BAIS HAVAAD SPECIAL EDITION: Commerce on Shabbos & Yom Tov Amirah L’Akum in Business: Part II By: Rabbi Baruch Meir Levin Shlit”a

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: SALES / MARKETINGProduct salesmen and real estate agents are generally classified as kablanim. As such, it is permitted to have them market and sell on Shabbos and Yom Tov on behalf of their Jewish employer as long as they were not requested to work specifically at that time.[1]Even if it is public knowledge that they are working on behalf of a Jew there would still not be a concern of maris ayin since it is common knowledge that salesmen work as kablanim.[2]Internet marketing and web-based sales generally do not present a problem of amirah l’akum as there aren’t any “live” people working on the Jews behalf. Many poskim forbid placing an ad in the Saturday edition of a newspaper. This is because it is assumed that there is not enough time to be printed before Shabbos and would thus constitute being kove’a melachto beshabbos[3]. The same would seem to apply to scheduling television and radio commercials for Shabbos, (unless the media company is able to have the commercials run automatically without doing any melacha on Shabbos).If the Jew did not schedule the ad specifically for Shabbos, rather the media company did so based on their own consideration, it would be permitted. However, if the Jew requested that the ads be placed at the most cost effective time slots, and the media company based on their analysis chose Shabbos, that would constitute being kove’a melachto beshabbos.[4].With television and radio commercials, the melacha being done is usually of rabbinic prohibition[5]and would thus be subject to the heter of “shvus d’shvus “. Additionally, if the ad was placed through a media agency the heter of amirah l’amirah may apply . (Regarding the parameters of these two heterim, please see Part 1.)