Q&A: For Man Also Does Not Know His Time
For Man Also Does Not Know His Time
Question
Hello and blessings,
Do you have any plans for the site after your death?
Will it be shut down, or have you appointed an heir for yourself?
As far as I can tell, the amount of traffic on the site is fairly high, so maybe it would be worth planning what to do with all that intellectual energy on the day after as well… (maybe this is connected to the discussion of inheriting a position of authority, or perhaps one could say that regarding the site it is said: "I am not giving you authority, but servitude.")
http://www.daat.ac.il/mishpat-ivri/skirot/343-2.htm
Answer
Good question. There are very interesting legal discussions about inheritance of websites. I once heard an interesting lecture on the matter.
For now, Oren, who established and edits the site, is a young man, and he can keep it active. I am of course in favor of keeping everything accessible and active.
Discussion on Answer
Rabbi Michael—
What is the discussion regarding inheritance of websites?
Is it a halakhic discussion or a legal one?
How is it different from inheriting rights to a book or a patent?
There’s a pretty good chance that by then humanity will have gone extinct from Covid-30.
This is not about monetary matters. It’s about who is entitled to open and continue managing the site. Is an heir entitled to demand access from Facebook as an administrator? What right is there to use the materials?
With God's help, the 27th of Tammuz, 5780
To Shlomo — greetings,
You can make use of King David’s instructions to his son Solomon (I Kings, chapter 2):
"Be strong, and show yourself a man. Keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, and His testimonies, as written in the Torah of Moses, so that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, so that the Lord may uphold His word which He spoke concerning me, saying: If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, saying: there shall not fail you a man upon the throne of Israel."
It may be assumed that Rabbi Michael Abraham, may his light shine, agrees with these instructions as well.
With blessings,
Azriel Tzemach Halevi Kalisher
David also left detailed instructions for dealing with people who "gave him trouble" (Joab and Shimei) and for doing good to those who had shown him kindness (the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite). I imagine Rabbi Michael Abraham will leave those matters to private email 🙂
In my opinion, it would be right for the site to remain in read-only mode, with no possibility of making changes.
And certainly the management of the site should not be given to priests and Levites, who would do with it as they please for their own benefit and add terms of use requiring a shekel to be given to their Temple for every minute of reading on the site.
Shlomo, how are you estimating the amount of traffic?
If you count only the questioners and commenters in a year, what do you get—probably a few hundred, maybe one or two thousand.
And as for the passive viewers, who are as usual several times more numerous than the writers (on social networks you can sometimes see how many viewed and how many commented; a standard ratio is around one to twenty, something like that—I’m not an expert), how can you estimate their number?