Reply To: Forgetting to close the fridge light before Shabbos

Even if you hold that opening the fridge is assur, lichora there is a loophole. If you ask someone else to open the fridge and he doesn’t know that there is a light that will go on, he is misasek. According to R’ Akiva Eiger (siman 8) misasek doesn’t make it not an aveirah; it just makes you patur. But many argue and hold that it completely removes it from the aveirah (see the footnote there and Shiurim L’zecher Abba Mari p. 30). This is suggested by Rabbis Broyde and Jachter in the Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society vol. 21.