Everyone in Haifa’s Seret-Vishnitz community knows Boris, the Romanian goy who is a maintenance worker and the local ‘shabbos goy’- gladly assisting Jewish families every Shabbos.
A decision was made to check into some recent statements made by Boris, and this probe revealed he is indeed Jewish, as per the p’sak of the beis din of Mo”etz HaRav Zoldon Shlita.
Boris’ story began when he worked in the beis medrash of the Nadvorna Rebbe ZT”L. There too he was the shabbos goy. He left to return to Romania for three years and upon his return to Eretz Yisrael, found a spot in the Haifa Seret-Vishnitz community.
Here and there he told some of the chassidim how he remembers when his mother lit shabbos candles, explaining it was more a statement of one wishing to go to Israel than actually lighting for kiyum a mitzvah.
Adding to this, at times Boris was heard humming Jewish niggunim, prompting the question if the shabbos goy is really a goy or possibly a yid.
After Rav Zoldon sat with Boris and they spoke at length, followed by a probe, the rav released a p’sak that Boris is a Jew, beyond any shadow of a doubt.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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10 Responses
Given that descendants of a Jewish woman are always Jewish regardless, and over the centuries many Jews have entered the general population (assimilation, capture, enslavement – especially by the Romans), it might be best to never use a Shabbos goy of European or Middle Eastern descent.
But is he Jewish enough for them to let him marry a yid ?
Nice story
The litvish community in Unsdorf had a similar story with a fellow who was the shabbas goy for 30 years , only after he died did they find out he was a jew.
It makes one wonder all these great rebbes, and roshei yeshiva, who are supposed to know, and have das torah,,,why can they not tell a jew from a goy?
I believe a similar story happened with the guy they used to sell chametz to in Jerusalem. Turned out to be Jewish as well. Ooooops.
Reply to No. 1
Azoy…a brilliant solution. Every shul and beis medrash should apply to get an H1B Visa and import their own shabbos goy from Mongolia or Botswana to be machmir on on your issur. What do you call that stuff betwen your ears???
my next Shabbas Goy will need to have a b’datz Jerusalem stamp of approval.
#1: What about those of Spanish descent, i.e. possibly from marranos. Point is you can exclude almost everybody.
It’s a serious question. The gemara raises a similar question about goyim from Chalach and Chavor, where the ten tribes were exiled. Since they would have formed a significant part of the population, and their descendants in the female line would still be Jewish, how can we accept gerim from those countries? Every ger must be assumed to be a safek Jew, and therefore a safek mamzer, since somewhere in his background there’s likely to be a woman who was married to a Jew and then divorced and remarried without a kosher get. This is not a trivial question; the gemara takes it seriously, and searches for a sensible answer, rather than dismiss it mockingly as Gadolbe’einav does.
The answers the gemara gives are 1) Yirmiyahu brought the ten tribes back; 2) of those who didn’t return, the women miraculously had no children, so those branches of the tribes died out, and any goy in those countries is not descended from them. 3) Another opinion is that the Sanhedrin passed a special decree stripping the ten tribes of their Jewish status.
Milhouse (#8): Those reasons won’t work here, today.
We learn that an act which a Jew cannot do directly cannot be performed (for the Jew’s benefit) indirectly. A Shabbos goy cannot perform an act for a Jew if the Jew cannot perform the act for him(her)self. The acts of a Shabbos goy, while nice and helpful, should be forbidden.