Can a Caterer Rent a Wedding Hall to People Who Will Violate Halacha?

Provided courtesy of Real Clear Daf

This is a question that R’ Moshe Feinstein deals with in his Igros Moshe (Yoreh Deah Vol. 1, Siman 72), and involves a Gemara that we learned this week on daf 6. Our masechta began by teaching us that the Rabbanan forbade commerce with pagans within three days of their idolatrous festivals. The Gemara on 6a seeks to clarify the reason for this decree. Perhaps the Rabbis’ concern was that by allowing an idolater to gain from a business deal, this might lead him to give thanks to his idol and thus the Jew will have violated the prohibition of causing an idol to be praised. Or perhaps the enactment was made in order to prevent a transgression of “Do not place a stumbling block before a blind person.” That is, if the Jew for instance sells an animal to an idolater before his festival, which he might very well be planning to use for an idolatrous sacrifice, the Jew will have facilitated the idolater to transgress the sin of idol worship (it’s clear from our Gemara then, that the “Do not place a stumbling block…” prohibition includes causing non-Jews to sin as well).

The Gemara then points out that this is not merely an academic question.  If an idolater already possessed other animals, whether a Jew could sell him an animal near a pagan festival would hinge on the above question. For if the Rabbis’ concern was only the issue of facilitating an idolatrous sacrifice, that would not be a problem in this case.  As the Gemara explains, “Do not place a stumbling block,” is only applicable if a person actually enables another to sin. Since this idolater anyways had his own animal to sacrifice, the Jew in this case would not be enabling him to sin by selling another animal to him.

Rav Moshe applies the Gemara’s distinction to the question of a catering/wedding hall business patronized by people who openly violate the halacha at their events. Since these customers could easily find a different catering business for their event, we cannot say that this particular business is actually enabling these people to do a sin. Therefore, Rav Moshe asserts, there is clearly no problem here as far as the Biblical transgression of “Do not place a stumbling block…” However we must still deal with the Rabbinic prohibition that says a Jew cannot “aid the hands of a sinner.” Seemingly contracting to service an event where the halacha will be violated is “aiding a sinner,” and should therefore be Rabbinically forbidden. However Rav Moshe presents three arguments why in fact this case would not be prohibited on the grounds of “aiding a sinner.”

First Rav Moshe brings a Shach (Y.D. 151, 6) who limits the “aiding a sinner” prohibition to a case where the sinner doesn’t realize that he is engaging in a sin. In this situation the Torah obligates us to apprise the person of the situation to distance him from the sin. But if the person in not observant in general, the prohibition does not apply.

Rav Moshe also points out that the prohibition not to aid a sinner should not dictate to decline providing a wedding hall the the non-observant patron given the fact that if he is turned down by this kosher caterer, it is likely he will end up using a non-kosher caterer. Prompting this customer to use a non-kosher caterer would not exactly be helping this person to avoid a sin!

Lastly, Rav Moshe suggests that “aiding a sinner” is inapplicable to this situation due to the indirect nature of how sin is abetted here. For certainly the actual transaction before us, i.e. providing a hall for an event to be held, is not sinful in any way. It is only that, once provided with the amenities, the customer will choose to engage in halachically-problematic behaviors. This is far less direct than, say, handing someone a cheeseburger. Were we not to accept this argument, Rav Moshe points out, it would lead us down a slippery slope: how could we e.g. sell pots and pans to non-observant people when they will use these things to prepare non-kosher food (it is given that there is no issue to sell cookware to non-observant people)? Evidently, the prohibition is limited to a situation where the person is very directly facilitating another to sin.

See Rav Moshe’s responsum there to further explore this interesting topic.