Shas (Hebrew: ש״ס‎, an acronym for Shomrei Sfarad, lit. Sfarad's guards (of the Torah)) is an ultra-orthodox religious political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 under the leadership of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardi chief rabbi, who remains its spiritual leader today, it primarily represents the interests of religiously observant Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews.

Originally a small ethnic political group, Shas is currently Israel's fourth largest party in the Knesset, and, according to The Jewish Daily Forward, “the unchallenged kingmaker of Israeli politics”. It has joined several coalition governments with both Labor and Likud since 1984. In Benjamin Netanyahu's present coalition government the party holds four cabinet posts.

Shas was founded in 1984 prior to the elections to the eleventh Knesset in the same year, in protest over the small representation of Sephardim in the largely Ashkenazi Agudat Yisrael, through the merger of regional lists established in 1983. It was originally known as The Worldwide Sephardic Association of Torah Guardians (Hebrew: התאחדות הספרדים העולמית שומרי תורה‎, Hitahdut HaSfaradim HaOlamit Shomrei Torah). The party was formed under the leadership of former Israeli chief Sephardi rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who established a seven-member Council of Torah Sages and remains the party's spiritual leader today. In founding the party, Yosef received strategic help and guidance from rabbi Elazar Shach, the leader of Israel's non-Hasidic Haredi Ashkenazi Jews.