Chapter 29
Laws Derived from Isaiah: Running, Walking, Commerce, Measuring, Reading, Speaking
SPEAKING ON SHARBATH AND YOM TOV WITH THE OBJECT OF CONDUCTING EVERYDAY AFFAIRS
54.a. 1) One is allowed to look for a teacher for one’s son on Shabbath or Yom Tov, whether it be to teach him Torah, a trade, a profession or a subject one thinks will be useful to him in his career.
2) In all these cases one is regarded as performing a mitzva.
54.b. One may also promise him a fee, as long as one does not specify any sum.
55.a. One may, in general, deal with charitable affairs on Shabbath and Yom Tov, provided one does not transgress any specific prohibition.
55.b. One may make calculations (orally, but not of course in writing), for the purposes of a mitzva, or for the public need (dealing with public affairs in itself being considered a mitzva-see also paragraph 57 below).
55.c. Nonetheless, trading, even for the purposes of a mitzva, is forbidden.
55.d. It is permissible to allocate (but not, of course, to distribute or handle) charity moneys on Shabbath or Yom Tov for poor people or for the performance of a mitzva.
55.e. Consequently, it is the practice to permit-indeed, in some places, to require-persons called up to the reading of the Torah
1) to promise donations to charity or for the purposes of a mitzva, and
2) even to mention the amount they undertake to contribute.
