alleged Jewish custom/Babylon 5

Factual Questions
1

I read about a supposed Jewish custom but I can’t remember where. I’ve also tried a number of searches and haven’t found anything on it.

Here’s how I remember it: Say an observant Jew owns a business that normally operates on the Sabbath. On a particularly holy Sabbath, he would sell the business to a friendly Gentile for a nominal fee for that one day only, the purpose being to avoid any connection with work on the Sabbath. After the Sabbath was over, he would repurchase the business for the same fee.

My questions:

  1. Does anything like this occur, or is this totally untrue?

  2. If it does occur, how widespread is this custom?

Here’s the reason I’m asking about this. On the series “Babylon 5”, the episode called “Day of the Dead” was rebroadcast today. In it a group of aliens buys part of the space station for one day only for a religious observance, their “Day of the Dead”. I’m thinking Neil Gaiman, the author of this episode, or J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of the series, might have had the Jewish custom in mind when conceiving of this episode and reversed it. If the custom actually exists, that is.

Thanks in advance for your help.

2

The tradition is known as using a Shabbes Goy. The idea is that the non-Jew would be doing any forbidden work for you. I have never heard of the business-sale bit but have heard of a more prosaic house-servant role. The idea is your nice Jewish homeowner, as the Sabbath starts, gazes innocently around and announces, “My it’s getting dark in here.” The Shabbes Goy picks up his cue and turns on the lights. Notice that the observant Jew can not even ASK his man to turn on the lights; to do so is tantamount to work and forbidden. Hence the play-acting.

3

As MonkeyMensch points out, the non-Jew is hired specifically to do the work on the Sabbath. There’s no need to go the lengths of actually selling the business.

Modern technology has gone a long way to help deal with the difficulties imposed by the “no work on the Sabbath” rule. For example, elevators in high-rises used to cause a problem for some strictly observant Jews. By their reckoning, even pushing the button to call the elevator was work (since you’d be using a machine). Nowadays many high-rises in Israel set their elevators on automatic on the Sabbath; the elevator stops at each floor, and the person just has to walk on.

4

It’s worth commenting that Judaism makes distinction between commandments/rules that apply only to Jews, and those that apply to everyone. Thus, “Thou shalt not kill” is a commandment for everyone, but “Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy” is a commandment only for Jews. Thus, it became a custom to hire non-Jews to help with things that Jews could not do themselves on the sabbath – turning on the lights or heat in the synagogue, for instance, before electric timers, as long as the contractual agreement was made before Sabbath and the payments were not made on Sabbath.

The other time this type maneouvering was employed was for Passover. During Passover, a traditional Jew is not allowed to own any leaven (chametz), which includes the pots, pans, and dishes that came in contact with leavened food (such as bread) during the year. Consequently, it has become a tradition to put all such utensils away in some separate location and “sell” them to a non-Jew. The “sale” is technically a legal sale, the non-Jew owns the utensils but just hasn’t come over to get them. After Passover, the sale is reversed. The non-Jew is compensated for participation in this legalistic ritual.

Sounds like the Babylon-5 folks mixed together the two notions, to a sale of the business.

5

I thought pushing the elevator button was forbidden because an observent Jew is forbidden to “build a fire” on the Sabbath and pressing a button would make an electrical contact. Wouldn’t turning a doornob be more “work” than pressing a button? The observent Jews can open doors for themselves on the Sabbath, can’t they?

6

I believe you’re absolutely correct, DrMatrix. I’m vaguely remembering the information from an article in the “Wall Street Journal.”

7

Proud former shabbes goy here. One thing I don’t think the posts make clear - you can’t hire on a Gentile to do work on Shabbat that would bring profit to you, the Jewish person. For example, if you run a deli, you could have a worker in on Shabbat to make sure the walk-in refridgerator doesn’t break down, but you can’t have him opening the store and selling to customers.

Sua

8

DrMatrix:

Yes, because the definition of “work” as it applies to the Sabbath does not relate to physical exertion. The categories of “work” that are forbidden on the Sabbath are based on the types of creative work that was necessary to construct the Tabernacle in the desert.

9

Yeah, but is this sort of work unionized?

:d

10

cmkeller So, was I correct? Is pressing the elevator button forbidden work because it is building a fire? Or was I off base?

What categories of work are forbidden to the observant on the Sabbath?

I remember reading something about special telephones. Picking up the receiver on a normal phone makes an electrical connection. IIRC, on the special phones, while the receiver is off hook, the line is polled and the connection made automatically – not made through the act of picking up the receiver.

11

DrMatrix:

Yup. That’s why all manipulation of electricity is forbidden to Jews on the Sabbath.

There are thirty-nine general categories. The list includes 11 distinct types of work related to the process of growing and preparing plants used for oil, dye and spices (which ends up including cooking food as well), 9 related to the process of making and preparing woven fabrics, 7 related to the process of making and preparing leather, plus: kindling and extinguishing, building and demolishing, sewing and tearing apart, tying and untying, writing and erasing, applying a finishing touch, and conveying things from one area to another. A more detailed list can be found at this web site.

As for the special telephones, yes, I’ve heard of devices like that as well. Businesses do come up with some pretty ingenious ways of exploiting loopholes in law, be those laws religious or secular.

Chaim Mattis Keller

12

[Yarmulke ON]
I feel a need to step in here and note that, from the perspective of Traditional, Orthodox Halacha (Jewish Law), the use of a Shabbos Goy is, at best, frowned upon.

There exists a selection of laws headed Amirah LaAkum (asking of a Gentile). In short, the rules say that a Jew can derive no benefit at all from the actions he does in violation of the laws of Shabbat. Additionally, (s)he is forbidden from deriving benefit from actions done by a Gentile in violation of the Shabbat if those actions were done for the purpose of causing that benefit (as pointed out by SuaSponte earlier).

Confused?

Let’s go back to MonkeyMensch’s Jew and Gentile sitting in a darkening room on the Shabbat. The rules state clearly that the Jew (let’s call him David) can’t ask the Gentile (Christopher) to turn the lights on. That sort of explicit request is, as stated elsewhere in this thread, forbidden.

Additionally, David is forbidden from hinting, suggesting, cajoling, using sign language, etc, etc, etc in any attempt to get Christopher to turn the lights on for him. But, if Christopher wants the lights on, he can turn them on and all is well.

Or, let’s assume that David is alone in a darkening room and Christopher walks by. He peeks in, sees David sitting the dark and says, “You want the light on?” David may not say yes.

Even moreover, if Christopher does not ask but rather turns the light on on his own, out of the goodness of his heart, most authorities say David must leave the room rather than derive benefit from the light which has been created in violation of the Shabbat for his sake.

Even more moreover, David is forbidden from asking Christopher on Wednesday to come over to his house on the Shabbat to turn on the light.

Crazy, huh?

There’s more. Lot’s more. ;j

[Yarmulke OFF]

13

I think there is some confusion here regarding the different “practices”. The practice of having a “shabbos goy” was widespread. But it is only permitted in certain circumstances and under certain conditions, as suggested by MonkeyMensch and Sua (and now I see sdimbert as well, in preview). There’s a lot of detail with regards to under what circumstances can you do what (depending on the need, the results of the work etc.) - it is a rabbinic prohibition. But under no circumstances would a Jew be allowed to keep his business open on Shabbos even if all the workers are non-Jewish. So the idea is to have a non-Jewish partner, and arrange for the non-Jewish partner to get the profits of the Shabbos work, so that all such work was being done only on behalf of the non-Jew. This is as much as I remember of this concept - I’ve definitely heard of it, I don’t remember hearing of anyone actually doing it, and I don’t remember under what conditions it would actually be permitted, if ever.

(Aside: Al Gore was once in Joe Lieberman’s Shabbos Goy)

I think it was invented for use in hospitals (in Israel).

14

No, sdimbert, say it isn’t so!

15

There is one thing I don’t understand. If the setting of fires is forbidden under Sabbath Laws, then how is it that you can light candles on the Sabbath?

16

Seeing as how I live in Israel, I thought I would be able to shed some light on this, only you’ve pretty much summed it up. Only a few notes:
I’ve never heard of a special phone, however there are special elevators that operate on the Shabbat. They simply stop on every floor.
The candles’ fire is supposedly right before the Shabbat, and aren’t included. It is forbidden to light a fire, but not to have a fire.
Recentely, an important Rabbi leader said that it is forbidden to put a lemon in your tea on Shabbat, since it would be “a kind of cooking”. This is as weird as it gets.

17

Two astronauts land on mars. They see a martian and decide to try to communicate with it. They try talking to it in English, but that doesn’t work. They try Japanese, Esperanto, sign language; the alien just stares at them and doesn’t make a sound or even move.

The astronauts are trying to figure out some way to get the martian to respond. Finally one of them says, “I know! Fire! Fire is a universal sign of civilization. If we show him that, he’ll realize we’re civilized and he’ll want to talk to us.”

The astronaut takes out a match, and lights it. The martian sees this and reacts. The martian walks up to the space man, points to the flame and starts to turn red. Then he turns purple, then blue, and finally shouts at the spacemen: “Shabbos!” :mad:
(I’ve lived with three shomer shabbos roommates for over a year; can you tell? ;j )

18

I just remembered. This is funny. True story.

Here’s a sign that the crowd you’re hanging with is a lot more religious than you may have expected: once I was hitting on this girl, and doing quite well (she agreed to a tour of my bedroom ;)); and when she spoke with me later she said reflectively “Daniel, you are definitely not shomer negiah!”

(I’m hoping at least a few of you will get it. Jokes usually aren’t better when they’re explained . . .)

19

That’s not fair. No way is anybody other than the select, shomer few going to get that.
Putting lemon in your tea would be cooking if it’s hot enough to cook the lemon juice (i.e., raise it above a certain temperature). Then, of course, you get into the debate over tea - are you cooking the teabag? (FWIW, I’m a kli shlishi girl, but I doubt that most of you want to get into this.)

20

I know, I know. I just wanted to leave the comment out there a while for the benefit of those few before I had to explain it.

Okay, basically if a person is shomer negiah he or she will not deliberately touch any member of the opposite sex (beyond, say, an introductory handshake) that they aren’t related to, until marriage (and as I understand it, some would say even the handshake is pushing it). My roommate is shomer negiah; he’s been engaged for between four and five months now; he has never kissed his fiance.

I should mention, they are the absolute cutest couple anyone has ever met.

Of course there’s a bit more to it than that (for example, why a person would decide to be shomer negiah), but then again there’s also a lot more to being shomer shabbos than just not playing with matches on Saturday.

So to sum it up, when the young woman said to me, “you are definitely not shomer negiah,” it was her way of saying that it was evident I wanted more than a handshake.