DailyHalacha.com for Mobile Devices Now Available

Click Here to Sponsor Daily Halacha
"Delivered to Over 6000 Registered Recipients Each Day"

      
(File size: 828 KB)
Paying For A Hotel Room Over Shabbat

The Halachic authorities addressed the question as to the permissibility of staying in a hotel on Shabbat. When one stays in a hotel on Shabbat, he pays for services rendered specifically on Shabbat, which would seemingly violate the prohibition of Sechar Shabbat (receiving payment for work done on Shabbat).

Rav Shelomo Kluger (Poland-Galicia, 1783-1869), in his work Ha’elef Lecha Shelomo (Orah Haim 125), addressed this question and writes that in truth, when one rents a hotel room for Shabbat he also uses it before and after Shabbat. Hotel guests who come for Shabbat generally check in on Friday afternoon and leave sometime on Mosa’eh Shabbat, well after the conclusion of Shabbat. Therefore, the payment for the hotel room is also for services provided before and after Shabbat. The Halachic principle of "Habla’a" allows one to receive payment for work that includes work done on Shabbat, as long as it also includes work done at other times. Therefore, it is permissible to pay for a hotel room for Shabbat, since the payment is also for use of the hotel room on Friday afternoon and Saturday night.

Hacham Bension Abba Shaul (Israel, 1923-1998) notes, however, that this solution would not be effective in a case where Yom Tob falls on Friday and Sunday, and one spends both days in the hotel.

 


Recent Daily Halachot...
Reciting "She'hecheyanu" Upon Being Reunited With a Close Friend
Guidelines for When Food Falls and Becomes Inedible After One Recited the Beracha
Repeating the Beracha of Besamim After Birkat Ha'mazon
In The Event One Forgot To Say Birkat Hamazon or Me’en Shalosh And Left The Place Where He Ate
Making Berachot While Driving, or While Drying Hands Is Not Proper
Proper Concentration While Reciting a Beracha
Cleanliness During a Meal and The Importance of Reciting Berachot Before Eating
The Proper Beracha for Cereals Containing Both Corn and Grains
The Proper Beracha to Recite Over Rice Krispies, Puffed Rice, Rice Cakes, Hot Cereals and Granola
The Proper Beracha for Cereals Produced From Corn
What To Do if One Mistakenly Recited a Beracha Over Food on a Fast Day
Must One Wash His Hands if He Placed His Hands in the Restroom?
Situations Requiring One to Repeat Netilat Yadayim During a Meal
Berachot Order of Varying Types of Food & Fruit
Beracha Aharona for Fruit
Page of 239
3585 Halachot found