Q&A: A Restaurant on the Sabbath
A Restaurant on the Sabbath
Question
There is a restaurant in Jerusalem called Bab al-Yaman that is open on the Sabbath in a “hotel” format — that is, everything is placed on warming trays before the Sabbath begins (all the products and preparation are kosher), and a non-Jew records what each person orders, and after the Sabbath you receive a message with the details and the amount due for payment. All the products and the preparation are kosher.
Is there a halakhic problem with this on the Sabbath?
It should be noted that hotels in Israel receive kosher certification from the Rabbinate when they operate in exactly the same way, whereas here they are of course unwilling to grant kashrut certification.
Answer
I think that formally this can be permitted. But even so, it seems to me improper. By the way, regarding a hotel there really is more room to permit it. Otherwise, you would make life impossible for people. A person who wants to be somewhere other than home always needs a hotel. A restaurant is a luxury.
Discussion on Answer
I didn’t understand your (crushing) argument.
The recording in a hotel is not done for the room and the food, since that is arranged and paid for before the Sabbath. Rather, it’s for things bought on the Sabbath in the dining room (for example, if you suddenly “feel like” a Coke on the Sabbath, you can ask the waiter and then he writes it down and they charge the room after the Sabbath). That’s what we’re talking about, and the Rabbinate approves it. In that case, “you would make life impossible” doesn’t apply.
In what sense is it improper? If everyone knows that this is the operating format (and there it is known and clear to everyone, a well-known Jerusalem institution), where is the problem? What difference does it make that it’s a luxury?
Then don’t order in the hotel anything beyond the basics.
It is improper in terms of the character of the Sabbath and legal fictions. Since there is no formal halakhic prohibition here, there is more room to be lenient when the matter is essential, and less room to be lenient when it is a luxury. See the introduction to Torat Chatat by the Rema.
Weak argument. In non-kosher hotels abroad, “you would make life impossible for people”.