Shalom – what is the scenario when one receives an email on Shabbat from a non-shomer shabbos jew sent at 11H00.
How long does one have to wait after Shabbos until one can read it? Is the time it took to prepare it also a factor? If possible please advise of the reference, tizku lemitzvot.
Answer:
It is permitted to read the email after Shabbos, and there is no need to wait.
However, you should preferably inform not to send emails on Shabbos.
Best wishes.
Sources:
See Shulchan Aruch 318:1, when we learn that it is permitted to derive benefit (after Shabbos) from a prohibited labor that was performed by a Jew on Shabbos (see Mishnah Berurah 5). The idea of waiting after Shabbos applies to labor performed by a non-Jew and not to labors performed by a Jew.
At the same time, many rule that it is not permitted to derive benefit from a labor that was performed for you on Shabbos, if this is the regular job of the Jew. For instance, one must not buy vegetables on Sunday if it is clear that they were picked on Shabbos by a Jew. See Kesav Sofer, Orach Chaim 50. For this reason authorities have prohibited listening to broadcasts that were made on Shabbos, and so on (see Orchos Shabbos 3:25; see also Har Zvi, Orach Chaim 180; Or LeZion 2:30).
However, an email is not a person’s “regular job” but rather something a one-off event like somebody who cooks for you on Shabbos, and therefore this prohibition will not apply.
In addition, there is more room for leniency in merely reading an email, which is not a full act of “benefit” to which the prohibition applies.
Yet, it is correct to ask the person in question not to send emails on Shabbos, so as not to encourage this practice.
