Israel – Sign of the times, a conference was held on Jewish legal advice in the digital age.
The conference covered giving advice over the internet and via cellphones.
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Present at the conference were Rabbi Professor Daniel Herskovitch, Minister of Science and Culture as well as Rabbis David Lau, Yuval Sherlo, Israel Rosen of the Tzomet Institute and Rabbi Shlomo Aviner of Ateret Cohanim.
Rabbi Aviner said that during his speech he received 16 questions about halacha via SMS.
Rabbi David Lau, Chief Rabbi of the City of Modiin said that just last week he received 932 questions via email.
Many people prefer asking questions on Jewish law digitally because its fast and anonymous.
Where and to whom can shailos be submitted electronically (in English)?
Its not so anonymous. Phone numbers and IP addresses are generally not spoofed or even truly hidden. But at least you don’t have to “face” the Rov when asking. Not a bad thing…now how do they ask niddah Shailas digitally?
I answer Shailos via email (most of them, anyway), and one of the great ma’alos is that it saves the Rov lots of time.
There are several web sites (Eposek.com etc) which offer online responses to questions of halacha which are deemed to have broad interest. Most will not respond to very personal, fact-driven questions which require multiple interactions with the questioner in order for the posek to fully understand the context and provide the answer. Like anything else in life, what you pay for is what you get. The answers are in most cases accurate but lacking in the nuance your local rav or posek would provide. For litvashe yiddin, this may not be such a big deal, but few chassideshe questioners would rely on such “generic” advice.
On one hand it is great that some rabbis get it and are harnessing the Internet and other forms of digital media for good things. Lubavitch has been doing this for years. On the other hand, once again it shows you how fake jews are.. one day the Internet is not kosher and the next day it is being used to answer Jewish Law. Which is it? You can’t have it both way. It is time for jews to think for themselves ands not be bamboozled with the mind controlling taliban rabbis.
Let me clarify. I don’t answer anonymous questions. In fact, I don’t receive any.
What I meant is, people who know me are now using email, and I find that to be easier for me most of the time.
That’s all.