May I ask a non-Jew to open my fridge on Shabbos if the light will turn on?

On Shabbos, Chazal prohibited telling a non-Jew to do a melacha for you. Yet, if the melacha itself is d’rabonon (making your request of the non-Jew a twice d’rabonon – shvus d’shvus) and it’s needed for a mitzva or pressing need, it is allowed.

Doing a melecha d’oraisa with a shinui (abnormal manner) lowers it to an issur d’rabonon. Thus, halacha rules that one who requires tevila and has grown nails which pose a chatzitza may have a non-Jew remove them with their hands or teeth.¹ Likewise, some allow asking a non-Jew to cut an esrog off a tree by biting the branch.²

What about flipping a light switch with the elbow? Some hold that it’s only considered a shinui if the result is imperfect (as in the cases above). Since l’chumra we consider the non-Jew a shliach of the Jew, the results are attributed to the Jew.³ Others write that any abnormal method is a shinui, even if the results are perfect (particularly by Shabbos where the Torah specifies meleches machsheves, a deliberate, calculated act).⁴ One may rely on this opinion in case of need.

What if I tell the non-Jew to use a shinui and he decides to do it normally? Some hold that since he is doing a Torah prohibition for the Yid it would be prohibited to benefit from it.⁵ Others argue that since the Jew explicitly instructed him to do it with a shinui and the non-Jew chose to do it normally for his own convenience, he is not acting as his shliach.⁶ This is the accepted practice.

Opening a fridge with an automatic light is psik reishei, an unintended result which is unavoidable. When telling a non-Jew to open the fridge, one is not telling him specifically to turn on the light. While some poskim are concerned, the Alter Rebbe permits it, even if the non-Jew knows that the light will turn on.⁷ Since it’s not part of the Jew’s instructions, the non-Jew was not made a shliach for that act, and it isn’t attributed to the Jew.⁸

Some argue that opening the fridge is not truly a psik reishei but a direct act. Psik reishei is when one action inadvertently triggers a separate, unrelated result, whereas an act that serves two functions at once, one permitted and one forbidden, is considered to have been done for the forbidden act as well.⁹

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