Q. The bop (Federal Bureau of Prisons) does not give any hot meals on Shabbos. We sometimes buy meals from meal mart that have to be microwaved to be eaten hot. Is there a way we can ask a non-Jew to warm it up for us on Shabbos. There are no crock pots or warmers, only microwaves.

One Sefardi guy from Israel said his Rav gave him permission, provided he makes a contract with a non-Jew before Shabbos and he specifies exactly what time he has to warm it up on Shabbos?

Is that an acceptable ruling?

A. No, that is not an acceptable ruling. There are two distinctive prohibitions in regards to Amira L’akum or instructing a Gentile to do work for you on Shabbos.

One is the request itself, and three reasons are given for the proscription; a) Refraining from the carelessness and laxity towards all melochos caused if you could do everything employing a Gentile (Rambam H. Shabbos 6:1). b) The non-Jew would become your agent and his work would automatically be attributed to you, (since by rabbinic decree there is lechumra shelichut l’akum – see Aruch Hashulchan O.H. 243:1) c) The rabbinic proscription of Mimtza Heftzecha, which requires that your speech on Shabbos should be different (Rashi – Avoda Zarah 15a).

Additionally there is a prohibition of benefiting from the work done by a Gentile on Shabbos, even if he was not instructed to do so by the Yisroel, as long as the benefit is new and substantial. (Mogen Avrohom 334:27). E.g. the Gentile turned on the light for someone eating in the dark, even when he was not requested to do so, (Remoh O.H. 276: 1) or he cooked food for him (Mishna Berura 253: 99). However it would be permitted if the non-Jew did the above when not instructed and for his own personal benefit.

Another permitted situation is when you have a rabbinical proscription that is only prohibited because of another rabbinical injunction and the act to be done is itself is a mitzvah, e.g. instructing a Gentile (first Rabbinical prohibition) to carry an object in a karmelis (a partial public domain and second rabbinical injunction) for the purpose of complying with a mitzvah like a bris milah.

Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit”a suggested that it may be permitted to ask the Gentile before Shabbos in an indirect fashion, that if and when he warms some food for himself in the microwave oven, he could include the covered and still sealed meal-mart tray. This is assuming that the food is solid, has been already pre-cooked and only requires warming. Adding the fact that microwave cooking may only be rabbinicaly prohibited, (and there may not be a shehia or chazara problem)

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit”a