Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchatah

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Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchatah (Hebrew: שמירת שבת כהלכתה; translation: "keeping Shabbat according to its law") is a book of halachah authored by Rabbi Yehoshua Yeshaya Neuwirth, which discusses the laws of Shabbat and Yom Tov. Rabbi Neuwirth is a student of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, and the book follows Rabbi Auerbach's opinions. The book discusses practical situations such as driving to a hospital on Shabbat in an emergency.

The book rules in accordance with Rabbi Moses Isserles (the Rema), i.e. according to the practice of Ashkenazic Jews. Because the book is popular and Sephardic Jews wish to use it also, Rabbi Yehuda Lavi Ben-David wrote a commentary of notes called Badey Hashulchan (Hebrew: בדי השלחן; translation: "Poles of the table") which delineates the opinions of Sephardic poskim.

Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchatah has been translated to English and is published by Feldheim.

[edit] Criticism

The book has been published in two different versions. After the first version was published, Rabbi Neuwirth was pressured to change many of his rulings, so in the second version many stringencies (chumrahs) were added, and the footnotes stated that there was an alternative lenient opinion. Rabbi Yaakov Kanievsky, a descendant of the Chazon Ish, attacked the book in a sharply worded footnote in his book Chayei Olam, and other rabbis from the Lithuanian tradition supported him. In contrast, Rabbi Auerbach published near the end of his life a collection of footnotes and corrections to Shemirat Shabbat Kehilchatah, thus strengthening its stature as an accepted work of halakhic decision-making.