Q&A: Actions Done on the Sabbath on the Internet
Actions Done on the Sabbath on the Internet
Question
Hello and blessings,
I wanted to know whether there is any problem with reading messages that Jews sent me on the Sabbath, and if so, why is there no prohibition against reading articles online that were posted on the Sabbath?
Thank you.
Answer
There is no prohibition after the Sabbath. The halakhic decisors disagreed over whether one must wait the amount of time it would take to do it (the time it takes to write the message). There is reason to be stringent about this, even though Maimonides and the Shulchan Arukh are lenient, because those who argue that in the case of a Jew there is no need to wait that amount of time maintain that there is no concern one might tell a Jew to do it on the Sabbath. Today that is not the situation.
Discussion on Answer
First of all, for thousands of years before the internet people managed wars just fine without media outlets, and in any case it’s a bit far-fetched to claim that it’s impossible to manage without them. True, there is a need for exceptional updates about when and where the public needs to take shelter, and for that there is the quiet-wave radio channel, but everything else sounds completely exaggerated.
The commenter didn’t take to heart that in fact all those people who were in wars over those thousands of years
and weren’t updated and worried ended up dying.
As a matter of fact, not one of them is alive today.
You need to update the citizens, certainly when most of them do not keep the Sabbath, otherwise the anxiety, distrust, and rumors will spread, and that’s very dangerous in normal times, all the more so in war.
It’s simple.
Why is a Jew called Hitler?
Some of the messages and articles during wartime were written with permission.
It doesn’t seem possible to run a country at war when for 3 days the radio, the press, and the public reporting channels (most of whose audience does not keep the Sabbath) are inactive.
To the extent that there is a basis that they are permitted, and perhaps even obligated, to provide at least basic reporting during those 3 days, then obviously according to your approach it would not be forbidden to read it after the Sabbath ends.