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When Does Shabbos End?

Shabbos & Yom Tov

A story ofRav Yekusiel Yehuda Halberstamהרב יקותיאל יהודה בן צבי הירש הלברשטאםProfile ›

It is told that the Klausenberger Rebbe kept the later time of Rabbeinu Tam for the end of Shabbos, as his grandfathers in Europe had, and that he disagreed sharply with the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, whose community followed the shorter times.

At a Seudah Shlishis at the Agudah convention in Stamford, Connecticut, the author met an Israeli of South African background who worked for a national chessed organization in Netanya. They found they both knew Reb Sidney Greenwald, with whom the author had davened for seven years in the Sanzer Kloiz in Monsey, headed by Rav Cheskel Horowitz. Reb Sidney had moved to Israel and become executive director of Laniado Hospital, and the Israeli had been his public relations director for fifteen years. He told a story about the Rebbe's custom. One Motzei Shabbos a Vizhnitzer chossid from Bnei Brak called the hospital to speak with his mother, who was a patient. The Druze operator said, "I cannot transfer the call." "Why not?" the chossid asked. "Because Shabbos is not over yet." "What do you mean? I am calling from Bnei Brak, and it is long over." "Sir," she said, "until the Rav appears, Shabbos is not over. I never met him, but they call him Rabbeinu Tam."

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