Partial Shabbat observance
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Question
Regarding Shabbat, for various reasons
Topic: Working on Shabbat
Question: Is there value to keeping Shabbat only partially, when one does not observe all of the halachot (laws)?
Topic: Working on Shabbat
Question: Is there value to keeping Shabbat only partially, when one does not observe all of the halachot (laws)?
Answer
Shalom and blessings,
“Keeping Shabbat” is not one single unit, but is composed of many details.
Some of them are actions that are incumbent upon us, such as lighting candles before the onset of Shabbat, kiddush, havdalah, prayers, and more. And some of them are prohibitions, such as the prohibition of doing melacha, the laws of muktzeh, and so on.
Observing each individual detail is a mitzvah in its own right and is not dependent on observing the other details.
Therefore, even one who at present is able to keep only a single detail—such as kiddush, or havdalah, or who manages to refrain from just one forbidden activity on Shabbat—already merits observing Shabbat in that particular aspect.
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