Thursday, February 7, 2013

Forget the dough, we need the Shabbos Goy!

The United States Postal Service Announced it will no longer deliver mail on Saturdays due to budget cuts it will save $2 Billion annually. For Frum yidden this news came as a blessing and a curse. The good part is no more do we have to deal with the post shabbos stress of utility bills on Motzei Shabbos as we open the mail, we have until Monday to relax.

However the "Shabbos goy" that so many of us depend on, the non Jewish Mail man, to shut the light, to turn off the fan, to turn up the heat or AC, to deliver a breaking news story or sports score, will be missed. It may save a few dollars not having  mail delivery on Shabbos but what are we going to do when the Cholent is burning, when the fire was left on, or when you notice the Birthday card that arrived from Grandma and cant wait to open it.

Perhaps President Barack Obama will once again offer his Shabbos Goy  services free of charge along with Colin Powell and Mario Cuomo.

9 comments:

  1. ....which only goes to prove that the President is an anti-semite...... :-)

    forget Obamacare - we need Shabboscare!

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  2. Your Shabbos goy mailman is actually Jewish.

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  3. Actually, asking a goy or having a goy do melacha for you on Shabbos is not permissible, according to R' Betzalel Rudinsky.

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  4. Shabbos Goy seems to be a stepping stone to power.
    What would be the Heter to open the BC or Shabbos?
    Why no link for Mario?

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    1. No heter to open the BC Its the fact that you see it being delivered on shabbos and you wait untill Motzei Shabbos to open it.

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  5. I'm sure asking a goy to perform melocho is assur according tomany more competent poskim over the generations.
    The bigger issue is of zilzul Shabbos, the cheapening of Shabbos. If one feels a desire to read the mail on Shabbos, than something very basic to Shabbos is missing.

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  6. A friend of mine bought his house from a non-religious Jewish mailman, whose route included his own home.

    My friend couldn't convince the mailman to change jobs, but he at least convinced him to leave his (the buyer's) mail in the post office, and to deliver it to him instead, on Monday.

    This illustrates that there is a certain amount of chillul Shabbos done in the US Postal Service.

    Now that the workers will be off on Saturdays, will there be less chillul Shabbos? Only Hashem knows. However I would venture to say that there is surely more of a chance of the postal worker coming to shul on Shabbos if he doesn't need to be at work...

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  7. You're not allowed to have direct 'hana'ah' from a 'maaseh goy' on Shabbos but a goy can do some 'melachos' for you. For an example, lowering the temp on the cholent. It must be told to him 'b'remiza'.

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    1. Kindly quote an halachik source for this.

      Under regular circumstances, even "b'remiza" may not be permissible. Its called amira l'akum, which is .......
      Choleh (and its sub-categories), as well as tzorchei rabim may, occasionally, have exceptions.

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