ots@ohrtorahstone.org.il

Question:
We employ a Filipina woman who takes care of my elderly mother and helps with household chores. My question is, can this woman cook for us on Shabbat in a crisis, or turn on the heating if it becomes necessary?

Answer:
In parshat Va-Et'hanan, in the Ten Commandments, we find the famous command: "Guard the Shabbat day to make it holy… in order that your manservant and maidservant may rest like you." This commandment refers to an "eved kena'ani" - i.e., a non-Jewish servant in the employ of a Jewish family. Thus it is clear that the Torah forbids a non-Jew who works for a Jew to perform any prohibited act on Shabbat. This is reflected in the ruling of the Mishnah, the Gemara and the Poskim. The idea behind this prohibition is a great and powerful one: the Holy One is the true Master, and we are all His servants. One servant cannot subjugate another servant; every person must be free before the great and sole Master - the Creator of the Universe.

Hence we conclude that a non-Jew employed by a Jew may serve food, prepare the table, and perform light cleaning - i.e., all the actions that a Jew could perform himself on Shabbat - but nothing beyond that.

The Gemara, in Massekhet Gittin 8, brings an exception to the above halakha: The Gemara permits a non-Jew to write a document of purchase of land in Eretz Yisrael on behalf of a Jew. The Gemara asks, how is it possible that the non-Jew here may perform on our behalf something that we ourselves are forbidden from doing on Shabbat? The answer given is that "The mitzvah of settling Eretz Yisrael is different." There are halakhic authorities who interpret the Gemara as permitting one to request of a non-Jew that he perform an activity that is forbidden to us on Shabbat for the purposes of any mitzvah - not only the mitzvah of settling Eretz Yisrael.

This issue is a subject of controversy, and both opinions are quoted in the Shulhan Arukh. According to those authorities who maintain that activities prohibited to Jews on Shabbat may be performed by a non-Jew for the purpose of any mitzvah, one may ask a non-Jew to transport nurses back home after a hospital shift on Shabbat in order to allow the medical staff to fulfill the mitzvah of "oneg Shabbat" with their families.

If you have a question for Q & A, send it to ots@ohrtorahstone.org.il . We cannot guarantee that all questions received will be answered in this column.

Previous 'Q&As':
Relating to

• Maaser Kessafim
• Where to light Hannukah lights
• Women dancing with sefer torah
• Individual's feeling of security
• Differing Berachot when male/female born
• Eating dairy meals on Shabbat
• Visiting Israel and the security situation
• Playing football on Shabbat
• Shmitta laws
• Kitniyot on Pesach
• Driving throught Judea, Samaria and Gaza
• Inebriation on Purim
• Travelling to India and vegetarian food
• Laws of mourning
• Expressing disapproval of chillul shabbat
• Interpretation of dreams
• Women's Minyanim
• Refrigerators on Shabbat
• Succah
• Tzeddaka
• Muktsa and Marketing campaigns

Return to Ohr Torah Stone