Q&A: Reading in the Bathroom
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Reading in the Bathroom
Question
Hello, honored Rabbi, is it permissible to read your columns 601–603 in the bathroom?
Answer
I think so (as far as I remember, there isn’t any passage there with an actual Torah discussion).
Discussion on Answer
The halakhic decisors wrote that in a secular book it is permitted. I make a point of writing it with a vav so that it isn’t the Divine Name. I wrote about this before publishing Does God Play Dice.
What about if the word “God” is written there—is it proper to bring such a book into the bathroom? And what if it appears in a regular book that J. K. Rowling wrote (for example, there was some Christian there who kept saying “Oh God” for about half a page)?