The previous shiur discussed the complex halachos of presenting a child with an issur or placing it before him, we will be”H continue with these halachos.

            What if the child is ill and requires the issur for his health?

            We must differentiate between an issur d’oraisso (biblically forbidden) and an issur d’rabanan. One may not hand or feed the child an issur d’oraisso (such as chametz on Pesach) unless it is pikuach nefesh – the child’s life is in danger. [1]

An issur d’rabanan is different as there are poskim [2] who hold that one may hand a child an issur d’rabanan when he requires it, even if he is not ill, and therefore when ill one may rely on those poskim. [3]

Normally one may not instruct a gentile to feed a child an issur, even if the issur is only ossur mid’rabanan such as food cooked on Shabbos, [4] but when a child is ill and he requires that particular food, one may instruct a gentile to feed it to him. [5]

It is important to note that nowadays it is quite rare that one has to rely on the heter to feed a child an issur d’oraisso, as many items are kashrus supervised and are relatively easy to obtain.

            May an adult instruct a child on Shabbos to turn on the lights?

            Accordingly an adult may not instruct a child to turn on a light on Shabbos because telling him or instructing is similar to handing an issur to him, [6] and is forbidden.

            If a child turned on the lights may adults benefit from them?

            If the child turned on the lights for the benefit of others it is forbidden to benefit from those lights until after Shabbos. [7] If the child turned the lights on for his own benefit an adult may benefit from them as well.

            If one forgot to turn out the refrigerator light may one ask a child to open the refrigerator door?

            Refrigerators doors are set up in such a way that when the door is opened the light comes on. Being that it is something that always takes place, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach ztz”l [8] prefers to refer to it as a direct action and not as a p’sik reisha. Accordingly one may not direct one’s child to open the refrigerator if the light will be turned on, because one is directing a child to perform an issur.

This is true of a neighbor’s child and all the more so of one’s own child.

            What then is the solution?

            The preferred solution is to have a gentile open the refrigerator door. [9] If we regard the turning on of the light as a p’sik reisha, a gentile may perform a p’sik reisha on Shabbos. This is based on a few examples, one of them being the following case:

            The Rama [10] says that we may not instruct a gentile to heat food on Shabbos, but the solution is to have the gentile place the food on the heater when the heater is turned off, and by turning on the heater to heat the house (which a gentile is permitted to do in cold climates) the food will be heated indirectly – through a p’sik reisha.

Even if we refer to turning on the light as a direct action (Rav Shlomo Zalman above) there is nevertheless room to permit a gentile open the door. [11]

            What if there is no gentile available?

            One should have a child pull out the refrigerator plug from the socket when the refrigerator motor has stopped. [12] Since the child is only handling muktze, a d’rabanan, and it is for the sake of a mitzvah of the Shabbos meal, there is room to permit such an action, when it is done for the essential foods for the Shabbos meal such as fish and meat, which without one would not have oneg Shabbos.

This is based on the Shulchan Aruch HaRav 343:8 which permits using a child to violate an issur d’rabanan for the sake of a mitzvah provided that it is not a common occurrence. Needless to say that the plug may not be returned to the socket. [13]

            If I see that my child is about to do an issur must I prevent him from doing so?

            We learned that an adult is biblically prohibited from handing a child an issur. In contrast, one is not biblically obliged to prevent a child from performing or from partaking of an issur when doing so for his own benefit.

However, Chazal obligate parents [14] to educate their children in the ways of the Torah. If a child is of an age that he understands not to do something when told, the parents must educate him in that vein.

            Would it not depend on the age of the child?

            Absolutely. If a one year old is turning a light on and off on Shabbos there is no obligation to prevent him doing so, because the child does not understand what the parent wants from him. (It is possible that when other children see that the child is not prevented from doing ‘chilul Shabbos’ it will have an adverse effect on their own Shabbos observance and there is room to find alternative entertainment for the child, but the child per se need not be prevented).

A child who begins to understand the word “Shabbos” and associates it with not doing certain actions should be trained in the observance of Shabbos.