Let's suppose you would like to bring someone closer to Torah observance. Nothing like a Shabbos experience, right? Problem is, of course, getting the estranged from Torah Jew to commit to an entire Shabbos. I mean... after having experienced the warmth and beauty of a Shabbos meal once or twice or... well, let's be honest, it could take 100s of experiences over several years to finally be ready to commit. So you start thinking and thinking.... well, my friend is driving all over the place on Shabbos anyway... while is he at my house, he certainly won't be driving or anything else to desecrate the Shabbos... I won't force him to drive to my house, but even if I straight up invite him to drive over, it is a worst transgressing a Rabbinic ordinance.
What could be wrong? I mean, of course, besides the usual devastating consequences, as discussed in a previous TftD. (Which makes the question of "what could be wrong" about as insensitive as "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?") Besides, perhaps your friend might have decided to stay home that night and just suck down some brewskies while watching something on the idiot box. In which case, he really would have only been transgressing Rabbinic ordinances and completely without intention. Driving to your house, however, is certainly desecrating the Shabbos, certainly with intent. You, by causing that, have transgressed the Torah prohibition to not put a stumbling block before the naive.
But forget what I say, and forget what logic dictates. Ask R' Fuerst; he'll tell you "no". And if you push, R' Fuerst will tell you, "It's not what I say, it's what our גדולי ישראל/current sages say." In fact, R' Fuerst just said over (again, I have heard it from him before) at the Sunday morning shiur (so it's recorded; not that R' Fuerst is shy about saying things "on the record") an interesting story on that point. A rav (whom R' Fuerst did not name) kept pushing R' Fuerst to agree that it is ok to invite Jews over for Shabbos in order to bring them closer to Torah. R' Fuerst told him, "Listen... you are going to Eretz Yisrael, why don't you go ask R' Elyashiv?" The rav didn't think he would be able to get in to see the great R' Elyashiv. R' Fuerst told him, "Don't worry; I'll get you in." (I am always taken aback by that. We call R' Fuerst all the time like it's nothing... but R' Fuerst is so well known world wide that he has no trouble promising to get someone in to see the גדולים in Eretz Yisrael.) The rav said he didn't speak Yiddish. R' Fuerst told him, "Don't worry; I'll arrange a translator for you.... Hebrew, Yiddish, English... whatever you want." The rav agreed.
A few weeks passed and the rav didn't call R' Fuerst to tell him the psak from R' Elyashiv. So R' Fuerst called him to ask what R' Elyashiv said. The rav said, "R' Elyashiv doesn't really understand the issues." R' Fuerst explained quite clearly that it was not R' Elyashiv that didn't understand the issue. The rav has apparently not spoken with R' Fuerst since.
Today is a big day for me. I finished the 5th chapter of Bava Metzia. (By the way... that makes 148 daf -- 74 daf twice; I do a chapter and then I immediately review -- for me in just under three years. Now you understand why I don't learn Daf Yomi... I need more like a Daf Shavui program.) On daf 75b (the last page of chapter 5), R' Shimon says that those who lend at interest (which is, of course, a Torah prohibition) lose more than they gain, because they are in effect saying, "Moshe Rabbeinu just didn't understand; surely if he had realized there is a profit to be made, he never would have written that in the Torah."
What could be wrong? I mean, of course, besides the usual devastating consequences, as discussed in a previous TftD. (Which makes the question of "what could be wrong" about as insensitive as "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?") Besides, perhaps your friend might have decided to stay home that night and just suck down some brewskies while watching something on the idiot box. In which case, he really would have only been transgressing Rabbinic ordinances and completely without intention. Driving to your house, however, is certainly desecrating the Shabbos, certainly with intent. You, by causing that, have transgressed the Torah prohibition to not put a stumbling block before the naive.
But forget what I say, and forget what logic dictates. Ask R' Fuerst; he'll tell you "no". And if you push, R' Fuerst will tell you, "It's not what I say, it's what our גדולי ישראל/current sages say." In fact, R' Fuerst just said over (again, I have heard it from him before) at the Sunday morning shiur (so it's recorded; not that R' Fuerst is shy about saying things "on the record") an interesting story on that point. A rav (whom R' Fuerst did not name) kept pushing R' Fuerst to agree that it is ok to invite Jews over for Shabbos in order to bring them closer to Torah. R' Fuerst told him, "Listen... you are going to Eretz Yisrael, why don't you go ask R' Elyashiv?" The rav didn't think he would be able to get in to see the great R' Elyashiv. R' Fuerst told him, "Don't worry; I'll get you in." (I am always taken aback by that. We call R' Fuerst all the time like it's nothing... but R' Fuerst is so well known world wide that he has no trouble promising to get someone in to see the גדולים in Eretz Yisrael.) The rav said he didn't speak Yiddish. R' Fuerst told him, "Don't worry; I'll arrange a translator for you.... Hebrew, Yiddish, English... whatever you want." The rav agreed.
A few weeks passed and the rav didn't call R' Fuerst to tell him the psak from R' Elyashiv. So R' Fuerst called him to ask what R' Elyashiv said. The rav said, "R' Elyashiv doesn't really understand the issues." R' Fuerst explained quite clearly that it was not R' Elyashiv that didn't understand the issue. The rav has apparently not spoken with R' Fuerst since.
Today is a big day for me. I finished the 5th chapter of Bava Metzia. (By the way... that makes 148 daf -- 74 daf twice; I do a chapter and then I immediately review -- for me in just under three years. Now you understand why I don't learn Daf Yomi... I need more like a Daf Shavui program.) On daf 75b (the last page of chapter 5), R' Shimon says that those who lend at interest (which is, of course, a Torah prohibition) lose more than they gain, because they are in effect saying, "Moshe Rabbeinu just didn't understand; surely if he had realized there is a profit to be made, he never would have written that in the Torah."
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