Bank CD interest on Shabbos

Question:

B"H
Kavod haRav,
Thank you for your help.
If someone puts money into a (non-Jewish owned) bank CD and earns a fixed interest rate for a fixed amount of time (for example 4% for 9 months) on the principal amount, there will be approximately 36 weeks where interest was earned on Shabbos (plus Yom Tov days as well). My questions:
1. Is this a forbidden form of investing because of the issue of Shabbos earnings?
2. If the halacha allows for such an investment, what treatment if any should be done with the interest earned on Shabbos/ Yom Tov?
Thank you.

Answer:

Hello,

1. When one is paid interest from a bank for a savings account etc., the bank pays the interest by paying a small part of the yearly interest rate every day. The contemporary Poskim say[1] that the interest accrued on an ordinary Shabbos may be used and is not considered “Sechar Shabbos” (the prohibition of earning money on Shabbos). This is because the bank pays the interest according to the calendar date from 12 am to 12 am. Therefore, part of the interest is for Friday or מוצאי שבת which is הבלעה and permitted.
2. However, when there are two holy together such as two days of Rosh Hashana, or when Yom Tov occurs on Friday or Sunday, then one of the days’ worth of interest is definitely from a holy time and should not be benefited from. One option is to put the money privately into tzedakah. This way no one will know about it and the person will not get any recognition[2] for it, which would be considered benefiting from it. The above will not apply on a regular 2-day Yom Tov. R' Moshe Feinstein zt"l ruled[3] that that on a regular 2-day Yom Tov, one may benefit from the interest of both days. This is since the custom of observing two days is because in the time when the people in the Diaspora didn't know the exact day of the lunar month, therefore both days are observed. However, since one of the days is not "really" the holy one, the other day regarding these halachos is considered as the only one holy day. On Rosh Hashana however both days are considered holy.

Best wishes

Sources:

 [1] ע' אג"מ או"ח ח"ד ס' נ"ט, מנח"י ח"ט ס' נ"ט, באר משה ח"ה ס' ק', בצל החכמה ח"ג ס' ל"ח וע' שש"כ פ' כ"ח הערה ק"י מרש"ז זצ"ל שלפי הגר"ח יהיה כל הריבית מותר.

 [2] שם באג"מ, ובא"מ ח"ה ס' ק'-א', וע' ס' הל' שבת השייכים לבית ח"א פ"ג הערה 2 מה שהקשה עליו.

 [3] שם.