The three brothers who own River Jordan Rafting, which provides vacationers with rafting, kayaking, paintball battles, jeeping, ziplines, and a mehadrin restaurant, decided to close on Shabbos and Yomim Tovim five years ago and never regretted it, despite their accountant warning that their profits would drop with the loss of 2,000 to 3,000 customers over weekends.
“We wanted to be with our families on Shabbos,” the brothers said, according to a recent interview. “Our children keep Shabbos. It’s a completely different life.”
“Best of all, our revenue grew, and our profits increased,” they said.
“The chareidi public is faithful and comes to strengthen us,” they said. “They say, ‘Chevrah, we came because you keep Shabbos.'”
Their message for other entertainment companies in the north is, “When you close on Shabbos, they’ll come to you instead of other places and in the end, it will be worth it for you.”
“We closed, and it’s the best thing we could have done,” the brothers said.
{Matzav.com Israel}
True. Nice story. But it doesn’t always work out that way. Amol, the Aibishter tests a person to see whether he is takeh going to be Shomer Shabbos even if he does lose money and has other hardships. Keeping Shabbos is not an option or test run r”l.
AND YOU ARE THE EIBISHTERS BOOKEEPER
woa, relax. he meant to say something good even if you dont agree, (to what though, im unsure:) why all the e-yelling?
What do you say about the many many Yidden that came to these shores at the turn of the century and had to find a new job every week because they refused to work on Shabbos?
There was also a fire in the area a few years ago that severely damaged all the local rafting businesses but left theirs untouched.
Does Jordan River Rafting have days in which they are open exclusively to the Chareidi public, where the visitors are dressed modestly? This is also a deal breaker with many Chareidi vacationers. Their website does not reflect that possibility.