Origin and Usage
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. One must eat without cooking it on the Sabbath and get to shul without turning the car on. (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.
Over the years, shomer Shabbat readers have been offered specialized manuals on halakhah, including a popular book by Rabbi Yehoshua Neuwirth and Sefer Shomer Shabbat by David ben Aryeh Leib of Lida (ca. 1650-1696), pictured.
A shomer Shabbat may be contrasted with the person who desecrates the Shabbat (mekhallel shabbat), a status of serious deviance when done in public.
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