Judge’s Saturday Ruling Triggers Shabbat Violation for Reserve Lawyer

Israel’s ombudsman for judicial complaints disclosed an unusual case in which a judge signed a technical ruling during Shabbat, triggering an automatic alert in the Net HaMishpat system that led a Sabbath-observant lawyer to open his phone and inadvertently violate Shabbat. The decision was published Thursday, and the incident involved a lawyer who also serves in the reserves and must remain reachable on his mobile phone for operational needs.

According to Ombudsman Justice (ret.) Asher Kula, the judge signed the decision at 7:07 p.m. on Saturday, about 80 minutes before Shabbat ended. The alert was sent automatically to the parties’ attorneys. The lawyer said he checked the phone thinking the message concerned an emergency, only to discover that it was a judicial decision issued during Shabbat.

The lawyer described the experience in harsh terms, saying, “It is hard to describe in words the intensity of the pain I felt at that moment.” He added that someone who is willing to desecrate Shabbat only to save a life found himself doing so not for pikuach nefesh, but because of a technical notice about a court decision entered into a computerized system on “Shabbat kodesh.” He also said the incident harmed his willingness to violate Shabbat in the future for military purposes.

In his response, the judge said he does not observe Shabbat and sometimes works on Saturdays because of heavy workload. He said the ruling was issued “without attention before the end of Shabbat,” and promised to check Shabbat ending times more carefully in the future. He also acknowledged the lawyer’s complaint, saying he had not meant to cause distress to someone who follows Sabbath law.

Kula did not uphold the complaint, but he accepted part of the criticism and said the judge should have anticipated that Sabbath-observant lawyers could receive such alerts. The ombudsman emphasized that judicial decisions should be issued on Shabbat only when there is a real necessity, and recommended that the Director of the Courts renew instructions to judges not to sign decisions on Shabbat except in essential cases.