10

Can you buy something from a large online retailer (eg Amazon), which employs non-Jews, on Friday if it has one-day shipping?

This would force someone to do the work of mailing/transporting the object on Shabbat. A Shabbat goy can do work for you without being directly asked. If you are placing the order, you are, seemingly, effectively telling them to do work for you.

mbloch
  • 51,726
  • 9
  • 92
  • 240
Yevgeny
  • 101
  • 2
  • Possible duplicate https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/3125/putting-something-in-the-mailbox-that-will-be-picked-up-on-shabbos-or-yom-tov/3132#3132 – Orion Sep 09 '18 at 13:09
  • Excellent question! Thank you for asking it here. You might want to check out our [tour] for more information about how the site works. Thank you for your intriguing question and I hope to see you around! – DonielF Sep 09 '18 at 17:54
  • Your question is based on a wrong premise that someone is working for you. They work for Amazon. You're not the employer, so you did not cause anybody to work. You order it online and you don't care how they are going to do that. But employing Goyim is not a problem at all - employing Jews is a more serious one, but my comment addresses it too. – Al Berko Sep 11 '18 at 22:10
  • 3
    It is forbidden to benefit from a forbidden action that a non-Jew did specifically on behalf of a Jew. – chacham Nisan Sep 12 '18 at 18:57
  • @chacham but here they didn't know it was a jew. Would that make a difference? Additionally are you benefiting from this? Could they have quickly done all assur activities before shabbos, put it in a crate on Friday, and then shipped it to you (the box inside a truck/plane would especially not be carrying for you since there are other boxes with it). – Orion Oct 12 '18 at 04:11

2 Answers2

2

Halachic decisors prohibit ordering something which is guaranteed to be delivered on Shabbat in normal circumstances (see the last paragraph for exceptions).

R Doniel Neustadt explains the general principle (here)

Amirah l’akum, giving instructions to a non-Jew to do an action which would be forbidden for a Jew to do on Shabbos, is prohibited. It makes no difference whether the Jew’s command is given on Shabbos or before Shabbos. Accordingly, it should be forbidden to instruct a non-Jew to deliver an overnight package on Shabbos, since there are several prohibitions involved in delivering mail on Shabbos.

R Yehuda Shurpin at chabad.org (here) explicitly prohibits in your case

Placing a guaranteed overnight delivery on Friday to arrive on Shabbat is problematic. Unlike the previous scenario, to fulfill the terms of your order, the company needs to do work on Shabbat [...] it goes without saying that one cannot make an Instacart or Prime Now order that is set to be delivered on Shabbat, since in this scenario you are essentially asking the non-Jew to do work for you on Shabbat.

Same for R Tsvi Heber at COR (here)

Amazon consumers are advised to avoid choosing a delivery option that specifies that the product should be delivered on Shabbos or Yom Tov

Same for Yoel Lieberman at yeshiva.co (here)

So when you're requesting for the package to be delivered on Shabbat or there is no choice other than they work on Shabbat it is forbidden to do so

Same for OU Kosher

One may not place an order if the delivery will definitely take place on Shabbos. For example, one cannot send a package with UPS or FedEx on Friday and select “next day delivery”.

In exceptional cases, in case of great loss or great need (e.g., urgent medication), there is room to permit based on indirect amirah l'akum or because the non-Jew delivering the mail doesn't know he's working for a Jew. R Doniel Neustads explains these leniencies at length.

mbloch
  • 51,726
  • 9
  • 92
  • 240
-1

It depends. If you receive the item after Shabbat ended, then yes. During Shabbos? No.

Duplicate: Can a Jew order something (without receiving it) on Shabbos?

(Couldn't add this as comment as 50 reputation is required...)

Ilja
  • 1,096
  • 1
  • 8
  • 20
  • If the item is delivered and placed in your mailbox (I live in a doorman building) on Shabbat, but you don't get it/open it until after Shabbat, it should not matter - no different from any other mail which might be delivered on Shabbat. – Yevgeny Sep 09 '18 at 13:35
  • True, as you don't make the non-Jew actively work for you, like let's say a bus driver or a cashier. It gets complicate though if he rings the bell and makes you sign digitally (if it's an amazon parcel or something like that). As long as he doesn't and just puts the letter into your mailbox, you're cool. After all, we are living in a western society where our Shabbes falls on their working day (meanwhile our sundays are their resting day). – Ilja Sep 09 '18 at 19:43
  • Welcome to miyodeya. Good site if you have questions regarding our religion and the Jewish way of life. – Ilja Sep 09 '18 at 19:47