A Shabbos goy, Shabbat goy or Shabbes goy (Yiddish: שבת גוי, shabbos goy Modern Hebrew: גוי של שבת goy shel shabat) is a non-Jewish individual who regularly assists a Jewish individual or organization by performing certain acts on the Biblical Sabbath which are forbidden to Jews within Jewish law. The phrase is a combination of the word "Shabbos" (שבת) meaning the Sabbath, and "Goy", which literally means "a nation" but colloquially and practically means a "non-Jew" (in Biblical Hebrew "goy" means simply "a nation", but in Mishnaic Hebrew it is used in the sense of "a non-national", i.e., "a non-Jew").
Judaism prohibits certain types of work on the Sabbath, known as "melakha". Within certain guidelines (as dictated by the Shulkhan Arukh, an authoritative Jewish code of law), a non-Jewish individual under certain circumstances may perform certain acts beneficial to Jews but may not be performed by Jews on the Sabbath. Generally speaking, a Jew should respect a non-Jew's right to rest on the Sabbath, and therefore may not explicitly ask a non-Jew to perform a service prohibited on the Sabbath by the Jewish law, nor may the Jew get benefit ("hana'a") from such a service. Nevertheless, a non-Jew is not expected to keep the Sabbath like a Jew. Hence a Jew may benefit from work performed by a goy if the goy performs this work for his own good and of his own free will. A borderline case is when a Jew hints to a non-Jew that he wants him to perform a certain service without explicitly asking him. These borderline cases are considered legitimate in most Jewish communities. Furthermore, in many Jewish communities it is considered legitimate to hire a non-Jewish worker to perform certain services on the Sabbath, providing that the non-Jew is paid in advance, so that the payment seems like a kind of gift rather than a salary. This way, the principle of the non-Jew performing the service of his own free will is still adhered to, at least formally. It is more appropriate if the non-Jew enjoys his own service in a way. For example, if his job is to take care of the heating system, it is more appropriate if this system also heats his own room or apartment, so that he enjoys it as well and not just the members of the Jewish community.
A "shabbat goy" is not needed for performing life saving services, known as pikuach nefesh. For example, according to Jewish law, Jewish physicians can work on the Sabbath because their work is needed to save lives in cases of emergency. They must, however, avoid any unnecessary work forbidden on the Sabbath.
In certain households and synagogues a particular non-Jew (invariably not a member of the home/synagogue) may be designated as the Shabbos goy for that place. This individual is usually one who would be present regardless of this role, such as a babysitter or a synagogue maintenance crew member, and is typically paid for the work. Before the 20th century Shabbos goys most commonly lit (or re-lit) stoves in Jewish homes in the winter. In the 20th century, Colin Powell, Mario Cuomo, Martin Scorsese, and the adolescent Elvis Presley assisted their Jewish neighbors in this way.[1][2][3][4]
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