[Avodah] goy vs chiloni

[Arie Folger]

On Sun, Jun 7, 2009 at 2:42 PM, Chana Luntz<Chana at kolsassoon.org.uk> wrote:
> Why would anybody
> be seeking what is clearly a more problematic halachic reliance if he could
> wait until the chiloni closed the door, and then use his own key?

On the contrary, the reason one would want to rely on this hetter in a
regular apartment building is so that when a chiloni happens to ring
the doorbell of your host's neighbour, and the former's host buzzes
him in, do you need to let the door close and wait for another way to
enter, or can you enter with him? That is a lot more common than
entering a building through sliding electric doors, like in a
hospital. In fact, I would think that in Israel, hospitals are
designed to avoid such problems for shomer shabbat visitors, so the
sliding doors are probably a lot less common there than what we are
used to. (I assume that no one wants to go to the office on Shabbat).

-- 
Arie Folger
http://ariefolger.wordpress.com/
http://www.ariefolger.googlepages.com/