About the "Shomer Shabes":

The Dilemma:
The internet gives perpetual, year-round access to web sites 24 hours a day, 365 days a year including Sabbaths and Jewish holidays. Man is not commanded to lay down his tools on the Sabbath, so clearly, internet site owners are not obliged by Halacha (Jewish religious law) to shut them down on the Sabbath. Once switched on computers run independently of human contact. This means internet site owners face the dilemma of actually assisting Jewish surfers to violate the Sabbath whenever they visit their site on the Sabbath or on a Jewish holiday

Prohibitions:
A surfer who visits a website on the Sabbath causes its owner to breach the following prohibitions:

1. "Placing obstacles in front of a blind person" and thus assisting surfers to transgress and violate the Sabbath.
2. Enjoying work on the Sabbath so that website owners benefit from surfers visiting their site which they created for this purpose.
3. Trading on the Sabbath, to the point of making a purchase or giving a donation on the site. 
4. Proscribing all secular content on the Sabbath including publicity materials on a religious site.

Solutions to Date:
 Actually, the overwhelming majority of internet site owners have not given serious thought to the issue and those who have, utilized partial solutions that have left the problem of Sabbath violation still unresolved. Sites that are shut down according to Friday Sabbath times in Israel not only forfeit surfers outside Israel but also cause them to violate the Sabbath on Saturday evening, Israel time. This is a relatively expensive operational solution and results in a low "Google" web rating because "Google" thinks the website has been removed when in actual fact, it has only been closed down over the Sabbath. At all events, all the prohibitions remain unresolved and until now, no genuine solution exists!

Our solution: Shomer Shabes
Our programmed internet system, www.ShomerShabes.com shuts down sites for the Sabbath and on Jewish holidays according to the surfer's location in any part of the world. It offers a full Halachic solution to Sabbath violation on the internet without changing the site's Google rating because Google does not know how to distinguish sites that have been closed for the Sabbath, a facility which until now has not existed.

How does it work?
Quite simply, the system can be installed on websites that wish to protect themselves against Sabbath violation. So, whenever a surfer visits the site a check is automatically made of his or her longitudinal and latitudinal location in the world and a calculation is immediately made of the Sabbath or Jewish holiday times currently in force based on a calculation of the date, time of sundown and appearance of the stars at a specific geographic location. That is to say two surfers can visit the site at the same time; the first during the Sabbath and the other on a normal weekday. The surfer who visits during the Sabbath (or during a Jewish holiday) will receive a notice that the site is now closed and will reopen at the end of the Sabbath giving exact times at his/her geographic location. The Spiritual Endorsement The system has been halachically endorsed by the erudite Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Shalita, and Rabbi Aharon Yerachi Shalita, and has won the ardent support of former Sephardi Rishon LeZion Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, Shalita. It has also been praised by the erudite Rabbi Nathan Neta of Holon and the Hassidic Gur has shown interest in it. This service can be compared to Gush Katif's dirt-free salad vegetables. Before they appeared on the market, lettuce had to be thoroughly rinsed in water to rid it of sand and grubs. Now that Gush Katif clean vegetables exist, we simply don't buy any other lettuce. The Shomer Shabes service is like this! Before it appeared on the scene we made excuses and sought inefficient solutions. Now that it exists, the service cannot be ignored and its relative low cost makes it an absolute "must."

System User Precepts (Mitzvot):
Every site owner who purchases this service pledges to practice the following precepts:

1. "Remember the Sabbath to make it holy" reminds surfers that today is the Sabbath.
2. "Persuade and convince your peers", surfers will become aware of the Sabbath and G-d willing, they will be rewarded spiritually.
3. May thousands practice the religious precepts (mitzvot).

Who stands behind the system?
Mif'al Halacha BaReshet by presidency or Rabbi Yaakov Yosef shlit"a stands behind the system. Oren Shkalim, chairman and founder, stands behind the idea and developing steps.

For further details please write to admin@shomershabes.com ;
Telephone: 972-2-6719689