APPLICATION. Can I send a letter on Friday?
RESPONSE. is allowed to send a letter or a package Friday even just before the start of the Sabbath by using the ordinary postal system even if you normally Letters and parcels are delivered in 24 hours and so will almost certainly delivered during Shabbat. This applies only outside of Israel.
The reason is that:
i) employees of the postal system are not Jewish (so the speech does not apply to Israel);
ii) the postal system is paid for the dispatch of the letter and parcel, and not "hours", and thus the delivery takes place at Shabbat solely for the convenience of the postal system and its clerical workers (non-Jews), and
iii) when using the postal system does not directly instruct a non-jew to make the shipment but only puts in motion the postal system. If you use
instead a system of express mail (like DHL), do not select the option to "surrender tomorrow," because in this case we can no longer say that the delivery takes place on Shabbat for the benefit of the postal system and its employees.
If the letter or parcel is really urgent and it is a mitzvah, you can [afford to] send them too close to Shabbat Shabbat Express delivery at least since the conditions (i) and (iii) are met. I know that for Sephardic Maran Bet Yosef (Shulchan Aruch 247, 1) there seems to be this facility.
Source: Shmirat Ilchatà Shabbat Ke-31, 20 (see also Bruria Mishna, Shulchan Aruch 247).
The reason is that:
i) employees of the postal system are not Jewish (so the speech does not apply to Israel);
ii) the postal system is paid for the dispatch of the letter and parcel, and not "hours", and thus the delivery takes place at Shabbat solely for the convenience of the postal system and its clerical workers (non-Jews), and
iii) when using the postal system does not directly instruct a non-jew to make the shipment but only puts in motion the postal system. If you use
instead a system of express mail (like DHL), do not select the option to "surrender tomorrow," because in this case we can no longer say that the delivery takes place on Shabbat for the benefit of the postal system and its employees.
If the letter or parcel is really urgent and it is a mitzvah, you can [afford to] send them too close to Shabbat Shabbat Express delivery at least since the conditions (i) and (iii) are met. I know that for Sephardic Maran Bet Yosef (Shulchan Aruch 247, 1) there seems to be this facility.
Source: Shmirat Ilchatà Shabbat Ke-31, 20 (see also Bruria Mishna, Shulchan Aruch 247).
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