- On Shabbos you may not soak solid ink into water – it’s a melacha. Nevertheless, you may set up the process just before Shabbos and allow the melacha to finish on its own on Shabbos. This is just an example – so too any melacha that will work automatically may be set up on erev Shabbos. (ShA1 – MB1)
- To stir a hot pot of food which isn’t fully cooked is a melacha on Shabbos, even if the pot was removed from the fire. (ShA1 – MB5)
- You should not have a gentile taking something out of your house on Shabbos. People might think that you sold it to him on Shabbos. This includes something of his that he left in your house. You can be lenient, if need be, to let him take it when it is dark outside. We are not machmir for maris ho’ayin when the suspicion is for only a d’rabbonon and people don’t see it. (MB9 – Beh “mib’ode yom”)
- You may give moveable jobs to a gentile worker (e.g. launderer) just before Shabbos under the following conditions:
- You make up with him before Shabbos that you will pay him for the job. (As opposed to being paid for his time.)
- You do not urge him to work on it right away.
- He will be able to do the entire job when it is not Shabbos without forcing himself to stay up at night. (MB 244:24)
- He works off your premises.
All of this avoids the problem of the gentile being deemed as your shaliach. (ShA2 MB12,14,16,18, 21)
- You aren’t allowed to instruct a gentile to do the melacha for you on Shabbos even if you tell him many days earlier. (BeH “v’hu”)
- If you order shoes from a non-Jewish cobbler and you see him making them for you on Shabbos, it’s okay even if you didn’t discuss payment beforehand. The shoes aren’t considered yours yet – the cobbler can sell them to someone else if he wishes. (MB23)
- If you followed all of the above 4 conditions and the gentile finishes and delivers to you the suit on Shabbos, are you allowed to wear it now? The poskim argue. You can be lenient if you don’t have other Shabbos clothes. You can also be lenient if it might have been finished already before Shabbos. (ShA4 – BeH”shetzorich”)
- No one is lenient in the following case: You say to the workman just before dark “Why didn’t you finish my suit?!” The gentile then tells you he’ll work on it right away. When he delivers it to you, you must not wear the suit until after Shabbos – adding on the time it took the worker to finish it on Shabbos. (Rama4 – MB27)
- If the suit was ready before Shabbos, just that the gentile ironed it on Shabbos, you may wear it. (MB30)
- Never pick up a finished suit from a tailor on Shabbos or Yom Tov (even through a non-Jewish messenger) – people will think that he finished it for you on Shabbos. (Rama4 – MB31)
- Do not apply a thick ointment on your eye on Shabbos – you might smear it and that’s a melacha. (ShA5 – MB38)
- Your vessels may be working for you when you set up the melacha process before Shabbos, but a grinder or anything that is noisy must not run on Shabbos. It causes a commotion and disgraces the serenity of Shabbos. (Rama5 – MB48)
- Do not set a clock on Shabbos; it might be a melacha. Setting it before Shabbos is okay even if it ticks and strikes on the hour. (Rama5 – MB50)
- There is a prohibition to carry any item in the usual way (like in your hand or in your pocket) into the reshus horabim just before (shkia) Shabbos. You might forget and do that on Shabbos. Today, that there is no reshus horabim, just carmalis – this issue doesn’t apply. However, many poskim (see siman 345) hold that even today there exists reshus horabim. Plus, the Gr”a held that the prohibition applies also to carrying into a carmalis. It is proper to be machmir within a half hour before bain hashmashos. (ShA6 – MB51,52 – BeH “somooch”)
- Just before Shabbos check your pockets and places on your clothes that commonly hold things – so that you don't carry them out to reshus horabim or because maybe they are muktza. Also, on Shabbos itself check before you go out of the eruv if you normally keep non-muktza items in your pockets. (ShA7 – MB55,56)