A gentile warming up food on Shabbat.
If a Shaliach forgot to connect the hotplate to the electricity before Shabbat and all the food for the hitva’adut is on it, may he tell a gentile to connect the electricity?
Answer: It is permissible to hint to the gentile that he should connect the electricity, for example: “The hotplate is not connected to the electricity and we need hot food on Shabbat…” this is on the condition that the gentile is given a taste of the food that was on the hotplate, so that it may be considered that he performed the action for his own benefit. Another possibility is that a Jew may tell a gentile to tell another gentile to connect the electricity.