683. Transferring Between Domains

Shabbos 12:7

If a fire breaks out on Shabbos and a non-Jew comes to put it out, we may not tell him to do so. On the other hand, we don’t tell him not to do so because it’s not our responsibility to make non-Jews rest on Shabbos. However, if a child wants to put it out, he should not be permitted to do so if he is acting as an agent of his father. If he is doing so on his own, the court is not required to prevent him. In the case of fire, the Sages permitted one to announce that whoever puts out the fire will not suffer a loss (i.e., the non-Jew may be assured that he will be compensated for his efforts).

Shabbos 12:8

Transferring things from one domain to another is a category of prohibited labor. Even though this, like all details of the Torah, was communicated orally by Moshe, there is a textual allusion to it in the Torah. Exodus 36:6 says, “Let no man or woman perform any more work involving donations to the sanctuary, so the people stopped bringing.” From this we see bringing things from one domain to another is considered a form of labor. We also have an oral tradition that transporting an object four cubits (about six feet) is comparable to a transferring between domains, and one is liable.