THE BAIS HAVAAD HALACHA JOURNAL: Volume 5776 Issue XXIV Pesach COMMERCE ON SHABBOS AND YOM TOV Must a website be disabled for Shabbos and Yom Tov? By: Rabbi Baruch Levin
As the Yom Tov season draws closer, many business owners are faced with Halachic considerations they may not need to deal with throughout the year. Businesses which are typically closed over the weekend can face new questions when an extended Yom Tov season, which includes Shabbos, Yom Tov and Chol Hamo’ed, approaches.
Websites on Shabbos
Q. I run an online retail business in which I sell products primarily through my own website. I have always kept the website open throughout Shabbos and Yom Tov and receive orders during these times. Recently someone told me of a prominent frum retailer that shuts down their website for Shabbos and Yom Tov. Is one actually required to do so?
A. The answer, in a nutshell, is that according to the majority of poskim, selling merchandise on shabbos through a web store does not constitute chillul Shabbos in any way and is thus permitted. The same would go for selling an item, or placing a bid to purchase one, through an auction listing such as with eBay, even when the auction is scheduled to end on Shabbos. However, according to some poskim, most notably Harav Yisroel Belsky, shlita1, such sales are a violation ofmekach umemkar b’Shabbos - a gezaira that Chazal enacted against buying and selling on Shabbos out of fear that it would lead one to write on Shabbos.
As the Yom Tov season draws closer, many business owners are faced with Halachic considerations they may not need to deal with throughout the year. Businesses which are typically closed over the weekend can face new questions when an extended Yom Tov season, which includes Shabbos, Yom Tov and Chol Hamo’ed, approaches.
Websites on Shabbos
Q. I run an online retail business in which I sell products primarily through my own website. I have always kept the website open throughout Shabbos and Yom Tov and receive orders during these times. Recently someone told me of a prominent frum retailer that shuts down their website for Shabbos and Yom Tov. Is one actually required to do so?
A. The answer, in a nutshell, is that according to the majority of poskim, selling merchandise on shabbos through a web store does not constitute chillul Shabbos in any way and is thus permitted. The same would go for selling an item, or placing a bid to purchase one, through an auction listing such as with eBay, even when the auction is scheduled to end on Shabbos. However, according to some poskim, most notably Harav Yisroel Belsky, shlita1, such sales are a violation ofmekach umemkar b’Shabbos - a gezaira that Chazal enacted against buying and selling on Shabbos out of fear that it would lead one to write on Shabbos.
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