We live in a world of GUIs -- graphical user interfaces. I grew up in a world of CLIs -- command line interfaces. I like CLIs. You tell the computer what to do; it does it. Simple. GUIs are, well, gooey. The programmer decided the best way for you to accomplish your task, and now it is his way or the highway. Just follow the rules, push the right buttons and you'll be fine. (Let's be honest -- there are no buttons; just spots on the screen where that same arrogant programmer put a graphic of a button.)
Sometimes, though, even that GUI expert has to come down off his high horse and actually explain something. That, I find, is when a lot of problems start. People are so used to "touch and swipe" that they read some of the words. Then when something goes wrong, they exclaim, "Hey! My phone isn't working! Why did it do that?"
As bad as it is to skim the words in a pop-up alert, it is nothing compared to skimming a Biur Halacha. I think it is fair to say that we all know that even asking a non-Jew to violate Shabbos for us is, to say the least, problematic. Certainly we would never dream of asking another Jew to violate Shabbos for us. What about benefiting from a Shabbos violation? There is a whole siman in Shulchan Aruch on that. Basically, there are three levels of benefits. Let's explore siman 318 a bit; just scratch the surface. Just to be clear: We are not talking about doing something for a Jew who is sick and needs to eat. Just regular a day and regular people.
First level: benefiting directly from a Shabbos violation. A Jew cooks something on Shabbos; to be concrete, let's say he fried an egg. There are details about whether he did it on purpose knowing it was Shabbos, or forgot it was Shabbos, cooked it for you or for someone else. Bottom line, though, no one is allowed to eat that egg on that Shabbos.
Second level: deriving a benefit because there was a Shabbos violation, not directly from the violation, but from something that participated in the violation. How so? See the second Biur Halacha on siman 318: a Jew carries some food through a public domain. The Shabbos violation didn't actually affect the food, but the food is now available to you because of a Shabbos violation. That is, nothing about the Shabbos violation altered the food in any way. It simply made the food available to you on your table. The Biur Halacha quotes a חכמת אדם. If it was done with intent to violate Shabbos, then the food is forbidden. What if the perpetrator accidentally violated Shabbos? For example: he thinks there is a kosher eiruv. This is where a lot of people skim the Biur Halacha. You have been warned. The Biur Halacha says in that case -- a case of שׁוֹגֵג/erring -- then it is permitted to benefit from the violation... did you stop reading there? Because I've met several people, even people who should know better, who just stopped reading there. The Biur Halacha, though, continues: in any case, one should be stringent with any Torah violation. <-- And that is the end of the quote from the חכמת אדם.
Since carrying through a public thoroughfare is a Torah violation, you shouldn't eat that food nor drink that wine. The fact that he thinks there is a kosher eiruv knocks the issue down from מֵזִיד/willful intent to violate Shabbos to שׁוֹגֵג/oops! Sorry! The "shouldn't" here means that there can be mitigating circumstances. CYLOR for details in specific cases.
Third level: deriving benefit because a Shabbos violation occurred, but not from any participant in the violation at all. For example, a Jew carried a key through a public domain and used the key to unlock the shul. Can you daven in that shul? That case is discussed in the Dirshu on that Biur Halacha. It is a machlokes between R' Moshe and R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach. Please don't pasken from a TftD, but there is room to be lenient here. Again, CYLOR.
If you are still reading, then you are reading all the words. Thank you.
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