Sabbath mode, also known as Shabbos mode (Ashkenazi pronunciation) or Shabbat mode, is a feature in many modern
home appliances
A home appliance, also referred to as a domestic appliance, an electric appliance or a household appliance, is a machine which assists in household functions such as cooking, cleaning and food preservation.
Appliances are divided into three ty ...
, including
oven
upA double oven
A ceramic oven
An oven is a tool which is used to expose materials to a hot environment. Ovens contain a hollow chamber and provide a means of heating the chamber in a controlled way. In use since antiquity, they have been us ...
s,
dishwasher
A dishwasher is a machine that is used to clean dishware, cookware, and cutlery automatically. Unlike manual dishwashing, which relies heavily on physical scrubbing to remove soiling, the mechanical dishwasher cleans by spraying hot water, ...
s, and
refrigerator
A refrigerator, colloquially fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to its external environment so th ...
s, which is intended to allow the appliances to be used (subject to various constraints) by
Shabbat-observant Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
s on the
Shabbat
Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...
and
Jewish holiday
Jewish holidays, also known as Jewish festivals or ''Yamim Tovim'' ( he, ימים טובים, , Good Days, or singular , in transliterated Hebrew []), are holidays observed in Judaism and by JewsThis article focuses on practices of mainstre ...
s. The mode usually overrides the usual, everyday operation of the electrical appliance and makes the operation of the appliance comply with the rules of
Halakha
''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...
(Jewish law).
Background
Halakha forbids Jews from doing
"work that creates" on Shabbat. Observant Jews interpret this to include various activities including making a fire, preparing food, or even closing a switch or pressing an electronic button. A range of solutions has been created for those who need to use electronic (or electronic-controlled) devices on the Shabbat,
including a special "Sabbath mode" for otherwise standard appliances.
"Sabbath mode" is a term introduced by manufacturers and does not guarantee full compliance with religious requirements. Appliances sold with certification from a halachic certification authority will have been audited and judged to be compliant with that authority's requirements.
Appliances
Oven
![Sabbath mode on an oven](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Sabbath_mode_on_an_oven.jpg)
While according to Halakha, raw food may not be cooked on the Shabbat, food that was already cooked beforehand may be kept warm until mealtime. In the past, the Sabbath-observant would leave their food heating on the stove where it had been covered with a blech (metal sheet), or in the oven in which it had been cooked before the onset of Sabbath. Contemporary consumers seek to use their kitchen's oven to keep food hot for Sabbath consumption but must be assured that in opening the door to retrieve food, no Sabbath laws will be inadvertently contravened. An example of this would be ovens which are programmed to remove power from their
heating element
A heating element converts electrical energy into heat through the process of Joule heating. Electric current through the element encounters resistance, resulting in heating of the element. Unlike the Peltier effect, this process is independe ...
when the door is opened – use of this oven would not be possible on the Sabbath without making modifications.
On weekday holidays (Yom Tov), food may be cooked, but turning the heat on is prohibited. On these festive days, the domestic needs of the Sabbath observant consumer may require that their oven be heated over as much as 72 hours to allow for cooking during the festival. In the past, one would simply light a stove or oven before the festival began, and its heat was used over the coming days. In recent decades, however, appliance manufacturers have instituted safety features that present a challenge to festival use. One typical challenge is the auto-shut-off which automatically shuts off the heat after a predetermined number of hours.
For an appliance to be compliant with religious requirements when Shabbat mode is operating, the standard six- or twelve-hour automatic shutoff should be overridden, and all lights and displays (for example, a light that might go on when the door is opened) should be disabled. However, several manufacturers have not dealt with the issues caused by the heating elements and the thermostats, which in some Sabbath modes continue to operate as normal, which is in contradiction to normative halachic opinion. Some models do not even take care of the issue of the lights.
In more recently designed ovens, Shabbat mode will often feature the ability to adjust the temperature of the oven without any feedback to the operator of the oven.
With some Shabbat mode ovens that are controlled using a keypad to set the temperature, there is a random delay triggered after a button is pressed before the temperature change takes place.
In June 2008, nine
Haredi
Haredi Judaism ( he, ', ; also spelled ''Charedi'' in English; plural ''Haredim'' or ''Charedim'') consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions, in oppos ...
poskim
In Jewish law, a ''Posek'' ( he, פוסק , pl. ''poskim'', ) is a legal scholar who determines the position of ''halakha'', the Jewish religious laws derived from the written and Oral Torah in cases of Jewish law where previous authorities ar ...
signed a public pronouncement (Kol Kore) stating that it was forbidden to raise or lower the temperature by reprogramming on
Yom Tov
Jewish holidays, also known as Jewish festivals or ''Yamim Tovim'' ( he, ימים טובים, , Good Days, or singular , in transliterated Hebrew []), are holidays observed in Judaism and by JewsThis article focuses on practices of mainstre ...
using the Star-K Kosher Certification approved Shabbat Mode feature.
The pronouncement referred to the differing opinion of
Rabbi Moshe Heinemann (although without explicitly mentioning Rabbi Heinemann by name) as a minority opinion (
Da'as Yachid) that should not be relied upon. However, Rabbi Heinemann said that he continued to stand by his opinion that it is permissible.
[
]
Refrigerator
A Shabbat mode refrigerator includes, at a minimum, the ability to disable all lights or other electrical activity from occurring when the refrigerator door is opened. Some Shabbat mode refrigerators include a timer for the compressor so that opening the door, which would normally indirectly cause the compressor to turn on as soon as the temperature rises, will have no immediate effect on the electrical operation of the appliance."Holiday Mode for Sabbath Observance"
Wine cellar
Lamp
A
Shabbat lamp
A Shabbat lamp is a special lamp that has movable parts to expose or block out its light so it can be turned "on" or "off" while its power physically remains on. This enables the lamp's light to be controlled by those Shomer Shabbat, Shabbat obser ...
is a special lamp that has movable parts to expose or block out its light so it can be turned "on" or "off" while its power physically remains on.
See also
*
39 categories of activity prohibited on Shabbat
39 may refer to:
* 39 (number), the natural number following 38 and preceding 40
* one of the years:
** 39 BC
** AD 39
** 1939
** 2039
* ''39'' (album), a 2000 studio album by Mikuni Shimokawa
* "'39", a 1975 song by Queen
* "Thirty Nine", a song ...
.
*
Blech
A ''blech'' (from the Yiddish word בלעך (blekh) meaning "tin" or "sheet metal") is a metal sheet used by many observant Jews to cover stovetop burners (and for some, the cooker's knobs and dials) on Shabbos (the Jewish Sabbath), as part of th ...
– a metal sheet used to cover a stovetop on Shabbat.
*
Cholent
Cholent and other Sabbath stews ( yi, טשאָלנט, tsholnt ''or'' tshulnt) are traditional Jewish stews. It is usually simmered overnight for 10–12 hours or more, and eaten for lunch on Shabbat (the Sabbath). Shabbat stews were developed ...
– a long-simmered stew often eaten for lunch on Shabbat.
*
Grama (halacha)
A ''grama'' (Talmudic Aramaic: גרמא) in ''Halacha'' (Jewish law) is something that was indirectly caused by something else but which outcome is not guaranteed.
A classic example given to this is of vases that are filled with water and put arou ...
– something that was caused by something else but whose outcome is not guaranteed.
*
Shabbat elevator
A Shabbat elevator is an elevator which works in a special mode, operating automatically, to satisfy the Jewish law requiring Jews to abstain from operating electrical switches on Shabbat (the Sabbath). These are also known as Sabbath or Sh ...
– an
elevator
An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...
with an automatic mode to allow observers to abstain from operating electric switches on Shabbat.
References
External links
Reference in 1994 KitchenAid marketing literatureUsing an approved ‘Sabbath Mode’ on Shabbos – The Federation of Synagogues* An early Sabbath mode patent:
{{Shabbat
Cooking appliances
Shabbat innovations