August 2025. Prior to that, she served as executive vice president for strategy and impact at Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), where she oversaw grantmaking and partner relationship management both in the US and in Israel, as well as CJP’s vision and strategy design and crisis response work. Her extensive experience also includes roles at Yad Chessed, Board of Deputies (London), Jewish Care, Jewish Women’s Aid, and the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

Sarah is a recent graduate of the Wexner Field Fellowship and holds a master’s degree in gender and public policy as well as a Ph.D. in sociology from the London School of Economics.