Causing a melacha to happen

The Torah writes “You shall not do melacha on Shabbos.” Chazal infer from this verse that it is only forbidden to actually do the melacha ; merely causing melacha to happen indirectly (i.e. grama ) is permissible. Nonetheless, grama is still forbidden mid’rabonon when it comes to most melachos, unless it is done to prevent financial loss. Most poskim permit extinguishing a fire through grama even when there is no financial loss at stake. However, the Rema maintains that there is no difference between the melacha of extinguishing and other melachos . They both may be done through grama only to prevent financial loss. On Yom Tov one may rely on the majority opinion, which permits extinguishing through grama under all circumstances. There are some Sephardic poskim who forbid performing other melochos through grama even to prevent financial loss.



[ שו"ע שלד, כב, וביה"ל ד"ה שודאי, וד"ה דגרם; ביאורים ומוספים דרשו, 65-64 ]

Extinguishing a fire through grama

It is permissible to indirectly cause a fire to be extinguished in order to prevent financial loss. Therefore, a person may pour water around a fire in order to cause the fire to become extinguished once it spreads. Alternatively, it is permissible to place containers of water around a fire knowing that they will eventually burst or melt open and cause the fire to be extinguished. Some opinions even allow sprinkling water into the air so that when it lands it will extinguish the fire. Chazal permitted extinguishing a fire through grama, and they were not concerned that this could lead a person to extinguish the fire directly. They reasoned that since the extinguishing is being done abnormally, it would serve as a reminder not to transgress any melachos .



[ שו"ע שלד, כב ו־כד, ומשנ"ב נח; ביאורים ומוספים דרשו, 56 ו־65 ]

A child doing melacha for his father

The Torah teaches that a father is commanded to ensure that his child does not do melacha for him on Shabbos . Therefore, a father may not command his child (even one that is below the age of chinuch ) to do a melacha on his behalf. A child who is doing a melacha that he believes his father wishes should be done must also be stopped. According to some opinions, this is a Torah commandment. Others hold that this case is only mid’rabonon . There is a separate Rabbinic obligation, incumbent on every Jew, to try to stop a child from doing melacha when it is being done on behalf of an adult.



[שו"ע שלד, כה, משנ"ב סד, סה ו־סו, ושעה"צ נד; ביאורים ומוספים דרשו, 61-60 ;וראה שו"ע שמג, א, ומשנ"ב שם; וראה עוד ארח"ש כד הע' ב] ,



PLEASE NOTE: The information in this email is for learning purposes only. Please review the Mishna Berura and Biurim U'Musafim before making a halachic decision. Hebrew words are occasionally transliterated to enable a smoother reading of the text. Common Ashkenazi pronunciation is generally used in these cases.

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