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    Social Media For Shabbos

    An interesting article raised the question of whether you may schedule

    e-mails or social media updates to occur on Shabbos. For example, I

    can post to my website and schedule the essay to appear on Friday

    night. Within an hour of that essay’s publication, a third-party

    application Tweets the essays’s title, first few words and link to my

    personal Twitter account. And if I could ever get the technology to

    work properly, it would also post a link to my Facebook account. The

    next morning, at 5am on Shabbos, the application sends an e-mail of

    the full text of that essay to this website’s distribution list. Am I

    allowed to schedule all of this to happen on Shabbos?

     

    The following are my tentative thoughts to begin discussion. As

    always, ask your rabbi and don’t follow what you read online. In all

    this discussion, we must keep in mind that at nearly all hours of the

    day, it is not Shabbos somewhere in the world. Someone reading the

    essay or Tweet need not be violating Shabbos. For that matter, a

    gentile, who is not obligated to observe Shabbos, may also read it.

     

    I. Scheduling

     

    In the above example, some of the computer functions happen on Friday

    and some on Shabbos. The essay is actually filed on Friday with an

    exact date and time of publication. If someone accesses the website

    before the publication time, the computer holds back the post. After

    the publication time, it shows the post. Nothing really changes on

    Shabbos.

     

    However, the social media functions happen on Shabbos. The third-party

    application learns about the post on Shabbos, grabs the information,

    submits it to Twitter and Facebook, compiles it into an e-mail and

    sends it out. Similarly, if I use an e-mail application that allows me

    to schedule an e-mail for Shabbos, it waits until the right time and

    then sends the e-mail out on Shabbos.

     

    Truthfully, though, when an essay appears on Shabbos it is captured by

    other third-party applications and registered in search engines.

    However, I do not control any of those applications and suggest that I

    am not liable for their activity.

     

    II. Server Activity

     

    Therefore, I suggest that scheduling an essay for Shabbos does not

    cause any problem of computer activity. However, the social media

    actions may. As we discussed in an earlier post, sec. V, sending an

    e-mail on Shabbos, which becomes permanently stored on a server, may

    be biblically forbidden (under the labor ofboneh). R. Shlomo Zalman

    Auerbach forbade it regarding a floppy disk and others debate whether

    this ruling also applies to archives on servers.

     

    The third-party application’s action is, in theory, indirect (gerama).

    I am just posting to my website. The application then, on its own,

    grabs that information and submits it to social media platforms.

    However, I arranged these functions and want it to perform them. This

    is the normal way of doing things. Perhaps, then, this is not gerama

    but the normal course of business (see here).

     

    If Tweeting or sending an e-mail is biblically forbidden, then the

    case we are discussing would be comparable to setting a fax machine on

    a timer so it sends a fax on Shabbos. Piskei Teshuvos (Shabbos vol. 1,

    242:7; vol. 2, 263:46) forbids such an action. However, the widespread

    custom is certainly to allow setting timers before to schedule

    forbidden activities to occur on Shabbos provided they do not generate

    noise or otherwise interfere with the Shabbos atmosphere. I suggest

    that the above activities qualify.

     

    III. Appearances

     

    The final issue is one of maris ayin. While all observers are required

    to judge favorably and assume you did not violate any prohibitions,

    you are still obligated to avoid situations in which you appear to

    transgress Torah laws. The definition of precisely what this entails

    remains fuzzy. I was taught that it depends on what the average

    onlooker will initially think.

     

    In the case of blogging or Tweeting on Shabbos, I suspect that we are

    still at the point where observers will suspect you of violating

    Shabbos. When people turn on their computers after Shabbos and see

    your updates that appeared on Shabbos, they will think you posted them

    on Shabbos. Scheduling is still a trick of the trade and

    insufficiently well known. However, disclaimers explaining the

    situation suffice.

     

    IV. Business

     

    All of the above refers to personal usage. If you are scheduling

    business updates for Shabbos, you run into the potential problem of

    Shabbason. Piskei Teshuvos (Shabbos vol. 2, 222:1) quotes the Chelkas

    Ya’akovwho rules that allowing your business to run on Shabbos, even

    if you are not personally involved, entails a lack of resting. Your

    work needs to stop on Shabbos (see Rashi on Ex. 20:9 and Ramban on

    Lev. 23:24).

     

    What is business? Blogs with advertisements are paid every time the

    blog is accessed. Is a Tweet directing readers to my website (if it

    had ads) considered business? Quite possibly.

     

    V. Tentative Conclusion

     

    Therefore, my initial reaction is that scheduling blog posts, Tweets,

    e-mails, etc. should only be done if it is for personal rather than

    business use and should include a disclaimer stating that it was

    scheduled before Shabbos.