Neighbors To The Rescue
‘He May Tell Others: Come, Save For Yourselves’
(Shabbos 121a)
The sages permit a person to save three meals’ worth of food from a fire that broke out on Shabbos. They don’t permit him to rescue all his possessions lest he become frantic in his haste to save everything and extinguish the fire.
A mishnah (120a) states that the owner of the burning house may also announce to others, “Come, save for yourselves.” He can’t ask them to save food on his behalf because that would be tantamount to appointing them as agents, and it would be as if he personally saved more than the maximum three meals. Rather, the neighbors are told to save food for themselves and afterwards they may elect to return the food to the householder (if they are so inclined).
Other’s Limits
Even though the mishnah does not specify how much food the neighbors may save, the Rambam (Hilchos Shabbos 23:24) and the Mechaber (Orach Chayim 234:9) limit the neighbors to saving only three meals each.
According to the Tosafos Rid (to the Ran on our daf), however, the neighbors can save as much as they wish. He offers two reasons why we don’t fear the neighbors might, in their haste, extinguish the fire.
First, the neighbors realize it isn’t in their best interest to extinguish the fire, for once the fire is out, they can’t seize anything else from the house. Second, only the owner is likely to become frantic during the rescue efforts since he stands to lose his hard-earned possessions. The neighbors, on the other hand, won’t lose anything and thus are unlikely to become frantic and react on impulse.
The Chayei Adam (cited by Mishnah Berurah 234:20) argues that if the neighbors intend to keep the food, they are limited to saving three meals since, in effect, they are saving their own possessions. However, if they intend to save the food for the householder, there is no limit on how much they may salvage.
He argues that even the Rambam would agree that the three-meal limit only applies to someone saving food for himself. We are not concerned that a person saving food for his fellow man will become that frantic that he’ll extinguish the fire.