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Do you have to close your blog on shabbos?

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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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  • 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. EDIT: As Joel points out in the comments, B&H maintains their website, but it does not take orders.
    – Moshe
    Commented Sep 3, 2010 at 15:32
  • Great answer. According to R'Heinemann, are you allowed to keep the money that was earned by your online store on Shabbos?
    – SAH
    Commented Sep 5, 2014 at 14:14
  • @SAH if he allowed the store to remain open, it wouldn't make sense to still prohibit profit.
    – Scimonster
    Commented Sep 6, 2014 at 19:13
  • Maybe allow orders to be submitted, but don't process the credit card payments.
    – Ian Ringrose
    Commented Mar 9, 2016 at 13:22
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SaturdayGuard (now defunct) had a system for preventing people from going on your site when they (the readers) have Shabbos, and they had Rabbinical Approval from the Chief Rabbi of Israel (as well as others). I quote from one such approval:

…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 ♦
    Commented Oct 11, 2010 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
    Commented Oct 11, 2010 at 19:27
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First the problem begin with the hosting company, if there are jews like in israel server farm, they work in shabbos and u arnt allowed to injoy from that, plus u r assistng them with there avera, "mesiia ledvar avera", after that told u can use not jewish farm server but u must acknowledge that the work wont be specific for u, couse goy doesnt allow to do work for a jew, so ideally u put the site in shared hosting with non jewish sites with the same ip, so if somthing go wrong will say the work was don for ther site and thats allowed.

now after that said, ther a problem with sites that stay open in shabbat:

  • if the site is known for jew owner - zilota deshabt

  • if site written in english and not acknowledged the users that it is a jew site, he can leave it open.

  • ecommerce - must close the site in shabbat- because the credit transaction happens immediately and we dont allow to trade in shabbat.

  • if the site in hebrew all rabbies says it should be down in shabbat - mishom zilota

every site owner must Consult with a rabbi that know this technolegy and Implications

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