Shabbat (Talmud)

Shabbat

Ancient terracotta oil lamp, as used for Sabbath lights
Tractate of the Talmud
English:	Shabbat
Seder:	Moed
Number of Mishnahs:	138
Chapters:	24
Babylonian Talmud pages:	157
Jerusalem Talmud pages:	92
Tosefta chapters:	18
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Shabbat (Hebrew: שַׁבָּת, lit. "Sabbath") is the first tractate of Seder Moed ("Order of Appointed Times") of the Mishnah and of the Talmud. The tractate deals with the laws and practices regarding observing the Jewish Sabbath (Shabbat in Hebrew). The tractate focuses primarily on the categories and types of activities prohibited on the Sabbath according to interpretations of many verses in the Torah, notably Exodus 20:9–10 and Deut. 5:13–14.

The Mishnah and Talmud go to great lengths to carefully define and precisely determine the observance of the Sabbath. The tractate is thus one of the longest in terms of chapters in the Mishnah, and folio pages in the Talmud. It comprises 24 chapters and has a Gemara – rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah – in both the Babylonian Talmud and all but the last four chapters of the Jerusalem Talmud. There is a Tosefta of 18 chapters on this tractate.

As its name implies, the tractate deals primarily with the laws and regulations for observing the Sabbath, which is the fourth of the Ten Commandments and one of the central religious practices of Judaism. As such, it is dealt with at length in the Mishnah and the Gemara, and many subsequent commentaries have also been written on this tractate, from the early Middle Ages until the present.

In the Babylonian Talmud, the Gemara also contains a discussion of the laws of Hanukkah.

The Jewish religious laws detailed in this tractate, and the subsequent legal codes based on it continue to be followed by observant and traditional Jewish communities in modern Israel and throughout the world.