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Do you have to close your blog on shabbos?

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what about a web store? – Avraham May 13 '11 at 1:17
Does the target audience of the web site matter -- is there a difference your blog (if you write for a general audience) and the daily daf? – Monica Cellio May 13 '11 at 13:22
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up vote 4 down vote

The basic answer is no, but it's an interesting question.

  • Firstly, many blogs are hosted by some company, so you don't even own your blog.
  • Even if you hosted it on your own server, this was settled 1800 years ago. The Torah says you need to let your animals rest; what about your machinery? ("Shvisas keilim"). We follow Beis Hillel that it's not a problem, so your server can go on doing whatever it was doing.
  • There's an issue with non-Jews mowing my lawn on shabbos because everyone walking by on shabbos sees melacha being done to my lawn (again, ask your rabbi); I really, really doubt anyone will browse to my blog (who?) and therefore think I was violating shabbos.
  • The remaining issues are -- would my blog cause non-observant Jews to do more melacha by surfing it?
    • Solution -- make a boring blog. (Just kidding.)
    • I doubt we need to worry about that, seriously.
  • There's also the problem of doing business on shabbos. A more complicated case is leaving my online store open on Shabbos (then after shabbos, you read the orders and ship them); Rabbi Heinemann shlit'a first prohibited this, but then reconsidered and allowed it. It's somewhat analogous to people putting envelopes in your mail slot; you deal with them after Shabbos.
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up vote 2 down vote

SaturdayGuard has a system to do prevent people from going on your site when THEY (the readers) have Shabbos, and they have Rabbinical Approval from the Chief Rabbi of Israel (as well as others)

http://saturdayguard.com/?url=rabb

http://saturdayguard.com/images/haskamot/lior.jpg

QUOTE: ...There is a problem of "Mesayeia Ledavar Aveira"...

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This is not an answer to this question, but to another existing question. I recommend that you move it over there: mi.yodeya.com/questions/2799/… – Isaac Moses♦ Oct 11 '10 at 18:46
I just did. Though it is an answer to this question. One of the reasons that site exists is so that others do not view your site when they have shabbos. It is not to prevent you from selling on shabbos, but to prevent Lifnei Iver of Mesayeia (as mentioned in the Haskama from the institute of Science and Halacha) which would apply even to a blog. – Joe Shmoe Oct 11 '10 at 19:27
Quotations from the haskamot would be more valuable in demonstrating that there's a prohibition here than the existence of the tool. – Isaac Moses♦ Oct 11 '10 at 19:39
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up vote 1 down vote

Some of Shalom's points are valid, but others are not.

I doubt we have to worry about that.

And why not?

B&H closes their site on shabbos.

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Yes, but B&H is e-commerce, not a blog. They have more issues, i.e. earning money on Shabbos. Unless you're running ads on your blog that are pay-per-click, I doubt there would be any potential issue at all. And even with pay-per-click there's lots of discussion on how it depends on when the money is actually paid... – yydl Sep 3 '10 at 15:39
E-commerce is a question. But you're not shipping the product till after shabbos. [Hm, what if it's fully electronic and instant, like selling e-cards or online-redeemable gift certificates?] As I said, Rabbi Heinemann first was machmir then reconsidered and was matir. Pay-per-click is an interesting one. – Shalom Sep 3 '10 at 16:48
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I don't think it has to do with Shipping. Just when you get paid. And if I remember correctly, there was a svarah (logical reason) that since the bank only gives you the money a couple days later, it would be okay to get the money on Shabbos (i.e. not earning on Shabbos). If this is so, I think we can apply it to pay-per-click as well: Google Adsense only pays you at a fixed time every month. You may "earn" the money at that time, but in reality they have a couple of days to give it to you. E.g. if they think it was fraudulent click, they'll take it off the balance. – yydl Sep 3 '10 at 19:47
Do I have to worry that my blog will cause more surfing on shabbos? A.) is more surfing (once the computer's on) deoraysa or derabanan (or less than that)? B.) Is it lifnei iver (enabling shabbos violation? He couldn't have surfed the web without me?) or the lesser mesayea (facilitating)? C.) Much discussion if mesayea applies to those who don't usually keep the mitzva anyhow. D.) Mesayea may only be actively helping him do the violation; here we're talking passive at best. – Shalom Sep 7 '10 at 0:35
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