Shomer Shabbat

A shomer Shabbat or shomer Shabbos (plural shomré Shabbat or shomrei Shabbos; Hebrew: שומר שבת‎‎) is a person who observes the mitzvot (commandments) associated with Judaism's Shabbat ("Sabbath", dusk on Friday until sunset, Saturday.)

In particular, under Jewish law (halakhah), the person who is Shomer Shabbat is expected to conform to the prohibitions against certain forms of melacha—creative acts. The observant Jew does not cook, spend money, write, operate electrical devices, or carry out other activities prohibited on Shabbat. In addition, a variety of positive Sabbath commandments are expected to be fulfilled, such as Sabbath meals, rituals, prayers, kindness, benignity, rest and—for the married—sexual intercourse.

In contemporary Orthodox Judaism, the shomer Shabbat would typically strive to follow all the rules associated with the Sabbath. Within the "liberal" movements of Judaism, the phrase may signify a person who takes seriously the observance of the "core" mitzvot.

The shomer Shabbat is an archetype mentioned in Jewish songs (e.g., Baruch El Elyon) and the intended audience for various treatises on Jewish law and practice for the Sabbath day (e.g., Shmirat Shabbat ke-Hilkhata). In 2000, the media took note that the candidate for U.S. Vice President, Senator Joseph Lieberman, is a shomer shabbat.

The term shomer Shabbat is derived from the wording of one of the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy (5:14-15), which instructs the Hebrews to "observe" the Sabbath day and sanctify it. (In Exodus, the Decalogue states that they should "remember" the Sabbath.) The term appears in the Hebrew Bible only in Isaiah 56:2,6. Shomer Shabbat is not used in the Mishnah or Talmud, it occurs a handful of times in the midrashic literature. Similarly, the term is used infrequently in medieval and early modern rabbinic literature: for example, once in Maimonides, never in the Shulchan Aruch and rarely in responsa prior to the 20th century. The term has been used frequently, though, during the last 100 years. It is also used to name shuls, such as a predecessor to Machzike Hadath in London, a Gateshead synagogue (founded in 1897), and one in Boro Park.

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