The "Shabbes Goy": A Study in Halakhic Flexibility

The Sabbath Gentile, one assisting the Jew to observe his Sabbath properly, became a permanent phenomenon as time passed, a sure indication that not only individuals but also community institutions required his services. R. Abraham Gombiner realized that in his own community of Kalisch "they allow themselves to hire a Gentile under contract to remove the garbage from the streets, and the Gentile does the work on the Sabbath."¹ R. Abraham, the author of Magen Avraham, assumed as self-evident that this had been permitted in the past by a scholarly ruling (". . . and we must conclude that a great rabbi handed down this ruling"), and he guessed that this permissive ruling was based on the fact that "because of the community ['s involvement] there is no ground for suspicion."² The ban on contracting is imposed on account of appearances, but an entire community is not suspect.

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