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...
Covering the Chicken’s Blood After Kapparot
Yom Kippur – Arbit on Mosa’eh Yom Kippur
Halachot of Habdala When Yom Kippur Falls on Shabbat
Is “Va’ani Tefilati” Recited at Minha When Yom Kippur Falls on Shabbat?
The Unique Opportunity of the Ten Days of Repentance, and the Special Obligation of Repentance on Yom Kippur
Halachot for One Who Needs to Eat on Yom Kippur
Asking One’s Parents for Forgiveness Before Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur – Asking Forgiveness From One’s Fellow by Phone, Fax, E-mail or Texting
Halachot and Customs for Mosa’eh Yom Kippur
The Misva to Eat on Ereb Yom Kippur
Does a Woman Recite “Shehehiyanu” When Lighting Yom Tob Candles?
Yom Kippur: The Prohibition Against Marital Relations, and Avoiding Bodily Emissions
Asking One’s Fellow for Forgiveness Before Yom Kippur
Repentance: The Proper Conduct for a Ba’al Teshuba, and the Special Obligation of Repentance on Yom Kippur
The Highest Level of Teshuba
Page of 239
3585 Halachot found