Chapter 27
Laws Relating to Animals on Shabbath and Yom Tov
LEADING AN ANIMAL OR ALLOWING IT TO PERFORM A FORBIDDEN ACTIVITY
3.a. The Torah (in Exodus 23:12) expresses the intention that not only the Jew, but also his animals, should rest on Shabbath.
3.b.1) Consequently, a Jew is generally under an obligation to ensure that an animal which belongs
to him does not perform an act which falls within one of the thirty-nine categories of activity forbidden to a Jew on Shabbath.
2) Certain exceptions to this rule are referred to in the succeeding paragraphs.
3.c. The obligation applies with regard to any animal or bird or, indeed, to any kind of living creature which belongs to a Jew, or to a Jew in partnership with a non-Jew.
3.d. It does not matter whether the act is performed while the Jew himself is working with the animal or while a non-Jew is working with it.
3.e. The obligation is breached
1) even if somebody is working with the animal without its Jewish owner’s consent,
2) even if the animal started performing the act before Shabbath and continues after Shabbath has begun
and
3) even if the animal is performing the act of its own accord.
