Judaism has never demanded of gentiles who live among us or near us to observe Jewish holy days in any manner.
By DEBBY KORENAcre burnt car 244.88(photo credit: AP)
As I read with dismay about the violence in the city of Acre, it occurred to me that it would have been valuable for the country's rabbinic leaders and halachic authorities to offer the halachic perspective (rather than a political or nationalist perspective) on what supposedly triggered the outbreak of violence: a gentile driving on Yom Kippur in an overwhelmingly Jewish neighborhood. Such a perspective would help the public, including our Knesset members, understand that the public condemnation by Arab leaders of the driver was an unnecessary demand, because the assumption that it is a provocation for a gentile to drive on Yom Kippur is not consistent with Jewish law.
Judaism has never demanded of gentiles who live among us or near us to observe Jewish holy days in any manner - Halacha does not require this. Quite the contrary, the only prohibitions that Halacha defines regarding gentiles performing any forbidden types of work on holy days - whether the Sabbath or Yom Kippur, both of which have the same prohibitions of work for Jews, or other festivals - are the prohibition of a gentile performing a forbidden task at the Jew's request and the prohibition of a Jew to derive some kind of pleasure or benefit from work performed by a gentile for a Jew.
YET, IN spite of the talmudic prohibition for a Jew to derive any benefit from a gentile's work on a holy day, rabbinic authorities have, for centuries, devised loopholes and justifications for gentiles to perform forbidden work for Jews on the Sabbath and holy days (including Yom Kippur) in Jewish homes, businesses, synagogues and neighborhoods. Everyone is familiar with the concept of the goy shel Shabbat (the Shabbos goy) - a gentile who performs certain tasks forbidden for Jews on the Sabbath and holy days. In cold climates, they would light fires, at least as severe a transgression as driving a car (and it can be argued that it is more severe) inside a Jew's home or synagogue. Around the beginning of the 13th century, Rabbi Eliezer ben Yoel Halevi of Bonn permitted gentiles to play musical instruments on the Sabbath on the instruction of a Jew at a Jewish wedding - yes, Jews used to have wedding celebrations on the Sabbath (Sefer Ravyah III:795).
These days, it is still quite common to find a gentile responsible for the air conditioning and heating in a synagogue on the Sabbath and holy days, and Jews will beckon the gentile (or hint to him if the Jew is a bit more aware of the legalistic differences) to change the settings. Is it not common to find gentiles performing tasks forbidden to Jews on the Sabbath and holy days in hotels and hospitals frequented by Jews, as well as IDF bases? Is it not common for a Jew who needs to get to a hospital, but not in a life-and-death situation, to hire a non-Jewish taxi driver to take him from the Jewish neighborhood?
NOT ONLY is it not forbidden for a gentile to perform such tasks in the presence of Jews or in Jewish neighborhoods, homes and synagogues - Jews have exploited this fact, at times stretching the halachic limits, to make their own religious lives more convenient.
The fact that no rabbinic authority has made this rather obvious point publicly has permitted the Torah and Judaism to appear in a negative light, rather than to have "the paths of peace." Indeed a desecration of the Name of God has been committed by permitting people to believe that the Jewish religion is cause for Jews to be incensed because a gentile drove on a Jewish holy day. It is not the Jewish religion or the Torah that is the cause of this incense, but rather bigotry and zealotry.
If Israel's Torah scholars would clearly explain that the Jewish law has no problem with a gentile who drives on a Jewish holy day, even in a Jewish neighborhood, they would demonstrate that "Torah scholars increase peace in the world."
The writer has a Ph.D. in mathematics and a Masters degree in Jewish Studies with a specialty in halacha and Talmud from the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem. She writes on halachic topics and translates and annotates rabbinic literature.
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