8/22/2014 How to Greet Others on Shabbat - Shabbat Shalom or Gut Shabbos - Shabbat

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Printed from chabad.org

Shabbat Shalom or Gut Shabbos

By Menachem Posner

If you walk down the street in a Jewish neighborhood anytime

between Friday morning and Saturday afternoon,1 you will notice

Jews of all stripes wishing each other a peaceful, enjoyable

Shabbat. In fact, as early as Wednesday, you can bid farewell with

wishes for a good Shabbat.

But what to say? As always, different Jews have different ways of

doing things.

The traditional Yiddish greeting of Ashkenazi Jews is Gut

Shabbos, which means Good Sabbath. This greeting is used in

place of both hello and goodbye. However, when used in

parting, it is modified slightly to Ah gutten Shabbos. If you cannot

remember the Yiddish nuances, just say Good Shabbos every time, and youll be in very good company.

This greeting is preferred by chassidic and traditional Jews of European descent.

The Hebrew salutation, used by Sephardim of Eastern descent and those who favor modern Hebrew, is

Shabbat shalom, which means Sabbath [of] peace.

(Just to add to the mix, there is also the Aramaic version of Shabbata tava, Good Sabbath, that appears

occasionally in writing. No need to memorize this for when you meet an Aramaic Jew, because there are

none.)

On Saturday night, we wish each other Shavua tov or Gut voch, both of which mean Good week in

Hebrew and Yiddish respectively.

If you want to greet someone but are not sure what to say, just let them greet you first and then repeat their

greeting back to them. Works every time.

How to Greet Others on Shabbat

8/22/2014 How to Greet Others on Shabbat - Shabbat Shalom or Gut Shabbos - Shabbat

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FOOTNOTES

1. As evening draw s near, w e no longer w ish each other a good Sabbath, as this time of Sabbath is not as good as the rest. Why so? It

w as this time of day that our leaders, Moses, Joseph and King David, passed aw ay.

BY MENACHEM POSNER

Rabbi Menachem Posner serves as staff editor for Chabad.org. He lives w ith his family in

Montreal, QC.

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