Chassidic Blogging on Chol HaMoed

Last night I was at a Bat Mitzvah and I was suddenly struck by yet another profound halakhik idea: are you allowed to blog on Chol HaMoed? In general, you are not allowed to write on Chol HaMoed unless you will suffer some kind of significant loss (דבר האיבוד), so it is assur to write in a journal or a diary on Chol HaMoed. (NOTE - I am not a posek and I am not giving psak halakhah. There are many different הלכה למעשה היתרים involving doing melachah on Chol HaMoed. Please check with your Local Chassidic Rebbe for specific details.)

In my humble opinion there is are good reasons both to allow and to forbid blogging on Chol HaMoed. On the one hand, most blogs will lose readers if they do not regularly add new posts to their blogs. Blogging on Chol HaMoed would then be permitted because losing readers would constitute a significant loss. On the other hand, my blog is a Torah blog and I would think that most of my readers would assume that I might take a blogging break during Chol HaMoed and would then check back after Sukkot is over. According to this reason I would not be allowed to blog on Chol HaMoed. The brutal truth is that I have great respect for my loyal readers who are accustomed to waiting over a week to read my wonderful words of Torah - and ultimately according to the second reason, I should not be allowed to blog during Chol HaMoed. However, it would be a good question if it is permissible for a Torah blogger who consistently adds posts every day, like Hirhurim or Dixie Yid, to blog on Chol HaMoed. (In fact Hirhurim did address the issue of blogging on Chol HaMoed, but not from a blogging perspective.)

Back to the Bat Mitzvah - I mentioned this halakhik idea to my friend David Eisen who showed great initiative and emailed the question to a Posek. The Posek responded that it is permitted to blog during Chol HaMoed because typing on a computer is not equivalent to the melachah of writing. Thus it would certainly be permissible to blog דברי תורה during Chol HaMoed.

Nevertheless, I do not wish to offend anyone out there in the blogosphere who is machmir and does not blog during Chol HaMoed. Therefore I am blogging about blogging on Chol HaMoed, before Chol HaMoed.

ps - Literally not 5 minutes after I finished this post I saw it mentioned in two other places: Life in Israel and Hirhurim.

Blogging on Chol HaMoed - Shailah u'Teshuvah

The original Shailah u'Teshuvah was in Hebrew. Here is an English translation courtesy of Google with slight modifications by me. Feel free to contact me if you would like a copy of the original Hebrew.

Details of the question:

Blogging on Chol HaMoed

I am writing a blog on Torah which publishes 1-2 posts per week.

Is it forbidden on Chol Hamoed to write a blog, especially if the content is not necessarily tied to the holiday or to Chol HaMoed?

Alternatively, are you allowed to write a blog during Chol HaMoed regarding the question "Is blogging on Chol HaMoed a disgrace of the Chagim?" Especially if the writer's conclusion and/or Rebbe's conclusion will be that writing a blog is * not * permitted on Chol Hamoed?

Or, is it possible to claim that writing blogs during Chol HaMoed may constitute a significant loss because readers may stop follow the blog (and might be less likely to read Torah blogs)?

Gmar Tov and Chag Sameach,

Yaakov


Details of the answer:

Blogging on Chol HaMoed

Shalom u'Brachah.

Blog posts on Torah topics may be written on Chol Hamoed. Firstly because the computer itself is not considered the melachah of writing on Chol Hamoed, and because we should be very lenient regarding writing Divrei Torah. On top of this, it is certainly better that they will be browsing these Torah websites.

If the conclusion of the religious authorities was that using a computer is forbidden, blogging Divrei Torah on Chol HaMoed would be equivalent to going to Mikvah while holding a dead lizard (טובל בשרץ בידו). And in that case you would distance yourself from this prohibition.

Rather, Torah blogs should avoid losing of readers, and their continued existence should certainly be supported..