The Talmud states that a candle lit on Shabbat by a non-Jew is ineligible for use in Havdalah, because “it did not rest from prohibited labor” (Berakhot 53a, Rambam Hil. Shabbat 29:26, Tur and Shulchan Arukh, O.C. 298:5). This statement has prompted some authors (See L’Ohr HaHalakhah, p. 215; Resp. Minchat Elazar, I, 7;Beit Meir, Even HaEzer 5:2) to question a popular notion about the prohibition of melakhah on Shabbos.

Many authorities (see Resp. Chatam Sofer O.C. 84 and C.M. 185; Yeshuot Ya’akov O.C. 263; Atvan D’Orayta, 10; Resp. L’Horot Natan, VIII, 35 and XI, 2) believe that the nature of the prohibition on Shabbat is that the individual be at rest. The Torah has no objection to melakhah happening in the world, or any insistence that the whole planet should be at rest. Thus, asking a non-Jew to do melakhah is prohibited rabbinically and not biblically, as the Torah is only concerned with the Jew not doing melakhah.

Others (see Shulchan Arukh HaRav, 243:1) disagree, and feel that the fact that a prohibition exists at all against asking a non-Jew to do melakhah is indication that there is something wrong with it. Similarly, the passage about the candle is apparently saying that even a non-Jew’s melakhah has the taint of prohibition.

R. Yehoshua Ehrenberg (Resp. D’ar Yehoshua, III, C.M. 28) suggests that on a biblical level, Shabbat is a concept directed at the [Jewish] individual. However, the Rabbis added a new dimension, that the melakhah itself is tainted, separate from issues of the Jew’s lack of rest. Thus, the above passage is addressing a rabbinic issue in disqualifying the candle; on a biblical level, Shabbat has indeed not been disturbed.