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...
May a Visitor from Israel Receive an Aliya on Yom Tob Sheni?
Is it Permissible for One To Prepare Foods On Yom Tov Even If The One Preparing Will Not Eat It
Yom Tov- Is It Permissible To Invite A Mehalel (Transgressor) Shabbat To Your Home for A Seuda On Yom Tov
Yom Tob Candle Lighting
Immersing in a Mikveh on Ereb Yom Tob
Must Women Light Candles After Dark on the Second Night of Yom Tob?
Preparing on Yom Tob for Shabbat With an Erub Tabshilin
Preparing Fruit Juice on Yom Tob
Preparing Dough on Yom Tob
Visitors in Israel on Yom Tob Sheni
Plumbing Repairs on Hol Ha’mo’ed
Repairing Kitchen Appliances During Hol Ha’mo’ed
Construction During Hol Ha’mo’ed
May a Jew Who Visits Israel on Yom Tob Ask an Israeli to Perform Melacha on the Second Day?
Erub Tabshilin – When Can One Rely on the Rabbi’s Erub?
Page of 239
3585 Halachot found