Delivery of Lost Baggage
Question: May the contents of baggage that was lost by an airline and delivered by a non-Jew to the passenger’s home after the beginning of Shabbos (or Yom Tov) be used on Shabbos (or Yom Tov)?
Discussion: If the contents are not Shabbos necessities, then it is prohibited to use them, since it is forbidden to benefit from a melachah done by a non-Jew for a Jew’s sake.112 In this case, the melachah of carrying was transgressed expressly for the recipient, and the contents of the baggage therefore may not be used.113
In a situation of pressing need — if one’s Shabbos clothing or food and the like are in the suitcase — it is permitted to use the contents of the suitcase. This is because many poskim maintain that our streets and thoroughfares are not considered a Biblical reshus harabbim, but rather merely a karmelis,114 and the Biblical prohibition of carrying was therefore not violated.115 The rule is that when a rabbinic prohibition is transgressed by a non-Jew on behalf of a Jew (shevus d’shevus), it is permitted to benefit from the non-Jew’s action for the sake of a mitzvah or for a pressing Shabbos need.116
If the suitcase was outside of the techum Shabbos117 at the time Shabbos began, then the halachah is more complicated. Shulchan Aruch clearly prohibits a person (and his family members) to benefit from an item that was brought for him from outside the techum Shabbos.118 Still, when the suitcase contains indispensable Shabbos necessities, the contents may be used,119 but only inside the home to which the suitcase was delivered, or anywhere within the limits of the city or community eiruv. If there is no valid eiruv, then the contents may be used only inside the home to which the suitcase was delivered.120
112. O.C. 276:1 and Beiur Halachah, s.v. afilu.
113. O.C. 325:10 and Mishnah Berurah 53.
114. See O.C. 345:7 and Beiur Halachah, s.v. sh’eain.
115. Although other poskim disagree and maintain that many of our streets are considered a Biblical reshus harabbim, in our case, where the carrying is being done by a non-Jew, we may rely on the lenient opinions; Sha’ar ha-Tziyun 325:13. See also Aruch ha-Shulchan 307:18 and Shemiras Shabbos Keilchasah 30, note 134, quoting Rav S.Z. Auerbach.
116. O.C. 307:5; Rema 325:10 and Mishnah Berurah 59-63.
117. If the suitcase was still in the air at the time Shabbos began, it is not considered to have come from outside the techum Shabbos; Mishnah Berurah 325:38.
118. O.C. 325:8; 515:5.
119. Since here, too, we can rely on the dispensation of shevus d’shevus mentioned earlier, as most poskim are of the opinion that techum Shabbos is never more than a rabbinic prohibition; see Mishnah Berurah 404:7.This applies all the more so in a karmelis; see Beiur Halachah 404:1, s.v. v’ho’eel.
120. O.C. 325:8; 515:5.