As a follow up to yesterday’s post on the real names for the days of the week, here’s an answer to a very common and important question for Bnei Noah.

How Do Noahides Observe the Sabbath (Shabbat / Shabbos)?

Answer: The spokesman for the Beis Din [(religious court)] provided this reply:^[5]

The Sanhedrin has accepted the ruling of Rabbi Haim Kaniewski^[6] in שונה הלכות that, if a ben noah - after having taken upon himself the “seven”, wishes to take upon himself ANY other mitzva including Shabbat - he may do so.

As you may remember there were discussions about which kind of Tsitsith a BN should wear.

As far as recommending their observance - that is quite another story. - RYH

Commentary: This means that according to Jewish law, as poskened [(ruled)] by this court, a ben noah who has taken on the seven laws, is permitted to keep Shabbat [apparently as Jews do]. They are also permitted to wear Tsitsith. (And based on previous statements this also includes praying from a Jewish Siddur).

However, just because a BN is permitted according to Jewish law to do these things, this does not mean that a BN is necessarily recommended to do so.

• There are some authorities (like Rabbi Benamozegh) who recommend that BN follow their own form of worship (for example he recommend that Aimé Pallière continue in a modified form of Catholicism).

• The Rambam disallows a few mitzvot for the BN, but otherwise he says that there is reward in BN taking on Jewish mitzvot. It should be noted that the Rambam does not recommend BN to take on Jewish mitzvot, but says אין מונעין אותו לעשות אותה כהלכתה “they are not prevented from taking them on according to their precise observance [in Judaism]“.

• Rabbi Schwartz takes a middle ground. He does not recommend or discourage BN to take on Jewish mitzvot. Based on Rabbi Kaniewski, he rules that it is permitted for an observant BN to take on any mitzvah. For those mitzvot which the Rambam advises against, Rabbi Schwartz recommends that they be modified their observance in various ways, and various ways have been discussed. This is a recommendation, not a ruling.

Practically speaking this means that one BN should not condemn another BN who does or does not keep Shabbat or wear Tsitsit. The problem with the Siddur is that there are statements which don’t make sense for a BN to say, but there is nothing in a Jewish siddur which is forbidden for a BN to pray. As far as the advisability of taking on Jewish mitzvot, there are several issues involved and the beis din will hopefully address them in the future.

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(source: WikiNoah.org)
(excerpted from “Noahide Commandments” Download PDF | View Online)

Rabbi Yoel Schwartz (Jerusalem Court for Bnei Noah)

A Noahide should not observe the Shabbat in the manner that a Jew does. Nor should he make a point of abstaining from hard physical work on the Shabbat. A Noahide should not give occasion for a Jew to break the Shabbat.

There are those who say that every Ger Toshav (a non-Jew living in Eretz Yisrael in the time of the Jewish Temple, who has formally accepted the obligation to observe the Noahide laws in front of a Jewish court) has to uphold and keep the Sabbath (Rashi, Kritot 9, Yevamot 40). There is room to suggest that the Noahides, even nowadays, by accepting to fulfill the seven commandments, are in the same category as a Ger Toshav and should, according to Rashi, be required or at least allowed to keep the Shabbat.

So I (Rav Schwartz) would like to suggest that this is the way that the Noahides could celebrate the Seventh Day, a day of refraining from his vocation. On the eve of the Sabbath (Friday night), they might have a festive family dinner with special food and light candles after sundown in honor of the Seventh Day, which was given to Adam and Noah (and to make the Noahide celebration of the Shabbat distinct from the Jewish Shabbat observance). During the meal they may sing songs to strengthen their belief, including songs about the creation. They may read from the Torah. They should not call this day the Sabbath, but the Seventh Day as it is written in Genesis.

On the Seventh Day itself, if they can arrange it without difficulty, they should refrain from going to work. If possible, they should go out to the fields or a park so as to feel close to the Creator of the world. If the congregation holds a prayer session, they may recite the Psalms connected to the Sabbath and to the creation (like Psalm 104). Also they should study portions of the Torah connected to commandments of the children of Noah. They can study from the weekly portion of the Torah being read that Sabbath in the synagogues those subjects which concern all mankind and skipping those topics that concern specifically the Jews.

At the end of the Sabbath (Motzai Shabbat), the end of the Seventh Day and the beginning of the new week, they can recite the prayer for the new week (Havdalah) after having lit a havdalah candle, to thank G-d for having taught Adam how to make fire, which is the source of all energy that enabled man to make changes in this world. This Havdalah prayer, that separates the Seventh Day from the beginning of the week, can be recited as a Noahide wishes and can go something like this.

Blessed are you our G-d, King of the Universe, Who differentiates between darkness and light, between day and night, between the seventh day from the first day of the week, between the clean and the unclean, between the sacred and secular, between holy days and regular days, between Israel and the rest of the nations, who together are partners in one holy objective, to make Your Name holy in this world. AMEN.

(See more in the lengthy discussion here.)