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A statement to foreigners

שו”תCategory: HalachaA statement to foreigners
asked 2 months ago

Have a good week.
I guard on Shabbat in a yeshiva and there is an air conditioner on in the station. During Shabbat, there is a certain time when the guard is wrong and he often turns off the air conditioner. The question is, am I allowed to say no when I replace him to turn on the air conditioner, because even though he does it for me, it is also just a fair thing to do. If you turned off the air conditioner because you are cold and the person after you cannot turn it on, you should turn it on when you are finished.


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0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 2 months ago

It has nothing to do with decency. It’s a question of whether it’s permissible, so what do I care about decency? If it will interfere with your observance, it’s certainly permissible. If it will cause you very, very great sorrow (and also Shabbat pleasure), there is disagreement among the poskim as to whether it is permissible to tell a non-Jew about Torah prohibitions, and there is room for leniency.


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חלקיה replied 2 months ago

This is just a matter of keeping strangers out, not security, and that doesn't really bother me either. My question is, is it possible to allow the gentile to be fair and turn on the lights, and then it's called doing it for him, or is the SS turning on the lights for me?

חלקיה replied 2 months ago

Or it could be phrased differently, that a Gentile would be prohibited from extinguishing a fire if he does not light it later because it is harmful to anyone who will watch over him, and therefore he would be permitted to light it.

מיכי Staff replied 2 months ago

As I wrote, it has nothing to do with fairness.

חלקיה replied 2 months ago

I didn't understand why this wasn't an argument, that if he's forbidden to turn on the light for me (halachically), he's forbidden to turn it off for him (morally).

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