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Short Summary
Main recommendation: Keep Shabbos strictly, even when a lucrative job requires working on it, as Ida Burkowski did when she refused a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911. The fire that killed over 146 people at that factory occurred while she was home observing Shabbos, and the speaker argues the story also teaches keeping Shabbos peaceful and free of anger.
Key Points
- Ida Burkowski (born Haya Elka), the 16-year-old daughter of Rabbi Burkovsky, moved from Monticello to Manhattan to live with her uncle and aunt, the Schultzes, and attend night school.
- She was offered a well-paid job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, which required Shabbos work, and she refused it.
- On March 25, 1911, a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory killed over 146 people, many of them young Jewish women.
- The Shabbos that week was Parshas Vayakhel, whose verse "Lo sivaaru esh" (you shall not kindle fire) was read in synagogues worldwide on the day of the fire — the speaker calls this an amazing coincidence, not a certainty of causation.
- The fire led to widespread safety laws and industry standards across the United States.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: Keep Shabbos even when offered a lucrative job that requires working on it. On Erev Shabbos, say three things to your family: check that the eruv was made, separate maaser (tithes), and light the Shabbos candles. Speak to them calmly and softly, not in a loud, angry voice that others could hear outside, and avoid kindling fire or anger on Shabbos.
- The speaker says Rabbi Burkovsky came to America in 1906, served the Landfield Avenue Shul in Monticello as shochet, mohel, and shamash, and brought his wife Hinda and children over in 1908.
- The speaker says he spoke with Ida's daughter Mrs. Hannah Markowitz of West Haven and with her granddaughter and great-granddaughters in Baltimore, who all said that had Ida worked that day, they would not be here.
- The speaker cites the Tosafot Yom Tov's comment on the Mishnah in Shabbos, explaining that "in your house" means such reminders should be said gently, not shouted loudly enough to be heard outside.
Bottom Line
Ida's refusal to work on Shabbos spared her life and secured a family legacy of Shabbos observance, a lesson the speaker connects to keeping Shabbos peaceful as well as unbroken.
