Shabbat: Non-Jew Cleaning
Question
Answer
Shalom!
Thank you for your question.
It is permitted to ask a non-Jew to clean the floors on Shabbos.
This is based on a famous ruling of the Taz who writes that one may instruct a non-Jew to wash the dishes on Friday night even if one knows that the non-Jew will light a candle to make the washing easier. This is because the Jew gains no benefit from the light and only wants clean dishes. How the non-Jew gets those dishes clean is of little concern.
Based on this precedent, one is permitted to tell a non-Jew to “clean the floor,” even though the non-Jew will do so in ways that Jews are forbidden to do, as, for example, by squeezing a mop and the like.
In other words, one is permitted to tell a non-Jew to do anything that a Jew can do even though the non-Jew will do it in a forbidden manner.
Source
Mishnah Berurah 276:27.
