After repeated requests to serve as Shabbos goy, Danny Woodruff started to wonder: Why not make a business out of it?

Photos: Naftoli Goldgrab

While the bustling batei medrash and packed shuls are still the ir HaTorah’s claim to fame, a quick walk through the streets of Lakewood, New Jersey, today is enough to showcase the entrepreneurial spirit that has come to characterize this frum boomtown. Nearly every week another creative service or innovative product comes to the fore, and it seems like that enterprising intrepidity has now inspired at least one decidedly non-Jewish lifelong resident, Mr. Danny Woodruff, to get a piece of the action. Danny is the proud goy behind the Shabbos Goy Service, a unique service he started along with his wife, ValerieAnn, to assist Orthodox Jews on their day of rest at the drop of a hint.

While the general rule is that a Yid cannot ask a non-Jew to do anything he or she isn’t allowed to do on Shabbos, there are certain exigent circumstances where a non-Jew’s services may be used to perform a melachah on behalf of a Jew. (While the exact halachic details are beyond the scope of this article, the relevant factors are whether the melachah involved is an issur d’Rabbanan or otherwise, and if there is another mitigating factor such as a significant financial loss or other pressing need. Additionally, there are restrictions on how the non-Jew may be asked, and whether one may benefit from the action of a non-Jew that was done on a Jew’s behalf.)  Given the limited cases in which one would be allowed to ask for such help in the first place, the time-honored job of “Shabbos goy” was historically relegated to a friendly, non-Jewish neighbor or passerby.

Now, Mr. Woodruff, who works full-time as a maintenance manager in A Country Place — an adult community in Lakewood that has become increasingly popular with frum residents in recent years — has decided to turn it into an actual profession. He ordered a magnet for his car, emblazoned a T-shirt and baseball cap with his trademarked Shabbos Goy Service logo, and ordered some flags for his clients to hang out their front door in case they need his service. Come Shabbos, he makes his rounds — twice Friday night and twice on Shabbos day — to the homes on his route. If he notices a flag out, he’ll stop in and take care of whatever is needed.

The service was launched nine months ago, and he’s admittedly off to a slow start. Yet Mr. Woodruff is working hard to convince residents from across Lakewood to sign up for his unique service. On a rainy evening before Chanukah, Mishpacha magazine caught up with him to hear about his latest venture.