WeWork Owner, Billionaire Adam Neumann: “I Keep Shabbat”

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Adam Neumann age 38 is a young billionaire and considered one of the world’s most promising Israeli business men. Yesterday (Sunday) Adam told Yediot Acharonot that he’s been keeping Shabbat with his wife and 5 children these past 2 years. “I totally disconnect. There’s no one I talk to and that’s something I’m not willing to compromise on”, he said in his interview. “At first it seemed like a burden but it gives me time with my wife and children and friends.”

Adam is the owner of WeWork which is based in New York and has 3,000 employees in 238 locations in 56 cities across 18 countries around the world. It’s worth $20 billion and it’s a work space business hub company that provides office space with advanced technologies which attract a lot of talented techies and start-up entrepreneurs. You can well imagine Adam’s work schedule which includes many flights on the Tel-Aviv- New York route. “Last week I had a crazy week with a lot of flights and work,” Adam says.

“The more I keep Shabbat, the better my company does!”

But on Friday morning Adam and his wife get up and say ‘we’re ready for Shabbat’ and when Shabbat does come Adam’s wife lights candles and tranquility settles on the house. “All our friends came for a meal that was cooked before Shabbat. At that time we’re disconnected but in reality we’re really connecting. I spend more time than ever with my family. I even see my mother more and call her during the week too. The more I keep Shabbat the better the company does, go figure that one out!”

“10 years ago, if you’d have asked me what my life would be like, I’d never believe I’d improve so much in the way I interact with people. I have a better approach to things and the most satisfying thing to me is to help all those who helped me in the past like my parents, my grandmother and my friends.”

I pray to Hashem, he will continue to be an inspiration for other Jews to keep Shabbat. I pray to Hashem that he will be spared from difficult tests and ayin hara, while he serves as a role model for other Jews to take up the important mitzva of Shabbat.
Shabbat in some sense is equivalent in importance to all other mitzvot combined.
An excerpt from the English translation of Rashi to Bamidbar/Numbers 15:41

http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9943#showrashi=true

From the commentary of R. Moshe Hadarshan [the preacher] I transcribed [the following:] Why is the passage of the wood gatherer juxtaposed with the passage addressing idolatry? To inform [you] that one who desecrates the Sabbath is regarded as one who worships idols, for it [namely the Sabbath] too [just like the prohibition against idolatry] is as important as [the sum of] all the commandments. So Scripture says in Ezra (Neh. 9:13-14, which is strictly part of Ezra. See Rashi on Neh. 1:1), “You descended upon Mount Sinai… and you gave Your people the Law and the commandments (sic). And Your holy Sabbath You made known to them.” Likewise, the passage of fringes; why is it juxtaposed with these two [passages]? Since it too is equally important as [the sum of] all the commandments, as it states, “and perform all My commandments.”