Jerusalem to Be'er Sheva on Shabbat
 

I will be staying at the Dan Panorama Jerusalem over Shabbat. I have a relative at a convalescent home in Be'er Sheva that I would like to visit Saturday afternoon, perhaps leaving just before noon with the hope of returning in time for dinner with my travel partners. I would appreciate any ideas about how to accomplish this.

Thank you.

jmf314159 , there is no public transportation in most of Israel (including intercity buses) on Shabbat. You would either have to take a private taxi or rent a car which you'd have to do by Friday afternoon, park overnight, and then return it after Shabbat.

A wild guess would be that a taxi might cost $100 each way,but it could be much more. The drive is about 90 minutes each way, and I'm not sure how easy it would be to get a driver in each city willing to go to the other. If you hired a driver from Jerusalem to go with you and stay, it would be probably cost even more.

The obvious question, can you do the trip on any other day of the week?

As already noted your only option is a taxi (unless you rent a car Friday morning, drive yourself and return the car Sunday morning).
The official taxi rate from Jerusalem to Beer Sheva (and back) is 593 NIS each way - approx $160 each way - plus you'd have to arrange a fee with the driver for waiting time.

One more note - you could take a taxi down to Beer Sheva and wait till after Shabbat to return to Jerusalem - you could then take a bus for much less money.

There is a simple solution: take a sherut (shared taxi) from Jerusalem to Tel-Aviv, then take a sherut from Tel-Aviv to Beersheva (the sherut station is adjacent to the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station).

But note that this will take you nearly 2.5 hours each way, i.e. a total of nearly five hours on the road. If you take a direct bus on weekdays from J'm to Beersheva, the traveling time is about 1:45.