Q&A: Turning on a Sabbath timer via a minor
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Turning on a Sabbath timer via a minor
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Is it permitted, if they forgot to set the Sabbath timer for the hot plate for the morning meal, to have a minor move the tabs so that it will turn on at a time that had not originally been set in advance? The minor’s action would not turn on the hot plate immediately, but only later.
Is an adult allowed to do this with an unusual manner of action?
If, after the fact, the minor did this, is it permitted to set the hot plate so that it will turn on for as long as I want?
Answer
Whatever is forbidden to an adult is also forbidden to tell a minor to do. Telling a non-Jew is the only way that is permitted here.
It’s only indirect causation, and it’s permitted.
But not that it should turn on immediately, only after a few minutes.
I do this every Sabbath, and with my right hand.
And that’s how I fulfill delighting in the Sabbath in a most meticulous way.
Sabbath is an acronym:
On the Sabbath, play with the tabs