More Discussions for this daf
1. Non-Jew working on Shabbos 2. The "Shabbos Goy" 3. A delivery by a Gentile arriving on Shabbos
4. Tosfos D"H "v'Im" 5. last tosfos on 122b 6. The Third Tosfos on the Mishnah
7. רש״י ד״ה אם רוב ישראל אסור
DAF DISCUSSIONS - SHABBOS 122

Yekutiel asked:

I was asked by my teacher to look at Tosfos to anwer the question:

Is this case(the candle)similar to the Mishna on 121a-telling a nachri to extinguish a fire?

AND

How can any case be asur, if we just learned on 121a the a nachri always acts in his own self intrest?

The Kollel replies:

Tosfos writes that we only rely on the fact that what a Nachri does is for his own interest where the Yisrael does not proceed to do something that takes advantage of the act.

When the non-Jew put out the fire, it is Mutar. However, when he lights a candle and now the Jew is going to USE the light of the candle, or when the non-Jew cooked and now the Yisrael is going to EAT what he had cooked, we do not rely on the reasoning that the non-Jew did it for his own self-interest, to permit it.

Dov Zupnik