Israeli Actor and Singer Lee Biran Shares Powerful Shabbat Lesson

Between work, family responsibilities, endless notifications, and the constant pressure to keep up, modern life can feel like a race that never ends. There's always another task to complete, another message to answer, or something demanding our immediate attention. But how often do we stop to ask ourselves whether the things keeping us busy are actually the things that matter most?

Israeli musician and actor Lee Biran recently shared a powerful insight about Shabbat that changed the way he thinks about this endless cycle.

Speaking with Moshiko Stern as part of the Shabbat for Every Reason project, Biran recalled a teaching from the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, that left a lasting impression on him.

“The smartest and most practical thing I ever heard about Shabbat came from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory,” Biran explained.

“He said: ‘In life there is what is important, and there is what is urgent. All week long you deal with what is urgent. Shabbat is only for what is important.’”

Shabbat: A Chance to Focus on What Really Matters

For Biran, those few words captured something he had been struggling to put into perspective.

Throughout the week, we spend so much time responding to immediate demands that we can easily lose sight of the people, relationships, and experiences that give our lives meaning.

The distinction between what is urgent and what is important helped him understand why setting aside time for Shabbat is so valuable.

“The moment he said that sentence, and I heard it for the first time, I understood,” Biran recalled. “I said to myself: I have to set aside time for myself, precisely because of the race.”

He compared the pressures of everyday life to a hamster running endlessly inside a wheel.

“You're the hamster inside that wheel, and that's what happens all week, right? We're the hamster in the wheel.”

But Shabbat, he explained, offers something entirely different.

“On Shabbat, there's no wheel. There's no wheel and there's no hamster either. There's no wheel. You go, and you deal only with what is important.”

His words highlight one of the central ideas behind Shabbat: stepping away from the demands of the working week to make room for what truly matters.

Rather than allowing urgent tasks to dictate every moment, Shabbat creates an opportunity to reconnect with family, reflect, rest, and focus on our relationship with Hashem (God).

A Touching Moment Between Father and Son Goes Viral

Biran, who has been growing in his Jewish religious observance, recently shared another personal moment that resonated with his followers.

In a social media post that went viral within hours, the musician and actor appeared putting on tefillin, the small black leather boxes containing Torah passages that Jewish men traditionally wear during weekday morning prayers, before giving his young son a blessing.

Alongside the video, Biran described how the moment unfolded during an ordinary afternoon at home with his son, Nevo.

“Yesterday we were home, just Nevo and me,” he wrote. “A few minutes before we left to see friends, I explained to him that I hadn't had a chance to put on tefillin, and I asked if it was okay for him to play in his room for a moment and give me time to put them on.”

His son's response was simple but meaningful.

“He answered me, ‘Sure, Dad, put them on.’”

For Biran, the exchange became much more than a brief interruption before leaving the house.

“There are moments in parenting that are too deep to explain. This moment was one of them.”

Before he finished putting on his tefillin, Biran invited Nevo to come over so he could give him a blessing.

“He came. I explained to him that he himself is my greatest blessing.”

The touching interaction offered a glimpse into Biran's growing connection to Jewish tradition and the way he is sharing that journey with his son.

It also beautifully reflected the message he had taken from Rabbi Sacks.

In a world where so much of our attention is consumed by urgent responsibilities, some of life's most meaningful moments happen when we make time for what is truly important.

For Biran, that might mean stepping away from the weekly rush to embrace Shabbat, or taking a few quiet moments to put on tefillin and bless his son.

And perhaps that is the deeper lesson: life will always give us something urgent to do, but it's up to us to make time for what matters most.