Chapter 30
General Rules Relating to Actions Performed by a Non-Jew on Shabbath and Yom Tov
APPLICABLE PROHIBITIONS
7.a. 1) Likewise, if there is light in the room, but not enough to make reading easy and comfortable, one may say to a non-Jew,
a) “I can’t read, because there isn’t enough light,” or
b) “It’s rather dark, because there’s only one light on,”
so that he understands himself that he should switch on an additional light.
2) Here too one is merely stating facts from which it is apparent that the act of turning on the light needs to be performed.
3) a) One is allowed to derive from the additional light the same kind of benefit as one could have derived in that place (albeit with difficulty) from the original light, and this one may do for as long as the original light continues to burn.
b) The mere improvement in one’s convenience of reading is not so substantial a benefit as to fall within the prohibition referred to in paragraph 3 above.
7.b. 1) On the other hand, one may not say to a non-Jew, on Shabbath, “Do me a favor. There’s not enough light in the room.”
2) By using this turn of phrase, one is plainly just telling the non-Jew what to do.
3) Nevertheless, prior to the commencement of Shabbath, one may indicate to the non-Jew, even by means of so thinly veiled a hint, that he should do the forbidden act on Shabbath.
