AShabbos goy,Shabbat goy orShabbes goy (Yiddish:שבת גוי,shabbos goy;Hebrew:גוי של שבת,goy shel shabbat; pluralShabbos goyim) is anon-Jew who is employed byJews to perform certain types of work (melakha) that Jewish religious law (halakha) prohibits a Jew from doing on theShabbat.
Car in Jerusalem with sign "goy shel shabbat" in window
The term is a combination of the wordsShabbos (שבת), the term forSabbath inAshkenazi Jewish usage, andgoy (גוי), agentile or non-Jew.[1] The wordgoy, which translates literally as "nation" inBiblical Hebrew,[2] has over time acquired the meaning of someone who is not Jewish. In modern usage in English, the wordgoy is sometimes seen as derogatory, but this is a point of discussion in the Jewish community. According to Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi, this usage started to take place from the first and second century onwards. They argue that before this time, no crystallized dichotomy between Jew and non-Jew existed in Judaism.[3]
On Shabbat, there are numerous restrictions[4] and certain types of work are prohibited, such as construction work.[5] The rabbis ruled that asking a non-Jew to violate Shabbat for oneself is generally forbidden,[6] but under certain circumstances the rabbis allowed it, especially to heat the oven on winter days in northern countries.[7] Ashabbos goy is not needed where life is at stake (pikuach nefesh) or in the case where there would be a reasonable chance of danger to life (safek pikuach nefesh).
Originally, the job of theshabbos goy was often given to a poor woman, and the compensation was in the form ofchallah; later, money was given,[7] although not on Shabbat or not directly given to the worker, due tohalakhic restrictions on hiring workers on Shabbat.
According to Ronald J. Eisenberg, "Today the proliferation of electronic timers has virtually eliminated the need for theShabbos goy, who once played an important role, especially in theshtetls of Eastern Europe."[8]
^Kaplan, Aryeh (1981).The Living Torah. New York/Jerusalem: Maznaim. p. 599.Leviticus 18:28; But [you should not cause] the land to vomit you out when you defile it, as it vomited outthe nation (הגוי) that was there before you.
^Lewin, Rhoda (2001).Jewish Community of North Minneapolis.Arcadia Publishing. p. 28.ISBN9780738508177.Floyd B. Olson learned Yiddish from his playmates and became a shabbos goy for his Jewish neighbors and business owners on Sixth Avenue North, lighting their stoves and gas lights and tending their furnaces on Sabbath and the Jewish holidays.
^Carrier, Jerry (2015).Hard Right Turn: The History and the Assassination of the American Left. Algora Publishing. p. 88.ISBN9781628941791.Olsons' friendships with some of the local Jewish families led him to serve as a 'shabbos goy', which is a gentile assisting Jews on the Sabbath by performing household functions like starting fires for heat, cooking etc. that the Orthodox Jews were not permitted to do on their Sabbath.
^Devine, Michael J. (2009).Harry S. Truman, the State of Israel, and the Quest for Peace in the Middle East.Truman State University Press. p. 93.ISBN978-1-935503-80-4.... the Jewish Viner family who lived next door to the Trumans... In an interview with Sarah Viner... she said that during Shabbat he was the 'Shabbas goy' for the family household chores.
^Schultz, Joseph P. (1982).Mid-America's Promise: A Profile of Kansas City Jewry. Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City. p. 113....with the Truman family in Independence and that 'Harry was our Shabbos goy.'
^"San Francisco Jewish Bulletin, Volume 129". Jewish Community Publications. 1979. p. v.
^abcdChan, Sewell,"White Ethnic Politics: Irish and Italian Catholics and Jews, Oh, My!",The New York Times, October 25, 2007. "'I became the Shabbos goy at the synagogue,' he said. 'So every Saturday morning, I would go in, on my way to Holy Name Church, with my surplice on my arm and I would do whatever the rabbi would ask me to do — turn on the gas stove, whatever — and there would be a dime on the shelf at the front door, which he wouldn't touch, and off I’d go.' Mr. Hamill cited other 'Shabbos goys': Colin L. Powell, Martin Scorsese, even Elvis Presley."
^abFertig, Avi."Glatt Kosher Adventure To The Land Down Under",The Jewish Press, November 21, 2007. "Former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell and Mario Cuomo, former governor of New York State, each a former Shabbos goy, both share fond recollections of their youth, when they were uniquely qualified to lend a Jewish neighbor a hand."
^Sources give two different people for whom Elvis was ashabbos goy. InTugging at Jewish Weeds: An Interview with Steve Stern it was the Dubrovner family; toAlfred J. Kolatch, in hisInside Judaism: The Concepts, Customs, and Celebrations of the Jewish People (Pub. Jonathan David, 2006), p. 480, citing a secondary source, it is Rabbi Alfred Fruchter who is helped.
Dundes, Alan. "The Shabbes Goy", inThe Shabbat Elevator and other Sabbath Subterfuges: An Unorthodox Essay on Circumventing Custom and Jewish Character,Rowman & Littlefield, 2002, pp. 62–74.ISBN0-7425-1670-9
Jacobs, Joseph; Eisenstein, Judah David (1906)."SHABBAT GOY". InSinger, Isidore; et al. (eds.).The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. p. 216. Retrieved2019-08-12.